Teacher’s Corner

Writing Prompts and Discussion Topics on the Subject of Art and Concentration.

1. Select a type of art that you are interested in – either doing it or enjoying it. Write or talk about three ways that doing that type of art would require the artist to concentrate.

2. Write or talk about the idea of paying attention or concentrating while doing art or anything else important.

   *  What is it like to concentrate?
   *  How long is it reasonable to expect a person to pay attention?
   *  What can help a person pay attention?
   *  What makes paying attention difficult?

3. Imagine that a parent reads or hears your answers to the above two prompts and asks you what this has to do with her preschool-age child. How would you answer this question?

   Read more about Children and Art at The Benefits of Art, Choices, and Discipline: Part 1.

Teachers, you can use this blog in classrooms. Here are two ideas about how.

1. For middle or high school parenting or child development courses:

• Use the blog for discussion topics
• Require students to research the topics and agree or disagree with what the blog is suggesting.

2.  For all courses, especially English Language Arts:

• Use the blog for writing prompts for paragraphs, theme papers, journal entries, class starters, etc. Have students read the blog and respond to:
  • Do you agree with what is being said about kids? Do kids really act, think or feel that way?
  • Do you agree with what is being said about parents, grandparents, teachers and child caregivers? Do or should they act, think or feel that way?
  • What would be your advice on this topic?
  • What was left out of this article?
  • If you were a parent, would you use any of this information? How?

Why can this blog be a useful teaching tool?

• Students that see connections between their coursework and their lives do better in school.
• Most students will either be parents one day or have children in their lives that they care about, so the topical information can help them build their knowledge about children and parenting and develop a positive image of the type of parenting they want to do.
• The new core literacy standards adopted by most states call for frequent writing in all courses.
• Newly developed end-of-course assessments to be used by many states will require that students demonstrate that they can think critically. These prompts help students practice critical thinking.
• Newly developed end-of-course assessments to be used by many states will require that students demonstrate that they can analyze what they read. These prompts help students practice analysis.