The Value of an Arts-Infused Curriculum

As an educator, you have probably heard the buzz about the importance of the arts in student education. Contradicting this research is the trend of fewer or no arts-oriented classes in a standard curriculum. No matter what subject area or grade level you teach, there are opportunities to infuse the arts within your curriculum.

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
—Scott Adams, writer/cartoonist

When students, teachers, and schools experience an education rich in the arts, they will realize the following benefits:

• Increased student attendance and motivation;
• Increased creativity and writing;
• Lower dropout rates at high school level;
• Increased teacher attendance;
• Development of analytical skills, particularly high-level transfer (using an understanding in a new situation);
• Increased parental involvement;
• Openness to diversity and multicultural issues (cultures based on ethnicity, learning styles, and disciplines);
• An ethic of high performance and collaboration;
• Increased interest in historical/geographical, etc. topics; and
• Increased test scores.

The four arts disciplines include music, visual, drama, and dance. These disciplines can be used to activate, investigate, demonstrate and contemplate learning. Much of what you already know about identifying the lesson outcomes, planning instruction and assessment, and gathering resources is very similar in an arts-infused lesson. What changes is that many of your instructional strategies, assessments, and resources will be arts-based in nature.

The tips below are based on ideas offered in the PLS course Infusing Arts Into the Curriculum™ Online .

Read on for tips to create arts-infused lessons.

When you design an arts-infused lesson, include strategies that activate the wheels of learning into motion, investigate and discover new ways students can think and learn, help demonstrate what students have learned, and allow students to contemplate by pausing and thinking about what they have learned.

Incorporating Music (Math Example)

An elementary math teacher can start by having students chant their first and last names to a steady beat. Ask them to silently count the number of syllables in their names and remember that number. Then, clap only the first syllable and snap the rest. Keep repeating the name chanting until told to stop.

Math teachers above the elementary level can have students practice creating rhythms in 4/4 time using any combination of quarter, eighth, half, whole, sixteenth notes. Each student can then create, write and clap their own one bar pattern (one bar, four beats long). Then have students work with a partner and practice. (This requires an understanding of fractions).

Incorporating Dance (ELL Example)

Play a game of Vocabulary Statues. Start by having students walk around the room to recorded music. Stop the music and call out a different level (high, medium, low) in which students should freeze. Experiment with other types of descriptors such as size (large, small, narrow, etc.) or emotions (annoyed, cheerful, puzzled, etc.). When students are warmed up, use words from your weekly vocabulary list for the freezes. (The resulting statues provide a quick comprehension check.)

Incorporating Drama (Science Example)

Use tableau to demonstrate understanding of a scientific process or cycle. A tableau is a frozen moment in time used to focus in on a theme of a story or unit.

For example, a four part series of tableaux could show the life cycle of the butterfly. Have the members of the tableau take turns “speaking in the moment” to show understanding. (For example, “I’m so hungry. I’ve been nibbling on these leaves all day and I’m still not full!”)

Incorporating Drama (Social Studies Example)

Select an image from your social studies text. (Look for historical paintings and primary source artifacts.) View the image, noting the artist’s use of line. What does it convey? What is the artist’s intent?

Look closely for details that tell you about the time period. What is happening in the moment? What does it say about the period, the people, their dress, their hobbies, employment, etc.?

Taking It Further

To learn more about the value of an arts education, visit
http://aep-arts.org/?PHPSESSID=94796f62da619b8c7303a7c2803d88d0

References

Deasy, R. (Ed.). (2002). Critical links: Learning in the arts and student academic and social development. Washington, DC: Arts Education Partnership.

Fiske, E. (Ed.). (1999). Champions of change: The impact of arts on learning. Retrieved July 19, 2010, from
http://www.aep-arts.org/files/publications/ChampsReport.pdf

Tishman, S., & Palmer, P. (2006, November). Artful thinking: Stronger thinking and learning through the power of art. Retrieved July 19, 2010, from http://www.pz.harvard.edu/Research/ArtfulThinkingFinalReport.pdf