Integrative Approach to Teaching the Humanities

Transcription

1 1 Stephanie Deickler EPSY506L-256 Sample Reflection Framework(s) Reflection Standards for Analysis Exhibits Topic Shown Integrating Standard 4 EngageNY.org Guiding Principles for the Arts the Performance Standard 5 content/uploads/2011/07/guidingprinciples- and Visual arts.pdf Arts into Social Studies and ELA Doing History by Linda Levstik and Keith Barton, Graduate Culture and Community Unit Plan (Grade 3) Selected Lessons Course: An Integrative Approach to Teaching the Humanities Undergraduate Holocaust Unit Plan items Course: (grade 6) Teaching ELA, S.S. Lesson The Holocaust from View of Language Arts the Victims and Social Studies Graduate Rubric Assessment, Self-Regulation Sheets Course: Content Area Assessment and Portfolio Development

2 2 Literature on Integration of the Arts NYSED Three Methods for Teaching the Social Studies to Students through the Arts by Ronald V. Morris, Kathryn M. Obenchain Art Education in the Social Studies By Marjorie Cohee Manifold Interdisciplinary teaching Standards Integrating the Arts into Social Studies and English Language Arts in the Elementary School Classroom The topic of integrating the arts into disciplines in teaching elementary school students is significant as it is innovative. There is much value in incorporating the performing, visual, and fine arts into lessons and activities in the classroom in order to enhance children s values and help students make clearer meaning of the discipline-specific content. Current literature supports this idea, whether the teacher includes drama and skits into a social studies unit or has students interpret art and write about the elements within. According to the article Three Methods for Teaching the Social Studies to Students through the Arts, the arts communicate information to students and help them demonstrate information (Morris. & Obenchain, 2012, p.2). The integration of various types of art into the Social Studies and the English Language Arts curriculums encourages students to create

3 3 something of their own, make connections with other areas of knowledge, and think critically. This is pertinent to my teaching because I enjoy art myself and would like to encourage students to be creative, inventive thinkers and learners. Each of my supporting frameworks overlaps as they relate to the professional standards, literature, and the Guiding Principles for the Arts. Each exhibit attached-lessons and activities- displays different aspects of the literature and guidelines, and the NY state standards the lessons are framed off of are explicitly stated. Assessment is also integrated into multiple exhibits as examples of how to best assess student work in interdisciplinary assignments that assimilate the arts. Included as well are self-regulation questions that guide students in setting goals, and then reflecting on and monitoring their own progress and learning. In the Guiding Principles for the Arts Standards from EngageNY.org, the first principle is: to study works of art as training in close observation across the arts disciplines and preparing students to create and perform in the arts. Following this principle is a lesson plan on the Holocaust for 6 th graders from my Reading II class that focused on integrating ELA and S.S. but also incorporated art. In my lesson, students had to analyze works of art and answer specific questions about the artwork by using the principles of design and analysis for meaning. (Attached 1) Highlighted in the lesson plan are the specific parts of the lesson that have a direct connection to art. This activity fits with the first principle of because students learn how to use

4 4 close observation and pay close attention to detail. This will help students to become career ready (as the NY State Standards require) in that students practice the skills of interpretation and judgment. The state of NY requests that students observation abilities are cultivated and in this case they are in the context of a Social Studies topic. Also, students have to practice writing skills in composing a piece that is explanatory and opinion-based. This is an example of how art can be seamlessly integrated with Social Studies and ELA. Students would practice the skill of analyzing artwork that relates to a Social Studies period or topic and then writing about it as the first Guiding Principles for the Arts outlines. Because all of the types of artwork selected are all from different times and artists and are different artistic genres, students grapple with and are exposed to a wide range of artwork. This is the stepping stone and scaffold for students to start constructing and creating their own artwork using the principles of design and practicing how to convey meaning through artistic creations. Art allows students to extract the events and significance of a time period or culture as they synthesize information gained from the art, artifact, or other resources (Morris & Obenchain, 2012, p.2) which students will do by collecting information from art, literature, and historical documents during the course of the unit.

