ABSTRACT
Visual arts have the capacity to improve students’ imagination by providing opportunities to respond to and create through images. In visual arts classrooms, teachers develop students’ vocabulary and knowledge of a variety of art forms involving visual 2D and 3D images. All three meta-semiotic functions are engaged in the visual arts classroom through subject matter (representational meaning), how the artwork speaks to the viewer (interpersonal meaning), and how the artist has employed various modes and media (compositional meaning). This chapter outlines how teachers of the visual arts, in both primary and secondary classrooms, cover this important work. It looks at both a whole-classroom approach as well as how teachers interact with individual students in creating their own artworks.
