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https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity/transcript?language=en

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Transcript of "Do schools kill creativity?"

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TED Talk Subtitles and Transcript: Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

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Arts Integration Teaching Resources | Teachers Pay Teachers

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Browse arts integration resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, a marketplace trusted by millions of teachers for original educational resources.

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Useful resources/ideas on how you can integrate the arts into the classroom.

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by Susan Verner 50,169 views

Most teachers are creative people. We have to plan for multiple classes each day keeping our methods and activities fresh and interesting for both our students and ourselves.

Not many, though, would consider themselves creative enough to be art teachers. Art can be an intimidating subject full of specialized knowledge and techniques where the only approval a person receives is purely subjective. Do not let this stop you from bringing art into your ESL classroom. There are plenty of ways to use art as a vehicle to teach English to your students and have fun in the process.

How to Bring Some Art Into Your ESL Classroom

1. With Elementary School Students
Young children may be the easiest to teach through art. Children love to play with color and mediums (paint, crayon, chalk, clay, etc.) and are not inhibited in their creativity. They may become so involved in the art project they are doing that they do not even know they are learning English at the same time. One easy project you can do will review color words and shapes. Give each student a piece of graph paper, the bigger the squares the better. Have them draw an amorphous shape in the center of the page. Then instruct them to color each of the inside squares with hot colors (red, yellow, and orange) and each of the outside squares with cold colors (green, blue, and purple). Squares that are split by the shape the child drew should be colored with both. Tell your students that they do not have to follow a pattern when coloring their boxes but they can if they would like to. Use their work time to review shapes by discussing each student's picture with him or her. By the end of the class, your students will have had a fun time coloring and not even realized they were learning in the process.

2. With Middle School Students
Middle school students will still have creativity to share, but they may not be as eager to do it with their peers. You can overcome this by showing your class some pieces by other artists. Take the opportunity to introduce new vocabulary as you describe the pictures to your class and then ask them to describe the same piece to one another. You can play an easy conversation game with your students with famous pieces of art. Take ten paintings and display them at the front of your class. Then pair students having one student describe one of the paintings. The second student must then determine which painting his partner is describing. Then switch roles. For each correct guess, award one hundred points to the pair. The pair with the most points at the end wins. Then assign a piece of writing to your students. Ask them to describe their favorite piece from class and say why they liked it. They can also compare it to some of the other pieces if you want them to write a longer piece.

3. With High School Students
With older students comes thinking and analysis that is more complex and an ability to connect emotionally with what they see. Review some well-known pieces of art with your students. You can introduce them as you would with middle school students, and even play the same game, but take the discussion a step further and introduce vocabulary that describes emotion. All of your students start learning emotions words with simple emotions like angry, happy, scared, and excited, but use art as a means to introduce even more complex emotion words. What does it mean to be melancholy? Lonely? Crestfallen? Apprehensive? Choose art pieces that allow you to discuss these specific emotions with your students. Ask them how the pieces make them feel. Then ask why. Students will be challenged to use specific emotion vocabulary and connect it with what they see. Show how Edward Hopper depicts loneliness through his pieces. Edvard Munch depicts panic in his painting The Scream. Embrace the serenity that comes from Claude Monet. Feel sentimental from the love expressed by Mary Cassatt in her mother and child pieces. You can use any piece or art you wish, and the emotions that one person may feel from a piece may be different than what another feels. Encourage your student to express their individuality and make personal connections with the art. This activity challenges your students to communicate a new depth of their emotions with new vocabulary and classic art in perfect harmony.

4. With Adult Students
Adult students may be comfortable with either of the two previous activities, but for those who may be uncomfortable getting emotional about art, take a historical approach. Many resources both in print and online give helpful information about art history. History may be a more comfortable approach for many adults who have been estranged from their creativity for many years. Ask a guest to come into class to present art history to your students, or have the students themselves do some research on artists, particularly those who may have come from their home countries. Then have your students present the information they learned to the class. Before their presentations, spend some time reviewing historical vocabulary explaining words like era, century, and movement. Encourage your students to talk about that artist's historical context. Everyone is sure to learn about art, but they will also learn about familiar historical events in new language and vocabulary.

These are just a few of the activities you can do with art in the ESL classroom. If you want to have the greatest impact on your students, try to remember any art lessons you had as a child, teenager and adult, and share with them the same activities that impacted you.

If you did not have art, use any or all of the activities mentioned here. In either case, your English class will be memorable to your students because it opened doors to art in a new way and they still learned the English language in the process.

P.S. If you enjoyed this article, please help spread it by clicking one of those sharing buttons below. And if you are interested in more, you should follow our Facebook page where we share more about creative, non-boring ways to teach English.

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Art is a valuable tool for students to learn how to express themselves, work through a process, work cooperatively, and gain respect and understanding for others. How can we teach the arts in all subject areas so that students benefit from the learning opportunities that art affords them? For more ways art instruction benefits students, read "Ten reasons why teaching the arts is critical in a 21st century world" by Elliott Seif.

Below are examples of the arts blended with other curriculum areas, helping students to draw out a deeper understanding and appreciation for both familiar and unfamiliar concepts.
Science
See art as a tool to make meaning of our relationship with the natural world in Art Through Time, program 10, "The Natural World."

Seventh graders combine science, dance, and language arts as they compare the anatomy of a frog and a human and then debate whether a frog can join a ballet company. Connecting With the Arts Library, program 11, "Can Frogs Dance?" has the video and student materials.
Mathematics
Mathematicians understand symmetry differently than the rest of us, as a fundamental aspect of group theory. Learn more in Mathematics Illuminated, unit 6, "The Beauty of Symmetry," which includes a symmetry interactive. Students can manipulate a wallpaper design to practice common geometric motions such as rotation and reflection.
Language Arts
Students explore Greek myths using puppets in Connecting With the Arts Library, program 2, "Breathing Life into Myths."

