My Passions: Painting and Novices

I have a side job, but it’s not that I need the money. I need the peace of mind the job itself  brings. I have gone through months where I could barely make myself write, much less grade or plan a lesson: things that usually made me feel confident and creative. But painting! Painting is something I can pretty much always do and feel capable, accomplished just when I need it–moreso now that I’m an instructor at the local “paint and sip” studio.

Now not only can I bum a canvas occasionally in the name of preparing for an upcoming class, but I can keep painting without having to figure out where the finished piece could possibly fit in my house! AND, if I am TOTALLY devoid of inspiration, I can just copy something from the Wine & Design repertoire (to prepare for upcoming classes, of course).

But how can I bring that creative release into my SPANISH class? I have been wracking my brain for months, since Dave Burgess urged us to incorporate our passions into our lessons like he did his magic tricks. I mean, I guess I could try to do what I do in the studio, minus some of my wittier banter that wouldn’t fit into a Spanish I vocabulary, but somehow I don’t see that really working out in the target language. Also: why? Also: what if they hate the whole process? I torture them for an hour or two to prove I can teach them to paint? That I can make them make something kind of nice to look at?

Frankly, I need at least intermediate comprehension levels from my audience to pull off the Wine & Design act.

Which brings me to another guru and sometime conference roomie/bestest friend, S.E. Cottrell of Musicuentos fame. Just a simple tweet, at the top of the #langchat feed, with a pretty painting, and I almost had it.

Intermediate language is an impressionist painting. It’s a beautiful mess, you can tell what it’s supposed to be, it’s not the way the camera would have done it, and that’s ok. #langchat pic.twitter.com/48sjEp1Fs9

— Sara-E. Cottrell (@SECottrell) August 2, 2018

Impressionism is my FAVORITE way to paint, and I have absolutely FILLED my Instagram feed with impressionist painters across the Instasphere. It makes me very happy. So I’m gonna take a few of my very favorites to share (of course I made a Pinterest board!)

You see, I don’t think just intermediates are impressionists: I think novices are too. My Insta-idols, their paintings would certainly sound more intermediate if they were, say, Spanish. But my paintings? Especially the ones I do for paint-sipping? Still more impressionistic than realistic or even abstract.

Plus, I’ll tell you a secret: I totally trace the paintings I teach from a template. Lightbox, tracing paper, the works. I mean, what better analogy for novice scaffolding IS there in all the wide world??

So on the first, maybe second day, I’m also going to show them one of my paintings.

And then I’m going to show them the photo I based it on.

And then I’m going to ask them some questions.

1. What do the two images represent?
2. What makes the two images similar?
3. What makes the two images different?
4. Which image is better and WHY?

The hope is that they will either A) say neither is better and then expound upon the merits of each or B) pick sides and duke it out until the bell (yet another adjustment I’ll have to make for the first time in 10 years: bells).

And then, I think, we’ll color.

And we’ll use some more of my art–this time with a very handsome model:

Also, they will get a coloring page version that looks something like this:

And this, this will be our analogy for the year, for how the language learning will go:

1. I will provide them with tools and context: colors and an outline.
   I will give them basic colors and a structure I think is appropriate for them.
2. I will provide them with models: painting and photo.
   The photo is like the authentic resources I’ll help them break down, and the painting is more like comprehensible input, where they can see things simplified and broken down–impressionistically, if you will.
3. They will create: coloring.
   They’ll have the tools I give them (unless they happen to have some of their own tools stored on them, in which case, that’s kind of like having traveled or grown up around Spanish speakers) but ultimately will get to do what they want with the context outline I gave them. If they are intermediate artists, there may be aliens coming out of the lake. If they’re novices, they might want to see my step-by-step progression for the painting.

Afterwards, I want to break down what they colored, perhaps in small groups first (still a bit anxious about the classes of 30+). And we’ll discuss how their observations fit with language learning. I think they’ll probably surprise me here and there, but ultimately, what I think what is true of their pictures will be true of their language learning:

Some will go faster than others. Some will elaborate more than others. Some will feel more comfortable sticking to the models while some will experiment and create something new and different. And like S.E. said, it’s not the way the camera would do it, but you can still tell what it’s supposed to be.

And when the coloring and comparisons are over and done, it will be time to break out the babies, those little clipart babies that break down the stages of growth. We can compare the paintings to AAPPL levels to get a feel for it, but then I want to build into something deeper.

I mean, I finally figured out how to work my passion into novice Spanish class, how painting can be a “handle” for important concepts to start the year, but also how they can see something that is very important to me. So what’s left?

I want my kids to know they are smarter than me about something. #teachinggoals https://t.co/D2CjaESLfw

— Laura Sexton (@SraSpanglish) July 25, 2018

Since I’m coming in tabula rasa, this could be the best time to channel Carmen Scoggins and Susan Satar and have students set up their own analogies using their own passions. Because beyond painting and language learning? Those passions are my BIGGEST passion.