Why the Museum Is Important - Guest Post

Since summer can leave us with days of open boredom, Sascha Fernandez, who blogs over at The Smart Little Girl's Guide to Summer, gives some great ways to make museums fun and interesting during the dog days.

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Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. ~Thomas Merton

 

Shhh...I took a picture of Maddie and John Schoenherr's Sandworms of Dune, 1977

Our first adventure for the 2013 summer Camp Mommy extravaganza is our local museum. Our museum does its best to get the best exhibits it can and over the last few years has exceeded expectations.  Last year Maddie and I spent our time viewing some of the most incredible science fiction/fantasy paintings ever created.  Included in the exhibit were images and sculptures by H.R. Geiger, one of the paintings upon which the original cover of Dune was based, at least five Tolkien inspired works, and many Boris Viejo pieces.  There was concept art, costumes, and other tremendously large sculptures. Some of them were so life-like I had to stop Maddie (and myself) from touching  (and I’ll tell you a little secret..I snapped a few pictures.  Shhhhh). Though not a part of the science fiction exhibit, the Allentown Art Museum also had a Victorian Mourning exhibit around that time.  Though small in size, the pieces included historic mourning garb, mourning jewelry, hair art, and modern jewelry interpretations of Victorian mourning culture.

This summer The Allentown Art Museum is hosting a collection of the works of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.  Not only is this Maddie’s first exposure to the historic fine art of Europe, it’s one of mine as well. I’m glad her first exposure is so early and a painter I love and understand and can translate to Maddie.  The only other major art exhibit I ever saw was Marcel Duchamp when I was about 5 or 6.  I had no idea why there was a toilet inside a museum, and I couldn’t figure out how a big piece of broken glass with bunch of triangles, circles, and lines could be a bride (and I had no idea what bachelors were and why they were making her naked).  I kind of still don’t…and I took a fine arts class in college. 

Wait, what? Marcel Duchamp, Fountain (1917)

 My step-father was an artist who, unfortunately, never took the time to explain to me the art he loved, or help me appreciate what I saw. Perhaps I would have loved Duchamp. All these years later I believe he felt one should simply instinctively understand and be Zen about viewing a piece of art, and while I agree with that fundamentally and am a firm believer that the first emotion you feel in regard to any piece of art is the one you take with you forever, I also believe guidance is necessary, especially for a small child. Duchamp confused and frustrated me, and though I have learned about him since, and come to appreciate his talent and vision, I will never truly love him, taking those initial feelings of frustration with me as well as the internal “ugh” I hear myself say when someone mentions him. Had my step-father taken the time to crouch down next to me and explain the toilet in the museum (or simply the vision of the conceptual/Dadaism movements) I might have had a very different first experience.

So what does Duchamp mean to me all these years later?  What does it mean for my daughter? I think my younger child’s first exposure to art should be something I can explain. I don’t mean interpret, as that is up to the individual and you must encourage that, but give background information on, and help her understand the vision behind the piece itself.  Either that, or find artwork that we can learn about together.  I have a passion for the Belle Époque and the Fin de siècle so this Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit has me giddy with excitement.  I took a book on Toulouse-Lautrec out from the library and we sat together and looked at his paintings.  She saw a picture of him and asked about his legs. When I told her what happened to him she said, "well, I guess it didn't hurt his painting."  Even there we see a lesson in tolerance and understanding.

You have one activity to do before you go to the museum.  You have to give your child a basic understanding of the idea of different styles.  Several years ago my boyfriend's son came home with a project he did in art class.  Most schools are doing away with art classes unfortunately, so it falls to you to teach appreciation.  Below is a copy of his project.  The best way to do this is to choose eight different painters.  Fold a regular piece of unlined drawing paper so you have eight boxes.  Put the name of one painter in each box.  Show your child one piece of work by that painter, discuss what it looks like, and have your child do a small scale, simple reproduction.  If you discuss Jackson Pollack, have your child use markers of many colors and draw dots all over the inside of the box.  Below is a list of 10 artists and one piece of representative art. You can look up all these pieces on the internet.  Don't worry if your child can't draw a real person if you talk about Rafael...stick figures with wings works!

