Visual Thinking Strategies: Using Art to Deepen Learning Across School Disciplines

by Philip Yenawine

“What’s going on in this picture?”

With this one question and a carefully chosen work of art, teachers can start their students down a path toward deeper learning and other skills now encouraged by the Common Core State Standards. The Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) teaching method has been successfully implemented in schools, districts, and cultural institutions nationwide, including bilingual schools in California, West Orange Public Schools in New Jersey, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

It provides for open-ended yet highly structured discussions of visual art, and significantly increases students’ critical thinking, language, and literacy skills along the way.

Philip Yenawine, former education director of New York’s Museum of Modern Art and cocreator of the VTS curriculum, writes engagingly about his years of experience with elementary school students in the classroom. He reveals how VTS was developed and demonstrates how teachers are using art—as well as poems, primary documents, and other visual artifacts—to increase a variety of skills, including writing, listening, and speaking, across a range of subjects.

The book shows how VTS can be easily and effectively integrated into elementary classroom lessons in just ten hours of a school year to create learner-centered environments where students at all levels are involved in rich, absorbing discussions.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Art, Teaching, Professional Development, Adult

208 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2013

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boeiende aanzet tot het implementeren van VTS op school. Voormalig hoofd educatie van het MoMa in New York Philip Yenawine vertelt hoe hij na ontluisterende resultaten van een doorlichting over het educatief programma in zijn museum, op zoek ging naar een betekenisvoller aanbod. Zo is VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies) ontstaan. Yenawine werd zodanig gebeten door de microbe van deze methode - die kijken en praten met andere over 'wat er gebeurt' op een schilderij of foto en daarbij de vraag stelt 'waaraan zie je dat?' - dat hij er samen met educatief onderzoekster Abigail Housen een eenvoudige werkvorm voor scholen uit puurde.

Hij promoot zijn ideeën hier (soms iets te) uitgebreid en vertelt veel vanuit eigen ervaringen, onderzoek en cijfermateriaal. Hoewel ik het jammer vond dat het zich voornamelijk richt op de lagere school, terwijl ik het graag in onze secundaire Freinetschool wil introduceren, geeft het precies de juiste aanzet om ermee aan de slag te gaan, vooral omdat het basisconcept zo kort en bondig is. Bovendien leunt het heel nauw aan of kan het zelfs als onderdeel van filosoferen met kinderen en jongeren beschouwd worden, waarin soortgelijke technieken toegepast worden.

Wat ik miste was meer beeldmateriaal om mee te beginnen, ook al lijkt het me boeiend om zelf naar geschikte afbeeldingen te gaan zoeken na verloop van tijd. Gelukkig worden er ook links aangereikt naar de Amerikaanse maar ook een Nederlandse VTS-website. De filosofie en de meerwaarde van VTS vallen ook deels samen met wat Freinet-onderwijs beoogt en leest als een baken van hoop in het huidige, vastlopende, door invulboeken en gedigitaliseerde methodes geteisterde onderwijslandschap. Dat blijkt in de VS niet anders dan bij ons. Kortom: zinvol en inspirerend boekje. 3,5*

[Marcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Visual Thinking Strategies is a phenomenal model to use as students visualize and interpret pictures they view. Visual Thinking Strategies is a "process" for students and teachers. A teacher becomes a "facilitator," asking students to take time to observe a picture. "What's going on in this picture?" Once students answer what they visually notice, teachers then ask, "What do you see that makes you say that?" This question pushes students to articulate their thoughts, backing up what they observe with evidence. Teachers then paraphrase what the student has said, adding vocabulary and modeling correct language for all of the students. When teachers paraphrase students' comments, students feel that there ideas are validated. In addition, all students, including ELL students, begin to develop good language. Other students learn to listen respectfully to other students' perceptions, adding meaning what everyone is looking at. Visual Thinking Strategies push students to critically think, and make meaning of a picture. Visual Thinking strategies help students become effective communicators. Discussion is the key instructional element of Visual Thinking Strategies. Visual Thinking Strategies is a powerful tool for both teachers and students to put the onus of lessons on the students. Philip Yenawine takes these strategies further, by showing the readers how Visual Thinking Strategies can be applied to reading, writing, science labs, and math. This is a wonderful book to read before you try the Visual Thinking Strategies with a class. It is comprehensive and explains why using Visual Teaching Strategies is a win-win to deepen learning across school disciplines.

