Part 1: What is Arts Integration exactly? And what is NOT Arts Integration?
Curriculum Integration has been a buzzword for educators for the past few decades. But what does it actually mean? What does it entail from an individual educator’s perspective? And what are tangible benefits of teaching through an integrated curriculum?
We can start by using a metaphor to define Integration.
If Curriculum Integration was an OBJECT – What would it be?
Our Example: James (007) Bond’s Car
You may be a fan of the James Bond movies, and whether you’re a disciple of Daniel Craig or Sean Connery, you are probably familiar with the Bond Car.
If you’re not, the Bond Car (or many iterations of Bond cars, if you’re being technical about it), is not just a car, but a high tech vehicle equipped with advanced weaponry, anti-pursuit systems and even alternate forms of travel. (See the amphibious car-boat featured in The Spy Who Loved Me.)
We can describe curriculum integration as a James Bond Car because it is not just one subject attached (hitched) to another, but a way of teaching two or more disciplines simultaneously, and in conversation with one another.
So it is the same in Arts Integration: we are talking about a vehicle (or lesson) that is both a car AND a boat, not primarily one or the other. They share an engine that is driving the forward motion of the lesson.
But in American schools the arts are most often not combined into one incredible lesson where the learning in one subject supports the learning in the other. There is no James Bond Car. Instead we have a boat (the arts) being hitched to and pulled by a car (the other academic subject.). If we lack time to properly teach the arts, we just use them to spice up the other subject - or we’ll unhitch them and not not teach them at all. We’ll call this metaphor hitching or enhancement.
There is nothing wrong with Arts Hitching/Enhancement. It can be a wonderful way to enhance a lesson with an additional element of creativity and excitement. Students will be captured into learning the “car” subject but will learn little in the way of concepts or skills in the arts.
Let’s look more specifically at an integrated lesson from our curriculum, and dissect why this is arts integration and NOT hitching.
Our Adverbs in Motion lesson teaches students about parts of speech - specifically adverbs in Language Arts, and about the skill of communicating through imitative action in Drama. Here are the criteria that make it an Arts Integrated lesson, rather than simply an Arts-Hitched lesson.
- Standards and Objectives: The lesson breakdown begins with National Standards from both the Common Core Standards and the National Core Arts Standards. These standards are then followed by lesson objectives for both Language Arts and Drama. Read the standards and objectives clearly and you will see the connecting tissue between the subjects.
- Essential Question: The essential question in this lesson, “Why do writers and actors both care about adverbs?” connects the two subjects immediately.
- Prerequisites: There are prerequisite learning requirements for both subjects that are reviewed at the top of the lesson. For instance, students review the definitions of “noun” and “verb,” as well as reviewing “imagination” and “concentration:” both subjects are built on evolving objectives.
- Discussion: The connection between actors and adverbs is discussed prior to beginning the main activity, so students go into the activity cognizant of the connection between the subjects.
- The Activity: The Adverb Activity asks students to connect ACTION verbs with adverbs, and accurately imitate those ACTIONS in the manner of the assigned adverbs. This learning happens simultaneously in the activity, so students are thinking about ADVERBS as ACTIONS while imitating ACTIONS in drama - they are making connections and drawing important conclusions. They are seeing how subjects are related and not isolated bits of knowledge.
- Reflection and Assessment: There is a discussion of how the concepts (Action Verbs, Adverbs and Imitative Actions) are related to finish out the lesson, and the assessment requirements include elements that assess both mastery of imitative actions in drama and identifying and writing with action verbs and adverbs in language arts.
Some Tips on Teaching Arts Integrated Lessons:
- If you are not an arts teacher, it may be helpful to collaborate with an arts instructor during your planning for the lesson. Vice versa, if you are an arts teacher integrating another subject, asking a colleague to help you, especially with unfamiliar learning standards. Working collaboratively can be advantageous.
- Look for natural connections between subjects, like “action” in our example above. If the connection feels forced to you, it will probably evolve into a hitched lesson, and it will undoubtedly feel forced to the students as well.
Why take the time to integrate if hitching/enhancement works at drawing students into their own learning?
It is crucial to take the time to integrate the arts because it helps students gain a deeper understanding of the material, activates both the creative and the logical parts of their minds, and unearths students’ artistic and academic potential. When the curriculum includes arts integration, we know that students’ academic scores go up, and their competencies in the arts improve.
Furthermore, when students can connect a concept across subjects, they gain ownership over the material, and are more likely to be able to apply what they have learned to other areas. Additionally, when teachers make connections across subjects, it transforms the way they teach, inspiring more innovative lesson plans which in turn foster more excitement about learning.
Asking students to analyze the connections between the arts and other subjects also helps to develop their higher order thinking skills, challenging them to take information apart logically, and put it back together creatively. When we ask students to think both analytically and artistically, we are creating better problem solvers as well as better artists.
Lastly, treating the arts as a core subject allows us to appreciate the contributions of students who may struggle in other disciplines, but come alive in the arts. Integrating the arts helps us to fully engage these students, while showing them that their creativity and individuality is important and worthy of celebration. Arts integration also helps us to uncover the artistry of students who may not have known about their artistic skills before, building their self-confidence, expanding their interests, and forging new passions.