In the Classroom
1. Use a Question and Answer format for your presentation to allow students to be actively
involved. Reading notes or lecturing is strongly discouraged.
2. Keep questions simple and frame them so that students can answer by looking at the artwork.
3. Watch the clock and pace yourself so you are able to complete your presentation. However,
if students are engaged in a productive discussion about a slide, allow it to develop even if it
means skipping a slide or two later. Getting students involved in the presentation will help them
learn the material.
4. Student involvement should not include having students do the presentations. The only
persons who should be giving Art Literacy presentations are trained, adult volunteers. If a
classroom teacher or a volunteer asks to have students do the presentations or is using students as
teachers, please explain the policy and if necessary, contact the Advisory Board so we may
follow up with the teacher or volunteer.
5. At the end of the presentation, review the elements and principles and ask for examples seen
in the artist’s work. Thank the students for their attention and participation. Tell them that
you’re looking forward to seeing them next month when you will present another artist.
Scanning
A scanning session consists of a series of questions based on an artwork projected on a screen.
The viewer is led, through a series of carefully prepared questions, to discover what is in the
work of art. Students answer the questions by looking at the artwork and analyzing and talking
about its properties. No previous knowledge of the artist or the artwork is necessary to answer
the questions. Scanning questions deal with:
• Art Elements
• Art Principles
• Technical Properties
• Expressive Properties
Tips for Successful Scanning
The following pages define the four properties listed above and for each one several sample
questions are listed. When you are scanning a work of art with your students, use the questions
on the handout entitled “Scanning Sheet”.
1. Use vocabulary your students will understand. In fifth and sixth grade you may talk
about “value” while in first and second grade you may talk about light and dark
areas of a painting without using the term value.
2. Don’t correct students or disagree with their answers. Since scanning questions
deal with an individual’s perception of something, there really are no right or wrong
answers. You
can ask if anyone sees something else or has a different answer.
3. Praise students for being good observers. Once they feel safe sharing what they see
in the art, they will become active participants in the process.
4. Be patient. The process will become more natural for you as you gain experience.
5. Scanning attempts to get the viewer past the “I like it” or “I don’t like it” stage. Try
to avoid having students use these phrases initially. Instead, ask the question at the
end of scanning when they can tell you why they like or dislike the work, using
some of the concepts they’ve learned.