Implementation of ‘What Would They Say?’ (SOI-RO-89)
The Learning Scenario ‘What would they say?‘ was created by Karoliina Mutanen from Finland and implemented by Gratiela Visan from Romania. The Learning Scenario focuses on expressing emotions and conveying messages through art.
Subject: Visual Arts and practical skills, with elements of integration from communication in Romanian, Personal development and ICT.
My students are about nine years old (2nd grade). During the implementation of the Learning Scenario they worked both individually and in teams of four. Creativity, collaboration and communication were the 21st skills developed during the activity and the whole class collaborated in the completion of each stage of work.
Colours and emotions
Inspired by the Learning Scenario we implemented, the students made a list of basic emotions and associated them with colours, they talked about how emotions influence our lives, about using emoticons, about feelings. Then, the students used the Europeana Collections looking for paintings with winter as the main theme. The teacher guided the students on how to download the chosen artwork from the Europeana website.
Each group of students analyzed the chosen artwork and answered the questions offered in the implemented Learning Scenario: What could this person or people in the image say? How are they feeling? What is the situation they are in? Why do they look like that? What is the context and background of the painting?
Questioning ourselves through an exhibition
An exhibition, with several frames of paintings, was organized on the board. In each frame, one of the above questions was written. Firstly, each student asked individually the questions and then worked in groups to analyze the image again in order to choose the most inspiring and appropriate answer. The next step was to fill their final answers in the frames on the board.
Finally, they downloaded the selected images from the Europeana Collections and, using Paint 3D, they wrote down the thoughts and feelings of the people in the paintings.
The chosen artworks were: An elegantly dressed couple walking arm in arm under an umbrella. Photographic reproduction; Caesar’s winter march from BL Royal 17 F II, f. 116v; Kinder beim Kirchgang.
Learning outcomes
Students associated emotions and feelings with the characters in paintings. They practised correct writing and imaginative writing skills using simple sentences and concrete vocabulary. They developed ICT working skills using educational apps, they collaborated in finding the best solution to complete their work.
Teaching outcomes
Using Europeana resources for analyzing paintings and expressing emotions; writing sentences about emotions and feelings suggested by paintings using the correct vocabulary and punctuation.
During the activity the teacher provided ongoing feedback, encouraged and guided the students.
Final remarks
The students were small explorers of art, but also of writing and rewriting art from their own perspectives. They liked to be storytellers, to imagine the context and the background of each painting.
They discovered the power of art to convey feelings and emotions, as well as their own ability to translate these emotions into words.
As a teacher, I truly believe that Europeana resources are a great support and inspiration for teaching in creative contexts and also facilitate the integrated teaching of lessons, as opposed to traditional teaching.
Did you find this story of implementation interesting? Why don’t you read about the related learning scenario?
What would they say created by Karoliina Mutanen
Did you find this story of implementation interesting? You might also like:
- Why don’t we create a museum? implemented by Eirini Siotou
- Greek Canon implemented by Nathalie Chessé-Chesnot
- The Power of Voice and Brush implemented by Sari Hopeakoski
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: The featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by Harzmuseum Wernigerode .