Thanks to Katie Ablard, MS, OTR/L, for sending ATPN this tip for the art room. Ablard is a school-based occupational therapist for Maryland’s Montgomery County public schools.
Table tents are a simple strategy to support visual learners in the art classroom. In the typical art classroom, multi-step instructions are given verbally at the beginning of each class. With table tents, these instructions are written out and/or presented graphically in a step-by-step format. Some art teachers will make enough table tents for each table or pair of students. To make a table tent:
- Print out the directions on the bottom half of an 8 ½ x 11” piece of paper.
- Fold the piece of paper in half.
- Place the paper standing upright at the table and, voila, a table tent.
Students with autism, in particular, benefit when instructions are presented visually, but all students with difficulties following multi-step directions can benefit from table tents. Younger students can benefit from pictures/picture symbols to indicate each step, while students who are able to read can often use a simple list of written directions to know what to do.
Table tents reinforce reading skills: sight word vocabulary and art vocabulary. They also help a teacher to be extremely clear, concise, and explicit in his or her directions to the whole group. For many students, an explanation with fewer words yields greater understanding.
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