the various ways my students make sense of their...

The various ways my

students make sense of their

worlds both in and out of

school has always fascinated

Makingme, but I owe a special

debt of gratitude to Natalie,

whose incessant doodling

ultimately drove me to

explore the contribution

of art to regular classroom

curriculum. While I initially

considered her drawings a

distraction, I soon realized

that they helped her relate to

what we were investigating

laning'Many Ways:

An Exploratory Lookat Integrating the ArtsA with Classroom

Curriculum

in class. Through her

pictures, Natalie showed

me that art was her

pathway to learning.

No Child Left Behind has forced manyAmerican schools to become language-driven and text-oriented, but my

experience with Natalie and others like her ledme to suspect that students would benefit fromopportunities to transform their knowledgefrom words into other expressive media. Deasy(2003) highlights dozens of studies suggestingthe cognitive value of the arts in helpingchildren develop language and literacy skills. Infact, the National Council of Teachers of EnglishElementary Section Steering Committee (1996)states:

We define the language arts broadly toinclude all of the various ways that learnersmake and share meaning ... (including) art,music, drama, mathematics, and movementas well as the traditional four of language-reading, writing, speaking and listening (pp.11-12).

That being the case, it seems imperative toexplore all avenues for teaching and learningthat may have an impact on literacy, includingthe arts, in order to truly educate our children.

The Purpose of the StudyThis study explored the ways in which music,

drama, art, and movement were integratedwith classroom content at a public arts-magnetschool. While some research exists that corre-lates the arts with higher test scores, Deasy(2003) suggests a need for arts research to"define with greater depth, richness, and speci-ficity the nature of the arts learning experienceitself" (p. iii). With that in mind, I posed thefollowing questions:

1. What do arts-integrated lessons look likeand sound like?

2. How is meaning-making supportedand/or constrained through integrated artsactivities?

My intention was to respond to Deasy's call forstudies "that probe the complexity of the artslearning experience and also takes into accountthe contexts in which learning occurs" (Deasy,2003, IV).

JULY 2007 / ART EDUCATION 33

Art as a Sign System/LanguageMeaning is created, represented, and inter-

preted through the use of different semiotic,or sign, systems, which learners naturallyemploy as they make sense of the world.These systems may "overlap, co-occur, andwork against" (Albers, 2001, p. 4) each othersince each sign system focuses on certainaspects of the world while neglecting others.This is true even of language, which has longbeen considered synonymous with literacy.

To privilege language over other waysof knowing and communicating not onlymarginalizes many students, it also fails toexpand the abilities of those whose cognitivebias is language (Hubbard, 1989). "When welimit ourselves to language, we cut ourselvesoff from other ways of knowing," (Berghoff,Egawa, Harste, & Hoonan, 2000, p. 4). Arthas the potential to enhance the making ofmeaning, which is the rationale behind thearts integration lessons I examined.

Art as a Socio-Cultural EventVygotsky (1978) argued that learning

occurs within the Zone of ProximalDevelopment, the place in which students areon the verge of independence, participatingin "activities slightly beyond their compe-tence with the assistance of adults or moreskilled children (Rogoff, 1990, p. 14). Lindfors(1999) suggests that "this zone combinessupport and nudge: going beyond (the nudge)with help (the support)" (p. 204). The artsprovide learners with supportive segues intothe unfamiliar or difficult, while simultane-ously nudging them to explore content fromentirely new perspectives.

Meaning is created, represented,and interpreted through the use

of different semiotic, or sign, systems,

which learners naturally employ as they

make sense of the world.

Looking CloselyThe Arts Academy is an urban, K-5 magnet

school located in the southeastern UnitedStates. It is a Title I school whose studentpopulation consists of approximately 450children from diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. According to theprincipal, "the arts (act) as a catalyst toimprove our students' achievement, confi-dence, and communication skills" (personalcommunication, February 19, 2004). Itemploys full-time art, music, PE/movement,and drama teachers who not only teachtheir own disciplines, but also design andteach arts integration lessons. In addition, anartist-in-residence program brings musicians,artists, dancers, and theater groups to theschool throughout the year.

According to the visual arts instructor,the goal of arts integration is "to have thelearning be better ... to help kids learn thingsthat are difficult for them" (personal commu-nication, January 23, 2004). These lessons aredesigned to accomplish one of three things:(1) to introduce and create enthusiasm for anew unit of study; (2) to reinforce conceptsalready learned; or (3) to enrich content andadd another layer of meaning. Classroomteachers used a planning sheet for each artarea to indicate the standards to be addressed.Art teachers then used these plans to developlessons via their particular discipline, and theintegration was team-taught and evaluatedwith the help of the classroom teacher.

