Chasing Vermeer

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Petra and Calder Find Another Vermeer”

After observing Calder and Petra’s investigation of several Vermeer paintings in Chasing Vermeer, students will use characterization and plot details from the text to write a short creative piece in which the two young detectives investigate another of Vermeer’s works.

In this activity, you will choose one of Vermeer’s paintings that is not specifically mentioned in Chasing Vermeer. Then, you will write a short narrative (about 2 pages) in which Petra and Calder find this painting and investigate whether or not it is actually a Vermeer painting.

• Go back to Chasing Vermeer and make some notes for yourself:
• How do Calder and Petra act, talk, and think? What sets them apart from one another and from other people?
• What characteristics of Vermeer’s work do Petra and Calder notice and find important? Knowing what you know about their personalities, how would they go about deciding if a painting is or is not by Vermeer?
• Choose a Vermeer painting that is not mentioned in Chasing Vermeer. This site is a complete interactive catalog of Vermeer’s works and is a good place to look for a painting for this activity.
• Write a narrative of about 2 pages in which Calder and Petra find the painting (in a location of your choice) and examine it to decide whether it was or was not painted by Vermeer.
• Use the same point of view as Chasing Vermeer uses.
• Create a clear setting.
• When Petra and Calder find the painting, describe what they notice about it.
• Use both narrative action and dialogue between Calder and Petra to show that you understand their personalities and how they would approach the task of evaluating the painting.

Teaching Suggestion: The first step in this activity—gathering evidence—can be accomplished in small groups or with a partner; this will offer students additional perspectives on evaluating literary evidence. Students who are very interested in art—or who are easily distracted—may spend more time than necessary online choosing a Vermeer painting; if time is a significant factor, you may want to establish a clear beginning and ending time for their online research. Before students begin to write their narratives, you might talk with them about balancing the elements of their narratives, so that they do not spend too much time and space developing the setting, for instance, and end up rushing through the analysis of the painting. Encourage them to alternate between description, narrative action, and dialogue throughout their piece, so that their work is entertaining and story-like, not an essay thinly disguised as fiction.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students with attentional and executive function issues may benefit from receiving the activity instructions one at a time, with a clear timeline for accomplishing each part of the task. This activity requires students to find and evaluate evidence in Chasing Vermeer and then translate this evidence into a new context. Those who struggle with abstract thought, as well as English language learners and students with dyslexia, attentional issues, or executive function challenges, may be more successful working with a partner. Alternatively, you might allow these students, as well as those who struggle with written expression, to work in small groups to find evidence of Calder’s and Petra’s personalities and the characteristics of Vermeer’s work and then use their compiled evidence to make some notes directly on a printout of a Vermeer painting instead of writing a complete narrative.