Week 6: Art for Art's Sake and Conclusion

For our final week, Artful Integration explored the intrinsic value of the arts.  We started with a drawing project inspired by U.S. painter Georgia O'Keeffe's quote: 

"Nobody sees a flower, really, it is so small it takes time - we haven't time - and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time."

 Educators first prepared their hands and eyes for the drawing session by filling in a floral warm-up using thin black pens.

 Next, they choose a real flower to draw and spent some time "seeing" the flower, as careful observation is an integral aspect of the drawing process.  Educators used magnifying glasses to aid them in noticing all the intricate details that compose one flower.

Participants then drew the contours--or outlines--of the flowers using bright colored pencil on black paper.  This provided an opportunity to practice transfer what they'd seen onto paper without using an eraser.

After finishing their initial study on black paper, the artists drew the flower again using both thin and thick pens to create variety in their compositions.  Some chose to use crayons to add a touch of color.

Others opted for watercolor in addition to their crayons to add the rich colors they found in their flowers.

 Some enjoyed the striking contrast of black on white and chose not to add color at all.

 Another high contrast choice was made by this artist, who chose to mount her cut out drawing on bright orange paper.

The result was a series of gorgeous drawings, as varied as the individuals that made them.

 In a discussion afterwards, we talked about the importance of creating a "safe" space for art-making, where participants feel supported and not afraid of making mistakes.  Rather, mistakes are opportunities!

We also talked about the value of spending time cultivating focus and careful observation.

Continuing the exploration of the intrinsic value of the arts, Zach, another teacher at Ascend, led the group in two theater exercises.  In the first, "One Word Story," we went around in a circle told a tale of a kitten and a swimming tiger using just one word each.  This created a collaborative creative space to follow others' leads in order to invent a story.    

The next exercise sounds deceivingly simple.  The group must count to 20, with only one person saying each number in no assigned order and without making eye contact.  If more than one person says the same number at the same time, the entire group must start over at 1.  It took us a while to attain the necessary group focus, but everyone cheered enthusiastically when we finally got to 20!  It was a great way to illustrate collective buy-in to a very focused activity.  Other educators suggested using this activity to help center a group of excited kids before beginning a project.

Finally, we shared resources and made plans for next actions we could take.  Some educators are going to start blogs of their own, or prepare online photo albums of project ideas sorted by material.  Others are planning lessons or discussions to share what they've learned at their respective schools.  We are all excited to see what amazing creations will be the aftermath of these sessions!

Websites:

Monart Method  Mona Brook's method of teaching drawing through an "alphabet" of shapes.

Art is Messy Photo-filled blog from an art teacher in China--the blogroll has many more opportunities.

Briargrove Elementary Another teacher's blog packed with elementary school age projects.  

How to Draw It  A series of free and comprehensive drawing lessons online. 

Fit For A Feast Kids teach kids how to dance in these online lessons.

Books:

Studio Thinking by Lois Hetland, Ellen Winner, Shirley Veneema, Kimberly M. Sheridan

Emphasis Art: A Qualitative Art Program for Elementary and Middle Schools by Frank Wachowiak

Out of the Box: Creating Art and Craft with Waste Published by the Centre for Environmental Research & Education

Art Fundamentals: Theory and Practice Published by McGraw Hill

The Art of Teaching Art to Children: In School and at Home by Nancy Beal

Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists by Mike Venezia

Teaching art and design 3-11 Edited by Sue Cox and Robert Watts 

Ideas:

Have kids study great artists and learn about their styles

One-Word Story theater game

Count to 20 theater game

Studying in-depth the art traditions of one country

Studying art traditions of the world

Week 5: Art and History/Culture

Educators delved into the nexus of the Arts and History/Culture with the following exercise:

"You are an archeologist that just discovered a long lost artifact!  Create an art piece or artifact from your time period that has only just now been discovered.  You can use any of the materials, or visit our "playdough" station to make your own clay."

After selecting an historic culture and reading the supplemental information, participants formed their artifacts and wrote descriptions for them before placing them in our "Lost Museum." 

The exercise allowed educators to synthesize information about a prior civilization and share their learning with the group when we all visited  the museum we had curated.

We also spent some time formulating authentic arts integration lesson plans, which we will continue at the next session.

The resources we shared were rich!  We had an example presentation of the theater concept of a series of "tableaus," which form a human slideshow to tell a story.  This could be used to represent a chain of historical events, or any story, as demonstrated below:

Finding of the artifact

The questioning

The exchange

Websites:
Philadelphia Arts and Education Partnership  Brings arts-based learning to kids with limited access.
Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education  Full of resources and ideas from Chicago
A Map of civilizations in world history over time
A map of the slave trade 
Maps from antiquity  Views of the universe in human history. An online exhibition here, found via BrainPickings  
The map as art (see the section on 'Worldwide Runway', Street Blues and Bright Side of the Moon) 
General Art Lesson Plans

Draw Like an Egyptian Lesson plan about Egyptian culture through art.

