How?

(approx. 5 min.)

A volunteer reads a target text aloud (something from a required list, difficult or “boring” to prepare the feeling of mastery through art-making later) while others draw or doodle. The combined listening and illustration takes advantage of two Latin American practices: the “lectores” whom tobacco rollers hired to read newspapers, Shakespeare, Marx, etc. for enjoyment and popular education. Factory lectors 1910  and Cartonera publishers who recycle used cardboard into books, Editoriales Cartoneras 

(approx. 20 min.)

Each person asks the thext a question (approx. 8 min.) This is the core of critical thinking. Texts, not students, are objects of scrutiny. Students are interrogators who cultivate curiosity, and discovery.  Copies  of  the  text  are  made available to consult, not distributed. We want to  generate  students’  desire  for  the  text since  they  will  have  to  ask  and  post questions. The variety of perspectives and interests appear published anonymously on the clothesline to show that reading always interprets and that difference is not error.

2a. Respond to a question (approx. 8 min.) Each  participant  “adopts”  a  question  and responds, as practice in writing and civics. Returning the questions with responses to the clothesline, students read each other.
2b. Main points lingering doubts (approx. 4 min.) Facilitator asks for salient points; first speaker invites the next and the “chain” of speakers ends with “Ready for artmaking!” Cordel

(approx. 25 min.)

Participants take turns to facilitate an  arts activity based on the target text. After the first session students or guests can facilitate. The creative activity can be irreverent: jokes, fashion shows, riddles, comics, recipes, etc. but using the text as material. Teacher or student facilitators propose a genre of art or an approach and then they invite everyone to offer questions and recommendations in order to co-construct the activity. This is an exercise  in  consensus  building  and  an opportunity to recover local arts, languages, and practices, to decolonize education even when using texts from colonial centers.

Video: Kalmadi 8th Grade reads Chekhov, The Beggar

(approx. 5 min.)

The art-making activity closes with a brief session to reflect on “What did we do?” Rather than ask the conventional “What did we learn?” — which often generates rote, mute, and even hostile responses—  our question  animates  participation. Artists  enjoy  speaking  about   their process. Each reflections is limited to a sentence  or  two,  adding  interpretation and  theory  to  art-making.  Everyone speaks briefly before anyone can speak again. This develops good citizenship.

(15 min.)

This  prompt  at  the  end  of  a  session prepares the first activity for the next. Conventional  teaching  often  dissuades students from exploring connections to a shared text, but we encourage curiosity and free reading to select a contribution to post. If students need to tackle books or long essays, we invite them to go “off o a leaf,” that is to bring a passage that caught  their  attention.  On  coming  to class, each participant posts a tangent anonymously  on  the  clothesline  and reads the others for about 10 minutes. Then one reader asks about a tangent; the contributor speaks to its connection with  the  shared  text,  and  chooses another tangent to be presented. This sampling lasts for 5 minutes, leaving a desire for more.

The “Amoeba Tour” is a gallery visit in which each participant is a guide to an object of their choice.
After circulating for a short while, each person adopts an object and says what connection it has to the text we have just read and interrogated. It’s that simple with profound results. In the process, we:

1. read attentively
2. practice critical thinking
3. interpret
4. listen to each other
5. develop adaptive leadership.

The Amoeba Tour is one of many possible ways that the Pre-Texts protocol can engage the arts to improve reading comprehension and a love of learning among children, youth, and adults.
Harvard Art Museum, May 23, 2022