Teaching Critical Thinking through Art

In this video, teachers and students talk about how effective the What Makes You Say That? routine is for helping students to support their thinking with evidence. By routinely asking two questions: What do you think is going on in this work of art?, followed by What do you see that makes you say that?, teachers encourage students to surface supporting details justifying their interpretations or claims.  This routine works well with practically everything: works of art, photographs and media images, text (fiction and non-fiction), math problems, science experiments, and more.

Lead Instructor Julie Carmean introduces Unit 4 of the course, Questioning and Investigating. In this unit, through videos, text, and slide decks, participants will consider what it means to question well and how to foster a learning culture that welcomes wondering. This unit features the Creative Questions thinking routine, methods for adapting thinking routines to all learners, background on open- and closed-ended questions, and teaching tips from the course’s expert teachers.

Lead course instructor Julie Carmean engages fifth grade students from Savoy Elementary, Washington DC, in a conversation using the See/Think/Wonder routine with the Shaw Memorial at the National Gallery of Art. During this lesson Julie guides students’ looking and paraphrases students’ interpretations, reiterating and building on their reasoning as she points to specific evidence in the sculpture.  In the Wonder section, she challenges students to continue the discussion by asking, “What will you remember? What will you share with your families about this experience?” Students drive the conversation by voicing their observations, thoughts, and questions.

In this lesson demonstration video, National Gallery museum educator Elizabeth Diament leads fourth and fifth grade students from Maury Elementary School, Washington DC, in an observing and describing routine called Looking: Nouns/Adjectives/Verbs with the painting New York by George Bellows. The students then use their descriptions to write collaborative poems.

Lead course instructor Julie Carmean introduces Unit 1 of the course and outlines its goals. Participants will build a basic understanding of how to strengthen critical thinking using Artful Thinking Routines with works of art, develop a beginner's comfort level with the versatile See/Think/Wonder routine, and appreciate the value of fostering thinking dispositions rather than skills.

Introducing the National Gallery of Art's first online course, Teaching Critical Thinking through Art with the National Gallery of Art.  Based on the Museum's popular Art Around the Corner professional development program for teachers in Washington, D.C., this five-part online course provides everything you need to begin creating a culture of critical thinking and collaboration for any classroom, subject, or level. You do not need an art background or museum access to successfully integrate these “Artful Thinking” course materials into your teaching. Your focused attention, willingness to experiment, and commitment to trying new discussion practices with your students is all that is required.

Lead course instructor Julie Carmean speaks with Shari Tishman, principal investigator on Artful Thinking at Project Zero in the Harvard Graduate School of Education, about why the See/Think/Wonder thinking routine is particularly impactful for developing strong thinking.  Shari explains that seeing, thinking, and wondering are “thinking moves” that students already know how to do—at least at the entry level—and are tremendously important, not just for looking at art, but for developing understanding in any discipline.

Lead course instructor Julie Carmean introduces Unit 2 and focuses on the importance of slow looking. In this unit, she explains that participants will build a basic understanding of the thinking disposition Observing and Describing; develop a beginner’s comfort level with three observing/describing routines: (1) Looking: Nouns/Adjectives/Verbs; (2) The Elaboration Game; (3) Looking: 5x2; and learn techniques to document student thinking.

In this lesson demonstration video, language arts teacher Kristen Kullberg at Sacred Heart School, Washington, DC, first leads a What Makes You Say That? routine to encourage her middle school students to reason and speculate about Picasso’s Family of Saltimbanques. Next, she uses the Beginning/Middle/End routine to stimulate students’ imaginations and prompt them to write or sketch imaginative stories to share with their peers.

In this lesson demonstration video filmed at the National Gallery of Art, museum educator Meghan Lally Keaton turns Creative Questions into a game using Sam Gilliam's Relative with a fifth grade class from Beers Elementary School, Washington DC, in the Art Around the Corner program. Meghan employs a variety of strategies to makes this abstract work of art accessible to all learners, and students make meaning by posing questions.

Middle school teacher and instructional coach Kristen Kullberg discusses how thinking routines help create an active learning community in the classroom by encouraging active listening, collaboration, reflection, and intentional documentation of student thinking.

Three DC-area visual art teachers—Lauren Bomba, Terry Thomas and Annette Zamula—talk about how using Artful Thinking in their art classrooms develops students’ looking, reasoning, curiosity, and creativity, and enriches student art making.

In this video, Shari Tishman, the principal researcher and developer of Artful Thinking at Project Zero in the Harvard Graduate School of Education, talks about the powerful ways in which art stimulates critical thinking as she answers the question: Why is art so important for people, and students specifically, to think about? 

