Book Review: Differentiated Instruction in Art
Differentiated instruction seems
to be the “buzz word” in education. But what is differentiated instruction and
what does it look like in an art classroom?
To find the answer to this
question I recommend the book Differentiated Instruction in Art, written
by Dr. Heather Fountain, published as part of the Art Education in Practice
Series by Davis Art Publications. I had the pleasure of taking a differentiated
instruction class with Dr. Fountain and I must admit it was one of my favorite
graduate classes and what I learned I have been able to integrate into my
curriculum and into my instructional methods very quickly, easily, and
efficiently. I have become a better teacher for it.
This book not only defines
differentiated instruction, but it also gives the reader a history of DI and
provides rationale for why this is a beneficial art practice. I learned that
differentiated instruction was a term coined by Carol Ann Tomlinson in the
early 1990s to describe instructional practices that are designed to reach and
engage students of varying learning styles. The purpose of differentiated
instruction is to allow students to learn the same objectives, but in different
ways. Teachers can differentiate by process (how students engage in the art
lesson), by product (what is created to teach the objectives), or content (what
the students are learning, such as topics, themes, techniques, etc.).
This book stresses the importance
of understanding your students and their learning styles. Each student is
unique in what he or she is interested in and how he or she learns. In order to
better understand your students, Fountain suggests pre-assessment.
Pre-assessment is the practice of identifying what your students are interested
in and are skilled in before the teacher begins the lesson. This will allow the
teacher to better plan the lesson and make preparations for what to teach and
how to teach it. For example, if you as a teacher are planning on introducing a
pinch pot lesson to teach traditional hand-building ceramic techniques,
wouldn’t it be helpful to know if your students have already had experience
with this? If the teacher finds out ahead of time that the students did a pinch
pot in middle school, then at the high school the teacher can instead teach how
to stack pinch pots to make more complex vessels, or show how to combine pinch
pot with another hand-building technique such as coiling. This will keep
students more engaged and interested while building their ceramic hand-building
repertoire. Pre-assessment can take the form of questionnaires, surveys, and a
variety of graphic organizers. The book provides excellent examples of each of
these forms of pre-assessment and each is unique to art education. A teacher can also have students take a test
to help identify what type of learner they are. Fountain also recommends the
Multiple Intelligence Test from the Birmingham Grid for Learning at
www.BGFL.org. This test has a series of questions focused on what a person
enjoys based on the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. At the end of the test it
provides a pie chart that describes a person’s learning style based on the
Theory of Multiple Intelligences. For example, I learned that I am a strong
spatial and kinesthetic learner, but not a strong musical learner. The test
only takes a few minutes to do and would be beneficial for both teacher and
students.
My favorite part of the book is
chapter 6 which focuses on curriculum. The chapter provides practical methods
of differentiating instruction in the art room. Examples include choice boards,
learning menus, tiering, learning stations, among many others. Not only does
the book define what a learning menu is, it also provides examples of how it
was used in a contemporary art room. This chapter also provides strategy guides
on how to differentiate by product, by process, or by content.
Overall, I would strongly
recommend this book to any art teacher who is interested in learning how to
better incorporate DI strategies into their teaching strategies and curriculum.
The book is written in manageable chapters, is organized clearly, and has many
visuals and graphic organizers that are teacher and student friendly. A digital
download copy of this book can be found at http://www.davisart.com/Products/122-0/differentiated-instruction-in-art-digital.aspx and costs $19.95.
*** Note: This blog was originally posted in April of 2015 and was removed due to technical difficulties. It is being re-posted now that the technical issues have been resolved. Thanks for your patience! ***