Artifacts & Fiction, session 1, "Visual Arts," shows how visual art, paired with literature, can be used to enhance students' understanding of the predominant culture and historical setting of a work of literature.
World Languages
Latin students learn the difference between translating and interpreting the language using music and literary works of Mozart, Vergil, and Cicero. See Teaching Foreign Languages K-12, program 24, "Music and Manuscripts."

In Teaching Foreign Languages, program 29, "Interpreting Literature," students discuss "Dos caras" (Two faces) by New Mexico author Sabine Ulibarri. They act out scenes and make comparisons to a painting by a local artist.

In program 27, "Interpreting Picasso's Guernica," students write and deliver radio newscasts interpreting the scene in the famous painting.
Social Studies/History
Fifth graders in The Arts in Every Classroom, program 6, "Teaching Visual Art," view portraits, looking beyond the face for historical cues. They continue the lesson by creating new portraits that reveal clues to the lives of their subjects through clothing, expressions, and background.

Use the Focus In tool with middle and high school students to analyze photographs curated by topics such as "Protest and Politics" and "Economies and Empires" in Essential Lens: Analyzing Photographs Across the Curriculum. Also, hear a photo editor at National Geographic and a professional photographer discuss their work in the video " Story."
Music and Art
Start a music program at your school based on the El Sistema program or borrow ideas from the programs presented in our new series The Power of Music: P-5 Teaching Inspired by El Sistema. The El Sistema philosophy presents music making as a collaborative process-one that teaches individual self-confidence, creates caring citizens, and builds cohesive communities. The program includes ideas for teachers of all subjects, not just music.

Watch art, dance, and theater teachers use scaffolding as they help students gain knowledge and fundamental skills while fostering creativity and active self-directed learning in T he Art of Teaching the Arts, workshop 2, " Developing Students as Artists."
Additional Resources:
To learn more about why arts education is important and how to connect the arts with big ideas in other subject areas, view Connecting With the Arts, program 2, "Why Integrate the Arts?" and program 5, "What Are Connecting Concepts?"

These ideas just scratch the surface of all they ways arts instruction can be incorporated in other curriculum areas. Please feel free to share more ideas in the comments.

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As children, young children, everything meant playing and art. We saw the world as a playground and a canvass. It didn't matter whether or not we could actually draw. What mattered was the thrill of creating something beautiful.

We were all artists. We still are.

So reminding students that inspiration matters, that art lives and breathes inside every segment of education also means tweaking your lessons a bit. Switching your perspective to what's really important at the core of any lesson may mean the difference between losing your students' attention and actually getting your point across.

Albert Einstein wrote: The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. So the unknown, the mysterious, is where art and science meet.

Keeping his words in mind, educators everywhere are beginning to work art into education. Because we live in the 21 st century, we have all the tools right at our fingertips, quite literally. The Internet hosts site after site devoted to integrating art into education. Right here, you'll find some of the best websites and some interesting ideas that are easily altered to fit various lessons. Explore 50 ways to add artistic elements to the simplest and most complex lessons.

Math
1. Lego Engineers
Besides LegoLand embodying a living, breathing demonstration of how Legos inspire children, Lego is making a fortune off the coolest kits around. Lego building requires everything from patience to vision. To achieve that vision, the builder needs good strategy. Strategy relies on mathematical skills. Everything from basic addition and subtraction to engineering skills blossoms when Lego's pop into the picture. So, have students use Legos to demonstrate mathematical skills at each and every level. From robotics to engineering, Legos inspire learners. Visit www.legoeducation.us for more information.
2. Marshmallow Math
Stack them. Create shapes with them. Add, subtract, multiply and divide them.

Then eat them. If you take a bag of marshmallows and you tell a child, "I'll let you eat these if you get all the answers correct," then you let the child use the marshmallows to find the answer, that child will get all the answers correct.

That's the art of teaching math. I used to think that the older kids got, the less they cared about silly rewards like those marshmallows, but I was so wrong. They care even more. Life becomes a series of "pointless" classwork and homework assignments with quizzes and tests to follow if teachers don't force fun.
3. Design Parks
Mathematicians, whether they're engineers or architects or otherwise, know the importance of technology so teachers need to utilize it when helping students understand the value of every lesson. At mathbydesign.thinkport.org you can find interactive games where students can design a park in the center of town.
4. I Hart Math Doodles
Take note of a girl and a math mission. She blows the concept that math means repetition and rudimentary mechanics right out of the water. Her site provides plenty of innovative "techniques" for seeing math in a different light. In one very amusing video, she shows how the typical factoring lesson turns into doodling stars, which she turns into a lesson on factoring itself. Check her doodles out at vihart.com
5. Khan Academy
If doodling isn't quite enough, try the Khan Academy for more of Vi Hart and the basics as well as anything else your heart desires. Math, Science, Economics, Humanities, and even test prep fill the website. It's different because it doesn't condescend. It doesn't condescend because the site and it's master creator, Sal Khan, offer visuals on how to understand the basics of math and other educational subjects without the assumption that it's impossible to communicate. Start with the link on how to use it in the classroom. It will make all the difference. www.khanacademy.com
6. MArTH Tools
At Math Munch, they've even conjured up a witty name for their merging of art and math called MArTH Tools. Teachers can find resources for inspiration, but more importantly, there are links to interactive tools that teach difficult concepts as well as practical skills. mathmunch.wordpress.com
7. Colors Multiplied
Multiplication can be taught with simple yet beautiful colors and shapes. Check out some beautiful images at mathlesstraveled.com. Even teach prime numbers using some manipulation.
8. Math Journals
Teachers can vary assignments and difficulty levels by creating a math journal, which is ultimately a math adventure in the same vein as Indiana Jones. It gives importance and application to www.mathsquad.com
9. Bridges
Basic word problems require students to draw or write out how they came to their conclusion. So why shouldn't more complicated math be seen in the same way?