Aidan B. School art project (about 2010 or so)

Definitions of Artistic Movements

The best online dictionary of artistic movements is found at Art History on About.com.  Most of the definitions here are amalgamates of Art.com and Wiki entries.

Impressionism: 19th century art movement centralized in Paris. Characteristics include relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles.
Post-impressionism: Originated in the early 20th century. Post-Impressionists extended Impressionism while rejecting its limitations: they continued using vivid colours, thick application of paint, distinctive brush strokes, and real-life subject matter, but they were more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, to distort form for expressive effect, and to use unnatural or arbitrary colour.
 
Pre-Rafaelite: Middle to late 19th century British movement that rejected the mechanical religious works of the Renaissance. These painters returned to the subjects of myth and legend, and rejected art that was seemingly done by rote and convention.

Dadaism: (Ahhh! Marcel Duchamp!)  An artistic moment in the early 20th century that valued nihilism, nonsense, and travesty.  It rejected conventional art.

Cubism: A movement of art that originated in 1907 and is still practiced today. Cubism has several key components: geometricity, a simplication of figures and objects into geometrical components and planes that may or may not add up to the whole figure or object known in the natural world, conceptual reality instead of perceptional reality, distortion of reality, the overlapping of planes, multiple views of the subject matter.  Seems like a difficult concept, but when you view a Picasso,  you'll get it.

Futurism:  From Italy around the same time Cubism was developing. A style of art that embraced mechanism and industrialsim.

Surrealism: Also an early 20th century movement. Surrealism valued the insights and subconscious realities highlighted by Freud.  It included ideas of strong emotions, emotional repression, mystical ideas, ambiguity, and the ideas of chance and spontaneity.

Contemporary: Art from the 1960's or 70's up until this very minute. Contemporary art can involve all previous art styles and most often addresses contemporary issues such as AIDS, poverty, multiculturalism, globalization, and gender issues.  Contemporary art has often been attacked as pointless scribbles that could  have been made by someone's 3 year olds; however, this is not the case.  This kind of art is planned and constructed with vision and the desire to share feelings, images, and ideas just like any other piece of art.


10 Artists and Their Most Famous Works (my opinion anyway!) 

Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci, 1509 (Renaissance)

Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889 (Post-impressionism)

Number 8, Jackson Pollack, 1949 (Abstract Impressionsim)

The Scream, Edvard Munch, 1893 (Expressionist)

Water Lilies Clouds, Claude Monet, one of 250 Water Lily paintings (Impressionsim)

The Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dali, 1931 (Surrealism)

The Kiss, Gustav Klimt, 1908 (Symbolist)

Two Dancers On the Stage, Edgar Degas, 1874 (Impressionism and Realism)

Girl With a Pearl Earring, Jan Vermeer, 1665 (Baroque)

Woman in a Hat with Pompoms and a Printed Shirt, Pablo Picasso, 1962 (Cubism)

Should I go into "why art is important" or do you know that already?  I think you know that already.  If you believe art is important you must do what you can to make it interesting and fun.  You must do what you can to prevent the eye rolls and sighs when your child has a school trip or is going with you to the museum.  The only way to achieve this is to be excited right along with them, even if you don't like the museum very much yourself.  There are a lot of questions you can ask your child while viewing paintings or sculptures that will increase your child's interaction and instinctual understanding of art.  It might help you as well.  There is nothing more wasteful than going to a museum, viewing works of art, and leaving with no more enlightenment within you than there was when you walked in. The only way to combat that is to TALK about what you see (quietly of course...proper manners in museums is another important lesson). Talk, talk, talk.  Talk at the museum, talk on the way home, talk when you get home.  

Ten Questions to Ask Your Kids About Art

(courtesy of Project Muse)

1. Look carefully at the work of art in front of you. What colors do you see in it? Take turns listing the specific colors that y ou see (for example: "I see red." "I see purple.") 

2. What do you see in the work of art in front of you? Take turns listing the objects that

you see (for example: "I see an apple." "I see a triangle.") 

3. What is going on in this work of art? Take turns mentioning whatever you see happening, no matter how small. 

4. Does anything you have noticed in this work of art so far (for example: colors, objects, or events) remind you of something in your own life? Take turns answering. 

