A visit to VMFA offers teachers a chance to watch and listen to students engage with art, exchange ideas, and activate curiosity.  The prompts below may be used to document student ideas expressed during your VMFA museum visit or VMFA Evans Distance Learning session.

Recognizing

As students interact with art, note comments or exchanges that indicate:

Students recognize elements of the topic under study.  Are they activating prior knowledge to make sense of what they see?   Are they using vocabulary from the unit of study and calling upon previous class discussions and activities as they engage with these works of art?

Responding to New Ideas

As students interact with art, note comments that indicate:

Students are open and responding to new ideas.  What “wow” or “aha” moments do you hear?  What seems surprising to them? What is piquing student interest?  What do they want to know more about?

Making Connections

As students interact with art, note comments that indicate:

Students are synthesizing ideas and connecting what they see to other aspects of the topic under study.  What personal connections are the students making to the art and/or topic?