Carolyn Boras and Frank Heisler

Page history last edited by Franklyn Heisler 1 yr ago

Impacting Children's Learning:

Multiple Literacies in the Arts

(NB: A two-part workshop -- you must sign up for both Session 1 & Session 2)

The “Multiple Intelligences” defined by Howard Gardener help us frame the ways in which our brains process information and construct knowledge. Gardener's “intelligences” reveal the different literacies – drama, art, maths, music, etc. – through which learners may develop and communicate understanding. It is essential that children have the opportunity to develop their fluency in these different forms of literacy, as each requires the development of different cognitive skills (Eisner, 1997).

This hands-on, minds-on workshop will focus on multiple literacies in the arts as tools for enhancing children's learning. We will draw on drama, music, movement and the visual arts to uncover concepts in Social Studies, to improve observation skills and strengthen interpretation of a work of art, and to foster deeper understanding of poetry.

As Fowler (1994) suggests, “We need the arts and the various ways that they invoke response because no one way of interpreting the world, whether it be through math, science, history or the arts will convey the entire picture of reality. Each and every symbol system that these subject disciplines represents, when taken collectively, provides a more valid view of the world in which we live.” If we educate our students in only one or two forms of literacy, we restrict the ways in which they may respond to the world. A comprehensive education should equip children instead, to make and share meaning in multiple ways.

Audience: Primary

Workshop materials: Chart Paper, felt markers, sheets of construction paper (a variety of colours), scissors, glue.