Arts Integration Strategies: Taking the Next Steps

Hello friend and welcome back to another episode of Artworks for Teachers. I’m your host, Susan Riley. Today we’re getting into the nitty gritty. We’re gonna start working on strategies, specifically some very intentional arts integration strategies that we can use as we head into these fall months. At the time of this recording, it is October. So we’re looking at these fall months leading ainto our winter break period. And the next eight weeks are often… something of a terror for most teachers. We are competing against things like fall break, Thanksgiving, winter break, the holidays, and it gets to be a lot, right? Students are really wound up. It’s an exciting time at the beginning of the year, but now we’re really into the thick of things and we need to keep our students’ attentions, and it’s already difficult, right?

So today what I’m sharing with you are some arts integration strategies that I think are really relevant right now with what’s going on in the world and things that we want to explore with our students. And I’m going to give you some examples of those. And then I’m going to share with you a way to deepen your arts integration strategy. I call it a lesson leap so that it’s not just simple strategies that you’re using in your classroom, but you’re connecting those strategies to lessons that are going to make a really big impact for your students sometimes that bridge can be a little difficult. And so I’m gonna share with you a really easy way to do that and then lead into those lessons that you really need to accomplish before students head out at the end of the year. So let’s dive in with some of my favorites. So let’s start by understanding in October, 2024, we have now experienced two massive hurricanes in two weeks in this country that have left portions of our country devastated here in the US. And many students don’t understand what really happens during a hurricane or how hurricanes develop or the science behind that. And they’re seeing lots and lots of headlines. They’re seeing lots of things that they may or may not know about. And so we want to capture that. We want to use this as a learning experience to one, help students understand what’s going on, but also to empathize and try to put themselves into the shoes of the people who are having to clean up from these devastating natural disasters. So there are two strategies that I think are really helpful for that if you are working with students on what they’re seeing on the news or trying to help them with an SEL lesson, for example, or a way to better understand and empathize with people. I want to share these two strategies with you. So I’m going to share my screen. If you’re not watching this, but you’re listening to it, you are going to want to go watch this episode. It’s on YouTube. It’s also on our Artworks for Teachers podcast page. Feel free to head over there once it’s safe for you to do so. We’re going to start with the headline strategies. Now,

We actually have a packet for our accelerator members that these are coming out of. So you’ll see that this says strategy two, but really this is out of our packet of the top 10 that we use with our accelerator members at all times. The headline strategy though, let me just quickly go over this. It’s really simple. It’s based on a thinking routine of the same name. You’re to have students look at a piece of artwork or perhaps a segment of images that are coming out of various places. For example, if you take a look at pictures from Asheville, North Carolina, and you have students take a look at what it looks like before the hurricane hit and then what happened, take a picture of what it looked like after. You can have students take a look at those kinds of images and you could have them watch something on the news, like a news segment. You could have them take a look at artwork that is being created to, from artists who are living in this moment. Or you can have students just take a look at a piece of artwork that was done in a previous time from a different hurricane or a natural disaster to see what happens over time. But the important piece is that students are taking a look at these kinds of images, right? And then they’re gonna write a headline to capture what they see, what the most important idea is from that period of time or that image. And students have free reign here, right? So it gives them a lot of options. And this is a great time to talk about what constitutes a headline. It needs to be short. It needs to capture the reader’s attention. It needs to capture what is happening in a nutshell as a summary of what is going on. And it needs to get people to want to know more, right?