History Through Artifacts  Teaching history through artifacts

History Through Visual Art

Videos:
Horrible histories - a cheeky song that sums up England's Kings and Queens  


Books:
We Are All Born Free - about the UN Declaration of Human Rights 
I See the Promised Land, about Martin Luther King, illustrated by Patua artists 

Ideas:
Write a theater piece with historical elements
Design forts based on geographical locations
Make costumes from specific time periods
Write an artifact story tracing one object through time
Create a role play and corresponding props
Make different books from paper, like flip books or accordion books


Field Trips in Mumbai:
Prince of Wales Museum
Gallery Map  South Bombay's Galleries

Week 4: Art, Science, and Technology

The Science and Technology session allowed educators a chance to get some hands on experience with the Periodic Table of Elements, as they each crafted a fabric square to represent one element.  

Educators chose an element and read some background information, which they synthesized to visually represent in their square.

We the presented our work to the group, explaining our creative choices and sharing our scientific thinking.  

 The result was a very colorful “Periodic Quilt of the Elements,” in which each participant gained in depth knowledge of their element in order to represent it artistically.

We discussed the ways in which Science and the Arts are linked, specifically through the act of careful observation, and shared some excellent resources!

Websites:

Surf Report Very user-friendly with links to many arts integration sites.

A+ Art & Science Center  Lesson plans you can download covering a mixture of art and science.
Digital Art Symbaloo  A page packed with digital art sites for students and teachers.

Arts & Science Council  Works to build appreciation for the arts, science, history and heritage.

The Noun Project Collects, organizes, and adds highly recognizable symbols in order to promote and share visual language.  You can download for free.

Periodic Table Printmaking  A collection of work by 97 print-makers depicting each of the elements.

Life cycle of the Butterfly  A lesson plan guiding kids though depicting a Monarch Butterfly's life cycle using dance.

Beach Wheelchairs  A collaborative project inspiring kids to design wheelchairs that could function on the beach.

Tie Die  Illustrate solubility using Sharpies and rubbing alcohol
Scale of the Universe Website made by two adolescent brothers showing the entire scope of the universe in perspective.
Toys from Trash A variety of art projects using recycled materials by Arvind Gupta.
Andy Goldsworthy Art from natural materials.
Flight Science Resource showing the ways art could be used in understanding principals of flight.
Clouds and Watercolors Teaching cloud science by showing kids a variety of painting techniques.

Books:

Science Verse by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith  Wonderful science poetry!
You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination by Katharine Harmon


Videos:
Rolling in the Deep Acapella Cover Showing the ways we can create sounds and harmony, as well as the ways musical elements work together.


Ideas: 
Anatomy art with quilled paper.  You could give each kid a different part of the body or brain and then have them put all their pieces together to make a complete picture.


Field trips to places and then making art about it using careful observation.

Week 3: Art and Literacy

Integrating the arts and literacy turned out to be a blast!

 First, educators created "complementary puppets," using pairs of complementary colors. Complementary colors are the two hues directly across from one another on the color wheel. The complement of each primary is the secondary created by mixing the other two primaries. 

Next, they joined  in groups and collaboratively wrote "complimentary" dialogues for their puppets to enact, using vocabulary like "lissome" and "redolent."  

Finally, they performed their plays, which touched on themes like "non-attachment," "feather land," and "resurrection."

We revisited some of the challenges we'd listed at the previous session and did a "carousel," in which educators spent five minutes adding solutions to each challenge.   Brainstorms addressed how to work with prescriptive teachers, unsupportive institutional cultures, and how to find the time and resources necessary to successfully integrate the arts.  

Finally, the rest of the session was spent swapping some excellent resources.

Websites:

Visual Thinking Strategies  -- A research-based teaching method that improves critical thinking and language skills through discussions of visual images.


Stanza Break-- Poetry in Education

Newspaper Blackout-- An example of the subtractive writing process you could share with students.

Songdrops --These YouTube videos show only text and music and kids can read along with the songs.

Reader's Theater -- Turning books into scripts, engages kids in literature!  Check out the following sites for script ideas:

Reader's Theater Script Ideas
Reader's Theater Edition
Teaching Heart Scripts and Plays
Stories to Grow By 
The Best Class 
Reading Lady 
Reader's Theater Links

Videos:
If I Should Have a Daughter V.O.I.C.E. founder Sarah Kay's TED Talk about Spoken Word Poetry


Books:

Integrating Art in Language Arts through Children's Literature  by Debi Englebaugh 

Ideas:

Alphabet books--Looking at a variety of alphabet books in several languages and then making an alphabet book of your own, could use a Fonts Generator

Shape/Picture Poetry--Creating images composed of words.