Over a 4-week period, I observed third,fourth, and fifth grade students as theyengaged in arts integrations. I talked withthem about their work, listened to theirconversations, and watched the decisionsthey made in an attempt to discover howcombining the arts with classroom contentmight support or constrain learning.Interviews were conducted with the principaland all four arts teachers to gather informa-tion about the school's history, and to gaintheir perspectives on the arts' impact onstudent learning. I then examined field notes,student artifacts, and interview transcriptsfor evidence of the impact of arts integrationson learning. By reviewing and comparingdata from several sources, I discovered thatsome consistencies existed across integra-tions, regardless of which arts and classroomdisciplines were involved.

34 ART EDUCATION / JULY 2007

Student work from science lesson on light.

What Integrations Looked Likeand Sounded Like

An undercurrent of excited whis-pering circulates in the darkened roomas students wait for the lesson to begin.They are studying the properties of light,and this lesson will introduce them tothe concepts of transparent, translucent,and opaque materials through the workof photorealist painter, Janet Fish. Whenthe projector lights up, students eruptwith a chorus of oo's" and "aah's" as acolorful still life, entitled Raspberries andGoldfish, appears. A bowl of raspberriesis flanked by vases of orange and yellownasturtiums, with a stack of glass platesin the foreground. A round goldfish bowlrests on a turquoise plate beside an openwindow draped with sheer curtains."What do you see in this picture?" theteacher asks. "It looks like it's moving!"

"Beautimous!" The teacher points outways in which the artist representstransparent, translucent, and opaquematerials in her work, assessing students'understanding by having them referenceexamples of each in the painting. She thenexplains their assignment. Using trans-parent, translucent, and opaque mate-rials, students are to create an aquariumscene, then label each kind of materialappropriately. Tubs of brightly coloredtissue and origami paper are provided.Students stand, sit, and move around theroom to work and get the materials theyneed. Everyone is engaged and workingat his or her own pace. Some studentslabor over the aquarium outline, whileothers transform bits of colored paper intoseaweed, turtles, and fish (see above). Theatmosphere is relaxed and punctuatedwith snippets of conversation about theartwork. "Is this good?" "Is this too low for

the fish bowl?" "Look at the pretty colors!""You could add an eye or scales to your

fish." The teachers wander around theroom offering assistance and encourage-ment, and when a student complains, "Imessed up on my fish," a classmate handshim the tub of materials so he can beginagain.

When the lesson is over, the studentsrespond with a loud and disappointed"Awww!" Their teacher reassures themthat "If you don't finish today, we'llfinishtomorrow," and asks to keep the materialsfor her next class.

JULY 2007 / ART EDUCATION 35

op•aqueSM

What we typically 'shush'(voices) or ask to keep still(hands and bodies) become

tools for learning in an

arts integration lesson.

,., This vignette highlights the qualities thatmade arts integrations engaging learningexperiences.

1. Integrations allowed students touse their hands, bodies, and voices inmeaningful ways.

What we typically 'shush' (voices) or ask tokeep still (hands and bodies) become tools forlearning in an arts integration lesson. As thefourth graders created their works of art, theywere permitted to stand, sit, or move aroundthe room as needed. This sense of freedomand responsibility for their own learninghelped sustain their attention and encouragedperseverance with the task.

2. Making art allowed choices abouthow to interact with content.

Expressing their understanding of conceptsthrough art led students to become moreattentive to detail, more deliberate in theirchoices, and more thoughtful about what theyconsidered essential, underscoring the powerof art as an intellectual exercise. Studentsnot only had to think about what items theywanted in their aquarium scenes, they had toinclude a variety of transparent, translucent,and opaque materials and decide how best touse them.

3. Integrations were social events.After the lesson was introduced and

instructions were given, teacher talk ceasedto dominate or control the conversations inthe room. Students were free to visit with oneanother as long as they were working. Theyborrowed materials and ideas freely fromeach other, but this social aspect of the inte-gration did not appear to divert anyone fromthe purpose of the lesson.

These three qualities were apparent inall the integrations I observed. What madesome of them superior to others, however,had to do with the way the arts and class-room content complemented each other. Forexample, one fifth-grade teacher requesteda PE integration introducing ecosystems. Asthe class filed into the gym, the PE teacherdistributed six popsicle sticks and the nameof an animal living in the Everglades to eachchild. They stood in a circle as the teacherread a series of scenarios that could affect theanimal's ability to survive. If they believedthe event described would be harmful totheir animal, they placed a stick on the floor.When all six sticks were gone, students satdown and were out of the game. While this

activity generated discussion about the effectsof human activity on ecosystems, there waslittle actual movement involved. The teachersagreed that in this case, the integration wasweak because PE and science content seemedto work against each other, rather than over-lapping or co-occurring (Albers, 2000).

