Discuss with your students the purpose of your visit What assessment does it link with? What assignments or work will be expected What wider goals are there (visual literacy, applying knowledge in a new context, gaining inspiration or motivation, building critical and creative thinking…)

1. Brainstorm all the different things art could be and some examples 1.Brainstorm all the different things art could be and some examples. This helps students to form a picture of what to expect, and also gives them something to compare against after their visit. 2. Brainstorm the connections between visual and written language, again this allows students to gauge where they are and how there thinking has developed, and helps them to place any new learning into the school context.

Ensure that students know what group they are in and what is expected of them for each session. Note that break times do not allow for long lunches in town! (you will be arriving at the gallery 10 mins before the start of the first session to do admin, store bags etc.)

These are gallery procedures that everyone (including staff) keep to These are gallery procedures that everyone (including staff) keep to. If anyone is unsure when in the gallery, a gallery assistant (in black ‘Toi o Tamaki’ shirt) will be able to help.

Being comfortable with visual images takes time, just like written language. There is often more than one correct answer and more than one way to ‘read’ the work. we will be showing you one way with a few different tools. These tools can be used to look at any artwork/visual text and written text as well. They help bridge the two ways of communicating to strengthen the use of both written and visual language.

Students will be supported to look at artworks and discuss what they notice with others. There will be activities designed to help them translate and connect to written language and then to create their own. They wont be expected to have a ‘right’ answer, but rather to be open to looking and discovering what they think.

These focus questions can be really helpful when discussing images and gaining some meaning and connection to them. Ask students to have a go at the activity above, and share their responses with each other or the class.

Using strategies like we just practiced, students will use their creative and critical thinking skills to explore and describe artworks. They will then begin to interpret them & to experiment with using language in new ways. They will then begin to create drafts of work and to evaluate & reflect on the methods and tools the used in the session.

We will push students to try to do things they may not be comfortable with at first, but will support them and ensure they are ‘winnable’. We will encourage them to work together and share ideas. The process will be started at the Gallery but finished at school.

Ask students to think about what some of these words might mean Ask students to think about what some of these words might mean. Which might they need to use as part of this programme? What do they think they might find challenging? What might help them to deal with these challenges?

Your students can practice these skills before their visit- get them to try this activity in small groups or a pair. Auckland Art Gallery’s website has many images of artworks that could be used for this activity.