Art Integration in School
Parkside School of the Arts
Art Integration is a technique which drives to erase the idea that Art is a "special." The idea is for art instructors to meet with homeroom/ subject area (best with elementary and middle school ages) teachers and understand what your students are learning in each subject area. Done on a monthly basis, this can increase interest in art. It fosters a new creativity and cultivates an understanding of arts relevance in real life.
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Students love that they can broaden their understanding in one subject area rather than tackling something brand new in addition to their other subject area learning. They also become increasing fond of the idea of teaching me something when I ask them what they are learning.
In my time at Parkside, I was a part of the creation of and adjustment to Arts Integration curriculum. There is a huge opportunity for collaboration between subject areas for larger projects and even field trips once the Integration curriculum door is open. Not only could we be integrating core subjects into art, but I believe that core subject/homeroom instructors have to opportunity to work the coinciding arts curriculum into their classes as well.
We had the opportunity of integrating math into one of our units. Ms. Johnson's homeroom was learning additive and subtractive properties during this month. That was one of many subjects we chose from in order to create this unit. For art, we looked at additive artwork and did a paper sculpture project. We then moved to subtractive artwork and did carvings. After that we moved on the the hardest of all: positive and negative space. This allowed us to connect to math and display its value in all other subject areas...even art!
Integrating Math
Integrating Math
With 7th grade, we expanded the idea of math even further and delved into 3D geometry. The students were learning this more complex idea in math class and so we brought it into art. For this unit, students studied the elements of art - one of which being form. They learned about all types of forms and then used a paper template (a net) to design to display the elements and then to form into a 3D cube. The project itself became a real piece of 3D geometry!
As the 8th graders delved in to World War II, what better than to inform them of the importance of art during the era. We discussed the use of controlling art work and manipulating people, we discussed the use of propaganda in the spread of information and finally we went in to art of war crafts. The students used their history knowledge to understand Nose Art (on planes) and then create their own digital designs. They used imagery which inspired them of peacetime and reminded them of home.
Integrating Social Studies
Integrating ELA
In the 6th grade English and Language Arts classes, the students had moved into their poetry unit. We used this as an opportunity to studied poetry art but mostly Blackout poetry. Most of these types of poems use recycled poetry or book pages and imagery to create something new. We studied the artist who popularized them and also used our artist skills to brainstorm what we could use as imagery in our own Blackout Poems. The finished products displayed a clear knowledge of poetry and how easy it can be to create a new message out of existing language.