Thursday, July 3, 2008

Keith Haring Teaches the Kids through Music and Color

Even though he isnt with us any longer, Keith Haring's legacy is strong. He is a New York legend and teachers from around the world are using his art with their students to inspire pop art. The Keith Haring site has a portion totally dedicated to lesson planning. There are lessons for students of all ages, and can be adapted for a range of levels.

This year I did mixed media art projects "a la Haring" with my 10th and 12th grade art class. Pop Art resonates well with kids cause its bright and simple. In my art class, I have several ESL students who were able to show off their skills with color and bold ideas.

One thing that many artists do is listen to music in their studio. Here is a great lesson that uses the 80's Hip Hop Keith Haring would bop to when he created his large pieces.
Click here--->1980's Hip Hop Lesson



Also this is a great lesson for ESL students, where they are given Haring prompts to test comprehension. Each answer for a WHO, WHAT, WHY question is submitted to create a bigger story with kids all over the world. This satisfies the NETS standard, of digital citizenship. A little kids voice is used in the podcast...Must check out!

1 comment:

Rosemarie said...

Ms. G is obviously concerned about her students and uses creative strategies to reach them. She is to be applauded as it is important to "dance on your head" if that's what it takes to get their motivation. I was disappointed that I wasn't able to hear Haring's music although that may be a problem with his website and not in Ms. G's control. Keep up the good work Ms. G.