Art interpretation: Constructing meaning through poetic and non-verbal responses

Critical inquiry and personal response models with regard to art interpretation are composed of many forms of activities and response exercises that are both poetic and non-verbal. Students have been responding to art using critical inquiry, but there has been relatively nothing written in regard to poetic expression and non-verbal responding in the teaching of art interpretation. This project will discuss how a poetic model (the use of figurative language to form ideas about constructing personal meaning in a work of art) and a non-verbal model (creating a visual response to exemplify meaning) work together in the construction of meaning. Included are observations made at the high school level, which demonstrate how the models work together. The making of art and art interpretation can work in tandem to foster the construction of meaning and this has significant implications for the possible design of high school art curriculums.