Decoding Strategies for 5th Grade Fine Arts

 

  1. Strategy #1:

 

Since students this age enjoy word searches, one decoding method would be a word search where definitions of the words are given and the students find the words in the word search puzzle. 

 

  1. Strategy #2:

 

The arts are inherently visual and/or audio.  Students decoding through context is especially appropriate. For example,  if they can see what ballet looks like,  hear jazz music, compare art mediums for example, they will have better understandings of the words.

 

  1. Strategy #3:

 

Many fine arts terms are derived from other languages.  To help students decode them, it would be helpful to teach the meanings of their suffixes and prefixes.  The students could then make folding papers with the root word in the middle in one color, the prefix folding over at the beginning in another color, and/or the suffixes folding at the end in a third color.

 

Two examples:

 

issimo
 

Pian(o)
 

pointe
 

Demi
 
                                                                                                                                                                                   

 

                                                                                   

Demi (French) = half

Pointe (French ) = point (tip of toe)
 

Piano (Italian) = soft

Issimo (Latin) = very

 
 
 

 

 

 


                                                                       

                                                           

(Note:  demi is a common prefix, especially in dance, but students should also know that demo is a common Greek prefix for ‘people’)