According to the Bridges Organization bridgesmathart.org, math needs art and vice versa. This organization plans an annual conference focusing on the connection between art and math. At their website, you can find a wealth of information on mathematics and art.
10. Cinderella
Cinderella.2 software offers users geometry, virtual laboratories, and university-level mathematics with analytical functions. Students will learn while creating.

Geometry
11. GeoGebra
GeoGebra gives students insight into planetary motion, exterior angles of polygons, rotating triangles, and more. The site also offers loads of information and worksheets. https://www.geogebratube.org/
12. Mosaics
Mosaics are a great way to introduce shapes to young minds so why not communicate the same way with older students. You can create them the traditional way, out of glass, or use cellophane paper or even just regular paper. Review basic shapes then piece them together and have students create patterns.
13. Patterns
Tessellations, infinite patterns with varying shapes, can help you teach about the polygon, plane, vertex, and adjacent. Students can put patterns together on paper or use basic computer programs to tile images. Just taking the time to show students something so simple gives them the basis they need to move on to more difficult problem solving lessons. www.teachervision.fen.com
14. Origami Art
Origami art will add dimension with texture and movement. While giving young students a fun way to see shapes come together and create all sorts of animals or three-dimensional geometric shapes to marvel at, the origami art can evolve into a sophisticated tool for using math and engineering skills. Robert Lang explains the transformation at the following video:
15. Three-Dimensional shapes
With some compass points, scissors, glue, construction paper and bobby pins, students can create Polyhedra. Learn more about that at www.ldlewis.com
16. Wheel of Theodorus
Students calculate, draw and create new images while learning the Pythagorean Theorem. Find details at www.ldlewis.com
17. Alice & Algebra
Teach multiplication of fractions using the story of Alice in Wonderland. Melanie Bayley, an Oxford scholar, wrote a dissertation on this very subject. Just the manipulation of size from small to large and back again becomes a starting point for calculations to begin. Find out more on the practical implementation in the classroom at www.newscientist.com
18. Triangle to Square
So many sites and blogs have great animation to teach all kinds of theories. Matt Henderson teaches signal processing with rotating circles and a digital square wave. He also creates some cool doodle animation showing how drawing lines starting with a simple triangle can turn into a square.

Science
19. Art in Labs
Students take a concept and turn it into art or even use the materials for art. Many artists do this anyway so why shouldn't this be a part of coursework? Visit

www.biology.emory.edu Working in labs themselves, students then create art out of bacteria and fungi.
20. The Art of Biology
Students create beautiful works of art with imaging technologies. Use that to introduce various lessons or a concept and the brain's eye will attach itself to the particulars much better than simply assigning homework and moving on to an exam. Visit www.cmu.edu to learn more.
21. Toothbrush Robots
If your goal hinges on recruiting girls into the scientific field then art helps. Try coolgirls-scienceart.org They gather the girls to shoot rockets, create art shows, and play with bugs. Just knowing that science is NOT a man in a white lab coat ready to slice open a dead animal might mean the difference between a career in fashion and a career in chemical engineering. You'll also find information on unique activities such as making toothbrush robots.
22. Chemistry
Through the Art Institute of Chicago, teachers can access lectures and lesson plans on the value of art in teaching chemistry and the chemistry of physics and light plus art and astronomy. www.artic.edu
23. Fresco Chemistry
Check out issuu.com's newsletter on various activities from green chemistry to music in chemistry. Several activities fill the newsletter with step-by-step processes followed by an explanation of how the chemistry works. One of those is making a fresco. issuu.com
24. The Golden Dream
Return to the beginnings of chemistry and art with alchemy at www.pbs.org

Follow the guide to turn metal into gold. The fascination with the process sparks curiosity if nothing else.
25. Unique Perspectives
Try www.cosmosmagazine.com for ideas and articles on the mixture of science and art. Article upon article covers current topics in relation to the importance of science past, present and future. Ready for students to read, bring reality into science fiction with articles such as "Earth-like Planets May Be Closer than Thought."

Computer Science
26. Alice.org
Alice teaches students how to program through dragging and dropping graphics. They're taking 3-D objects inside a virtual world and animating them. They ultimately learn to build stories, create interactive games or video's for sharing. alice.org
27. Polynomiography
Dr. Bahman Kalantari, professor of computer science at Rutgers University, introduced the idea of polynomiography. It literally means the visualization of polynomials. "Polynomials are so important that all students need to know about them no matter what scientific field they would want to follow.

But because the foundation of solving equations can be identified with points in the plane, visually it is very appealing to all ages," Dr. Kalantari explains. Visit www.polynomiography.com to explore.
28. Scratch
Scratch is a site hailing from MIT. Students gain access to software that teaches them to create and share interactive stories, games, music, and art.
scratch.mit.edu
Movies used across curricula
29. BrainPop
There is nothing that BrainPop can't teach. The films are silly yet humorous and by far, they're educational. The mini movies run the gamut from Language Arts to Math to Science to Social Studies. Kids like it because it's not in a textbook. Adults like it because it's not in a textbook. www.brainpop.com
30. Bitesize
In the same vein as BrainPop, Bitesize delivers the basics in short movies or sound bites. Teachers can use this to help students practice or even begin their journey into standardized essays and Spanish basics. The visuals and set up make it a great place to return to in order to build upon different lessons within any subject. www.bbc.co.uk
31. Sheppard Software
Like Brainpop and Bitesize, Sheppard has mini movies and games. Choosing one over the other depends on the difficulty of the lesson and the extent of the film. www.sheppardsoftware.com
32. VideoLab
If you can't actually demonstrate in the lab, the next best thing is video. At video.sciencemag.org teachers can show short videos to begin a lesson, transition from one to another, or just explain the facts and information with the necessary visuals.