ASCII Text The American Standard Code for Information Interchange, numerically represents symbols.

Using Movies as a starting point for discussion, asking students to discuss why certain choices were made, ie colors or music

Combining videos to further understanding of quotes.

Akanska teaching modules-- Such as making origami cranes and then tackling your attitude towards those instructions--self-reflection

Start with a book, ie Miss Muggle Goes to Mumbai, and base projects off of book.  ie "friendly monster sculptures" or t-shirt decorating, stained glass painting.  Or Very Hungry Caterpillar and create your own creatures!

Week 2: Art and Math

Week Two started out with a "Rainbow Windows Math Vitamin" combining area, fractions, and some basic color theory.   Educators were greeted with the prompt: 

"Welcome artisans!  We need your help to construct a Rainbow Stained Glass Window."  

Teachers got busy following the instructions:

"Using pattern blocks, build a window on the paper provided.

  Make sure you use every color of the rainbow! 

That means all the primary colors ( red yellow blue) and all the secondary colors (orange green  purple).  Because you only have glass in the three primary colors, you are going to need to stack two blocks and visualize in order to create the secondary colors."

The teachers then transferred their blocks onto plastic using kite paper cut-outs.

Then came the Math...

"If the blue rhombus = 1,

What is the total area of your window?

What fraction of your window is a Primary Color?

What fraction is a Secondary Color?

Can you find the fraction of each of the rainbow colors?

Educators varied in their approach, displaying creativity in their mathematical reasoning.  Some drew diagrams, while others calculated area by placing the unit of measurement directly on their creation.

The result was a beautiful "stained glass window" through which the light could shine and show how two primary colors combine to create a secondary color!

Next, we introduced ourselves and brainstormed a group list of the Benefits and Challenges of Authentic Arts Integration.  This is what we came up with:

Benefits

Students think visually--helps with memory

Helps remove boundaries around subjects--interdisciplinary

Benefits artistically inclined kids

Blends logical and creative sides of the brain

Helps teacher to get to know the student

Develops teacher's interest in something beyond the subject

Creates collaborations with other teachers/students

"Studio Habits of Mind"--Ellen Winner: teaches work ethic/resilience 

Practical way of working though problems--teaches planning and going into depth

Teaches problem solving for students and teachers.

Allows for spontaneity

Hands on experience

Teaches self-expression

Kid buy-in helps with participation--esp. reluctant kids

Challenges

How to make it challenging and engaging for older students

How to find the time and resources to implement in the sense of urgency to meet the objectives

How to teach to the exam, when the kids will not get the exam in this format

Teacher buy-in: caliber and belief

Kids who don't enjoy art

Institutional culture doesn't support arts integration

Requires more planning time for teachers/kids (prelim sketches, etc)

Prescriptive teachers: strong beliefs get in the way of teaching art--

 example of rigid way of teaching figure drawing

Teachers might engage in false pyscho-analysis

Leaves out "art for art's sake"

Small groups worked together to chose a challenge or two and brainstorm possible solutions.

The two groups then took a "Gallery Walk," switching sides to read each other's lists and using post-it notes to add questions, comments or suggestions.  

  We will revisit this activity next session as people were absolutely bursting with great thoughts!

Finally we did a resource share, which was very rich with valuable ideas.  Here are some of the ones we talked about: 

Articles:
Math Vitamins: Developed by AIS' partner  University Child Development School.
Fibona-cha-cha Dance and Art using this pattern and the Golden Ratio


Websites:
Fibonacci Sequence In depth description of the golden ratio and it's applications in nature.
Math in a Basket  Project using mathematics in a basket weaving activity.
Great Maths Teaching Ideas  The 10 Best Maths Teaching Websites
General Art + Math  Ideas Document describing some sample lesson plans.
Surface Area + Volume Relationship  From Live Mint, using different animals and their jumping heights as examples
Arvind Gupta A wide array of books and projects with ideas for arts out of recycled materials.
Songs for Teaching Uses music to teach early mathematics skills, shapes, money, and telling time.
SPARK Site-- University Child Development School's resource for creating Math Vitamins
Agastya  Runs hands-on Science Education Programs in rural India, using "Mobile Labs"
Jodo-Gyan  Dehli-based Non-Profit "working to find workable solutions to the problems in classroom practices." 
Navnirmit  Works to develop and distribute high quality learning materials at low/no cost to promote elementary mathematics and science skills. i



