The art teacher facilitated a discussion of images using the Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) technique. VTS is a program for elementary school students and teachers that use art to teach thinking, communication skills, and visual literacy. Students looked carefully at the work of art to share their thoughts and find meaning. (Note: To learn more about the objectives and method of VTS, go to the following Web site: http://www.vue.org/whatisvts.html)

Class discussion using  reproductions of paintings

For this discussion, details of the paintings Flowers and Insects and Ode to the Pomegranate and Melon Vine were converted and enlarged to 11" x 17" color copies. These color copies were taped to the art room wall where all the students could see them. A list was created to note all of the students' observations during the discussion.