- Jul 2024
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www.kennedy-center.org www.kennedy-center.org
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Arts integration classrooms feel like supportive neighborhoods. They strive to be warm, welcoming, and safe places so that students can risk and try new things. Teachers encourage choice and honor the individual’s voice. In these classrooms, instruction focuses on what students can do.
I love this description of what our classrooms should look like. Arts integration is supposed to be fun, creative, and even a little messy sometimes. I think it is really great to encourage our students to think outside of the box and use their creativity when using art to help learn other subjects. We as teacher's have the power to help students come to love not only the arts, but many subjects. We need to use that to our advantage!
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Differentiation doesn’t suggest that a teacher can be all things to all individuals all the time. It does, however, mandate that a teacher create a reasonable range of approaches to learning much of the time, so that most students find learning a fit much of the time.”7
I absolutely resonate with this quote! I think as teachers, it can be extremely overwhelming to feel like you have to play every single role for a child. Instead, this quote reminds us that we can have a range of approaches to learning and try different things. This makes me feel so much better about becoming a teacher because it reminds me that differentiated instruction does not have to be overcomplicated, it just means we offer different means of learning to our students!
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- May 2024
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www.kennedy-center.org www.kennedy-center.org
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When we use formative assessment effectively for arts integration, we establish and share clear criteria for student work, are careful observers of our students as they work, clarify our observations through questioning and feedback, and direct our students to the most appropriate next step. When appropriate, we use the evidence we collect to adjust our teaching strategies to help students learn more productively. The formative assessment process is embedded in our arts integration teaching and natural to our thinking about instruction.
I really like that this explains why we use formative assessment for arts integration. It explains all of the benefits including clearer criteria, observing to create better lessons, and understanding our students. Formative assessment is something that I didn't fully understand while in my first year of college. But it is something that I have grown to really appreciate!
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When students construct and demonstrate their understanding through an art form they are naturally engaged in the creative process.
I love this piece of information because as a teacher, it helps me to understand that students need opportunities to demonstrate their understanding and create things. The creative process is one of the most important pieces of art integration to me, and so this helps me to better understand how to create that process in my classroom.
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www.kennedy-center.org www.kennedy-center.org
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Each art form has a language and symbol system through which students interpret information and communicate their ideas. For example, acting, storytelling, puppetry, and performance poetry develop skills in oral communication. Students develop written communication skills through such art forms as playwriting and poetry and develop non-verbal communication skills through dance, music, theater, and the visual arts. Additionally, arts integration engages students in metaphorical thinking, which enlarges the power of their communication.
I found this extremely interesting as I am a major theatre nerd. I love how this includes acting and even puppetry into the arts because it often is overlooked. However, this did spark a question in me: How can I as a teacher use art forms such as playwriting or poetry in my classroom to help engage my students? I want to become a math teacher and I would love to use some of these options in my own classroom!
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“The arts are not just expressive and affective. They are deeply cognitive. They develop essential thinking tools: pattern recognition and development; mental representations of what is observed or imagined; symbolic, allegorical, and metaphorical representations; careful observation of the world; and abstraction from complexity.”17 –David Sousa
This quote really moved me. I've always considered the arts to be such an incredible part of using creaitvity and imagination, but this helped me to understand that it is also essential! This just makes me think about the effects that art can have on our growing children and students and the benefits it can provide to our classrooms! In my own 3rd grade classes, our teacher took time out of her busy schedule to teach us how to watercolor, sketch, etc. This helped me to express myself and genuinely enjoy her class. I now can recognize how this not only helped me creatively, but also developmentally!
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