In this lesson demonstration video recorded at the National Gallery of Art, lead instructor Julie Carmean and a class of high school art students from Washington International School, use the What Makes You Say That? routine to explore Queen Zenobia Addressing Her Soldiers by Giovanni Baptista Tiepolo.  Students back up their claims with evidence and build interpretations of the work of art together. The instructor also helps students think about leadership and issues of female empowerment by adding the question, “How might this work of art connect with the world today?''

In this lesson demonstration video filmed at the National Gallery of Art, a group of teachers from District of Columbia Public Schools use two routines, Looking: 5 x 2 and Creative Questions, to explore a contemporary, abstract work of art, Synecdoche by Byron Kim. Former DC Public Schools teacher and current gallery teacher, Tondra Odom, partners with lead instructor Julie Carmean to facilitate the conversation. Participants connect to topics of race and representation.

Former classroom teacher and current gallery teacher Tondra Odom shares how, after using Artful Artful Thinking routines with artworks, she used the routines to differentiate reading instruction for her fifth grade students reading both on or below grade level.

In this video, Tondra Odom, veteran classroom teacher and current gallery teacher in the National  Gallery's Art Around the Corner program for Washington, DC Public Schools, describes her Artful Thinking journey. Tondra speaks on how integrating works of art with Artful Thinking routines transformed her classroom, fostering a culture of thinking in which her students’ overall engagement and ownership of their thinking and learning grew exponentially.

In this lesson demonstration video, global studies teacher Greg Landrigan, from Sacred Heart School in Washington, DC, facilitates The Elaboration Game with his eighth-grade students, examining The Farm by Joan Miró. Greg divides the artwork into four quadrants for deep, collaborative looking.  He also tailors open-ended questions to help students focus on the curricular themes of immigration and identity, while encouraging them to make personal connections to the painting.

This lesson demonstration video explores how the What Makes You Say That? routine can be adapted to focus on curricular themes. In a National Gallery session with fourth graders from Cleveland Elementary School, Washington, DC, gallery teacher Avis Brock asks students to look at a work of art through the lens of math, movement and music, emphasizing math concepts by asking, "What’s going on with math in this painting?"

In this lesson demonstration video filmed at the National Gallery of Art, museum educator Meghan Lally Keaton turns Creative Questions into a game using Sam Gilliam's Relative with a fifth grade class from Beers Elementary School, Washington DC, in the Art Around the Corner program. Meghan employs a variety of strategies to makes this abstract work of art accessible to all learners, and students make meaning by posing questions.

In this course video, lead course instructor Julie Carmean and Shari Tishman, principal researcher for Artful Thinking at Project Zero at the Harvard Graduation School of Education, talk about how adopting a dispositional approach to teaching thinking produces deeper impact than a skills-based approach. Shari also shares practical tips on how to get started with thinking routines.

In this lesson demonstration video at the National Gallery of Art, Grace Bogosian, a second-grade teacher at Sacred Heart School in Washington, DC, uses the Looking: 5 x 2 routine with her students to build an inventory of their observations using the Japanese Footbridge by Claude Monet. This video captures Grace’s first time teaching in a museum. Back in the classroom, she talks about how she extended the lesson to English Language Arts and Math and shows evidence of student learning.

Lead course instructor Julie Carmean introduces Unit 3, Reasoning with Evidence: Making Meaning. In this unit, participants will develop an understanding of how reasoning routines develop students’ reasoning abilities; understand how What Makes You Say That? is easily adapted across the curriculum; discover how the Beginning/Middle/End routine can combine reasoning and imagination to encourage creative writing; and discover the role of sharing information when implementing thinking routines.

In this lesson demonstration video, first grade students at Seaton Elementary School in Washington DC practice the See/Think/Wonder routine with reproductions of Wassily Kandinsky’s painting Improvisation 31 (Sea Battle).  Classroom teacher Jenelle Diljohn, supported by Fabiana Duarte, an English Language Learning Specialist, engages her young students in looking slowly, describing the work of art, thinking about meaning, and wondering about titles for this abstract painting.

In this welcome video, lead course instructor Julie Carmean introduces the National Gallery of Art’s first online Course: Teaching Critical Thinking through Art.  This one-of-a-kind course uses the Gallery’s deep experience with Artful Thinking to build a unique online learning environment. Participants will have the opportunity to look, reason, and wonder about works of art, just as the routines ask students to do.  To make this possible, the course includes an innovative tool, called iiiF, that allows participants to zoom in and explore each high-definition work of art from the National Gallery of Art's free, online database.  Participants will also watch real lessons unfold with teachers and students in original videos. The course includes all of the resources necessary to put the routines into practice in the classroom.

In this video, Shari Tishman discusses her book Slow Looking: The Art and Practice of Learning through Observation. She explains that taking time to observe and describe is its own form of thinking and has its own rewards and outcomes. Slowing down to look enables students to become present in the moment, attuned to details and nuances that they might not notice otherwise.