Art Integration: Simple and Powerful!

   

Photo by Art Institute of Portland (flickr.com) By Guest Blogger and Teacher, Chrissy Thomas-Kelley Working at an Arts Focused school has changed my thinking and my approach to teaching art. I realized that I was focusing more on “art projects” rather than art lessons. My students were walking away with well put together projects and performing plays but weren’t aware of any elements of visual art or performing standards that were used: line, color, form, space, etc. This is purely because I wasn’t teaching the vocabulary that coincides with each lesson. After this epiphany I decided to broaden my range of thinking and try to integrate as much as I could so learning was more enjoyable and engaging. As an educator I know that there isn’t enough time in the day to include everything into separate subject areas so I was forced to get the most bang for my buck and made a decision to integrate art standards and infuse it into my language arts and math curriculum. Photo by Jenny Downing (flickr.com) So, I started small and focused on things that came to me right away. I could teach syllables by incorporating music rhythm sticks to separate the word into parts. The students not only were learning about syllables but also beat and rhythm which would help with their reading fluency and decoding skills. Reading comprehension skills could be taught as well. For example, Fact and Opinion strategies could be used by critiquing art (opinion) and making statements about the art that are true using their visual arts knowledge (fact). One of my favorites is teaching cause and effect by using the color wheel. You mix red and blue and then there is purple (the effect). I found this to be a great bridge for all learners and after this lesson when it was time to read a story where we identified cause and effect they already had confidence that they could do it. My student’s excitement for art reaches into all areas and even the hardest things for some become reachable and thrilling. I may not be an artist, but I am an art teacher.