Proiectul Internațional “Omul drag de la
catedră”
Ediția a III-a 2018-2019
Concurs elevi. Simpozion Internațional
dascăli
Inclus în CAERI, anexa 9 din OMEN nr.
3016/09.01.2019, poziția 1518
ISBN 978-606-725-262-0
Art
as a mean of teaching
Vlădescu Maria Mădălina
Liceul Tehnologic de Transporturi Auto, Târgoviște
Art has always been one
of the most important components of the human spirit. From the Greek kalokagathia
(harmonious developement of spirit, body and mind), passing through centuries
of history and culture, we come to visual art, art therapy, self-knowledge
through art, green arts, art expression, urban art. Everything that surrounds
us seems to be somehow tied up to art: the way we feel, the way we express
ourselves, the way we see and appreciate the world, the relationships we
establish with other people, the self-improvement, the emotional enriching, the
actions we make, even the way we live. It is obvious that creating artistic
abilities to children becomes a necessity for a complete education because in
today’s world it is more and more difficult to distinguish between authenticity
and fake. Art can offer a sensitive dimension for the human conscience because
any ability or competence we may possess through education, it’s rigid without
the artistic vibration. Education based on art contributes to growing the human
spirit and interpersonal relationships.
If education means to
create and maintain the moral and spiritual health of a society, than it is
compulsory not to neglect the artistic competence. One of the oldest
educational systems, of the Ancient Greek, cherished art as a main principle
organizing human spirit and they combined intellectual formation with physical
and spiritual education for a harmonious personality. Greeks, Platon
especially, considered music as an art that ennobles the individual because it
touches his heart, but it can also cultivate the rhythm and a certain
intonation of the voice. When teaching Romanian Litterature, music can create a
pleasant environment, but it can also be a mean to exteriorize one’s
feelings. For example, it can be useful
in the approach of poetry. I used music when studying poets like Mihai
Eminescu, George Bacovia, Nichita Stănescu. When we had to study Sara pe
deal de Mihai Eminescu, I offered the students, beside the litterary text,
a musical version (orchestrated by Vasile Popovici) and I asked them to
appreciate the harmony between the text and the music. I also asked them to
specify the emotions communicated through music and the impressions it induces
to themselves. The literary text had a greater impact on them when I associated
it with the music, the students were able to identify emotions, to appreciate the
atmosphere, the relation between outer space and inner feelings.
For the study of George Bacovia I used another
method: I presented the students several musical pieces (Gheorghe Iovu – “Nostalgie”,
Yanni – “Rainmaker:, Demis Russos – “We pretend”, Vangelis – “Metallic rain”,
Atticus Ross – “Panoramic”, Beethoven – “Silence”, Mozart – “Requiem”, Samuel Barber – “Adagio
for Strings”) and I asked them to choose one that they consider appropriated to
express the message of bacovian poetry, Décor
or Lacustra. They could also propose themselves songs suitable for
Bacovia’s texts. Through this exercise, students were able to establish connections
between feelings, music and litterature, to identify and name emotions induced
b a text, to develop interdisciplinary abilities. They were able to connect
more intimately with the text itself, to enter the text world and they also
acquired knowledge about composers or songs they didn’t know before. This kind
of exercise stimulated their motivation for learning, they regarded poetry with
more interest and it can help developing an
aesthetic sense.
But art does not reduce itself only to music. Painting
it is a domain that can be largely explored in didactic activities. I used
pictures by Bernard Fradin (“Cité lacustre”), Alfred Thorne (“Paysage
lacustrine”), Joseph Hurard (“Paysage cotier”) and asked the students to
associate one of them with “Lacustră” by George Bacovia and to
explain and argument their choice. This way, they had to understand the message
of the text, to connect with the emotions expressed by the poet so they can
make a wittingly choice. For the poetry “Décor” by the same George Bacovia I
used a didactic method, called “verbal painting”: children have to express
verbally which elements would they choose to draw or paint, if they had to
reproduce the text “Décor” at a visual level. They can be guided through
questions like: “What kind of elements would you place in the foreground?”,
“What would you put in the background?”, “What colours would you choose?”,
“Would you use contrasts, shades?”. Through this method chidren enrich their
vocabulary by using terms from painting
and develop their creativity as they are stimulated to imagine themselves a
picture. The result is that they come to transpose themselves in the poet’s
state of mind, in the poetry universe.