5. Is this work of art true to life? Ho w real has the artist made things look?

6. What ideas and emotions do you think this work of art expresses? 

7. Do you have a sense of how the artist mi ght have felt when he or she made this work of art? Does it make you feel one way or another? 

8. Take a look at the other works of art displayed around this one. Do they look alike? What is similar about the way they look (for example: objects,events, feelings, the way they are made)?

What is different? 

9. What would you have called this work of art if you had made it yourself? Does the title of the work, if there is one, make sense to you? 

10. Think back on your previous observations. What have you discovered from looking at this work of art? Have you learned anything about yourself or others? Now that the game is over, ask your kids again: Do you like this work of art? Why or why not? Has your reaction to the work changed? Do you like it more or less than you did in the beginning? Why?

 

Guest Post - Mama, Will you Read Me a Story?

Today's guest blog comes from Sascha Fink, regular contributor to The Past and Future Tense, The Blog of Preterite. She is the mother of two girls, one in elementary school and one almost an adult. Her family reads regularly, and here's how she got them into the habit. Great tips on making reading fun and rewarding for life.

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I have two lovely daughters; an incredibly animated seven year old and a spunky 20 years old.  What makes them special to me, besides being the loves of my life, is they have followed my lead and found a passion for reading.  I have piles of paperbacks and hardcovers in my hallway, stacks on my dining room table and the window sill of my bathroom.  As an English major this is what I consider an occupational hazard.  I had always hoped that this kind of exposure would encourage my girls to read. Seeing books everywhere they turn has a moderate influence. As much of an influence the presence of books is,  I am and have been the primary influence on both of my children’s road to reading fluency by reading to them and eventually allowing them to read to me.  (This piece primarily focuses on my seven year old, as my oldest daughter has left the nest…taking with her several heavy boxes of books)

Oral reading through history has been vital to the evolution of society.  It was first and foremost a means of enculturation.  The cultures, belief, folktales, laws and mores of a society were passed to each generation through the stories that were told.  Myths, as they are properly defined as sacred stories, transferred the ideas of religion, spirituality and the knowledge of the natural world.  Oral stories and teachings also taught the younger generation about their own family history.  Even when stories began to be written down on paper, oral storytelling did not end.  Literacy was not commonplace. Even though moveable type had been innovated in the 15^th century making books easier to obtain, it wasn’t until the Industrial Revolution of the mid-19^th Century that books were cheap enough for lower classes to purchase.  Even with the advent of affordable books many were still illiterate and stories were often read orally so that many could enjoy them.

Oral reading was very popular in Victorian times.  Author Margaret Atwood says, in her essay Reading Blind published in “Moving Targets: Writing with Intent” in 1989, that the reading world was done a great disservice by the abolition of oral reading both in the home and in the schools.  She goes on to say that when stories are read aloud the reader provides the audience with flow of story and flow of voice.  Silent reading is important, of course, but oral reading helps the young reader learn how to read.  As Atwood goes on to say, “We’ve led them [new readers, children] to believe that prose comes in visual blocks, not in rhythms and cadences; that its texture should be flat because the page is flat.”

There are methods to achieving reading fluency.  The first method is modeling.  As a parent it’s important to be a good model for your child.  I always tell people to let your child see you read a book.  They don’t need to hear your story but they need to see you sitting down turning pages and appearing engrossed in something other than the computer or the television.  Children model the behavior of their parents and other adults that are close to them.  I have seen this behavior in my own child.  I nursed my seven year old.  I nursed my 20 year old.  Almost every friend I have has been or is a nursing mother.  I don’t ask them to cover up or nurse in another room when my daughter is present.  My seven year old was given a baby doll when she was three.  It came with a bottle.  I encouraged my daughter to feed her baby assuming she would pick up the bottle. She pulled up her shirt and put the baby to her precious little body.  I was amazed and then remembered, she had never actually seen anyone use a bottle before.  We were her model for action and behavior.

Modeling should be strong at home.  Think of it as assisted homeschooling for beginner readers.  In school, most often oral reading is done by students and as a parent you can’t guarantee that the student reading will be a good model.  If you have a good teacher he or she will read orally during some sort of story time.  Hopefully he or she will read aloud for as many subjects as possible.  Unfortunately when oral reading is requested of each student during reading periods, your child might have more exposure to the poorer readers in her class than to their fluent teacher.  Reinforcing good oral fluency at home is key.  She has to be able to determine which is correct.