[Jessica Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Visual Thinking Strategies is a book I highly recommend. The book provides a fun and innovative way to encourage student discussion in the classroom through the use of pictures. The book provides a model for teachers to use when implementing this strategy. This book is a perfect accompaniment to the ENL classroom. It encourages student language use through all four modalities, writing, speaking, listening and reading. Visual Thinking Strategies can be used in multiple content areas, making it a well rounded and valuable strategy for teachers to implement.

[Johnny G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book the more I read on, but am still being a bit mean by giving it an average rating of three stars. The author swears up and down that VTS, where kids look at pieces or carefully-selected artwork, improves communication, thinking and writing skills in all subjects. There is a simple way to lead these discussions about art, but it takes practice. I’m willing to give it a try, and have, to some extent, used art to encourage conversation in lessons before. The difference with VTS is that the conversation IS the lesson (if I understand this correctly), and I’m a little doubtful about that working 10 times or more per year.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information but a frustrating, overly padded read. One of those books that really would have been better as an article.

[Aurelio Guerra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The strategy of visual thinking that this book offers centers around three questions. Someone on this platform reviewed this book and commented that it could have been an article instead of a book. I say it could have been a blog post. Anyway, the strategies are very important. I am shocked that this approach doesn't happen naturally in most classroom curricula (maybe it does thanks to this book--I don't know).
As a student of literature (and I am sure it's the same for most other humanities) having studied at various universities in different countries, I can attest that this approach is basically what most university-level literature courses do. It's very useful and necessary.
But I believe that we need to take this method of viewing and analyzing things out of the universities and into mainstream gatherings. Like Mihaly Robert Csikszentmihalyi comments in a book on flow, these types of discussions should be basic "reality maintenance" activities; that is, mechanisms for reviewing how we see things in comparison to how others see the same reality. These discussions should be very enlightening and entertaining.

[Dian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a great opener to the idea of visual learning strategies for teachers to work with kids. While it hits the mark in highlighting its strengths, it misses the mark in addressing potential challenges. This makes the book come off as a large piece of marketing material (that still seems like a great tool for teachers) and was somewhat off putting.

I’d like to see the author update the book and include other perspectives for teaching, perhaps as a parent, family member, or social worker.

[Noëlle Engels · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interessant boek over een (bedrieglijk) eenvoudige maar effectieve manier om denk-, spreek- en schrijfvaardigheid van leerlingen te verbeteren door te kijken naar kunst en gesprekken erover te voeren.
Inspireert om meteen mee aan de slag te gaan.
De schrijver is uiteraard erg enthousiast over zijn methodiek, en soms stoort dat wat.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Curriculum for close reading visual images.

[Anna Gunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A clear instructive new way to be able to bring a tool to many different subjects.

What do you think is going on here?
What is it that makes you say that?
Is there anything else going on?

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't wait to try it myself.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a high school English teacher I was quite interested in what Philip Yenawine would have to say in "Visual Thinking Strategies" about using art in other subjects. As is typical in many education books most of his strategies were focused on reaching the elementary age demographic; however, I was pleasantly surprised to find a few interviews and examples of this particular strategy being successful for high school students.

Considering the push towards common core standards across the nation and high level thinking stratgies, Yenawine's visual thinking strategies that were developed during his tenure at MOMA (Musuem of Modern Art) comes at the perfect moment. One suggestion I would give to the busy teacher wanting to learn these ideas: go to the appendix at the back. In that Yenawine summarizes the chapters and the steps of VTS. Though lacking in the stories and research that prove the viability of VTS it's a great resource for those too busy to sit and read an entire book.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

5 on the idea, 3 on the writing and research base - the author is an evangelist here, and I think I am too, but look elsewhere for real information on how to assess writing and discussion. Contrary to his romantic claims, both are possible to assess, and he makes a straw man of assessment practices: most would say they're not just interested in numbers and that the test results are used for designing instruction.

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a teacher but I saw the author speak and was curious about his work. The method seems interesting but I'm not sure that he made a strong enough case about connection between VTS and success with the Common Core curriculum. Still it sounds like an interesting activity and at least gets kids looking at art.