Implications for LearningThis study yields evidence that integrating

the arts with classroom content consistentlysupports all kinds of learners. The onlyconstraints reported by teachers appeared tobe primarily time-related.

Supportive Elements of ArtIntegrations

The current fifth-graders at The ArtsAcademy, who have studied the arts sincekindergarten, were asked to reflect upon theirexperiences with music, drama, movement/dance, and art. Their responses below helpframe what I believe to be the essentialsupportive elements of learning about, with,and through the arts (Goldberg, 1997).

1) Arts integrations allowed for multipleperspectives: "I learned it is fun to be insomeone else's shoes for a while" (personalcommunications, March 5, 2004). Learningcontent through the arts was an inclusiveexperience in these classrooms. No matterwhat their cognitive bias (Hubbard, 1989) orlearning styles/preferences might be, the artspermitted students to interpret content inways that were meaningful to them. Duringan integration of art and social studies toreview important historical figures, studentswere urged to draw what would help themremember as they sketched. The focus wasnot so much on making good art, but oncreating meaningful symbols for remem-bering information. Drawing requiredstudents to express their understanding of thefacts they had learned in personalized ways.

2) Arts integrations helped create a safeatmosphere for taking risks: "You don't haveto make your drawing look real.., it's greatas long as you like it" (personal communica-tion, March 5, 2004). When asked how hesaw the arts as helping children, the principalobserved, "It is the only opportunity forsome of those children to attach meaningto what we're doing ... Because they're notunderstanding the language ... it's hard forthem to read a fifth grade content book, theirreading level may not be fifth grade content,but they see it, they do it, they act it out, it's

36 ART EDUCATION / JULY 2007

fun, it's engaging, they remember it. They'reable to attach meaning to that and build ontheir experiences" (personal communication,February 19, 2004). During a music/scienceintegration on the water cycle, fourth graderscreated new lyrics to a familiar jingle. Oneof the most enthusiastic contributors to thesong was a student who attended resourceclasses. Music helped reduce the risk heassociated with written language and allowedhim to contribute in ways that embraced hisstrengths instead of revealing his weaknesses.

3) Arts integrations demonstrated thatlearning can be a pleasurable experience:"The best thing about the arts is it is creativeand fun and that's what keeps me going andstaying on track" (personal communica-tion, March 5, 2004). One of the reasons Ibelieve the arts are perceived as "fun" is thatthey encourage students to explore thingsin school just the way they would outside ofschool-with hands, bodies, and voices. Onekindergartener new to the school learned thisduring a drama lesson on expressing feelings.Overwhelmed at first by the movement andnoise of his classmates, and thinking this kindof behavior would get him in trouble, he heldback. When the teacher encouraged him toparticipate and he understood that it was allright to laugh out loud or to growl in anger,he remarked, "I'd better take off my glasses ...so they'll be safe!"

4) The arts and regular classroom curric-ulum naturally complement each other:"The arts can help people for other classes,such as math and science" (personal commu-nication, March 5, 2004). The degree to whichthe arts teachers wove other subject areas intotheir instruction was substantial. In a second-grade music lesson, musical composition wasconnected with writing. The activity involvedcreating a short melody using three specificpitches, so the music teacher demonstratedby making up her own tune and playing itfor the class. Deciding she didn't like the wayit sounded, she changed a couple of notes,then played it again. She pointed out that ascomposers, the students could revise theirmusical pieces, just as they did as writers.

Constraints of Arts IntegrationsAlthough my time at the school was

brief, I saw no evidence that art integrationsactually constrained the making of meaningfor learners. According to both the arts andregular classroom teachers, the main problemwas time. In order to prepare high quality

integrations, the arts teachers not only had toknow their own discipline-specific stan-dards, but the K-5 standards as well. Therewas also the matter of deciding how the twodisciplines would best complement eachother within the integration. As the visualarts teacher noted, "It takes so much time toplan a good integration:' (personal commu-nication, March 5, 2004) and her colleaguesconcurred. Not only are the arts teachersresponsible for writing grants that subsidizethe arts magnet program and keeping trackof the spending, they must also find, hire, andpay the artists-in-residence, run after-schoolarts clubs, arrange the integration schedules,and rehearse performances. The arts teachersagreed that time was their only constraintwith regard to preparing and teaching artsintegration lessons.