Writing & Grammar
33. Art in a Word
Inspired by Doodle for Google, the annual competition giving students a chance to draw a new Google theme, the idea of Art in a Word challenges students to take the vocabulary word and turn each letter into the representation of its meaning. On the back of the page, teachers should have students use the word within context, writing it in a sentence, identifying the part of speech, then defining it.
34. Advertising
Have students create a full-page ad for their favorite product. Make up the criteria for them so that they have to use sentences with adjectives and strong verbs. Then have them edit their work. Meanwhile, teach them all types of grammar lessons in the process.
35. Bare Books
A book of their own means more to students than an ipod. They just don't know it until they've created it. Depending on the assignment, teachers can buy books in bulk for as little as a dollar each. These books can be used for poetry or stories, leaving the rest of the blank space for art. www.barebooks.com If your students are more electronically inclined check out a new site that's making it even easier to create e-books at www.holartbooks.com
36. Paint the Strawberry
For writing teachers who need to emphasize the idea of "show don't tell," have students describe the strawberry or another type of food commonly eaten. They need to reconstruct the image including taste and sensations in the reader's mind.

This means they have to come up with 10 to 20 descriptive words (depends on difficulty level) and use them in a paragraph describing the strawberry. The strawberry should be on display on a stool as the subject of their work of art. It sometimes draws a comedic response for an even better lesson.

Reading

Some students thrive in any reading environment. Others crumble. Over the years, I've noticed the basic difference between an engaged reader and one who struggles is the ability to visualize.
37. LiteracyHead
Whether students are struggling with basic reading awareness or writing skills, this site helps teachers use art as an inspiration to bridge the gap in communication. For comprehension, an image opens on the screen and asks the question, "In what ways does this picture connect to others?" www.literacyhead.com
38. Graphic Novels
Greek Myths can confuse even the most interested reader, but turn it into a graphic novel or a booklet with illustrations and you've got an active, engaged reader. There's a reason why there's a comic culture out there in which people become obsessed with superheroes.
39. Comic Creator
When reading Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe with students, I rely on an amazing website full of free lesson plans and links to everything you need. www.readwritethink.org For this one, I read the story in a scary voice, the room dark, only the words projected while the students predict the next twist. Then they have the option of creating a comic strip about it. They can use the comic creator if they don't want to draw it themselves.
40. Poetry Café
This can be used as monthly or even weekly motivation for students to work on poetry. Decorate the room with poems and artwork inspired by those poems. Then let the students enjoy readings from other students. At the end of a lesson or as a reward for long, tough assignments, students can organize a coffee and cake session where they read their works or the works of poets around the world.

Social Studies
41. Map Art
Old maps hanging on a wall build an atmosphere of art and history combined with adventure. But, understanding them can be a difficult task. So having students create maps ignites the learning process and forces them to work through those difficulties. Visit historymatters.gmu.edu for simple explanations on the creation process.
42. Divide and Conquer
Teaching about different cultures means making them come alive. The Inuit people should live on a canvass, dancing, singing, hunting, and building. So, have students make a brochure from a poster cut in half. Bend it into threes. Divide into sections such as origins, tradition, geography, food and accomplishments.
43. Forget-Me-Not Dioramas
I haven't met a history teacher who hasn't had a diorama project quick on hand. However, requiring an artistic approach changes the dynamics of the criteria with which the student learns. Give the students an assignment they will never forget. Isn't that the idea?

For example, war isn't about guns and death as much as it's about lost love. If World War I must be represented, let it be told with love. Start with the love letters of Harriet Johnson to her boyfriend and continue from there. This not only teaches the emotional loss at Wartime but adds value and meaning to a lesson.
44. Folk Art
It's as simple as having students recreate folk art from a certain time period and a culture and presenting it with facts and information. The inspiration matches the assignment giving each student a firm grasp of the value of an individual within a larger segment of society. Visit www.folkartmuseum.org or www.mexican-folk-art-guide.com for more ideas and information.
45. Transformation
Change the entire classroom into a diorama. It's been done many times in my own classroom. Entire walls become pyramids. Others become waterfalls. And, the great part isn't even the fact that students will work 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. to build a pyramid, but they will learn everything about that time period while they're doing it. It takes a lot of patience, planning, and very considerate faculty, but it's worth it because of the pride and energy students earn from this lesson.
46. Film Recreations
Students, especially older ones, love filming anything. So have them recreate a historical event, film it, and present it to the class. Sure you could have them act it out but using video and technology will allow them to edit and start over if necessary.
47. Documentaries
In order to get students' attention, tell them they need to mimic documentaries. Show them several types and then let them choose one to duplicate or even come up with a current event of their own to document. The student presentations not only reteach the subject matter to each other but give them control over their learning.
48. Write History
Have students recreate a time in history and include themselves. They can take on characteristics of certain people who lived at that time or they can create their own person from pieces of different types of people during that time period.
49. Hero History
Twist the concept of a hero into the ordinary citizen as a leader, innovator, and survivor of that time. Students can choose an actual "hero" or famous character to dress as and give a speech about or they can piece together a hero from the famous leaders of the time.
50. Twisted Timeline
There's nothing better than a timeline to teach important dates in history. But, no one ever teaches that stories, which are what history is about, never quite move in a straight line. The timeline still flows in the same direction, students just twist it a little, take side routes and learn about details they might never have paid attention to when cramming for a test.

For example, if the time period focuses on the American Revolution then use the dates to carry students through to the next date but wind around to the left or right, take a detour, find out some interesting cultural facts within those two dates and add that to the timeline.

Visit timelines.com for detailed timelines with great images that students can add to their own.

As a final note, if the art warrants it, always make sure there's a wall or a table for display. Displaying finished pieces gives artists a sense of satisfaction. Children who don't see their work rewarded lose motivation, the same is true of young adults, and even more so of adults.

If yours is a virtual classroom, build a blog around your students' creations. Creating one is simple enough nowadays. You don't even have to know how to code. It doesn't matter if the entire world knows about it. All that matters is that they know about it, that they can say they're work "hangs" there.

Lastly, introducing art into any classroom means thoughtful planning but also a very real understanding that there will be loss of control. Knowing this can be very liberating for a teacher, but it can also be uncomfortable. However, once you allow yourself to be comfortable with it, students will master the lesson and, more often than not, surpass it.

