Publication Date: July 14, 2013
Pages: 160
Series: Early Childhood Education Series
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:
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
Professors: Request an Exam Copy
Print copies available for US orders only. For orders outside the US, see our international distributors.