The Value of Arts Integration

Learning through the arts is an exciting way to engage students. But integrating the arts into your curriculum can be more than just an engagement strategy. The arts can cross a multitude of grade levels and disciplines and reach a wide variety of learners. Critical thinking, risk taking, and collaboration are just some of the areas where Bates Middle School educators report big improvements since integrating the arts.

Bates Middle School in Annapolis, Maryland got started with Arts Integration as part of a school-wide turnaround effort. Edutopia highlighted this middle school as part of its “Schools that Work” feature. “The school made changes in schedules, funding, and even the approach to community and parent involvement. Most important, the teachers had to change. Through intensive and continual professional development, teachers now are able to engage students in content they previously found uninteresting. The transformation was successful because every teacher integrated arts into their teaching.”

Creating a learning environment that fosters and encourages creativity requires teachers to be creative too. Edutopia’s feature on Bates Middles School, Integrate the Arts, Deepen the Learning provides some tips for teachers wanting to pursue arts integration:

• Take advantage of professional development: PD serves many purposes. It can help teachers learn the fundamentals of various art forms and develop integrated lessons, and it provides them with the opportunity to experience art for themselves.
• Use AI intentionally: At Bates, every teacher is required to use AI in some shape or form, although not every lesson needs to be, or should be, taught with AI. Teachers should use two main criteria for implementing AI:
• Look for a natural fit with the content.
• Identify where students are struggling. AI can provide a context that will help students build connections and gives them triggers for remembering the content later.
• Collaborate and brainstorm: Brainstorming is one of the best ways to develop arts-integrated lessons.

Pepper Professional Development Courses and Workshops and the Resource Library can help provide support as you think about arts integration in the classroom. Arts Integration provides a great opportunity to engage and excite students and can be an effective way to differentiate instruction. At Pepper we're adding new courses and workshops regularly so we can support educators in reaching students and creating lifelong learners.

Hope of the Future: Creativity in the Classroom

Creativity. According to Merriam-Webster, creativity is the ability to make new things or think of new ideas. Creativity is a very valuable skill. However, it is not one that is highly encouraged in many school settings. Schools value skills such as listening/paying attention, following directions, and intellectual capabilities. Ten years ago Ken Robinson gave a TED talk titled, Do Schools Kill Creativity? His focus was that to prepare students for the future educators need to encourage creativity - creative thinking and the arts. Well, today is the future he was talking about.

Due to the dynamic characteristic of today’s work environment, creativity is a skill employers desire. Creativity is no longer a skill that is reserved for students focused on arts education. It is a skill crucial for all of our students. Kristen Hicks, author of Why Creativity in the Classroom Matters More Than Ever, states, “Learning a specific skill set doesn’t have the value in today’s world that it once did. Learning how to be more creative (and thus adaptable) – now that’s what prepares students for life beyond the classroom.”

Hicks’ Edudemic article also gives 5 Ways to Bring More Creativity Into the Classroom. She asserts that creative assignments are better for both the student and the teacher. They are more engaging for the student to complete and more enjoyable for the teacher to grade. Her suggestions include the following:

1. Don’t limit assignments to one format - Differentiating instruction. You provide the subject, but give students freedom in the product.
2. Set time aside for creativity - Set aside time during the day (or week) to allow students the opportunity for creative thinking.
3. Use tech to broaden your idea of assignments - In today’s world, creativity and technology go hand-in-hand.
4. Introduce unconventional learning materials into class - Content can be found in places other than textbooks - and it may be more engaging in a different format.
5. Encourage discussion - Using debates or the Socratic method in your classroom gets students actively engaged. Hicks also states, “The ability to communicate your ideas clearly and respectfully is something that will benefit students in all areas of their life – and something a lot of people grow up never learning how to do well.”

Creating a learning environment that fosters and encourages creativity requires teachers to be creative too. Almost all children start their educational careers with a desire to learn, bright imaginations, open minds, and willingness to take risks. Even as Sir Ken Robinson says:

“The gardener does not make the plant grow. The job of a gardener is to make optimal conditions.”

- Sir Ken Robinson

Courses available through Pepper will provide foundational concepts that will allow teachers to implement a creative classroom approach. Check out our wide range of Pepper Courses and our Pepper Resource Library to further your own professional growth.

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Music Helps Struggling Students Achieve

Teaching jazz in a New Orleans middle school is not the only thing that Sam Venable does. He invests in students' lives. Getting the attention of restless kids isn't easy, but he instills the motivation to achieve in his students, which translates down the road to high school graduates and future success. The school administration even puts students in Venable's classes when they're troubled and heading down the wrong path because they know he's got a track record for 360-turnarounds. How does he do this? He looks for hidden talent in students and fosters that talent with plenty of verbal commendation. He builds them up with encouragement and positive attention. Read more about Venable at NPR Education or listen to the story.

Digital Learning Activities and Educational Games -- Free!

As every teacher knows, not all educational games are created equal! Some have genuine value and can serve as wonderful reinforcements for student learning, or can expand student learning beyond the classroom. Yet how do you find educational games and digital learning activities that have been vetted and curated without spending hours of your own time testing them, or paying for memberships?

Check out this fantastic website: Powermylearning.org! It's a free digital learning platform with resources for teachers, students, and parents alike, and was developed by the well-respected national education nonprofit CFY. If you're looking for games, videos, interactives, and other digital resources to incorporate into your Common Core lesson plans for the classroom, then this is the website for you.

Each resource in Math and ELA is aligned directly to a Common Core standard. Plus, there are countless resources for science, social studies, the arts, technology and more. You'll need to create an account to access all the material on the site, but once you do, you'll be able to tap into hundreds of carefully-vetted, free digital resources.

Common Core and Arts Education—Connections and Possibilities!

While much of the initial focus with CCSS has been on ELA and Math during this first stage, there are great reasons to get excited about the possibilities that Common Core offers for arts educators. With an emphasis on critical engagement with source materials and a push toward communicating and conveying ideas, Common Core can connect in important ways with arts pedaogogy.

Interested in knowing more? Take a look at these videos and supporting materials--including a great PowerPoint deck with useful concepts and questions--from a symposium co-hosted by LAUSD Arts Education and the Museum of Contemporary Art. The symposium videos feature educators, school leaders, and arts organization members discussing the intersections and overlaps between Common Core and arts education. Click HERE to check it out!