ConclusionThis study explored the value of weaving

the visual and performance arts throughoutregular classroom curriculum, and it demon-strates that experiences with the arts are notmerely embellishments to the elementarycurriculum. Based on my own classroomexperience and growing understanding ofmultiple ways of knowing, I am convincedthat weaving the arts throughout the regularclassroom curriculum supports learning inseveral ways.

First of all, when the arts become a vehiclefor learning classroom content, the wholechild is involved. Children are immersedintellectually, emotionally, physically, andtherefore rigorously, in the learning experi-ence. This transaction of external factors withthe internal conditions of the learner createswhat Dewey (1938) referred to as an educa-tive experience, one that stimulates learningin the present and cultivates a positivemindset for learning in the future.

Next, the arts require children to assumegreater responsibility for their own learning.When challenged to demonstrate theirlearning dramatically, visually, or musically,students must make important decisionsabout what is essential and what is not. Theymust make thoughtful, deliberate choicesabout how to best represent and communi-cate what they know.

Finally, arts integrations are inclusive expe-riences that invite all students to participatein the learning process. Students who struggleacademically experience success when

When challenged to

demonstrate theirlearning dramatically,

visually, or musically,

students must make

important decisions about

what is essential

and what is not.

JULY 2007 / ART EDUCATION 37

Meaningful change in

education will only come

about through close

examination andthoughtful reflection ofcurrent classroom practices

that are dominated by

written language. If

public education is truly

committed to having no

child left behind, it would

do well to consider bringing

the arts along, too.

given the opportunity to demonstrate theirlearning using multiple sign systems, whilethose who are competent with languageexpand their repertoire of communicationthrough the challenge of transformingtheir knowledge from words into pictures,gestures, or sounds. Blending the arts withclassroom curriculum helps create Zones ofProximal Development (Vygotsky, 1978), inwhich taking risks in learning is encouragedand supported via social interaction.

Unfortunately, No Child Left Behindrequires schools to define curriculum interms of language, thereby restricting thekinds of opportunities students have toencounter other forms of communication.The focus has shifted from teaching childrento teaching curriculum, marginalizing manystudents in our nation's increasingly diverseschool population. This study reveals thepossibility of supporting every child whenthe arts work in concert with classroomcontent to enhance the creation and expres-sion of meaning. Although language is oftenconsidered synonymous with literacy, wemust remember that "other sign systems dothings that language does not do, or else theywould cease to exist" (Berghoff, et al., 2000,p. 14). Meaningful change in education willonly come about through close examina-tion and thoughtful reflection of currentclassroom practices that are dominated bywritten language. If public education is trulycommitted to having no child left behind, itwould do well to consider bringing the artsalong, too.

REFERENCESAlbers, P. (2001, April). Literacy in the arts.

Primary Voices, 9(4), p. 3-9.Berghoff, B., Egawa, K., Harste, J., & Hoonan, B.

(2000). Beyond reading and writing:Inquiry, curriculum, and multiple ways ofknowing. Urbana, IL: National Council ofTeachers of English.

Deasy, R. (Ed.). (2003). Critical links: Learningin the arts and student academic and socialdevelopment. Washington, DC: Arts EducationPartnership.

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. NewYork: Simon and Schuster.

Goldberg, M. (1997). Arts and learning. WhitePlains, NY: Longman.

Hubbard, R. (1989). Authors of pictures,draughtsmen of words. Portsmouth, NH:Heinemann.

Lindfors, J. (1999). Children's inquiry: Usinglanguage to make sense of the world. New York:Teachers College Press.

National Council of Teachers of EnglishElementary Section Steering Committee(1996). Exploring language arts standardswithin a cycle of learning. Language Arts,72 (l), pp. 10-13.

Rogoff, B. (1990). Apprenticeship in thinking:Cognitive development in social context.Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Short, K., Harste, J., & Burke, C. (1996). Creatingclassrooms for authors and inquirers.Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society. (M. Cole,V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman,Eds.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard UniversityPress.

P Lynch earned her Ph.D. at theU y of South Carolina in 2005. Shec y teaches fifth grade science andsocial studies in Hendersonville, NorthCarolina. E-mail: pllynch@yahoo.com.

38 ART EDUCATION / JULY 2007

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TITLE: Making Meaning Many Ways: An Exploratory Look atIntegrating the Arts with Classroom Curriculum

SOURCE: Art Educ 60 no4 Jl 2007

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