The fine arts provide the original template for
differentiated instruction and addressing the different learning styles for
students. A focus of our state arts
grant is turning around professional development related to using the arts as
an instructional tool in all content areas.
For our January cohort meeting, the fine arts cohort presented and
modeled engaging fine arts instructional strategies to the secondary literacy
cohort. These strategies involved engaging
students in content and informational texts.
Shelly Bailey modeled a “Tiny Toy Tale” lesson. Using artistically modified dollar store toys and other manipulatives, she told a three-dimensional and very animated story that presented and explained the colors of the color wheel and their relationships with each other. While this was an example of a fine arts strategy with the content of visual arts, as Bailey explained, this strategy could be used to engage students in content and informational texts in any subject. While the teacher could model a “Tiny Toy Tale” with any content-related information, students could then create and present their own three-dimensional animated tales to engage in and retain important content information.
Chad Littleton modeled a lesson utilizing tableau drama (a motionless dramatic representation of a scene) that addressed the context of the Gettysburg Address in 10th grade literature. After reading online texts and viewing online videos through blendspace.com, participating teachers used the information from the online materials to plan tableau scenes representing the beginning, middle, and end of the action at Gettysburg. Again, this strategy could be used to engage students in content and informational texts in all subject areas.
The goal of this session and the modeled lessons was to show that the fine arts should not be an extra responsibility for the classroom teacher, but they should provide necessary tools for allowing the students to access the content in a fun and engaging way.
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