vo·cab·u·lar·y/vōˈkabyəˌlerē/Noun
1. The body of words used in a particular language.
2. A part of such a body of words used on a particular occasion or in a particular sphere: "thevocabulary of law". (Wikipedia, 2011)
This art word of the week is different because they are all used in this blog this week, and I felt that there was not one specific one to represent my blog this week. Anyways, this week I am writing about an activity done during class, and the different types of language an educator can use while communicating with a child, as they are doing their art work. Examples of some of the language or comments used are complimentary, judgemental, valuing, questioning, probing, and correcting (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 320). We were instructed to use these types of language to comment on different elements of art such as color, shape, line, space, mass or volume, texture, balance, overall design or composition, and time and effort. During this class, I was lucky to have my daughter join me! We were all put into groups of 4 or 5 and we were divided up into roles. 2 people were supposed to be the teacher, and two other people were children. We were then told to pair up with each other and pretend that we were completing an activity. The teacher was supposed to develop an art vocabulary based on the artistic elements used during the activity. Luckily, I had Elmirah there, who fits into the category of Early Childhood (she is a toddler, age 2). Our activity was to play with clay, and me being the teacher I was trying to find ways to comment about what Elmirah was doing in a productively artistic way. Here are a few photos of Elmirah in action....
Elmirah really enjoyed squeezing the clay in her hands, and pasting it on to a flat surface by pressing down with her fingers. She was very good at imitating motions she saw me doing, which I did to see if she wanted to use any of my ideas. In one of the pictures you see her using a Popsicle stick that I laid out as a tool she could use. After seeing me using the tool to cut the clay, Elmirah decided to poke holes into hers. I tried to see if she wanted to cut her clay just as I did, but she insisted on continuing to poke holes instead. However, later on I saw her using the Popsicle stick to cut the clay that she was using, so that showed she ingested and processed what I was showing to her before.
Relating back to the language we were supposed to be using for this activity, here are some things I was saying to Elmirah while she was doing this activity. In the brackets are the types of comments I used, which were discussed earlier on.:
For Colour: "Which colour is this?" , " What nice colours!". (questioning and probing)
For Shape: "Oh look, you've rolled it into a circle".
For Line: " Look mama is making in the clay with her stick, Elmirah. Lots of lines" (probing).
For Space: "Wow Ela, you're pasting clay all around the table!"
For Mass or Volume: n/a
For Texture: "Elmirah, it feels squishy huh?" or "Elmirah, squeeze like this" (questioning and probing).
For Balance: n/a
For overall Design or Composition: "Wow Ela, what's that?"
Time and Effort: "good job Elmirah, you're doing such a good job"complimentary, valuing).
During this activity I was surprised to see how engaged Elmirah was. I feel that the artistic vocabulary helped her to engage into the activity even more. I made sure the type of language I used with her was similar to the language I used with her everyday, but to make sure it brought out the artistic elements of her activity. I feel that this language is very important to use as an educator while teaching art, as it is a great way to get them engaged in their activity and you also get to artistically educate them while you do this. For example, going back to how I asked Elmirah what colour she was using, it gave her the opportunity to examine the different colours she was using during her activity, and also prompted her to practice identifying different colours. Schrimacher & Fox (2009) talk about different approaches you can use while using this type of vocabulary. One example is the correcting approach which "attempts to provide children with specific feed back that will enable them to improve their art and make it better by more closely approximating reality " (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 322). I did not use this type of language throughout this activity, because I did not see Elmirah trying to build a structure. She was seemed to be exploring with the texture and the way she could manipulate the clay instead. In the end, I enjoyed doing this activity very much, and I'm sure Elmirah did too!
Sanger, L., & Wales, J. (2011). Vocabulary.Wikepedia. Retrieved April 15, 2011, from http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&xhr=t&q=define+vocabulary&cp=12&pf=p&sclient=psy&site=&source=hp&aq=0&aqi=&aql=&oq=define+vocab&pbx=1&fp=1608717c53d621a5
Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J. (2009). Art & creative development for young children. Belmont, CA: Delmar CENAGE Learning.
Elmirah really enjoyed squeezing the clay in her hands, and pasting it on to a flat surface by pressing down with her fingers. She was very good at imitating motions she saw me doing, which I did to see if she wanted to use any of my ideas. In one of the pictures you see her using a Popsicle stick that I laid out as a tool she could use. After seeing me using the tool to cut the clay, Elmirah decided to poke holes into hers. I tried to see if she wanted to cut her clay just as I did, but she insisted on continuing to poke holes instead. However, later on I saw her using the Popsicle stick to cut the clay that she was using, so that showed she ingested and processed what I was showing to her before. Relating back to the language we were supposed to be using for this activity, here are some things I was saying to Elmirah while she was doing this activity. In the brackets are the types of comments I used, which were discussed earlier on.:
For Colour: "Which colour is this?" , " What nice colours!". (questioning and probing)
For Shape: "Oh look, you've rolled it into a circle".
For Line: " Look mama is making in the clay with her stick, Elmirah. Lots of lines" (probing).
For Space: "Wow Ela, you're pasting clay all around the table!"
For Mass or Volume: n/a
For Texture: "Elmirah, it feels squishy huh?" or "Elmirah, squeeze like this" (questioning and probing).
For Balance: n/a
For overall Design or Composition: "Wow Ela, what's that?"
Time and Effort: "good job Elmirah, you're doing such a good job"complimentary, valuing).
Sanger, L., & Wales, J. (2011). Vocabulary.Wikepedia. Retrieved April 15, 2011, from http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&xhr=t&q=define+vocabulary&cp=12&pf=p&sclient=psy&site=&source=hp&aq=0&aqi=&aql=&oq=define+vocab&pbx=1&fp=1608717c53d621a5
Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J. (2009). Art & creative development for young children. Belmont, CA: Delmar CENAGE Learning.