A former Publications Specialist at Florida International University where she also received a bachelor's degree in English, Lisa Chesser left the publishing field to pursue a career in education.

In her first three years of teaching Language Arts, she won an Excellence in Teaching Award for helping students achieve 50 percent learning gains. Because she's also a writer, an editor, and an artist by trade, students often take more interest in their learning environment because she teaches them the value of it in the workplace.

You can find her on Google+.

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50 Ways To Integrate Art Into Any Lesson | InformED

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As children, young children, everything meant playing and art. We saw the world as a playground and a canvass. It didn't matter whether or not we could actually draw. What mattered was the thrill of creating something beautiful. We were all artists. We still are. So reminding students that inspiration matters, that art lives and...

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How Integrating Arts Into Other Subjects Makes Learning Come Alive

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How Integrating Arts Into Other Subjects Makes Learning Come Alive

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Art has long been recognized as an important part of a well-rounded education - but when it comes down to setting budget priorities, the arts rarely rise to the top. Many public schools saw their visual, performing and musical arts programs cut completely during the last recession, despite the many studies showing that exposure to the arts can help with academics too. A few schools are taking the research to heart, weaving the arts into everything they do and finding that the approach not only boosts academic achievement but also promotes creativity, self-confidence and school pride.

The arts integration experiment at Integrated Arts Academy at H.O. Wheeler (IAA) in Burlington, Vermont, started six years ago as an effort to break up socioeconomic imbalances in the district. Both the elementary schools in Burlington's North End were failing and both had high levels of poverty (95 percent of IAA students qualified for free and reduced-price lunch), a large refugee population and lots of English-language learners. District leaders began having conversations with community members about turning Wheeler into a magnet school focused on both art and academics.

What does art integration look like? Recently, a fourth-grade lesson on geometry examined the work of the famous Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky. The class talked about his work and then created their own art using angles in the style of Kandinsky. Students had to be able to identify the angles they'd used and point them out in their art.

"Higher analytical thinking and reasoning and student voice fit so well with the arts," said Bobby Riley, the school's principal. Teachers are seeing ways to make connections between subjects and watch as students find creative confidence and voice in their expression.

The school is seeing results from the experiment.

'Arts integration seems to be the best form of differentiation out there because it taps into so many different interests and abilities and forms of learning.'

Before IAA became an arts-integrated magnet school, only 17 percent of its third-graders were proficient in math on the NECAP test, Vermont's standardized test. After five years, 66 percent met and achieved the standards. The school still has high levels of poverty, although now that poverty is less concentrated, and there are still high numbers of English-language learners and non-English speaking families. Riley says referrals to the office are almost nonexistent during arts integration periods, and students and their families are more engaged with the school.

IAA is still a public school, but now parents from outside the North End can choose to send their kids there. "Parents are interested in the arts model, interested in a different approach," Riley said. The first year most kids still came from the neighborhood, but gradually the socioeconomic levels have evened out. Wealthier families are choosing to send their kids to IAA because of its program. Riley says the majority of students still walk to school - it hasn't lost its sense of place in the community - but now only about half the students qualify for lunch programs.

The program is also helping connect parents from immigrant communities to the school. "Art is a big part of many of their cultures, so I think they appreciate that experience," Riley said. "I think they like the community vibe of the school."
ART IS NOT EXTRA, IT'S INTEGRAL
Art is not a second thought at the Integrated Arts Academy (IAA). Instead, artistic learning goals are held up as equals to academic standards and teachers work hard to design lessons that highlight content through art.

"If you pick a subject area like science, social studies, math or literacy and you integrate it with an art form, what you do is connect the two and find ways to really integrate the two so they lean on each other," said Judy Klima, an integrated arts coach at IAA. An arts specialist co-plans and co-teaches alongside the general education teacher to help ensure academic learning is happening through an art form and visa versa.

For example, one third-grade science unit on leaf classification integrated visual arts into science. The teaching team used the close observation of leaves in science to teach about realistic versus abstract art. Students drew realistic drawings based on a leaf's edge pattern. Then they made abstract art based on the scientific qualities of the leaf.

"When you engage hands-on and you are creating your own learning, you are deepening your level of understanding about a specific topic," Klima said. In this case, students thought differently both about classification and characteristics, as well as about the differences between art forms.

Teachers rotate through visual art forms, music, dance and theater. One fifth-grade class came up with dramatic renditions of the Revolutionary War. They used the facts in their social studies curriculum to build scripts and then discussed the dramatic connections through volume, tone of voice and perspective.
TRANSITIONING TO AN ARTS FOCUS
The Integrated Arts Academy's success has come with a lot of hard work. "If you taught in a traditional method and then you come to arts integration, you have to change everything," Klima said. "You really have to understand creativity and that it's critical to students' understanding." While all IAA teachers were given the option to stay at the school when it became a magnet, some chose to leave.

"The classroom is a teacher's island," Riley said. "They have their students and their curriculum, teaching the way they teach. The arts integration really pushed us to collaborate. Opening up our practice and reflecting on it is a big part of what we do." He said that's not the norm at many U.S. schools. And that's why he knows the collaboration necessary to integrate arts into academics doesn't necessarily come naturally to many people.

In his role as school leader, Riley has focused on building up educators' capacity to effectively collaborate. "You can't just tell people to collaborate," he said. "You have to put the structures and skill-building in place." IAA has two teacher retreats a year where teachers create art and try out lessons together. It's a time for community-building and collaboration, a space for teachers to stretch themselves as artists, too.

The school has also formed strong partnerships with the arts community in Burlington, taking advantage of its expertise through artist-in-residency programs and in turn helping to create a more vibrant arts scene. They've even started bringing graduate students in from across the state interested to learn and practice arts-integration strategies. While only in its second year, Riley hopes the Art Connect program can help spread these ideas to schools where participating teachers land.
ART AS DIFFERENTIATING TACTIC
At Cashman Elementary School in Amesbury, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Peterson doesn't have the benefit of a schoolwide focus on arts integration to bolster her commitment to the practice. But she perseveres because she sees the approach making a difference for her fourth-grade students.

