THE arts MATTER - integrating arts into curriculum

Teachers share how they integrate the arts into the curriculum--and enrich the learning for every child

"If I could tell you what I meant, I wouldn't need to dance."

Isadora Duncan, dancer

The arts--painting, music, dance, drama, writing, sculpting, and more--have the power to express meaning in ways that no other medium can match. Through dance, early 20th-century performer Isadora Duncan was able to communicate layers of emotion as few dancers had before her, as well as to instruct about history, culture, and the science of anatomy and movement. All this she accomplished by using an economical "language" that compressed worlds of meaning into a series of graceful movements. Had Duncan been restricted to other forms of communication, whatever message she hoped to convey would have been lost.

Children, also, need access to the power of individual expression that the arts afford. Some students may not find academic success without it. Others simply deserve exposure to the arts as a fundamental part of our culture.

Unfortunately, many states base school accreditation on standardized testing scores, so teachers today find it increasingly difficult to find the freedom, time, and resources to integrate the arts into the classroom.

Teachers who value the arts, however, often integrate them with other subjects and teach through the "lens" of the arts, a practice that, according to a recent study conducted by Harvard's Project Zero (REAP: Reviewing Education and the Arts Project), can lead to overall academic improvement. The reasons? The arts allow students to develop self-esteem, to be self-expressive, and to apply their knowledge of other, more academic subjects in creative ways. Because the arts address multiple intelligences, they provide a gateway for certain students to enter academic areas that they may have otherwise found difficult or off-putting. And in schools where the administration takes the arts seriously, the entire curriculum is treated with the same rigor.

The teachers featured here are among many educators who understand that their young students tend to learn--really learn--when more of their whole selves are involved, whether they are singing about the rules of multiplication, designing an Egyptian mask, or dancing to express the meaning of a folktale. These teachers are but a small sample of educators who can attest to the excitement about learning that results when the arts are celebrated in the classroom.

Let It Be

For Chip Joseph, learning about history, culture, and music will always be tied to his love of the Beatles. He remembers vividly his third-grade teacher, Mrs. Harper, who every week took the class down to the auditorium to listen to Beatles music. While sharing the music she loved, she spoke about the science of creating instruments and the intricate patterns of the notes and musical cadences. She also discussed how music throughout time has played an integral part in history and culture; the class learned about baroque music, Eastern chants, and blues, along with the decades they framed.

Now a first-grade teacher at South Anna Elementary School, in Montpelier, Virginia, Joseph applies Mrs. Harper's method of teaching in his own classroom. A day rarely goes by when Joseph does not use his guitar as a teaching tool. "Music resonates for the kids on many levels. Not only does singing serve as a break, but it affects them in that they can be more self-expressive and creative with what they have learned earlier in the day," he says. When the class studied Native Americans and then China in social studies, Joseph and his students wrote lyrics for the "Native American Blues" and the "China Blues." "Writing these songs together enabled the kids to put to use what they had learned in social studies and use language and music as a way to communicate."

Joseph remembers one student who was clearly struggling with multiplication. "She looked up from her book with this frustrated expression on her face and said: 'Mr. Joseph, can't we write a song for this?' She and I made up a song for multiplication right then and there. Through the act of creating a rhythmic song, she was able to personalize the content and understand the rules of multiplication. Later, we taught the song to the rest of the class."

Joseph knows that to incorporate the arts into the classroom often involves giving up some degree of control. But he believes in letting his students jump into the driver's seat. "The arts are an expression of what is real and true. If you don't use the arts to teach, you are separating real life from learning. How is a child able to learn if not through personalizing the content and experiencing it through several senses all at once?"

Robin Hood in Song

Ruth Melendez, a teacher of an elementary multiage class at High Plains Elementary, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, also carries her abiding passion for music into the classroom. In the past few years, she and her students have produced musicals based on Colorado history, complete with elaborate sets and costumes. One year, the children wrote an opera-including the musical score and script-based on the story of Robin Hood. In the process, they studied literary elements such as protagonist, antagonist, foreshadowing, climax, and more; they also absorbed firsthand the structure of an opera. Students on the "set crew" were responsible for drawing the set to scale, which challenged mathematical skills such as measurement and reading from a grid.