PENNY HUNTSMAN:
The superpower of looking is a skill which is taught via a simple question and answer method. Answers are discovered simply by looking at great works of art and responding to question prompts with your students. You can learn to really look together.
Each suggested lesson plan is based around a key artwork and follows a series of signposted stages which gradually introduces the question methodology to your students, improving their and your visual literacy skills and confidence in analysing images. Let's look at a lesson and watch each stage unfold.
See if you can look in a very careful way and decide what you'd like to tell me in a moment.
Here I am teaching the first lesson in the everyday life category. A short context paragraph provided at the beginning of each lesson offers some background information on each painting, only if you require it.
Stage 1: Look, describe and discuss.
The first couple of stages introduce the key artwork to your students by asking accessible questions that anyone can answer.
And does anybody have any observation of any kind? Excellent.
PUPIL:
It kind of looks like it's some sort of experiment or something.
PENNY HUNTSMAN:
Excellent.
At this stage and throughout, encourage your students to substantiate the points they're making by giving you evidence of what they actually see. At first, students may offer a generalised point while looking at you rather than the painting. If this happens, simply ask the question again and redirect them to the image. They very often change their minds but catch on very quickly that they need to see it in order to say it.
PUPIL:
I can see in the background that there's like a picture of the moon. It's like a small... It's like a small part of the painting. It's just like a moon in the background.
PENNY HUNTSMAN:
Yeah. It's interesting – it's a small part of the painting, but you noticed it, didn't you? And what I want you to think about is how might that small part of the painting be actually quite important to what's going on here? That's what I want you to think about for a moment.
The fun is when they discover that they got there for themselves.
So, what are we seeing? I'm going to ask you to look more carefully. Yep?
PUPIL:
People with straight faces looking at each other like, "Oh, what's happening?"
PENNY HUNTSMAN:
Okay, so is it quite serious? Yeah.
PUPIL:
Maybe it's because they're planning something, but some people are worried about something or other.
PENNY HUNTSMAN:
Excellent. There's sort of anxiety.
Stage 3 is the core of The Superpower of Looking because it asks questions from the Superpower kit based on key formal elements,
or art terms. This is where you can focus on suggested areas from the kit to help your students read the image they are looking at. The answers to these questions can simply be seen in the work. The accompanying Superpower kit film explores these elements further.
If you have a painting, would you put the most important element of that painting over in the corner? Do you think that the moon is the most important element of this painting, or do you think it might be something else?
PUPIL:
I think the moon might not be the most important element. I think something in the middle and the people. Something to do in the middle of the painting might be the most important.
PENNY HUNTSMAN:
Absolutely.
During stages 3 and 4, you may wish to introduce knowledge from the context paragraph featured at the start if it helps keep your
discussion flowing.
So, in terms of composition, is there anything else you can remember? So any shapes that you can see that are standing out? Any focal points? Let me see is there somebody... Yep.
PUPIL:
I think it's like a triangle so it's trying to point to the glass at the top.
PENNY HUNTSMAN:
Fantastic. It is a triangle or a pyramid. And then, does anyone remember the letter beginning with 'a'? The top of the pyramid that often catches our gaze?
PUPIL:
Apex?
PENNY HUNTSMAN:
Well done.
Suggested activity ideas are provided to break up the lesson and allow children to apply their skills and demonstrate their learning in measurable ways. The activities are also a great way to hand over to the children to work in pairs or in groups.
A final review stage allows your students to recap on what they have learned and how much their understanding of the painting has changed since they first looked at it.
PUPILS:
I enjoyed how we had different people sharing their different ideas, so we knew like maybe someone said an idea that was a bit different to someone else, so we could hear what everyone said.
I found that when you really look at a painting more closely, that it's really interesting because you really get to know what's going on.
If you just looked at a painting in like the Tate maybe, and you just looked it and you said, "Okay. It's just a man painting." But instead, when you really closely look at it, it's just got these details, like, it's not just a man painting.
Seeing new paintings can be exciting and getting to know new things is exciting as well.