I recently found this article on Social Studies using Arts Integration for teaching. It has some great insight into the importance of Arts integration and meaningful ways in which you can use different tactics to create memorable lesson plans. From the article: “One of the ten major themes in the social studies standards is culture.2 Societies around the world express culture—their identity—through the arts with dance, music, drama, and visual products. Making art is a way to express cultural norms and perspectives.” (socialstudies.org)
I thought that was a great statement and truth from the article. I can see how using the arts would certainly help me to teach students as well as make the content meaningful. I know some students dread social studies, but this is a way in which we can create more interest in the subject. Here is another quote: “By integrating the arts with social studies, students also tap into other forms of intelligence, such as visual-spatial, musical, kinesthetic, and interpersonal.” (socialstudies.org) So we can see how integrating Fine Arts also helps in the development of students brain function and psychology. It is important for teachers not only to teach content from an academic standpoint, but also to help in the development of the whole student. Our job is to help them to develop their knowledge but also the ability to function in society and be wonderful people in their communities. Building well rounded students is very important to me personally.
This article also gave some great ideas to help a teacher or future teacher to plan for integration in their curriculum. The very first thing to consider would be picking a State Standard followed by a Fine Arts standard. Then picking grade/age/learning ability appropriate vocabulary and content to use. And of course some type of performance based assessment to see if the students are absorbing the content. There are really many directions and ideas to base whole Unit plans on using this method of integration. The article went on to give a very detailed illustration that was very helpful in how to start from scratch and create a very detailed and interesting social studies lesson. The last quote that really captured my attention is one all teachers should listen to: “Instead of a disconnected list of dates, names, events, and timelines, coequally using the arts in instruction provides students with a real context in which to apply social studies content.” The arts are a great way for educators and communities to collaborate and integrate community into the classroom and school system.
Using the NCPTS: Standard 4: Teachers Facilitate Learning
for Their Students. This connects to the integration method because it allows teachers to use different mediums of Arts to engage student learning. I have learned a lot from EDU 311 (Fine Arts) class about how using the Arts to help teach content not only helps students be creative, but also it helps in the overall child's development from fine motor skills, to cognitive development. This could also connect to Standard 3: Teachers Know the Content They Teach. In order to create an integrated lesson, you have to know how you can relate it to the standards but also how the students will understand the concept you are trying to tackle. It is not about memorizing as much as it is absorbing and retaining the content.
This is something I plan on using in all of my subjects. I have a love for the Fine Arts, especially music. Hopefully, the school system I work for will allow for Fine Arts to be a major part of what and how I teach. I think that with so many different types of learners in the world, it is important to use every advantage possible to encourage and foster both physical and mental development. I would like to use collage, digital presentations, bring in musicians to demonstrate time period and cultural styles of music and possibly bring in different artists from other countries and regions to demonstrate. I like the idea of using creative writing as well, which was a topic in this article as well. The teacher played an instrumental orchestra piece for the students as they had snack time. Then they developed a story or fictional character. As they listened to the piece, they paid attention to the lulls, the tempo, the excitement, key of the song to help develop the story: (if the tempo was fast, the character could be angry or frantic, maybe they were running away or something. If the song was slow or quiet, maybe the character was sleeping or sad. etc.....) These are some of the things I would like to possibly implement into my classroom.
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