Teaching Through The Arts

Drama is a performing art , an outlet for self-expression, and a way of learning.  Drama is an effective learning tool because it involves the student intellectually, physically, socially, and emotionally.  Activities in improvisation, pantomime, play-making, and scene reenactment serve to develop the creative potential in the participants and help to develop critical thinking skills.  In answering the question, "Why teach drama?'", theater director and teaching artist Matt Buchanan has this to say: " Dramatic Arts education is an important means of stimulating creativity in problem solving. It can challenge students' perceptions about their world and about themselves. Dramatic exploration can provide students with an outlet for emotions, thoughts, and dreams that they might not otherwise have means to express. A student can, if only for a few moments, become another, explore a new role, try out and experiment with various personal choices and solutions to very ...

Keith Caldwell, M. Ed. holds a Masters degree in Creative Arts in Learning from Lesley University and a BA in English from Southeastern Massachusetts University. He currently teaches English Language Arts at Barnstable High School in Hyannis, MA and also teaches in the Graduate School for Professional Studies at Northeastern University. Keith has taught literature, writing, poetry, drama, and oral communication for the past 20 years. At Fontbonne Academy in Milton, MA from 1989-1994, Keith was the director of the drama department, directing and producing 15 plays and musicals. Keith's specialty is the dramatic arts; he wrote and developed the curriculum for the Drama and Theatre Arts course which he teaches at Barnstable High. He has recently developed and taught a graduate course for teachers with fellow educator Jeffrey Billard on integrated teaching through the arts. The two have also co-authored a textbook for use in their course. Keith believes that learning through, with...

Keith and I are so happy when we get feedback like that from people who have taken our courses, as we pride ourselves on giving everyone the best experience we possibly can and really want teachers to take what they have learned and put it to use in their classrooms. We are totally invested and passionate about what we do and sincerely hope that you can join us this summer. Here are a few more responses from course participants: We had a super week. Jeff and Keith really guided us through a journey into our creative outlets. I looked forward to coming in every day. They were all-inclusive, knowledgeable and well-prepared. The fact that it was lunchtime before I blinked and wrap-up time before I was ready to call it a day attests to their skills in being organized and providing seamless transitions from one activity to another. My knowledge grew exponentially. Real possibilities that I can use immediately and new ways to ask what kids can do, not what I have decided they should do. An i...

Here are some student reflections after taking our Northeastern University Integrating Drama and Poetry Across the Curriculum course. An immense success for me as a third grade teacher--endless ideas--realistic, valuable for real classrooms and real students. It helped me to remember how and why I went into teaching. The materials, the experiential pieces, and the collaboration empowered me. I realized that poetry is so much more than I knew. I learned how to enhance my ability to empathize with my students. For the first time I felt like someone was really teaching me how to "feel" poetry. I am so excited about building the sense of community with my class using the openers, closers and energizers. This course offered the process I need to get to the creative--the gradual, trust-building process. It provided the validation I needed to continue the great "stuff"! This course has helped me to break out of my shell! This has been the best grad course I have ever taken...

Why teach the arts in our schools? Why is it essential that school systems as well as individual classroom teachers make the arts an integral part of the curriculum for students at all grade levels? In short, an important outcome of education is for students to be aware of, to be enriched by, and to appreciate the shared human experience within the diversity of a multi-cultural world. That is, the desired outcomes of education must go beyond simple recall and identification. Rather, students must be trained to be independent, critical thinkers and problem solvers who can tap their creative and imaginative potential. Such outcomes cannot be realized if the arts modalities are not used in teaching. After all, the visual and performing arts, music, and literature teach us most profoundly about the human condition. Using the arts to teach children of all ages makes sense because the arts appeal to the multiple intelligences, the arts are a universal tool for communicating, the arts encoura...