What do Mars and modern dance have to do with each other? How do you connect fractions with Andy Warhol? At
Wiley H. Bates Middle School,
in Annapolis, Maryland, the answer is arts integration. Every teacher
there is committed to weaving the arts and standard curricula together
to create a richer and more lasting learning experience for their
students.
Arts integration goes beyond including art projects in class; it is a
teaching strategy that seamlessly merges arts standards with core
curricula to build connections and provide engaging context. For
example, in a science classroom you might see students choreographing
a
dance using locomotor and nonlocomotor movements to demonstrate their
understanding of rotation versus revolution of the planets (PDF). In a math class, you might see students learning fractions by examining composition in Warhol's Campbell's soup paintings.
(See more arts-integrated lesson plans from Bates.)
What we also saw in these classrooms were students who were
enthusiastically participating in the learning process, and having fun.
It's not revelatory to say that the arts can engage kids. But that that
engagement can also be leveraged to
boost academic growth and improve discipline
seems like a secret that really needs to be revealed. When you see how
the kids embrace these lessons, hear them tell how art helps them
remember concepts better, and learn about the improvements teachers have
noted in student understanding and retention, it makes you wonder why
more schools aren't integrating the arts in every class.
A Whole-School Reform
Bates decided to become a fully arts-integrated school in 2007 as the
primary initiative in a whole-school reform effort. Other initiatives
in their
school improvement plan (PDF) included
Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), an operational framework for implementing practices and interventions to improve academic and behavioral outcomes, and
Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID),
a college readiness system with research-based methods for elementary
through postsecondary students. Their principal at the time, Diane
Bragdon, had brought the school back from the brink of failure and now
was ready to aim its trajectory squarely toward greater success. Bragdon
got the support of Anne Arundel County Public Schools Superintendent
Kevin Maxwell, long a proponent of schools of choice, who knew well the
impact arts integration had had in other Maryland schools. The district
applied for a four-year grant called Supporting Arts Integrated Learning
for Student Success (SAILSS) from the U.S. Department of Education and
was one of 15 districts and schools to receive it.
Since they started implementing arts integration schoolwide in 2009,
Bates has seen a 23 percent drop in the average number of referrals and
suspensions per student. The school’s percentage of students proficient
or advanced in math has grown four times more than the state's over the
same period, and five times more in reading. Not all lessons are taught
with arts integration, but Bates takes pains to diligently track those
that have been in
a regular log (PDF), and they report substantial improvements in student comprehension and retention.
Why Does Arts Integration Work?
Why does it work? Arts integration uses
teaching practices that have been shown in brain-based research to improve comprehension and long-term retention.
For example, when students create stories, pictures, or other nonverbal
expressions of the content they are learning -- a process researchers
call elaboration -- they are also helping to better embed the
information. In one eighth-grade math class, students prepared for a
test on linear equations by creating photo stories of the steps
involved. This required that teacher Laura Casciato spend nearly a full
class period teaching about
basic principles of design (PDF).
She explained the trade-off: "It was an easy decision to spend time on
the art because we know that they retain that information better.
They're going to look at that test and say, 'Oh yeah, I remember that
information from my photo.'"
As with any new initiative, there are a number of factors that must
be in place for it to succeed. With arts integration, high-quality
professional development is essential. Teachers don't need to be
"artistic" to be able to use arts integration; they just need to learn
some of the fundamentals so they will be better able to think of ways to
merge art concepts with other content. For example, knowing the basic
elements of design, such as emphasis, balance, contrast, and repetition,
enabled Casciato to teach her students how to create more informative
photo compositions to illustrate each step in solving a linear equation (PDF).
(Read tips for administrators and teachers for getting started with arts integration.)
Bates used the bulk of their grant money for professional
development, which they started in the 2007-08 school year. They have PD
Thursdays every other week, and at least one per month is on arts
integration. Last year (2011-12) was the final year of their grant
funding. Teachers report they are now well versed in arts standards and
know how to create
arts-integrated lessons. Many now train their colleagues and new teachers entering the school.
Beyond engagement and retention, adults and students at Bates cite
numerous other benefits of arts integration:
It encourages healthy risk taking, helps kids recognize new skills in
themselves and others, provides a way to differentiate instruction,
builds collaboration among both students and teachers, bridges
differences, and draws in parents and the community. Plus it's just
plain fun.
Lastly, there's equity. If we agree that the arts can provide all
kinds of benefits for kids, from intellectual to creative to
social-emotional, then shouldn't all kids have the opportunity to learn
about and experience them? But far too few schools have either the
funding or the bureaucratic support to make this a priority, a lack
often born out of fear of sacrificing academic achievement. What Bates
and many other arts-integrated schools across the country are showing is
that by creating a richer, more memorable learning experience through
the arts, they unleash not only a rising tide of academic achievement
but they lay the foundation for what it means to be a truly creative
community.
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