teacher workshop
Art and Language Inset The teachers used the exhibition, 'Mandala Raga' as the focus for exploring different kinds of writing, and to inspire the development of imagery that combined elements of text. Using the 'CONTENT, FORM, MOOD and PROCESS' model teachers created personal descriptive writing and then in groups developed their ideas to produce writing for different purposes i.e. discursive text, persuasive text, information text and explanation. This process illuminated the insights that could be gleaned from writing for very different purposes, providing multi-faceted perspectives to the work on display. The information text, for example, is very different in tone to the persuasive and discursive text, and it was fascinating to consider the art work within the different frameworks. The teachers went on to produce their own personal mandala, utilising colour and symbolism appropriate to their identity. We then worked as a whole group to consider ways in which the individual mandalas could be reassembled to create a group mandala to revolve around the central column in the workshop. This process needed to be carefully negotiated. Teachers had invested a great deal in their personal mandala and felt very protective about keeping it complete. The sense of the wider universe, central to the symbolism of the mandala, inspired the teachers to collaborate. Individual mandalas were cut and arranged symmetrically around the space, and then reconnected with colour, shapes and sentences, enabling their personal textures to interact. The teachers extended the language so that their words and thoughts encircled the words of everyone in the group. It was a very celebratory experience, inspiring ideas about citizenship, with all participants needing to negotiate with each other, and enjoy the sense of their individual thoughts, images, colours and textures, interacting and encircling a physical space.
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