"I have to keep remembering and reminding myself that this is one of the best avenues to take. Because when kids are learning through the arts, they end up getting a deeper understanding and the concepts end up sticking much better," Peterson said. Her strong suit is music - she used to teach piano. When she went back to the general education classroom, she thought music could bring some joy and creativity to the academics she taught.

Peterson might ask her students to listen to "Sabre Dance" by Aram Khachaturian several times, often during snacks or at another transition time. As a class they talk about the dynamics of the music, its tempo and instrumentation. Then students draw cartoons illustrating a story they've developed based on their interpretation of the music. Peterson asks students to develop a setting, plot and storyline, ultimately having them write out their story.

"They're definitely more invested because they're pulling from their own experience and it's their own interpretation," Peterson said. They write elaborate stories and then talk about the differences in each student's interpretation of the music.

"Arts integration seems to be the best form of differentiation out there because it taps into so many different interests and abilities and forms of learning," Peterson said. In the writing example, kids who hate writing happily develop complicated storylines and write pages upon pages of their own ideas.
WHY ISN'T ARTS INTEGRATION MORE POPULAR?
As with most deviations from what has been done in schools for hundreds of years, many teachers see art as secondary to the academic standards they must get through. Even Peterson said she feels that pressure, but she knows she can teach the standards through art in a way that also gives students some independence to stretch their creativity.

Arts integration can also be a hard model for teachers to buy into if they don't feel like they themselves are competent artists. "Art scares people who are not in the arts," said Michelle Baldwin, a lead teacher at the private Anastasis Academy, where art is central to everything done in the classroom. "If they don't have a lot of experience or don't feel like they are good at anything in the arts, it becomes a personal insecurity issue."

But she points out that teachers don't have to be experts to open up the door for students. There are experts willing to share their knowledge online, not to mention collaborations with local and state arts organizations to support this kind of work.

Elizabeth Peterson often feels out of her depth in visual arts, but that doesn't mean she discourages it in her class. "I'm not a very good illustrator, but if you bring it into your classroom, some of your students might be," she said. "Having an atmosphere of being open to various art forms is all your students need."

Despite calls for more art in schools, artistic ability often isn't recognized as a skill equal to computer coding or engineering by society. Many parents want their kids to study something that clearly leads to a stable job. Until the arts are held in high esteem, they will always come second in traditional schools, Baldwin said.

"Even if parents say they value the arts, they still have that ingrained industrial method of education that people have a hard time letting go of," Baldwin said. And, in her opinion, it's very hard to be creative within the narrow limitations of what traditional school and its standards ask kids to do. "You can't be creative when you are in a box, when you have no way to make your own choices and decisions," she said.

Some teachers using an arts integration model, like Elizabeth Peterson, are working to help teachers understand how art can be built into any kind of classroom. A big part of that is being able to pitch the idea to administrators and defend what might look like some whacky practices to people who wander into the classroom on a given day.

How Integrating Arts Into Other Subjects Makes Learning Come Alive

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How Integrating Arts Into Other Subjects Makes Learning Come Alive

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Art has long been recognized as an important part of a well-rounded education - but when it comes down to setting budget priorities, the arts rarely rise to the top. Many public schools saw their visual, performing and musical arts programs cut completely during the last recession, despite the many studies showing that exposure to the arts can help with academics too.

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Gifted Programming forPoor or Minority Urban Students: Issues and Lessons Learned

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Gifted Programming forPoor or Minority Urban Students: Issues and Lessons Learned

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National Arts Education Public Awareness Campaign

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Campaign Home About The Ads Arts Education Facts Get Involved Spotlights Resources En Español

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National Arts Education Public Awareness Campaign

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Did you know that young people who participate in the arts for at least three hours, three days a week for a year are: 4 times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, 3 times more likely to be elected to class office within their schools, and 4 times more likely to participate in a math and science fair?

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Visual Arts Picture Isn't as Rosy as It First Appears

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Providing information about developments in the visual arts world, this book promotes analysis of the sector, describing the characteristics of visual arts consumers (collectors and appreciators), artists, finances, and organizations.

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Guggenheim Study Suggests Arts Education Benefits Literacy Skills

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Guggenheim Study Suggests Arts Education Benefits Literacy Skills

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"We purposely chose to have students talk to us instead of writing because we thought they would show language skills, not purely reading and writing skills," said Johanna Jones, a senior associate with Randi Korn and Associates, a museum research company conducting the study over three years with a $640,000 grant from the federal Department of Education.

Ms. Jones said that the study, which graded students' responses as they talked about the painting and the passage from the book, found essentially the same results during the 2005-6 school year as it did during the 2004-5 school year. "We really held our breath waiting for this year's results, and they turned out to almost exactly the same - which means that last year's don't seem to have been an anomaly," she said. "That's a big deal in this world."

While it is unknown exactly how learning about art helps literacy skills, she said, "the hypothesis is that the use of both talking about art and using inquiry to help students tease apart the meaning of paintings helps them learn how to tease apart the meanings of texts, too. They apply those skills to reading."

The categories of literacy and critical thinking skills were devised by the research company with the help of a group of advisers from Columbia University, New York University and the city's Department of Education, among other institutions.

The Guggenheim program, originally called Learning to Read Through the Arts, was created by a museum trustee in 1970, when New York schools were cutting art and music programs. Since it began, it has involved more than 130,000 students in dozens of public schools. The museum dispatches artists who spend one day a week at schools over a 10- or 20-week period helping students and teachers learn about and make art. Groups of students are also taken to the Guggenheim to see exhibitions.

Officials at the Guggenheim said they hoped the study would give ammunition to educators in schools and museums around the country who are seeking more money and classroom time for arts education.

