The mind a the senses: medit-ation on an

elephant

Elianda Cazzorla

PACE Project 2007-08

Actors• The students contribute: personal experience,

art and literary preferences, interpretation and creation of written texts and art works

• The teacher contributes visual and literary exemplars and stimuli.

• The teacher is a facilitator and an advisor• The class is a collaborative workshop• The individual student thinks and shares, in

and outside of the classroom• The Biennale artists and their works of art

Art & Language Literacy skills 1. Familiarizing with the rhetorical figure of

“ekphrasis” (“short descriptive symbolic text”)

2. Developing skills in reading images 3. Identifying the explicit “messages” in

images/texts4. Exploring the implicit “messages” in

images/texts 5. Writing analytically and creatively about

images/text 6. Reviewing and editing initial responses

in order to acheve precision and clarity

The operational framework• Students: a IV year class (20 students 17-18 years

old)• Timetable: 6 lessons of 50 minutes each for 4

weeks + one day trip to Venice Biennale (homework time not included)

• Period: september-october • Step 1: reading the story “ The 6 blind men and

the elephant” in different versions• Step 2: looking for images and texts which can

exemplify the meaning of the story• Step 3: visiting the ‘Biennale’ exhibition 2007 in

Venice• Step 4: project work (art installation & critical

and/or creative text writing)

Common strategies (1):

Aims:• Knowledge leading to understanding • Encouragment of students to develop

their own well-founded ideas and express them in both oral, written and muldimensional art work

• Reflecting on the learning process (both the teacher’s and the student’s Schön

Common strategies (2)Methodology:• Practical work in tandem with theory• Learning both inside and outside the

classroom• Respecting for and fostering of different

kinds of minds and intellegences• Adopting different approaches and resources• Students taking responsibility for

contributing

Step 1 - Images and wisdomThe six blind men and the elephant What does the teacher do ?Dramatic reading & discussion

The aimTo help students understand how complex reality

is and how knowledge is gradually built through the processing and the coming together of different points of view

Texts: Coles – Ross, L’Alfabeto della saggezza, racconto sufi, Einaudi

ragazzi John Godfrey Saxe‘s (1816-1887) version of the famous Indian

legend

Step 2.1 - The students’ learning path

• Students re-read the text and look for images which might represent the meaning of the story in the way each of them interprets it.

Step 2.2 - The students’ learning path

• The teacher presents another literary text to get the students to reflect on the interpretation of reality from different points of view.

• Students produce a personalized art version of the text

Amos Oz, La scatola nera, Feltrinelli, p.137

Step 2.3 - The students’ learning path

• The class select a photo or an art work which can stir an emotional reaction

• Each student writes something (it can either be analytic or creative H. Gardner)

Guidato dal vento Girano come pale di mulini a vento queste

ruote stanche di girare a filo d’acqua. Con le mie mani ferme e forti sul manubrio,

vado dove mi porta la foglia di palma che piegata dà forza divina mi indica la strada.

Il mio pensiero va a quando girandomi indietro, vedevo le orme della strada mia già fatta: ferme e forti impresse nella sabbia. Oh memoria mi hai già lasciato solo, se guardo appena indietro non più l’ultimo

passo vedo. Anna Maria Moro

Step 3 – the Venice Biennale visit

• Connection with the 2007 theme (“Think with your senses and feel through your mind”)

• The teacher visits the exhibition beforehand and prepares a guide, ideally including all the pavillions of the PACE partners’ countries

• Students visit the exhibition and choose a piece of art

Step 4 – from Biennale to the classroom

• Students start working on their project work: they transfer what they wrote or drew or photographed into a poliedric shape (art installation & critical and/or creative text writing)

Future perspectives & directions

• This image represents people of different ages and genders walking in different directions, but within the same space. The space has the symbolic shape of an eye, where many people are reflected.

• From here we might take different and unpredictable paths…

Bibliography

Didactics and literary texts• M.Borroni, P.Bersi, C.Ricci, Leggere i mass media,

Zanichelli, 2000• R. Dynes, Scrittura creativa in gruppo, Erickson, Trento

1997• (a cura di) T. De Mauro, P.Pedace, A.G.Stasi, Teoria e

pratica della scrittura creativa, CONTROLUCE, ROMA 1999 [si ordina per internet dal sito di OMERO lab. Di scrittura]

• (a cura di Rosa Calò) Scrivere comunicare inventare apprendere, Franco Angeli 2003

• (a cura di C.Lavinio) Educazione linguistica Educazione letterararia intersezioni, Angeli 2005

• L.Paini, Cinema, Zanichelli 2003• G.Sbrilli, V. Porta, A. Pellegrino, M.Moschitta, Quadri

d’autore, vol. C. Bulgarini 2005• G.Vignato, E.Cazzorla, G.Galesso, Fabula, vol. A, La

grammatica del lettore, B. Mondadori, Milano, 2000