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What connections can you make to your classroom? Take-Aways?
I really enjoyed the information given in the "How Integrating Arts Into Other Subjects Makes Learning Come Alive". This article focused on how a low-socioeconomic school converted to a magnet school that allowed them to incoporate more of the arts with core academics. “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."
As someone who has taught in a low-socioeconomic school who had ZERO art classes for elementary students, it makes me so sad to reflect on missed opportunities to engage these students in this way. As someone who is not a naturally "artsy" person, I would have never connected the two. Great insights!
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