In the process of revisiting paintings with children at the easels and in order to add layers of meaning to the work, Amy engaged the children verbally in reflection of what they’d represented.
Amy: “How is this girl feeling and why?”
Raven: “She’s happy, going to school. She’s sad, there’s too much traffic.”
Reflecting on the work with teachers, Amy, Cindy and Kris wondered if using associative questions about painting would support the children in a deeper expression. As a group of teachers, we feel that materials are used to convey meaning and personal point of view for the satisfaction of self and communication with others. Amy revisited the painting with Raven the next day.
Knowing Raven is a visual learner, Amy skewed the poetic questions toward that sense. In the initial conversation, she was asking Raven ‘feeling’ questions. This time, she asked her what the girl in the painting saw, then pulled the auditory associations into the layers of work as well before returning to the feeling question.
Raven: Girl in the street
She sees cars
She hears trucks
The wheels go ‘rrrrrrrrr’
She hears backing up: ‘beep, beep, beep.’
Shoes walking on the street: ‘clip, clop.’
She hears music from her school, soft like ballet.
She feels sad and happy at the same time.
I
Brendan: The Desert (with his mom under a pine tree.)
It’s yellow, bright yellow
It’s hot like a sun.
She’s warm in the shade
She doesn’t hear anything
In the desert, there isn’t anything that makes sound.
She’s happy that it’s quiet.
Leo: Race Airplane
Red like a rainbow has at the very top.
Black smoke coming out like circles ‘swooosh’
a race airplane goes fast through the air ‘plooosh’
The air goes in then it comes out.
I’ve never been in that kind of plane ever in my whole life.
In collaboration with each other, analyzing our work reveals deeper opportunities. Just as Raven was able to express more of herself through poetry, we are able to see more potential in each opportunity when we revisit our work and rephrase our wonder questions through dialogue with peers.