Every Picture Tells a Story

Subject Area(s):

• K-12: Language Arts
• Visual Arts

Grade Level(s):

• 9th Grade
• 10th Grade
• 11th Grade
• 12th Grade

Description:

Art has always been an inspiration to the poet. Students can learn to appreciate art and poetry by being exposed to visual and poetic inspiration of the two mediums for each other. It is in this way that the teacher can help our students forge a better understanding and appreciation of both mediums and bring to the classroom the inspiration that the poet finds in art.

Goals & Objectives:

Students will learn to appreciate art.

Students will learn to learn to appreciate art through  a written component.

Students will learn to be able to identify how poetry responds to a work of art.

Students will be learn to evaluate the strengths and weaknessess of a paricular poem.

Students will  learn to explain how a poem has contributed to a better understanding of a work of art. 

Students will be learn to write a poem in oder to show their appreciation of a work of art. 

Materials:

Green, Jan. Heart to Heart.  New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2001. (selected poems)

Graphic organizer Responding to Art and Poetry. 

Procedures:

The teacher willl read aloud "Down by the Riverside" by David Etter.  After reading the poem the teacher will ask for "What do you respond to in the poem?  What do you identify with in the poem?"  The teacher will write down the students responses on the blackboard and then pass out a copy of the poem.  The class along with their teacher will read the poem aloud.  Students will be asked to recall a special vacation spot or special activities that they have participated in, or perhaps new friends they have met, or special food they may have eaten on vacation.  Working in groups students will create a poem that recalls a vacation that is inspired by the work of art "Down by the Riverside" by Thomas Hart Benton. Students should be encouraged to evoke the memories that the art recall for them in a range of poems. Students will be given a graphic organizer to work with as they respond to the poem and write their own poem in response to the art.  Additional post cards with works of art on them will be  passed out in the classroom, which students can work with  in place of the hand-outs for the groups.

Assessment:

Students will fill in graphic organizer "My Response to the Poetry and Art."

This same document will be used as the teacher's guide in the student's response to the art in their poems.

Supporting Files:

• Poetryart1.doc
  This document students will use to help them respond to both the work of art and the poem and to also use as a tool as they write their own poem in response to the art.
• scan2.doc
  This document of a digitized painting by Thomas Hart Benton "Down by the Riverside" and the poem by Dave Etter will be read by the teacher and then questions will be posed about what the students see in the painting and they will make a list of things they see in the painting and how their list is congruent with the painting. After they have shared their lists with the class the students will talk about how they spend their vacations with their families. Working alone students will be asked to create a poem about a special place that they go on vacation and the things they do on their vacation. Next they will be asked to work in groups and respond to handouts of painting and poem that their group was given.
• scan1.doc
  The digitized version of Charles Burchfield's "Six O'Clock" with Stephen Corey's "The Painting Comes Home." will be handed out to a group of students to be discussed and then they will be asked to respond to the poem and how it speaks to them in their own poem.
• scan3.doc
  Students will be given a digitized handout of Alfred Stieglitz's photograph "The Steerage" and the following document of the digitized version of David Cittino's poem "Steerage." Their group will discuss the poem and how it responds to the poem and then create a poem and how it speaks to them.
• scan6.doc
  This digitized version of David Citino's poem "Steerage" goes with the digitized version of Alfred Stieglitz's photograph "Steerage." Students is their group will discuss the poem and then write a poem and how it speaks to them in their poem.
• scan4.doc
  Students will respond in their groups to the digitized versions of Romare Bearden's painting "Black Manhattan" and Siv Cedering's poem "Sit a While." Next they will each create a poem that speaks to them about the painiting and poem.
• scan5.doc
  Students will be given a digitized handout of Joseph Stella's "Brooklyn Bridge: Variation on an Old Theme" and the digitized version of Warren Woessner's poem "River Song." They will be discuss in their group how they respond to the poem and painting. Next they will create their own poems and how they speak to them.
• scan7.doc
  Students will respond to the digitized version of Roy Lichtenstein's painting "Bananas and Grapefruit" and to the digitized version of Deborah Pope's poem "On Lichtenstein's 'Bananas and Grapefruit.'" Next they will each create their own poem that speaks to the painting and the poem.
• scan_10.doc
  Students will respond to the digitized version of Roy Lichtensstein's "Bananas and Grapefruit" and Deborah Pope's poem "On Lichtenstein's 'Bananas and Grapefruit.'" The previous document is part of this groups activity and they will each create a poem that speaks to them about the painting and the poem.
• scan8.doc
  Students will be given digitized versions of Mark Rothko's painting "Untitled" and Bobbi Katz's poem "Lessons from a Painting by Rothko." They will discuss them and how they repond to them. Next they will each create a poem that speaks to the painting and the poem.
• scan9.doc
  Students will the digitized versions of Jacob Lawrence's painting "Barber Shop" and Peter Neumeyer's poem "America Talks" and how they respond to them. Next they will each create a poem that speaks for them of the painting and poem.
• scan3_1584.doc
  Students will respond to the digitized version of Alfred Stieglitz's photograph "The Steerage" and David Citino's poem "Steerage" which is scanned document 6. Next the students will each create their own poem that speaks to the painting and the poem.
• Responsevisualandpoem2.doc
  This document can also be used to get evaluate and assess the visual art and the poem. This allows the student to have a supporting document to assist them in navigating a unfamiliar domain.