"Basically, this study is a major contribution to the field of art and museum education," said Kim Kanatani, the Guggenheim's director of education. "We think it confirms what we as museum education professionals have intuitively known but haven't ever had the resources to prove."

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Guggenheim Study Suggests Arts Education Benefits Literacy Skills

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"We purposely chose to have students talk to us instead of writing because we thought they would show language skills, not purely reading and writing skills," said Johanna Jones, a senior associate with Randi Korn and Associates, a museum research company conducting the study over three years with a $640,000 grant from the federal Department of Education.

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10 Salient Studies on the Arts in Education

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10 Salient Studies on the Arts in Education

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A fine arts education - including music, theater, drawing, painting, or sculpture - whether in practice or theory, has been a part of any well-rounded curriculum for decades - but that may be changing. Many schools today are cutting back or eliminating their art programs due to budget constraints. It is estimated that by the end of this year, more than 25% of public high schools will have completely dismantled them. These stats aren't just bad news for teachers working in the arts, such as those at traditional schools for dance orÂ online colleges for photography. Numerous studies done over the past decade have demonstrated the amazing benefits of such an integral education facet. Students who don't have access to art classes may not only miss out on a key creative outlet, but might also face greater difficulty mastering core subjects, higher dropout rates and more disciplinary problems.

You don't have to take our word for it - you can read the studies yourself. Here, we've listed some of the biggest on the arts in education conducted over the past decade. Taken on by research organizations, college professors and school districts themselves, the studies reveal the power of art to inspire, motivate and educate today's students. And, of course, demonstrate what a disservice many schools are doing by undervaluing such an integral part of their education and development.

1. While school districts might be tempted to think the arts a frivolous part of the educational system, this report suggests otherwise. It looked at over 62 different studies from 100 researchers, spanning the range of fine arts from dance to the visual arts. In 2002, it was the first report of its kind to look at the impact of art on academic performance. Using this data, researchers determined that students who received more arts education did better on standardized tests, improved their social skills and were more motivated than those who had reduced or no access. While researchers at the AEP admitted that art isn't a panacea for what ails struggling schools, the study led them to believe it could be a valuable asset for teaching students of all ages - especially those in poor communities or who need remedial education.Â With so manyÂ online colleges for design options, students in every demographic can pursue a higher education. An updated report with consistent results was conducted by the same researcher in 2010.

2. The study was the result of a pilot program through the Guggenheim called Learning Through Art, which sent artists into schools to teach students and help them create their own masterpieces. Kids who took part in the program performed better on six different categories of literacy and critical thinking skills than those who did not. While students did better on an oral exam, they did not on standardized, written literacy tests - a disparity researchers said could exist because they did not emphasize written communication in the program. Program organizers believe the improvements were the result of students learning valuable critical thinking skills while talking about art, which could then be applied to understanding and analyzing literary materials. Students could even take these skills further at online colleges for creative writingÂ or broadcast journalism.

3. Winner and Hetland head up an arts education program called Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, so they are by no means opponents of creative expression. Yet in their 2000 study, they found little academic improvement in math, science, and reading in their arts education program enrollees. While the backlash from their report was swift and brutal, the researchers stuck by their findings. And for good reason. They believe it shouldn't matter whether or not art courses improve test scores or grades, and that art education should garner support for what it offers on its own merit - not in relationship to anything else. Regardless, their study did reveal that arts education has some larger benefits which can't be easily quantified through test scores. Namely, it helps students improve visual analysis skills, learn from mistakes, be creative and make better critical judgments.

4. A bold assertion, but not one without merit. Students from lower income families often get little exposure to the arts if they are not provided by schools. The report shows that arts education can help close the gap between socioeconomic groups, creating a more level playing field between children who may not be exposed to these enrichment experiences outside of school and some of their more privileged peers.

5. People have been so wrapped up in showing how arts education benefits students, many haven't stopped to consider how it also impacts educators. The report studied students at 12 New York, Connecticut, Virginia and South Carolina schools to compile their results. Not only were students at schools with high levels of art education earning higher scores on critical thinking tests, but teachers also seemed happier. Part of the increase in their satisfaction was a result of their charges, who were found to be generally more cooperative and expressive and enjoy a better rapport with educators. That wasn't all, however, as teachers at schools that emphasized arts education enjoyed greater job satisfaction, were more interested in their work and likely to be innovative and pursued personal development experiences. It's not a trivial finding, as what is good for instructors is often very good for their students as well. This is something those at online colleges for education should keep in mind.

1. Taking a look at the role of arts education in New York public schools, this report found that schools with the lowest access also had the highest dropout rates. Conversely, those with the highest graduation rates also had the greatest access to arts education and resources. While there are undoubtedly a number of other factors that play into graduation rates, the research in this study and others like it (most notably The Role of the Fine and Performing Arts in High School Dropout Prevention, which you can read here) has found that many at-risk students cite participation in the arts as their reason for staying. Participation in these activities has a quantifiable impact on levels of delinquency, truancy and academic performance.

2. Arts education may not just help raise test scores, but also the learning process itself, as a recent study revealed. This report on the Maryland school system found that skills learned in the visual arts could help improve reading and the counterparts fostered in playing an instrument could be applied to math. Â Researchers and school officials believe that arts education can be a valuable education reform tool, and classroom integration of creative opportunities could be key to motivating students and improving standardized test scores. Taking it a step further, online colleges in Maryland, for example, are creating post-secondary education opportunities for students in the state.

3. Using data submitted by the state's public schools, the Missouri Department of Education and the Missouri Alliance for Arts Education compiled this report. They found that arts education had a significant effect on the academic and social success of their students. Those with greater arts participation were more likely to come to class, avoid being removed and graduate. Additionally, they demonstrated greater proficiency in mathematics and communication. Many have aspired to online colleges in Missouri, or other states.Â Similar studies of other statewide education systems have discovered nearly identical results.

