Discussing Art With Students

    I was reading Terry Barrett's book Interpreting Art the other day, and he created a formula of topics that could ultimately add up to an art students understanding of the meaning a work or art is conveying. The formula looks something like this
                                                             
                                                                     Subject Matter
                                                                               +
                                                                         Medium
                                                                               +
                                                                           Form
                                                                               +
                                                                          Context
                                                                               =
                                                                         Meaning
   
    These specific areas are where teachers can pull some questions that can get their students thinking about different types of artwork. The subject matter encompasses the content, the narrative aspects of the piece (ex: how would one describe it?). The medium is what the work has made out of (paint, clay, found objects, ect.). The form is the listing descriptors of what the work is, how does it exist in the world? The context is talking about the work in time and space, where does it fit in historically, does it have a design purpose? All of these areas of questioning will help further explain the meaning of the artwork. This formula is very much an extension of Bloom's Taxonomy.
    Bloom's Taxonomy is a hierarchy of question stems that teachers use to guide their students through the learning process. It is broken down into six categories: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Each of the above mentioned areas of Barrett's formula can fall under the categories of Bloom's Taxonomy, for example subject matter, medium, and form can all fall under the category of knowledge. The further along we go the more abstract we get, for example form and context can fall under the category of analysis.
    I think that these formula's are a great way to get students thinking. I have been stuck in many a critique or discussion were no one has any thought or idea of where to start when talking about a work of art. It is a very awkward situation that nobody likes to be in, this list of question starters can help some light bulbs go off in the classroom, if you know what I mean. So the next time you are doing a discussion think of this formula, and maybe you will start a wild fire of ideas!