The Art of Instruction

Doodle Art created to one of Billy Joel's tunes,
One warm-up activity in Art Appreciation unit.

Wednesday morning group spent this past summer 
engaged in Art Appreciation. 

Why? Learners wanted to share their artwork and what they knew about art. This topic was a subject dear to many of our learners' hearts

Our goal? Increase reading comprehension strategies and critical thinking skills while simultaneously sharing learners' artwork and learning about artists - past & present.  

Experimenting with art techniques and examining specific art pieces was providing a platform for: ￭ Expanding personal art techniques. ￭ Increasing vocabulary. ￭ Growing observational skills. ￭ Interpreting visual and written texts. ￭ Building critical thinking skills. ￭ Enhancing team building skills. ￭ Improving investigation skills. ￭ Forcing summarization skills. ￭ Developing and delivering presentations. ￭ Sharing ideas, supported with evidence.  

Seem odd for an adult literacy organization? 

Not this one! We use topics learners care about the most. 

We deliver literacy education, with a twist.*

Why this content? Are you willing to persevere at something you don't care about? Something that gives you physical or emotional pain? Something you know you suck at?

Reading is hard for our learners. Yet, we want them to experience the joy reading brings to other people. We want them to use reading seamlessly as a tool to get what they want in life. 

To get to this moment, we've found that learners need to be engaged in the practice of reading. Using "stuff" (reading materials) they care about (regardless of the reading levels) increases engagement. 

Look at these faces in these photos from our 5/10/18 lesson about "Guernica" by Pablo Picasso. Do you see engagement?

Engagement is key.

For more info about this lesson, read our blog post about doodle art and exploring Picasso's  mural "Guernica."

Who are our learners? The readers in the Picasso lesson ranged from beginning to moderate skill level. Some could read only a few words. A few could say all the words well, but didn't understand what the texts meant. All spoke English. 

How do we pull this off? Some of the questions under investigation required intense reading; some questions did not. For example, one group focused on examining the work of art itself. 

Groups had print and electronic materials available. An introduction to "Guernica" and Picasso were listed on our learner website, but groups were not required to visit or limited to the info on our site. One group found info about Picasso on Khan Academy, another found info about Picasso's art periods, and one group started with a paper-version of the encyclopedia. 

Presentations: Each group read and interpreted different information in search of the information needed to present the one piece to the entire group. 


Learners (and facilitators) worked on decoding, pronunciation, and comprehension to build learners' abilities and confidence to present what they learned to the group. Not an easy task. Our hats off to the learners who persevered because they wanted to engage in this activity. And, our hats off to the mentors as they skillfully oversaw inclusion and skill building. 


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Note: Our underlying structure comes from a constructivism POV with support from CCR Standards. Career pathways is relevant because several of our learners are aiming for art-related careers through SLCC-SATTS. Generic skill sets are being developed and refined. Specific job options are highlighted, as appropriate.  

Results "tickle" us

"I get 'tickled' when I see our learners using

 their skills to teach their classmates! 

(Sometimes, I even choke up a bit.)" - KJL

This sentiment is felt by all of us who work with the adults who come to Literacy Action. 

Picture this - 

Prepared, Rob (an adult learner) is now at the board, but white board blindness has set in. 

Have you ever had white board blindness? 

You know, that moment in time when you 

know what to do but your mind goes blank?

Sal (another adult learner) steps up. She begins by finding out what part of the math problem is bothering him - where he's stuck. She asks Rob questions about what he's thinking, what he's trying to do, and what the problem is asking. He responds. When his written or oral responses are slightly off, she asks other questions to facilitate Rob's decisions.

Payoff -

As volunteers/tutors, we know that we learn the most when we teach or guide someone else in discovering and understanding. 

As such, we encourage our learners to teach each other. In fact, when learners have enough skill, we aid them in the next step - building their mentoring and questioning skills as facilitators of knowledge. 

The payoff for them is incredible. Their self-esteem soars, their leadership skills grow, and their own learning excels. The payoff for us is priceless. Changes in learners keeps us coming back, back to help more learners. 

You can feel this same way when you join us as a volunteer tutor. 

Tutor Tip #1 - Facilitating Learner-to-Tutor Transformation

How we approach learners impacts how much they learn. Meaning, if we ask learners, “Did you get the right answer?” We get an answer of yes or no. No learning occurs.

If instead, we say: “Teach me what you just learned.” Learning takes on meaning, and misunderstandings can now be reviewed, renegotiated, and rectified.

As tutors, we know that we can’t truly teach something well if we don’t understand what we are teaching. The same theory holds true for our learners. Until they know the concept or task well enough to explain it to someone else, then they haven’t truly learned it.

So, let them teach you. 

When you are comfortable that they understand, then please notice when another learner needs to learn the same concept or task. Let the knowledgeable learner do the teaching. Feel free to hover nearby – for (moral) support – but let the learner do the teaching.

Herein lies power – this simple moment in time then adds to the learner’s feelings of self-esteem and empowerment!!! And, you were the one to facilitate this transfer of power. Bravo!