Testing Zander - 5th Grade

After reading "Becoming Dialogical, " I decided to start testing a bone of contention that I had with the article. I was also inspired by the article to allow students to ask questions of images before we delved further.

This is my third year teaching elementary art, and I am still trying to find my footing. I began teaching by teaching a year of junior high, then a year of high school. I prefer longer, in depth projects that my elementary schedule doesn't allow. I have pretty much decided that each grade level is going to have an overarching theme that we explore in depth through a variety of art experiences to create meaning (and meet the state standards). The theme for 5th grade this year is Pop Art. We began with the Ash can artists, went onto Duchamp, and are into the pop artists themselves. The artist we are discussing right now is Andy Warhol. Before reading about Andy Warhol,  I showed four images mentioned in the excerpt the students were about to read - Coke bottles, 200 dollar bills, the Marilyns, and the soup cans. I asked the students to think about any questions they had about the artworks, and then to share them with the class as I wrote them on the board. At first they looked around the room at each other, then at me with a unsure and puzzled looks. I explained that I had just read a good article about how sometimes teachers don't ask enough questions of the students. I am fortunate that I had one brave student offer up a question that was not goof ball/ off topic. I think it gave the students courage to voice their questions. Above are photographs of the questions.  After the reading, we checked off the questions we had answered. I told them we would answer the other questions as we made our artwork in the following weeks.