Dance as arts integration
Imagine walking into an elementary school classroom. What do you imagine seeing students doing?
What you see them doing is the approach or method through which they are learning. It is not what they are learning about, but how they are learning it. For example, you might see children:
Current theories about the nature of learning, including Constructivism, tell us that children – and all of us - learn better through active rather than passive processes. These processes engage children in actively making sense of the world.
Which of the approaches above
do you think ARE MORE active or passive?
I could of course list which of the above are generally understood to be more active forms of learning and which are more passive. But if I did that, it would be a passive way for you to learn. You would simply receive an answer.
By asking the question, I was inviting you to actively engage with the question… imagine yourself learning in those ways… remember back to your childhood learning… consider how you best like to learn as an adult… make your own connections… and figure out your own answer that makes most sense to you.
In arts integration, an art form – dance, media arts, music, theatre, visual arts – is an active approach to learning that is “experiential, evolving, collaborative, problem-solving, and reflective”.
Arts integration is defined by the Kennedy Center as:
With arts integration, students engage in the creative process to explore connections between an art form and another subject area to gain greater understanding in both. In this process they meet learning objectives in academic and artistic curriculum.
This video documents a 2nd grade project that integrated Dance with History-Social and English Language Arts. Over ten weeks, students engaged in traditional learning in the classroom and once a week engaged in arts integrated activities:
I invite you to reflect on:
WHAT you imagine students may have learned through this project - academically, artistically, and social-emotionally.
HOW they were learning.
The project was undertaken by CoTA - an arts integration organization in San Diego - for which I have been fortunate to teach for 12 years.
Visit CoTA’s Projects Page to download lesson plans of arts integrated projects that connect Creative Writing, Dance, Theatre, and Visual Arts with English Language Arts, History-Social, Math, and Science.