When children are able to sit still for just ten minutes you begin to read to them orally.  This happens as early as one or two; perhaps the average being around three.  This is another early step toward reading fluency.  Fluent silent reading is a direct result of oral fluency.  When hearing a parent read, even the simplest of stories, the child begins to learn inflection, dialogue, proper flow and cadence, proper punctuation pauses and every other reading technique that increases comprehension. Early readers often ignore end punctuation continuing on to the next sentence.  While this is a typical early reader mistake, its source is lessened a bit if you allow your very young pre-reader to read along with you as you point to the words.  They will begin to notice that a (.) means “stop.”  They will learn that a (“) means someone is talking.  They will learn to recognize that a (,) means “pause.”  They won’t know what the symbols are called or what their technical uses are but they will begin to match them with actions.

Dialogue is something parents should pay particular attention to.  You must set it apart from the story to make meaning.  Read the following statement without quotations or punctuation other than a period: I like to eat pie.  He took the pie from the shelf and cut a slice.  That was good he said. No one can deny that it takes effort to read that sentence with any sort of involvement; especially if you’re reading to a three year old.  Now put a little life into it.  “I like to eat pie!”  He took the pie from the shelf and cut a slice. “That was good!” he said.  It’s just a little better.  Now give the dialogue a voice other than your reading voice, say it a bit louder, and make a funny face when you read it!  I can imagine some sort of Sesame Street Muppet voice.  I can guarantee you will have a child whose eyes open just a little wider when you read that particular line in that manner.

The second method to oral fluency is repetition.  Read that story over and over and over again if they want you to.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read “There’s a Wocket in my Pocket” by Dr. Seuss.  I know that there is a Zofa on the sofa and that there are Ghairs under the chair.  I’m well aware of the Yeps on the steps and the Yottle in the bottle (and I’m reciting this from memory even though I haven’t read it, thank goodness, since we moved on to The Magic Tree House and The Weather Fairies).

Encourage your child to summarize each section as you read it, or in the case of longer book, what happened when you left off.  Reading fluency matters little if there is no memory or comprehension of the story.  When your child is old enough to read on their own, have them repeat sentences when they have trouble with the flow.  If they miss a break, point it out and make them read the sentence correctly by asking them to “try it again and remember a period means to stop.”  If need be, read the sentence to them and slightly exaggerate the pause and proper inflection.  Be very aware of accuracy and self-correction.  If your child is reading inaccurately, give them a moment to see if they self-correct (this is a very important skill) and if they don’t, gently correct them and ask them to read the passages again.  Encourage your child to stop if they are unsure of a word and either ask you for a definition or help with pronunciation.  Don’t just pronounce the word.  Let them do it.  Break the word into syllable with your finger covering the next section of the word.  If the definition or explanation of the word is in the next sentence, ask them to read on.  Learning to use context to define words is important.

A third method is choral reading.  This is reading the words together aloud.  Best done with simple stories, it allows your child to follow your tone, inflection and enthusiasm. Imagine that you are teaching a child how to draw a horse by putting their tiny hand on yours while you move your pencil about the paper.  They might not be able to draw a horse to perfection for some time but they will always try to model the movements they felt while your hand moved along the paper.

Reading with passion is perhaps the most important aspect of oral reading.  You can work through a storybook line by line by line by line quickly.  If it’s obvious to the child that you are trying to blow through the pages so you can get them to go to bed, it’s a wasted experience.  In the beginning choose books that you like.  It’s not particularly hard to go to the children’s section of the library and find something that interests you.  A personal interest for tigers can lead you to several fiction and non-fiction books in which tigers are featured.  If you like the book you’re more liable to bring your love into the story.