And so this is a great opportunity for students to stretch those writing skills as well as those reading skills that we need them to be working on. So it’s a great connection back to the science of reading right now. And then once students have their headlines, they’re going to share those out and explain the reasoning behind them. And then they can compare their headline to perhaps the headline that was pulled from the original image. So if you pulled that image from a news story, have them compare it to the headline that was used for that image and see, do they like theirs better? Do they like the one that was in the news story? What’s the same? What’s different? Now, in this example that I’m sharing here, this is, we’re using the image from The Problem We All Live With, the iconic painting from Norman Rockwell in 1964. This is, again, a great way to spur conversations if you’re working with older students, middle school and high school students and you’re looking at the history of this country and when Brown versus the Board of Education happened, or you’re looking at historical events over time, this is a great image to use in order to capture their attention and build on that headline strategy. I like the headline strategy for this period of time, and I’m gonna come back to you now so that you can see me. I like this headline strategy for a number of reasons. One,

You can do it really quickly. This is a great way to just start to introduce topics in your classroom. It’s also a great way to summarize topics. if students have been learning about something and then we use that image as a way to summarize everything that they’ve learned into this image and capture that, it’s a wonderful way to practice those skills as well. So it’s a great way to open. It’s a great way to close. It can be as short or as long as you want.

I know that there are teachers who have used the strategy takes five minutes and then it prompts them into the rest of their lesson. I know teachers who have used this as the entire lesson. So really it’s very flexible. And because there is so much going on right now, not only the natural disasters, but we have a big election in the US coming up in November. We also have the holidays coming up. So lots of different ways and seasons to see headlines, right? And to make this a practical strategy that students then take and use for a different purpose, I think is really helpful. It expands how they see things, and they also start to look at headlines that they see in a different way. Particularly in a period of time where social media is rampant and you never know what you can trust online, looking at headlines, they can look for, they can understand what click bait is, right? and understand whether the headline really captures what’s going on or not, and be on the lookout for that. It makes them wiser citizens and consumers, right? And those are things that we, those are skills we want to build in our students. So love the headline strategy for that. Now we’re gonna move into a different strategy because as we’re headed into the holiday seasons, especially Halloween or Diaz de los Muertos or Thanksgiving, or even the winter holidays with Hanukkah and Christmas and others that are happening. Sometimes it’s hard for us to understand other people’s cultures. So I love the strategy of step inside because when you step inside the perspective of someone else, you can then wear that hat for a minute and see what does that feel like? What does that look like?

What are things that I’m noticing now that I didn’t notice before because I had not put that hat on? Right? It’s kind of like trying on a piece of clothing. So I want to share the step inside strategy with you because again, I think it’s another easy one that’s that you can use and is also really applicable for this time of year. Okay. So when we’re looking at step inside the, again, the directions for this are very simple. You’re going to choose a person or an object or an element and step inside that point of view. So for example, I’m using the image of the screen here from Edward Munch 1893. And this is great for the spooky season at the end of October. You could certainly use it again. I’m thinking of that Norman Rockwell image from the previous headline strategy that we used that iconic Rockwell painting of Thanksgiving, right? You could use that as well and then have every, have a student step into the perspective of each person sitting at that table. By the way, there’s a great sidebar. There’s a great episode of Modern Family that kind of captures this, each of them, each of the characters are a part of that Thanksgiving Norman Rockwell painting and they have to just sit there in a tableau for a moment as part of an art gallery, an in-person art gallery, which I think is kind of neat, a great extension for this step inside technique if you were doing this in your classroom. So once you’ve chosen your person or your element, you’re stepping inside that, you’re going to think about what does your chosen element or item perceive or feel? What might that person or thing care about? What might that person or thing perceive or think about? And what might that person or thing know about or believe based on what you’re seeing in the image or perhaps the background that you’re going to provide for that character. This is a great bridge between visual art and theater and bringing those elements together. I love this example because it’s, again, activating a different kind of art form that students love. In terms of taking a look at an image like this, the scream, what is that person screaming about? What are they perceiving? What are they thinking about? What are they caring about? What do they believe? Again, having images from a variety of sources can help with this, as well as different periods of time during the year. So again, this is another way that we can build empathy skills. So let’s take it back to the natural disasters that we’ve been seeing on the news, take a picture or take a look at some of the articles that are coming out and have students think about if I was the person that is standing here looking at this house that is no longer and all of my belongings are here. What are some things that I’m believing right now? What are some things that I’m feeling right now? What are needs that I have so that you can brainstorm ways that perhaps your students could volunteer or maybe run a food drive or think about ways beyond themselves?

