Everyday Artists

For the young child, art is a way of solving problems, conceptualizing the world, and creating new possibilities. Everyday Artists addresses the disconnect that exists between the teaching of art and the way young children actually experience art. In doing so, this book questions commonly held notions and opens up exciting new possibilities for art education in the early childhood classroom. A practicing teacher herself, Bentley uses vignettes of children’s everyday activities—from block building to clean-up to outdoor play—to help teachers identify and scaffold the genuine artistic practice of young children.

Book Features:

• Tangible examples of everyday art experiences told through lively classroom stories.
• An examination of the teacher’s role with suggestions of appropriate ways to support children’s artistic expression.
• Clear explanations of how inquiry and creativity contribute to the overall thinking and learning of the young child.
• A “Voice of the Teacher” section that offers teaching strategies for extending children’s thinking and learning.
• A wide range of ideas for teachers who feel they do not know how to “do” art.

Dana Frantz Bentley is a teacher researcher and preschool teacher at Buckingham Browne and Nichols School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She received a Doctorate of Education from the Art and Art Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University.

There is much to learn from the artful reflection and generative inquiry of this inspired early childhood educator."
—Jessica Hoffmann Davis, author of Why Our Schools Need the Arts

"Much has been written about the role of the arts in education, especially about the importance of the arts to early childhood learning. Dana Frantz Bentley endows the arts with an additional and central kind of significance rooted in a broad conception of cognition."
—From the Foreword by Judith M. Burton, Teachers College, Columbia University

Foreword by Judith M. Burton

Acknowledgments

Introduction: "Knowing Me, Knowing You": Arriving at Art in the Preschool Classroom
   Teaching Ring Around the Rosie
   Impromptu Creations: Art in the Everyday
   The Larger Conversation: Positioning Art in the Context of This Book
   Is Everything Art? Locating the Artistic Experience
   Unearthing Opportunities: What Everyday Art Makes Possible
   Everyday Art and Teacher Practice
   Mapping out the Journey
   Returning to the Classroom
   Ramp Dramas

PART I: A WAY OF INQUIRING

Chapter 1. "Spooky Elevators" and Other Preschool Adventures: Rethinking the Word Art
   The Art of Taking a Walk
   Everyday Adventures: Demanding an Expansive Definition of Art
   Stepping Back in Time: Historical Foundations of Everyday Art
   Art as an Approach to Experience
   Dis-Integrating and Re-Integrating: Relocating Art in Daily Life
   Art as a Verb: Relinquishing the Product
   "I'm Still Making It!": Artistic Practice in the Block Area
   Creative Inquiry: The Shape of Artistic Practice
   Making Sense of the World: The Class Going Home Book
   An Abundance of Treasure: The Lens of Art

Chapter 2. "No Robbers Allowed": Integrated Thinking and the Young Child
   "No Robbers Allowed"
   The Teacher's Perspective: Through the Eyes of the Child
   The Traditional Curriculum: The Impacts of Fragmentation
   "It's My Number, So I Can Make It!": Implications of the Interconnected Classroom
   Trains, Tracks, and Thomas: "Train Talk," the Letter T, and Everyday Art

Chapter 3. "What Are All of These Words?": The Many Knowledges of Teacher Researchers
   "What Are All of These Words?"
   Choosing Your Voice: Narratives from the Classroom
   Communing with Chaos: The Real Process of Teacher Research
   Inside the Kingdom: The Children and Their Classroom
   Making the Classroom Culture Visible: The Collective Voice of the Teacher Researcher
   "Did You Write Down All of My Words?": A Moment of Teacher Research

PART II: A WAY TO THINK

Chapter 4. Living "Wide-Awakeness": The Artistic Practice of Rewriting Storylines
   Lunchboxes and Alien Slime
   Rewriting Storylines: The Strength of Words
   The Capture of the Velcro Straps
   Rewriting Storylines: Distance and Control
   Hip-hopping on Broadway
   Rewriting Storylines: Empowerment and Motivation
   The Legend of the Carpet Worms
   The Role of the Teacher

Chapter 5. "It Is a Rescue Rocket Ship!": The Artistic Practice of World-Making
   Real Pirates, Pretend Pirates
   World-Making: A Multiplicity of Worlds
   "I Can Make Them Myself!": Tara and the Ribbit Frogs
   World-Making: Creativity and Logic
   Edmund and the Rescue Rocket Ship
   World-Making: Mastering the World
   Aloysius Hiding Behind the Paint
   The Role of the Teacher

Chapter 6. "Her Prince Gived Her This Ring!": The Artistic Practice of Meaning-Making
   Creating Meaning in the Chaos
   "The R Train Takes Me Home"
   Meaning-Making: Remaking and Extending
   Rings and Princes
   Meaning-Making: A Dynamic Practice
   Songs for Kindergarten: Navigating the Unknown
   Meaning-Making: Making Space for Meaning in the Classroom
   Ky and the Map: Making Meaning About the Self
   The Role of the Teacher

Chapter 7. Of Lizards and Metacognition: The Artistic Pratice of Thinking About Thinking
   "I Smile with My Mind"
   Metacognition: A Collaborative Practice
   Of Lizards and Metacognition
   Metacognition: The Inner World
   Bad Guys Are Everywhere!
   Metacognition: Engaging Multiple Perspectives
   "I Became the Storm!"
   The Role of the Teacher

PART III: A WAY OF BEING

Chapter 8. "Is That a Story About Me?": Artistic Practice and the Teacher
   The Goodbye Season
   Living in the Question
   The Teacher as Artistic Inquirer
   What Does Listening Look Like?
   Reflecting on Ourselves
   Home for the Holidays?

Chapter 9. Making Time for Volcanoes: The Shape of the Early Childhood Classroom
   The Physical Classroom
   The "Child-Centered" Curriculum
   Making Time for Volcanoes
   Developing Community

Chapter 10. Jigglypuff and the Pokémon Princesses: Looking to the Child
   "I Want to Be Jigglypuff!"
   An Inconclusive Conclusion
   The Forest Maker

References

Index

About the Author