Teaching Through The Arts

The line "Versatile teachers encourage many forms of expression" taken directly from the Massachusetts Learning Standards should lead many of us to examine our teaching practices. Are we, in fact, allowing our students to express themselves in many different ways? By extension, are we using various forms of assessment that tie into the multiple intelligences? Or is it always the same? Quiz. Test. Quiz. Test with an occasional paper thrown in? Are we gearing our assessments just to those students who do well linguistically and mathematical/spatially? What about those students whose intelligences are stronger in other areas? Does it mean they haven't mastered the concepts if they do poorly on a test? Can't they show their mastery in other ways? The answer is yes, and it is our responsibility as educators to use multiple forms of assessment, so we can authentically assess our student's progress.

You bet it is! Don't believe me? Check it out. PreK-12 Standard 10: Interdisciplinary Connections Students will use knowledge of the arts and cultural resources in the study of the arts, English language arts, foreign languages, health, history and social sciences, mathematics, and science and technology/engineering. Learning Standards Students will 10.1 Integrate knowledge of dance, music, theatre, and visual arts and apply the arts to learning other disciplines Examples of this include: • using visual arts skills to illustrate understanding of a story read in English language arts or foreign languages; • memorizing and singing American folk songs to enhance understanding of history and geography; • using short dance sequences to clarify concepts in mathematics. So there it is once again. Integrating the arts across the curriculum being supported by the Massachusetts State Learning Standards/Frameworks. Still don't believe me? Then click on the link and see for yourse...

Back to the Massachusetts Educational Curriculum Frameworks which advocate for making connections across the curriculum. Here's what it says: Making Connections across the Curriculum Teaching an interdisciplinary curriculum involves collaboration among faculty and the community. Teachers and students might explore topics such as: • visual, oral, aural, and kinetic elements of the four arts disciplines; • characteristics common to the process of creating art works in each discipline; • interpretations of a theme or concept, such as harmony or compassion, through each of the four arts disciplines; • the ways in which the content of other disciplines is interrelated with the arts; including languages and literacy, scientific principles, mathematical reasoning, and geographical, cultural, and historical knowledge; and • the ways in which concepts from other core disciplines may be expressed through the arts. While all of these points are important, I want to focus on the point of the ...