5 5 In theory this idea would work well. In a sixth grade classroom it is necessary to expose students to some element of choice and this is why the students have the ability to choose which piece they wish to analyze. Then, after independently answering each of the questions, students with different pictures share their ideas to broaden their perspectives. This follows the principle in that students are sustaining a high quality of engagement through conversation and discussion. During this activity, I would carefully monitor students written responses to ensure that they are going in the right direction. Reflecting on this aspect of the lesson, I would also choose more child-friendly artwork for the Holocaust unit that may appeal to and interest 6 th graders more. I may first have a lesson on how to observe and interpret art with a focus on more specific art vocabulary. I would do this in order to provide a solid foundation for students to look at art and encourage that the proper discipline-specific terminology is used. I would then assess students on their use of appropriate art language and their level of interpretation. I would want students to be very familiar with how to analyze artwork. This is also recommended in Art Education in the Social Studies: Social studies presents knowledge of human experiences, while art has the power to provide and intimate understanding of human experiences through personal encounters that yield insights. (Manifold, 1995, p.1)

6 6 Another aspect addressed in the Holocaust lesson plan that is directly linked to the Guiding Principles for the Arts, is number 2: Engaging in a deep study of works of art across disciplines and preparing students to develop arts literacy and develop their own art, and number 5: Providing an explicit learning progression in the arts along the pre-k to grade 12 continuum that is developmentally appropriate. The group work activity from the same Holocaust unit for 6 th grade from Reading II (attached 2) is an example of how ELA, Social Studies and art can be integrated. The 5 th principle is relevant because each group has an assignment tailored to the group s interests, learning styles, and abilities and all assignments are grade 6 appropriate. It is clear in the assignment that students are taking the topic of the Holocaust and using literature (the 5 th grade level book Who was Anne Frank? by Anne Abramson) by extracting the content knowledge from the book and making connections. In the jigsaw activity there are art components, such as creating an advertisement, which are for the most part creations of visual art, but also a performing arts skit in order to integrate the performance arts into learning (highlighted in yellow in attachment). Students must have read the chapter assigned to them and then share the main idea from it with the rest of the class. This would positively affect student learning because they are able to read a part of the book and draw meaning from it, and then create something to describe one aspect of the topic.

7 7 This assignment has a lot of skill components within it: communication, organization, planning, creativity, answering a prompt, pulling information from text, and making connections. Students are also practicing all learning styles in that they read the book aloud (auditory learners) write something usually after talking about it (linguistic), create art (visual and kinesthetic) and one creates a skit (bodily-kinesthetic). Students are encouraged to do additional research on their part as well in order to practice research and information collection skills. The assignment also connects to a larger theme as is supported in the book Doing History by Linda Levstik and Keith Barton that we read in our graduate level class: An Integrative Approach to Teaching the Humanities. In this class, we talk about the book s reference to theme-based learning. My theme for this part of the lesson was human rights, therefore there is a focus/guiding question that accompanies the activity relating to how human rights are inherently taken away or compromised in each situation. The book suggests that there is a sustained study of overarching historical themes. Also, in Three Methods for Teaching the Social Studies to Students through the Arts, the authors emphasize how arts that reflect society often communicate universal themes. The arts also have the ability to inform students of the ideas of art, and to connect with the universal themes (Morris & Obenchain, 2012, p.2). This brings in the affective domain and students values.

8 8 Reflecting on this jigsaw activity, I realize that a lot of teacher work and planning would need to go on prior to doing this assignment. I had to read the book, choose a focus topic for each chapter that related to human rights, split up groups, think of creative ways to integrate art, and more. This means too that in order to tailor the groups to the children s specific interests and abilities I would have to have carefully planned the groups. For instance, there is a group of all girls who will recreate Anne Frank s outfit according to how the passage in the chapter described it and then write a diary entry to Kitty showing how human rights were violated. Students may see competition amongst groups and wish they were doing a different activity. I differentiated the activity as far as content, process and product which could make students jealous of other groups. Maybe there is a way that I could recreate it so that the end products are for instance, all brochures or some artistic creation but have a different process and content. Another way that I integrated art into content areas, following the Guiding Principles for the Arts and standards, was in a 3rd lesson plan for Community and Culture from my class, An Integrative Approach to Teaching the Humanities. In the lesson, as part of the world community unit, students are asked to create two word clouds and to compare and contrast their meanings. This will occur after seeing a model and being given a demonstration and introduction on how to use Wordle. The lesson (attached 3) integrates art and technology into

