Module 1: WHAT IS ARTS INTEGRATION AND WHY SHOULD I USE IT?
Module 1: What is Arts Integration
In this module you will:
- reflect on your prior knowledge of Arts Integration.
- learn how Arts Integration can benefit learning and curriculum in the classroom.
- explore the social and emotional benefits of using Art Integration in the classroom.
Pre-Lesson Reflection
In this course we will use reflection as a method of processing your learning. You may use a physical journal, or a computer document to record your thoughts. Take a moment to write down in your journal what you already know about Arts Integration.
- What is Arts Integration?
- What do you think may be the benefits?
- Is it hard to implement? Easy?
- What does it look like in a classroom?
What is Arts Integration?
The Kennedy Center offers an amazing and comprehensive definition of Arts Integration:
Let’s unpack that definition a little bit. What they are saying is that Arts Integration is a way of teaching (not just a strategy) in which students are forming their learning through an art form. The second half of the definition is telling us that the core subject area and the art form are connected and standards for both areas are being met in the lesson plan.
Arts Integration is not just drawing your favorite part of the story (though that has it’s value too). There are three major ways that the Arts are used in school:
- Arts as curriculum: this is what happens in special area classes (music, art, band, drama)
- Arts Enhanced curriculum: “When the arts are used as a device or strategy to support other curriculum areas, but no objectives in the art form are explicit, then the approach is called Arts-Enhanced Curriculum. For example, students sing the ABCs as a means to other ends—remembering the letters and sequence of the alphabet. However, students are not usually expected to learn about melody, song structure, or develop specific singing skills.” (Arts Edge).
- Arts Integrated Curriculum: This is when the arts become the approach to teaching and learning is enhanced in the Arts and the Core subjects.
How Can Arts Integration Benefit Learning?
The Arts support many 21st century skills. Take a look at this graphic from The Art of Education. Are there any skills on it that surprise you? Why are they surprising? Can you see how the Arts would help a student develop all of these skills?
Amy Lightfoot states that “asking the students to engage with and respond to the piece of art can encourage students to become involved on quite a different level.” (Lightfoot, 2007). She continues on highlighting the fact that the arts also have “the potential to develop students’ creative and critical thinking skills.”
The Arts are also an effective way to personally connect content with the student. “By weaving the arts into and through our content in naturally aligned ways, we are providing relevance to student learning, and giving them an opportunity to connect their world to our classrooms.” (Riley, 2012). Students are personalizing what they have learned and identifying with it in a new way. Riley goes on to suggest that the Arts are a great strategy for helping students synthesize their learning:
“When studying any piece of art, composition, drama or dance, one must be able to analyze the components that create the whole. Additionally, the ability to synthesize these parts into a whole work is critical to making meaning for each audience member. Common Core Reading and Math Standards have both identified the need for this critical practice, and many teachers are struggling with implementing it in the classroom. Arts Integration may be a pathway to providing those opportunities.” (2012)
Teachers are finding more and more ways to connect the Arts with their content in order to build 21st Century Skills, solidify content and make learning personal. Are you convinced? We’ll close this section with the following quote from Susan Riley for inspiration:
“Arts Integration allows us to build chefs who make choices -- not cooks who merely follow the recipe. By fostering a community within our schools where authentic Arts Integration is taking place, we can meet and exceed expectations set by Common Core and move into a culture of true inquiry and learning.” (2012)
What are the Social and Emotional Benefits of Arts Integration?
David Booth, Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto has this to say about the power of the Arts:
“In the concentration camps in World War II, some children drew and wrote poems; you can read their poems and find their drawings in the book I Never Saw Another Butterfly. After the disaster of 9/11 in New York City, parents and schools were at a loss about what to tell vulnerable and shocked youngsters. What followed in New York is a metaphor for arts education, as thousands of schoolchildren turned to creating paintings and drawings and poems and stories and letters to somehow give form to their feelings and to share in the sadness that had enveloped their communities. As they engaged in arts responses, they revealed so much more than they could articulate in talk. They were able to imagine hope beyond the destruction. They were able to find catharsis, to seek out ways of demonstrating their compassion and anger. They were able to use art to construct a present reality and to recognize a better future. As parents and teachers and friends, we view their pictures and read their words in the book Messages to Ground Zero, and recognize the depth of their feelings and the connections they have made to the human family. We were better able to cope because of their artistic efforts.” (Booth, 2014)
The Arts have become a vital way for students to process feelings and identify with each other. In all of these examples, people are turning to the Arts as a way of communication. They are using images, words and movements to communicate how they feel. This is also an amazing strategy for connecting with other students, building learning communities within classrooms that support encouraging and compassionate students.
Booth goes on to say, “The arts are a way of learning, of exploring, of responding, of revealing and demonstrating, of imagining, depicting, and making meaning. They belong in the school curriculum, as they belong in the minds and hearts of all lifelong learners.” (Booth, 2014)
Post-Lesson Reflection
Now that you know a little bit more about Arts Integration, what are your thoughts?
- Does Arts Integration sound like something you'd like to use in your classroom?
- What about it excites you?
- Do you still have any questions about it?
- Does it seem like a lot of work?
Sources
Arts Edge. (2017). Explaining Why: Creating a Rationale for Arts Integration. Retrieved from https://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/how-to/arts-integration/why-arts-integration/why-explaining-why
Booth, David. (June 13, 2014). Response: The Role of Arts Education in Schools. Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2014/06/response_the_role_of_arts_education_in_schools.html
Lightfoot, Amy. (2007). Art In the Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/art-classroom
Riley, Susan. (November 30, 2012). Use Arts Integration to Enhance Common Core. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/core-practices-arts-integration-susan-riley
Getting Around
Mini-Course Homepage: Arts Integration in Every Classroom
Module One: What is Arts Integration and Why Should I Use It?
Module Two: Examples of Arts Integration
Module Three: Resources and Strategies For Arts Integration
Module Four: Using Arts Integration
Portfolio Page Lara Kelley