Using Art to Teach Reading Comprehension Strategies

Book excerpt: Using Art to Teach Reading Comprehension Strategies: Lesson Plans for Teachers will provide both classroom and art teachers with an overview of six different reading strategies and integrated reading and art lessons that they can implement in their own classrooms and schools. Addressing specific National Visual Art Standards, Common Core Standards for Reading, and National Reading Standards, this book is designed so that classroom and art teachers work either in collaboration in schools where there are visual arts teachers, or independently if school staff does not include a visual arts instructor. This teacher friendly, easy-to-use book offers background information on the strategies and lessons that allow teachers to copy student materials and begin implementing this approach in their classrooms right away. Art can be a critical tool in helping students’ develop and refine reading strategies. When reading strategies are presented in the context of art first, the students are better able to incorporate these tools into their reading. Stuart and Klein prove that art provides the scaffolding children need to move from a text-free environment to a text environment.