Oftentimes, this is something that we’re constantly working on with students and building their community skills. This is a great way to do that. Stepping inside an image is, or even something that you’re seeing as a tableau or in terms of theater. Even if you listen to a piece of music and you’re thinking, okay, if I am inside this piece of music or if I’m the composer, what was I thinking as I was creating this piece example, we’re in the spooky season, right? I loved to use Camille Cesson’s work during this time as a composer because he has such great music that conveys the period of time. Have students listen to that and hear like what’s going on in dance macabre, like

Who are the violinists playing? Who are they being? Are they the ghosts? Are they the bones of the people who are rising from the dead? Right? Why do they only come out during this period of time? Look at the history behind that and the legend behind that. There is so much you can do with step inside as a strategy that it doesn’t just have to be for one component, right? You could use this strategy from now until the end of winter break for a variety of purposes. And students will just get used to looking at things from a different perspective, building that skill set over time. I love that for that reason. Again, it can be short, it can be a long lesson on its own. Again, that strategy has a lot of opportunities that you can use this for. All right, now that we’ve seen a couple of strategies that you can use on their own.

What I want to share with you is how to deepen these strategies. Here’s what I see a lot as an Arts Integration Specialist. Year one of a program, everybody wants the strategies, right? We’re constantly kind of grabbing these strategies and trying them out and they’re seeing success with their students and that is amazing. We want to start with that. But what happens sometimes is that we get stuck using the strategies that we like and that our kids like and then not moving that forward, not taking the next step to connect that strategy into the lesson. And sometimes, again, it be hard to figure out how do do that? So we have something called a strategy lesson leap. And essentially, what you’re gonna do is start with a very simple strategy or a thinking routine that is pretty commonplace for your students. So you could start with headlines.

You could start with step inside. I’m actually gonna introduce you to another one called what makes you say that, where you’re looking at something or you’re listening to something and you’re thinking, what am I thinking about this piece? You’re critically analyzing. What am I thinking about this thing that I’m looking at or listening to? And then what makes me say that? What indicates that for me? This provides a lot of opportunity to build the skill of analysis which again can be difficult, but it’s also a skill that translates across content areas. So it’s not just about literacy, but you could also use it with math. You can also use this in science and of course with social studies as well. So by having a strategy that translates across content areas, now you’re really building your students capacity to think beyond just single subject areas. You’re really having them think across subject areas which is more difficult, it’s more challenging, and it’s something that helps our students over time build their resiliency and their grit, right? So when we take a strategy like that, something very, very simple, and I’m gonna share that with you here. We want you to be able to see it. And this is gonna be your free download for this week. So if you go over to Artworks for Teachers and you take a look at this download, you’ll be able to download this component. So when you start with what’s going on in this picture, or what’s going on with the piece that you’re listening to, or what’s going on in this section of the play that we’re watching, or the dance that we’re watching. What’s going on in this? Have students write that down. Those are the main ideas, right? Then what do you see that makes you say that? What makes you say that is the details, right? This is your analysis where you’re taking a look at, here’s all of the reasons why I made that assumption, right? Why I made that conclusion was because I see this and I see this and I see this. It slows down our students thinking. allows them, it allows us to visibly see their thinking in real time. Great strategy, right? So again, if you’re starting with this, you could take a look at any of the images that I shared earlier. You could even extend it further with something totally outside of that. You could use news clippings. You could use, any kind of art form. If you find a dance that you want students to look at or a piece of music, anything will work. But the idea is that you ask the question, what’s going on here? And what makes you say that? And students fill these two things out. Now, that’s an easy enough strategy. We can use that in a variety of content areas, right? The next step after you start with that strategy is to actually hook it into another strategy that goes just a little bit deeper.