9 9 the lesson. According to the article, Art Education in the Social Studies, there is a symbiotic relationship between art and social studies. This makes the two subject areas compatible for pairing in an integrated curriculum (Manifold,1995, p. 1). The assignment involves having students use their comparing and contrasting skills to examine one aspect of two different countries. This way, students are engaging in higher-order thinking by creating two word clouds on Wordle using technology, then altering the colors and layout practicing making artistic choices, and finally, doing a thorough analysis of the two word clouds created and seeing similarities and differences in content, and finally drawing meaning from them. This assignment seems like it would go well. However, I think students could have choice in the two regions they select and there could be different aspects they need to look for. For instance, one group may choose two passages that talk about the food and traditional holidays in two countries while another can choose cultural customs of each and compare them. Clear assessment is crucial for such an assignment as I have learned in my Content Area Assessment and Portfolio Development graduate class. This is why, attached, is a detailed rubric for the word clouds (4). This class has shown us how to make quantitative and specific scoring rubrics so that students are aware of their expectations in assignments and can clearly see where their strengths and weaknesses lie. The rubric allows the pair to grade themselves and

10 10 there is a section for specific teacher comments and suggestions as well, as is best practice for creating rubrics. Additionally, in the Doing History book there is a section on Assessment and the Arts (Levstik & Barton, 2001, p. 189) that goes into the uncertainties some teachers have when trying to assess art and history components. Using this framework of reference, I saw that there is a way to make sure students played with the features of Wordle in order to make their creation aesthetically pleasing, and so the requirement is simply that they played with the formatting, colors, etc. This way, there is no judgment on the art itself, just a check that the students changed things around in their word clouds and made the colors and fonts different, pleasing, and appropriate for their topic. The passage also emphasizes how the presentation aspect can be an aid to understanding. This relates directly back to the first principle of the Guiding Principles for the Arts because students perform in some way. Students are required to present and explain their word clouds to the class. Assessment addresses both historical and aesthetic aspects of performance (Levstik & Barton, p.190) as my rubric does. Students must have the social studies content with evidence of similarities and differences, and have attractive visual aids (the word clouds). In reference to another framework for integrating the arts into Social Studies and ELA, is a summative project for students from the World Communities and Culture unit from my class

11 11 An Integrative Approach to Teaching the Humanities, This lesson plan includes two aspects: the integration of art into social studies (Attached 5) and assessment of art and social studies content through a checklist. (Attached 6). The lesson combines all aspects of learning from previous lessons about different cultures and communities. The art aspect is that students include colors, graphics, and photographs in their brochures in Publisher. This also incorporates technology into social studies. The brochure must include information and pictures about the geography, language, traditional way of life, landmarks, traditional and modern values, and an historical event for their region. Students must also present their brochures as a travel guide and persuade the class to want to travel to their region instead of another person s. This involves the performing arts and allows students to practice persuasion and speaking in front of an audience. The assessment is specific (attached 6) so that students can score themselves as well as the teacher, and they can see specific comments. Reflecting on this assessment, I would possibly change the layout and specific requirements to include more art components. Students do have the choice to create the brochure by hand with markers, colored pencils, magazines, etc. but I feel that doing it on the computer may sometimes limit creativity. Self regulation is essential for students in any unit of study. This is significant and helpful for the arts integration as well so that students can learn to monitor and judge their

12 12 grasp and growth of artistic concepts and creations in relation to Social Studies and other subject areas. My Content Area Assessment and Portfolio Development graduate class. This is why, in addition to the assignment for the end of the Community unit, students have self reflection questions to answer (attached 7). This serves as a place for students to reflect on their diligence and learning in the assignment. Students will ask themselves what they think they did well, what they could improve on and how they will work on it, and what specific steps they will take in future projects. Another aspect of integrating the arts into the Social Studies and English curriculum is having students set goals and recognize their strengths and weaknesses prior to units of study. This is why (attached 8) students can answer questions about specifically art, social studies and English. First, students will write their strengths in each area, followed by something they struggle with. I would model this and give examples of responses. Students will then write what they want to work on and specific skills in each. Then there is an overall goal and steps to reach it. This would be appropriate for grade level 4 and up and maybe for third graders. I would think that students could be introspective at this level and examine their strengths. However, reflecting on this self-regulation exercise, I would think that some students have not been exposed enough to art and social studies to be able to make a determination of their own abilities. Perhaps a more simplified stream of questions would be more appropriate.