Books: 
All about Nothing--The Story of Zero by Nina Sabnani
Mathema-twist--Number tales from around the world by T.V. Padma
MathART  Projects and Activities, by Carolyn Ford Brunetto Grades 2-5
Multicultural Math by Claudia Zaslavsky Grades 3-6


Videos:
Khan Academy  A series of over 3,000 videos helping you "learn almost anything for free."
Vi Hart: Doodling in Math Class  Fun short videos showing doodles ability to address complex math topics.
Jack Black's Math Song Funny song teaches "advanced" math in a funny way. 
Teach Me How to Factor Rap song breaks down factoring in a fun way.
Getting Triggy With It Rap about trigonometry teaches about angles using music.
Do the Quad Solve More delightful rapping explains factoring, completing the square, and the quadratic equation.
Multiplication Rap Goes through the x2 and x3 tables in a simple rap.


Ideas:
Using bangles to demonstrate Fractions and Patterns
"Rainbow Window" Math Vitamin

Week 1: Introductions and Defining Authentic Arts Integration

Artful Integration: A Collaborative Planning Session kicked off yesterday with a group of educators exploring Arts Integration. First we made collages to introduce ourselves, which helped us go deeper into our personal relationship with the arts, as well as what we hoped to get out of the sessions.  Collages were as varied as the individuals that made them.  

The artwork ranged from symbolic images and color schemes...

...to a collection of powerful phrases...

 

...to creative combinations of the two!

Through the collages we were able to deepen our self-expression and foster a creative environment to share ideas and resources.

Next we dove into the question of what makes an authentic arts integration?  We looked at some examples to help us answer this question.  For instance, the contrast between:

Teaching the ABC's by singing it in a song, 

which uses music but the music is merely a vehicle to memorize the academic subject 

vs.

 Teaching the ABC's letter formation using dance instruction, 

which embeds the basic concepts of dance while kids move their bodies into the shape of the letters

From this we considered that two things happen in Authentic Arts Integration:

1. Students learn about both academic topic and art form.  

2. Student understanding of academic topic and art form are furthered by the integration.

Since this is not a black and white issue, and there is obviously a spectrum of what "authentic" means to different people, we went got a chance to go deeper into the question.  We broke up into groups to investigate more examples of arts integration and discuss their degree of authenticity.  

 The groups got a set of examples (see below) and were also invited to write their own:

Students explored the events leading up to Indian independence through theatrical re-enactments, as well as studying and writing protest songs from the era, which they presented in a culminating performance for their school community.

Students studied the pre-colonial British era by copying pictures of historical figures from the time period out of their textbook to include in their written reports on the subject.

When studying clouds in Science, students explored the variety of cloud types by painting a series of watercolours that explored various techniques of achieving different cloud formations.

When studying clouds in Science, students made clouds out of white cotton, glued them to cardboard backings, and used them to decorate their classroom.

A teacher used music to teach fractions, by having students clap out the beats to common songs in order to illustrate the concept of ½ and ¼ notes.

When studying clouds in Science, students were instructed to dance around like clouds.

 The teams engaged in rich discussions about different teaching and learning styles, sharing their own experiences as both students and teachers.  Through our discussion, it became apparent that there is a spectrum of authenticity and it largely depends on the teacher's ability to ask questions and frame the lesson to deepen student understanding of both the art form and the academic topic being integrated.

Both groups organized their examples in different ways.  One saw some of the examples as strong and fit and ready to go, while others were a little weaker and needed the "prescribed workouts" that they suggested.

The other group organized theirs in a Venn Diagram, showing the subtle variations of "authenticity."  This group also worked to come up with a definition of Authentic Arts Integration, which included the observations that "art facilitates learning" and that it should be "child-driven."  

This work will be a wonderful foundation for next week's conversation about the benefits and challenges of arts integration.  Educators have the homework of seeking out some resources to share about next week's topic: Integrating Art and Math!

Some fantastic and free resources for lesson plans and more information about Arts Integration can be found below:


Arts Edge: Easy search engine to find some super user-friendly lessons for all ages, great but topics are a bit American-centric.  Check out both the "Lessons" and the "How-to's"

Arts Everyday: If you click on the "Educators" heading you can find some good sample lessons under the "Programs Directory" tab and a great overview for building a culture of arts integration at your school under the "How to do Arts Integration" tab.

Arts 4 Learning: Helps you search for lesson plans of arts integration with some helpful videos.  You need a membership but it's free to sign up.

Learner.org:  Download this PDF to go over Art Integration basics and check out the inventory you can use to evaluate your use of art integration in the classroom

Also, we discussed Ellen Winner's work on Studio Habits of Mind, which argues that while Arts Education isn't proven to raise test scores, it is very valuable for developing eight important thinking abilities.
This article by here, Art for our Sake, outlines her ideas nicely.