And so the strategy that extends what makes you say that is called Yes and. It comes from our drama friends, our theater friends. This is something that our improvisation people use all the time. So if you’re familiar with comedy clubs or with, you know, that fun show on TV that we’re constantly kind of playing off of each other, right? So this comes from that realm, right? Yes and, the whole point is that you don’t shut down the conversation. You’re constantly saying yes and. And so the steps to this, while we outline them in much detail here, is really simple. You start with an idea and then the next person says yes and and they expand on that, right? So if you started with what makes you say that and you identify here’s what’s going on in this picture and then you identify and here’s what makes me say that, the next person could say yes and I also notice that this is going on in this picture and here’s why I say that. And the next person, yes, and so you’re building, you’re extending on what you started with. I hope that that kind of makes some sense, right? Okay, so let me show you a way that you can apply yes and with another image. So let me hop over to this example. Okay, in this example of yes and,you can kind of see there’s this image of Nighthawks from Edward Hopper in 1942. And so you would have students analyze this and start with what makes you say that. So what’s happening in this image, right? It’s they’re at a diner and men are talking with each other. So great. What makes me say that? What are the details that are behind that? Well, there’s men in top hats. I think it’s from the fifties because men don’t wear the hats like that anymore. They’re talking. There’s a, a guy standing in the center that looks like he’s going to be the waiter, but he’s got a funny hat on that looks like it comes from the 1950s. There’s nobody else around and it kind of looks like it’s nighttime because everything else is dark. You see how you could kind of identify and extrapolate this, right? So students identify what they were thinking about an image and then, yes, and I also think that the man is talking to a woman, he’s a spy because there’s nobody else around.

Yes, and I think the woman is actually working for, right? You could create an entire story just around this one image. And students can do this with a lot of things. So you can use this idea for a couple of different purposes with the yes and technique hooked into what makes you say that. You could look at this as a way of expanding ideas and looking for a solution or a problem in a different way.

You could look at this as a game of telephone and everybody who’s expanding this kind of takes the story and makes it bigger and bigger and bigger and doesn’t that happen in society, right? We listen to a story and then suddenly it gets bigger and bigger and bigger over time, way bigger than the original story was. So you could look at it from two different perspectives. Then once you do that, you take these two strategies that you’ve had, the what makes you say that and the yes and and you hook them finally into a lesson that you’re trying to do. So if you’re looking for to do a main idea and detail lesson, or if you’re looking for a lesson on analyzing two different math problems, right? And you’re having the math problems as stories, which we often do, right? We’re having students look at two trains traveling at 20 miles per hour, right? So having them take a look at these two ideas and have them use what makes you say that. So what’s happening here? What’s the overall idea? What makes you say that? What are the details that you’re looking at for that? And then expand on that. Yes, and I also noticed this is a great way, by the way, in math, you don’t think about using this with math, but it’s really important in subjects like math and science where the details matter and they matter significantly on whether or not you’re going to get to the answer that you’re looking for, right?

So by using something like yes and, you’re hooking students with other students who might notice things that each other, that the other one didn’t notice, right? So if you do this in a group, I noticed that this is using this formula that we’ve just learned, yes and. I also noticed it’s using this expression, which is important because, right? Using just these two strategies and hooking it then into the lesson that you’re using is going to solidify the strategies themselves and it’s going to deepen the learning for your students because now there’s a reason that they’re using those strategies, right? They’re actually using it within the lesson that you’re teaching itself. So just by making that extra hook, you’re going to see such a big difference. So I hope that these strategy ideas for you this week were helpful. Again, make sure that you head over to our Art Works for Teachers podcast page so that you can download the resource that I’ve got for you over there. And I hope that you can start to use that through the fall. And when you get to the point where you’re like, I’m so frustrated because they’re not paying attention or they don’t care, try using one of these strategies and see if you can hook them in a real world way with one of these strategies that were shared today. And if you do, let us know about it. I would love to know how it goes. All right, that’s it for today, my friend. I’m so excited to see how you’ll use these strategies. And I can’t wait to connect with you again next time on the Art Works for Teachers podcast.