The mind a the senses: medit-ation on an elephant Elianda Cazzorla PACE Project

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/texts 4.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 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 teachers and the students 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 wisdom The six blind men and the elephant What does the teacher do ? Dramatic reading & discussion The aim To 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, LAlfabeto della saggezza, racconto sufi, Einaudi ragazzi John Godfrey Saxes ( ) version of the famous Indian legend

Step 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 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 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 dacqua. 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 lultimo 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 dautore, vol. C. Bulgarini 2005 G.Vignato, E.Cazzorla, G.Galesso, Fabula, vol. A, La grammatica del lettore, B. Mondadori, Milano, 2000