4. While proponents of arts education have long asserted that creative training can help develop skills translating into other areas of academics, little research had been done to investigate the scientific component. Aspects of training in the arts, like motor control, attention and motivation, were studied by researchers who participated in the report, with some interesting results. In one four-year study, students undertaking regular music training were found to have changes in their brain structures helping them transfer their motor skills to similar areas. Another found students motivated to practice a specific art form and spent time with focused attention increased the efficiency of their attention network as a whole, even when working in other areas of study - and it improved their fluid IQ scores. Other studies reported similar scientific findings on the arts' impact on the brain, showing that sustained arts education is can be essential part of social and intellectual development.

5. Many of the problems that plagued arts education programs in schools ten years ago are still major issues today, this survey revealed. Middle school students across the nation haven't seen an increase in access to music and visual arts education, and their understanding of its tenets remains low - especially in certain disenfranchised socioeconomic and racial groups. Many believe the numbers are even worse today, as the survey was conducted prior to the economic woes that have paralyzed many schools systems in recent years. As in 1997, the 2008 survey showed that only 47% of students had access to visual arts education, and just 57% to music education. The survey attempted to look at theater and dance programs, but since so few schools offer them, they were dropped from the study.

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10 Studies on the Importance of Art in Education - OnlineColleges.net

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A fine arts education - including music, theater, drawing, painting, or sculpture - whether in practice or theory, has been a part of any well-rounded curriculum for decades - but that may be changing. Many schools today are cutting back or eliminating their art programs due to budget constraints.

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New NEA Research Report Shows Potential Benefits of Arts Education for At-Risk Youth

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New NEA Research Report Shows Potential Benefits of Arts Education for At-Risk Youth

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Washington, DC -- At-risk students who have access to the arts in or out of school also tend to have better academic results, better workforce opportunities, and more civic engagement, according to a new NEA report, The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth: Findings from Four Longitudinal Studies. The study reports these and other positive outcomes associated with high levels of arts exposure for youth of low socioeconomic status.

The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth study uses four separate longitudinal studies (three from the U.S. Department of Education) to track children, teenagers, and young adults who had high or low levels of arts engagement in or out of school. Those activities included coursework in music, dance, theater, or the visual arts; out-of-school arts lessons; or membership, participation, and leadership in arts organizations and activities, such as band or theater.

The study focuses on the potential effects of arts engagement on youth from the lowest quarter of socioeconomic status. Although most of the arts-related benefits in this report applied only to these at-risk youth, some findings also suggest benefits for youth from advantaged backgrounds.

"Arts education doesn't take place in isolation," said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. "It has to take place as part of an overall school and education reform strategy. This report shows that arts education has strong links with other positive educational outcomes."

Among the key findings:

Better academic outcomes -- Teenagers and young adults of low socioeconomic (SES) status who have a history of in-depth arts involvement ("high arts") show better academic outcomes than low-SES youth with less arts involvement ("low arts"). They earn better grades and have higher rates of college enrollment and attainment.

Low-SES students who had arts-rich experiences in high school were ten percent more likely to complete a high school calculus course than low-SES students with low arts exposure (33 percent versus 23 percent).

High-arts, low-SES students in the eighth grade were more likely to have planned to earn a bachelor's degree (74 percent) than were all students (71 percent) or low-arts, low-SES students (43 percent).

High-arts, low-SES students were 15 percent more likely to enroll in a highly or moderately selective four-year college than low-arts, low-SES students (41 percent versus 26 percent).

Students with access to the arts in high school were three times more likely than students who lacked those experiences to earn a bachelor's degree (17 percent versus five percent).

When it comes to participating in extracurricular activities in high school, high-arts, low-SES students are much more likely also to take part in intramural and interscholastic sports, as well as academic honor societies, and school yearbook or newspaper -- often at nearly twice or three times the rate of low-arts, low-SES students.

Higher career goals -- There is a marked difference between the career aspirations of young adults with and without arts backgrounds.

High-arts, low-SES college students had the highest rates of choosing a major that aligns with a professional career, such as accounting, education, nursing, or social sciences (30 percent), compared to low-arts, low-SES students (14 percent) and the overall SES sample (22 percent).

Half of all low-SES adults with arts-rich backgrounds expected to work in a professional career (such as law, medicine, education, or management), compared to only 21 percent of low-arts, low-SES young adults.

More civically engaged - Young adults who had intensive arts experiences in high school are more likely to show civic-minded behavior than young adults who did not, with comparatively high levels of volunteering, voting, and engagement with local or school politics. In many cases, this difference appears in both low-and high-SES groups.

High-arts, low-SES eighth graders were more likely to read a newspaper at least once a week (73 percent) compared to low-arts, low-SES students (44 percent) and the overall SES sample (66 percent).

High-arts, low-SES young adults reported higher volunteer rates (47 percent) than the overall sample and low-arts, low-SES young adults (43 and 26 percent respectively).

High-arts, low-SES young adults voted in the 2004 national election at a rate of 45 percent, compared to 31 percent of low-arts, low-SES young adults.

The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth: Findings from Four Longitudinal Studieswas prepared for the National Endowment for the Arts by James S. Catterall, University of California Los Angeles, with Susan A. Dumais, Louisiana State University, and Gillian Hampden-Thompson, University of York, U.K. The report is one of the NEA's latest efforts to conduct and commission research that examines evidence of the value and impact of the arts in other domains of American life, such as education, health and well-being, community liveability, and economic prosperity. The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth is available at arts.gov.
About the National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector. To join the discussion on how art works, visit the NEA at www.arts.gov.

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New NEA Research Report Shows Potential Benefits of Arts Education for At-Risk Youth

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Washington, DC -- At-risk students who have access to the arts in or out of school also tend to have better academic results, better workforce opportunities, and more civic engagement, according to a new NEA report, The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth: Findings from Four Longitudinal Studies.

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Critical Evidence:  How the Arts Benefit Achievement

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Critical Evidence:  How the Arts Benefit Achievement