Arts Based Teaching And Learning In The Literacy Classroom

This book highlights the unique and co-generative intersections of the arts and literacy that promote critical and socially engaged teaching and learning. Based on a year-long ethnography with two literacy teachers and their students in an arts-based public high school, this volume makes an argument for arts-based education as the cultivation of a critical aesthetic practice in the literacy classroom. Through rich example and analysis, it shows how, over time, this practice alters the in-school learning space in significant ways by making it more constructivist, more critical, and fundamentally more relational.

This book highlights the unique and co-generative intersections of the arts and literacy that promote critical and socially engaged teaching and learning. Based on a year-long ethnography with two literacy teachers and their students in an arts-based public high school, this volume makes an argument for arts-based education as the cultivation of a critical aesthetic practice in the literacy classroom. Through rich example and analysis, it shows how, over time, this practice alters the in-school learning space in significant ways by making it more constructivist, more critical, and fundamentally more relational.

This book explores the many dialogues that exist between the arts and literacy. It shows how the arts are inherently multimodal and therefore interface regularly with literate practice in learning and teaching contexts. It asks the questions: What does literacy look like in the arts? And what does it mean to be arts literate? It explores what is important to know and do in the arts and also what literacies are engaged in, through the journey to becoming an artist. The arts for the purpose of this volume include five art forms: Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music and Visual Arts. The book provides a more productive exploration of the arts-literacy relationship. It acknowledges that both the arts and literacy are open-textured concepts and notes how they accommodate each other, learn about, and from each other and can potentially make education ‘better’. It is when the two stretch each other that we see an educationally productive dialogic relationship emerge.

Partnerships are now pervasive in global education and development, but are they creating equitable, cooperative, and positive relationships? Through case studies of prominent multistakeholder partnerships—including the Education Cannot Wait Fund and Global Partnership for Education—as well as a comprehensive analysis of the global education network, this book exposes clear power imbalances that persist in the international aid environment. The author reveals how actors and organizations from high-income countries continue to wield disproportionate influence, while the private sector holds a growing degree of authority in public policy circles. In light of such evidence, this book questions if partnerships truly ameliorate power asymmetries, or if they instead reproduce the precise inequities they are meant to eliminate. “This text offers a thoughtful look into both theoretical and practical issues surrounding arts integration as a viable strategy for increasing students’ achievement and access to higher education and career pathways. It is especially timely in the context of a widespread focus on equity and inclusion as teachers are facing more diversity in the classroom than ever before.” —Kristen Greer-Paglia, CEO, P.S. ARTS “This book, offering a rich buffet of art-based activities grounded in critical ideas about teaching and learning, includes topics as oral language development, visual thinking strategies, making meaning of narrative and informational texts, and expression through narrative and informational writing. An excellent guide to teachers aspiring to integrate the arts into their curriculum, it is both a delightful and useful read!” —Liora Bresler, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana

In a struggling global economy, education is focused on core subjects such as language arts and mathematics, and the development of technological and career-readiness skills. Arts education has not been a central focus of education reform movements in the United States, and none of the current education standards frameworks deeply address the processes, texts and literacies that are inherent to arts disciplines. This lack of clarity poses a problem for state and district leaders who might be inclined to advocate for the arts in schools and classrooms across the country, but cannot find adequate detail in their guiding frameworks. This volume acknowledges the challenges that arts educators face, and posits that authentic arts instruction and learning can benefit a young person’s development both inside and outside of the classroom. It presents ways that arts teachers and literacy specialists can work together to help others understand the potential that arts learning has to enhance students 21st century learning skills.

In tracing community, and how art and craft can be harnessed to express and manifest communities, this book raises fundamental questions and issues about the nature of literacy in everyday lives. Threaded throughout the contributions is an abiding belief in the expansive and flexible nature of literacy, which might one moment involve photography; in the next, drama; and in the next, invite song coupled with movement. Something happens to literacy when it is seen through multiple modalities of meaning and communication: it moves from a thing to a thought and a feeling. Pedagogically, the book offers readers a carousel of places and people to witness literacy with, from young children all the way to grandparents. This opens up a sense of geography and age, proving that literacy really does reside in the centre and corners of our lives. With nine chapters by scholars in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, all researching under the umbrella of the same research study, the collection provides a unique perspective on human and aesthetic communication and shows differences between social groups. This book was originally published as a special issue of Pedagogies: An International Journal.

The new edition of this best-selling text on arts-based teaching redefines literacy in light of the 21st century need for multiple literacies. Creating Meaning through Literature and the Arts: An Integration Handbook for Teachers, 4th Edition provides teachers with an Arts Integration Blueprint, comprised of 10 building blocks for arts-based instruction that includes collaborative unit planning, best arts-based teaching practices, and assessment for learning. The Five Seed Strategy chapters provide a compendium of activities to jumpstart the use of literature, art, music, drama, and dance as integral teaching tools for science, social studies, math, and literacy instruction.

Teacher as Curator provides a roadmap for using creative strategies to engage both educators and students in the learning process. Focusing on key qualities of culturally and linguistically responsive arts learning, chapters specifically demonstrate how arts integration strategies and formative assessment can be a catalyst for change in the classroom. Readers will be inspired by teachers and practitioners who have donned the role of curator to achieve significant results. Kindergarten–college educators will find research-based protocols and practices that they can translate into any educational setting. In digestible chapters, this resource provides a theoretical base for building artistic literacy into the curriculum and for developing multimodal opportunities for students to demonstrate their understanding of content. Book Features Explores the role of curation in the classroom.Highlights processes for innovation and multimodal learning.Showcases the work of teachers from different subjects and grade levels.Provides examples of integrated learning through lesson planning, curatorial maps, and learning stories.Highlights strategies that can deepen artistic literacy and engage students through formative assessment. “As those of us at the policy level work to realize a vision for innovation and creativity to transform our current education system, I am so grateful to Lisa Donovan and Sarah Anderberg for valuing the expertise of the educators whose partnerships are critical to our success.” —Beth Lambert, director of innovative teaching and learning, Maine Department of Education