Such use of art not only openes the door for trans
and interdisciplinarity, but it encourages empathy and the student can
spiritually identify himself with the emotions expressed by the text. We also
see here a more personal interaction with the text, which is important to
create a personal opinion and encrease the self-esteem of the child who
realizes that he can understand and connect with the text and his creator. The
atmosphere in the class is nicer, students are more relaxed and human
interactions are brighter and less conflictive.
For the epic and dramatic texts I used dramatizing
method. For dramatic pieces it is obvious that mobilizing the students to play
themselves in class some important scenes and characters can be interesting and
helpful to understand the essence of the text and characters. For epic texts I
made adaptations, made by myself with the participation of the students. For
example, at the theme Moromeții by Marin Preda I chose
the dinner scene, in the beginning, and asked some students, with some acting
skills, to play the characters: Ilie, Catrina and the six children. They
dressed in traditional clothes, made a traditional table to resemble the one
from the novel and brought traditional dishes, wooden spoons to decorate the
scene. For their collegues it was like the family itself had come to life, for
the acting students the implication was total and they did everything very
enthusiastic. They ended up by loving the novel. When I had to teach them the
particulars of the characters in the same novel, Moromeții by Marin Preda, I used dramatizing method: I
selected important quotes and replies from the novel and involved a couple of
students to speak as if they were Ilie Moromete, Niculae, Catrina, the three
older brothers, Tita and Ilinca. For the acting children it was an interesting exercise because they had the
opportunity to identify with the characters and know them intimately; for the
rest of the class it was easier to identify the characters features because
they seemed alive and the students felt like interacting with them. The same
method was used when we discussed the novel Enigma Otiliei by George
Călinescu. It was easier for the children to establish a relationship with the
character, to understand Otilia’s choice
and establish her dominant features. Dramatization creates an atmosphere, a
relaxing scenery, stimulates interaction between the students and it introduces
them in the intimacy of the text.
At the same time, when discussing the novels, I
used scenes from the movies made after literary works. It was the case of Moromeții by Marin Preda, where the movie catches very
precisely the novel action and message. It would have been difficult to
recreate in the classroom the scene
where the acacia is cut or when Ilie Moromete beats his older sons, so I
presented the children those scenes in cinematographic versions. The
cinematography can be very helpful in for books where the action takes place
back in time ( the early XX-th century in Enigma Otiliei by George Calinescu)
or in the village, during the interwar period (Moromeții by Marin Preda), because the space and the period
are distant and strange for the students of the XXI-st century. They cannot
know it by direct experience, so the movie is a good way to show them the
space, the costumes, the aspect of the houses, the village or the city in that
time. Instead of struggleing to picture a time or a space they have never seen,
the students have the possibility to access them through movies.
The conclusion is that didactic activities are more
dynamic, more pleasant and more attractive to children if art domains are
implicated. The understanding and the motivation are stimulated and a child who
is curious to see a new learning scenario will not flunk school repeatedly. If
the student is involved in the process of learning using artistic activities he
will also develop skills like creativity, specalized vocabulary, human
interaction, cooperation, critical thinking, esthetic sense. Art not only
charmes our senses, but it can also represent a complementary alternative to
our children education because it teaches how to be human and to have all
senses alive.
Bibliografie:
Melnic, Tatiana,
Dezvoltarea inteligențelor multiple la
orele de literatură în Limba română, Revistă de gândire și cultură, nr. 3(225) 2014, Chișinău, anul
XXIV.
Rusu, Marinela, (coordonator) THE ROLE OF
EDUCATION THROUGH ART papers from conference Art and Personality, 2014.
Șchiopu,
Consantin, Metodologia educației
literar-artistice a elevilor, Universitatea Pedagogică de Stat ”Ion
Creangă”, Chișinău, 2016.
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