13 13 My teaching would be enhanced by using the mentioned methods, theories and literature to integrate the arts into other subject areas. Reflecting upon all aspects included, I can see how there are multiple ways to integrate different types of art. Students can learn about how to observe, analyze and critique art using appropriate terminology and specific vocabulary. From here, students create their own performance skits or artistic creations, sometimes with the assistance of technology. This enables students to engage in different aspects of the arts. The incorporation of the arts into social studies can also be expanded for different topics and grade levels. I have learned from specific literature and classes I have taken how well social studies in particular and art connect. The discipline-based art education approach is inherent in all my exhibits as the components- art history, art criticism, art production, and aesthetics all relate directly to social studies and can be explain in writing (Manifold,1995, p. 2). Skits and the performing arts can be especially useful for students to act out historical events and there can always be an accompaniment of illustrations and art props. Students can also present their own art and engage in higher order thinking by examining different pieces of art from various time periods. Students can also, as mentioned in the Guiding Principles for the Arts, compare two works of art displaying the same idea that relates to a social studies topic and write a response for the ELA component. I have learned that there are endless possibilities

14 14 when it comes to the integration of the arts into any subject. Doing this reflection has encouraged ideas about ways to include art in any subject, such as math and science. Even a small artistic inclusion can promote creative thinking and allow students to express themselves in different ways. This will affect my teaching in the future because I now have more ideas for my own lessons and how to use the Principles and Standards as a guide to the integration of the arts.

15 15 Standards Standard 4 outlines the importance of long-range planning and curriculum development. The candidate is required to develop, implement, and evaluate the curriculum based upon student, district, and state performance standards. Through all exhibits I have included the NY state standards in my lessons for Art, Social Studies, and ELA. The first aspect of the goal for Standard 4 is that the teacher selects/creates learning experiences appropriate for curriculum goals, relevant to learners, based upon principles of effective instruction. I believe all exhibits do this. For instance, the jigsaw activity from the Holocaust lesson adheres to Standard 4 because it creates lessons and activities that recognize individual needs of diverse learners and variations in learning styles in the group formations and topics of each chapter. Also, as is evident in my self-regulation attachments, I have adhered to the aspect of Standard 4 in evaluating plans relative to long and short-term goals & adjusts them to meet student needs to enhance learning. During each unit I would use input from students in their self-evaluations on assessments and self-regulation answers to alter and change my instructional methods in order to best suit my students. The first aspect of Standard 5 states that the teacher must select alternative teaching strategies, materials, and technology. In the Culture and Community lesson with the word

16 16 clouds, clear technology is integrated. There is also a Symbaloo page that assists students with research and is differentiated through color coding. An example of alternative teaching strategies would be modeling the activities, having class-wide discussions (activation of prior knowledge from word clouds), teacher facilitation of class presentations and other discussion, explicit teaching of social studies topics and jigsaw group work. Many different materials are used as well throughout the units, including pieces of art for analysis and interpretation, literature, computers for research, and more. A clear example of Standard 5 is in the Holocaust jigsaw exhibit because it engages students in active learning that promotes the development of critical thinking, problem solving and performance capabilities. This is because students must read the text, take meaning from it, create a piece of art to teach others, and then further explain the idea while making a connection to human rights. Critical thinking and problem solving skills are also inherent in creation of the brochure for the Culture and Community as students must engage in research and transmitting relevant, specific information into each category of their brochure.

17 17 References Levstik, L. S., & Barton, K. C. (2001). Doing history: Investigating with children in elementary and middle schools. (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Manifold, M. C. (1995). Art education in the social studies. ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies, doi: ED Morris, R. V., & Obenchain, K. M. (2012). Three methods for teaching the social studies to students through the arts.