Art images help students become better writers.
Students sometimes cannot complete requests to write with greater detail because they lack the images or mind-pictures that would help them to write more descriptively. However, when you connect art and writing lessons for students using engaging activities, you help them acquire the mental images they need to write with greater detail. You also help reluctant writers to associate something pleasant with writing so the task becomes less burdensome.
Art Tells a Story
Show students a famous painting that seems to tell a story such as "The Scream" by Edvard Munch. Discuss the elements of the painting that help to tell the story such as the characters or the setting of the painting. Provide students with art materials for painting or drawing a picture that tells a story. Hang the student artwork around the room. Discuss the elements of a good story such as characters, setting and plot. Have students choose one of the pieces of student artwork and write a story based on the art. Share the stories by hanging the stories next to the artwork.
Emotional Colors
Share a monochromatic painting such as Picasso's "Le Gourmet" with students. Point out all the dark and light tones of the main color in the artwork. Discuss the way the color of the painting affects your mood when viewing it. Make a list of all the mood and feeling words students come up with during the discussion, and save the words for use in the writing activity. Have students imagine the painting if the artist had used a completely different monochromatic color scheme, and discuss how color seems to affect mood and emotion. Provide students with painting materials, and have them create a monochromatic painting of their own. Have students write about the mood or emotion of their painting using the list of feeling and mood words created earlier and then have them share the paintings and writings.
Seeing the Senses
Find a piece of artwork that contains many sensory images and events such as music, crowds, eating and an outdoor setting. Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party" is a good example. Have students imagine what they would see, hear, feel, smell and taste if they were at the event portrayed in the artwork. Create a chart of the words students use. Give students art supplies and have them create a picture that shows an event that others could imagine being at because of the sensory events and images they include. After completing the artwork, have students write a short story about the event taking place in their artwork and include a great deal of sensory language in their writing.
Figurative Language
Choose artwork that has vivid imagery such as Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night" painting. Ask students to name the elements of the painting that stand out to them as being the most important and vivid. List these elements on chart paper. Next to each element listed, ask students to describe what it is about the element that stands out, such as the bright, yellow color of the moon on "Starry Night." Discuss figurative language with students, and have students practice writing figurative language such as similes for the painting. For example, a student might write that the moon in the Van Gogh painting was as yellow as a canary. Have students practice creating artwork that has vivid imagery, and writing figurative language based on their art.