Right now I’m reading “The Hobbit” to my seven year old.  The world of “The Lord of the Rings” is very important to me.  I do a fairly good Gandalf and a pleasing Bilbo but my dwarves need a little work.  I have a fair singing voice so I put a little music into Tolkien’s song lyrics.  I’m trying to read it the way I imagine it was written to be read.  If you are reading books slightly above a child’s comprehension level make sure to adjust.  I change British words to English words when necessary and when Thorin Oakenshield begins a fairly long diatribe about the loss of his people’s gold (yet again), I paraphrase.  I’m bringing it down to an understandable level without losing the zest of the story.  I can’t wait to see what she thinks when I bring in a replica of Gimli’s ax as a prop as I begin the Battle of the Five Armies.  Show them passion and they will develop passion.  They will want an Alice In Wonderland birthday party because you just finished reading it.  They will be desperate to attend the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire midnight book release in costume (my daughter’s boyfriend…shown in the middle…won first prize in the costume contest as Snape and she and her best friend on the right were Death Eaters).  They will find joy and happiness with the world of books.

My seven year old's "Alice in Wonderland" costume birthday party. She was Alice, of course.

When they grow a little older let them choose the book.  My daughter loves cats.  No, I mean she really loves cats.  She had drawn no less than five thousand seven hundred and eighty two pictures of various breeds of cats in every possible setting and activity.  She will tell every stranger she meets that cheetahs are different from other cats because they can’t retract their claws.  She tells the librarian that they need to get more books on cats because she’s read most of the ones on the shelf.  She helps me volunteer at a cat shelter and is quick to point out all of her cat knowledge to perspective adoptive parents.  If your child has a similar, seemingly obsessive interest, go with it…all the way to the end.  My daughter will find another obsession at some point (we’ve already been through dinosaurs, cobras, vampires and werewolves) and I’ll let her take me as far as she wants again no matter how tedious it might seem. Did you know that when a cobra opens its hood it’s actually spreading ribs apart to make itself appear larger and more aggressive with the intention of warding off an attacker? It’s probably more frightened than you are and will only strike when it absolutely has to (I’m not sure I want to test that theory). I didn’t know that until my daughter brought home a book and read the page to me three times in the first sitting.

The most important thing for a parent to do is avoid frustration.  Don’t give your child a book that is too hard unless you are reading it to them (and remember to paraphrase if necessary or change single words for easier comprehension…your child might not know what a loo is).  If they are reading to you keep the book just a half a step above their current level.  Look for books where your child will have to manage through only a few correctable mistakes.  If they can’t understand the story or are stumbling on every other word it’s too hard.  Either read it to them save it for them to read when they are more fluent on that level.  If a child can read a story to the point of memorization, it’s time to get a slightly harder (or at least a different) book.

As the parent of a school aged child, in this day and age of tests, labels, and processes, you’ll most likely hear a plethora of dollar words such as aligned materials, chunking, co-articulation, scaffolding, consolidated alphabetic, morphemic analysis, independent-instructional reading level range and Frayer Model.  I’m not telling you to ignore all these technical terms…wait, yes I am.  I was a reading specialist for lower level sixth graders and what I learned was scaffolding meant nothing more than the different ways you guide a student to the correct answer.  We talked a lot about there here and not once did I use the fancy word.  There’s no harm in learning what these terms mean if you want to and/or if they are pointed out to you via a teacher, but if you’re just trying to instill a love of reading skip the textbook words.

Both of my daughters grew up with higher than normal reading levels for the majority of the children in their age group.  My almost second grade seven year old reads at a mid-third grade level.  It took some time but we just finished reading The Lady of Shallott by T.S. Eliot in its entirety.  She wants a mirror in her room so she can look outside her window without breaking a curse. My older daughter read “The Lord of the Rings” when she was eleven years old (the same age I did).  I never used one single fancy word or fancy technique.

All I did was the things outlined in this post.

Reading matters. Reading well matters.  People who can read orally are more well-spoken and more confident than the average person and have a greater chance at college which in turn leads to better jobs.  Reading well results in the ability to write and express oneself properly. Writers with oral reading fluency are more apt to read their work aloud and catch errors, poor flow, incomplete ideas or bad word choice.  If it sounds bad there might be problems with the way it has been set to paper.  Reading well encourages creativity, imagination, discovery, and language skills.  Reading orally develops listening skills.  Most important of all, reading with your child creates a loving relationship of respect and affection.  Mommy?  Will you read me a story?  I will.  Every single time you ask me.  I will even when you don’t ask me.



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