How can you use the arts to enhance classroom engagement?

The arts should be an inherent part of our education, especially in workshops and classes. In our classes I include every Monday/ Tuesday morning, depending what class starts when, my weekly question: How was your week-end, please tell me about the books you read, the movies/series you saw, the exhibitions you visited, the music or theater you enjoyed. This, mostly starts a discussion about the individual taste, about the values and the "freedom of art", which is for us one of the highest values. The 2nd part is to include art as an instrument for better learning and understanding how management techniques work. And third, the students regularly go to theater and concert halls as part of the education, and we talk about their experiences.

The role of the Visual Arts actually transforms consciousness, beginning from the biological functions of the human organism, and the function that human beings have an innate contact with others and their environment. The environment is a qualitative one that is made up of sights, sounds, tastes, olfactory experiences through our sensory systems, which can be expressed through the art making process — creativity. Experiencing the environment is a process, not a product, as the educational experience in the visual arts is a reflection shaped by culture, language, impacted by beliefs, and values essentially creating art is honing into one's individuality.

The arts serve as a multi-faceted educational tool with myriad benefits. Academically, they enrich skills like literacy and numeracy, while also honing critical thinking and problem-solving capabilities. On a socio-emotional level, arts education promotes self-awareness, emotional regulation, and empathy. The collaborative nature of many artistic activities enhances communication and teamwork skills. Moreover, the arts elevate the educational experience by fostering intrinsic motivation and making learning more enjoyable and meaningful. They also play a pivotal role in fostering a diverse and inclusive educational environment by celebrating various cultural backgrounds and offering different perspectives.

Les arts encouragent les élèves à participer activement en créant, en interagissant et en expérimentant. Les arts offrent un espace où les élèves peuvent exprimer leurs idées et leurs émotions. La collaboration, que ce soit dans un projet de groupe en musique, une pièce de théatre ou une création artistique collective. Les arts engagent plusieurs sens, ils sont ainsi dans le moment, ont des émotions qui s’inscrivent dans la mémoire. L'achèvement d'un projet artistique, donne un sentiment de réalisation personnelle. Cette satisfaction renforce la motivation à s'engager dans les études. Les arts suscitent la curiosité en permettant aux élèves d'explorer de nouvelles idées, de perspectives et de cultures.

Art is a tool of creativity and elevation of the open mindset which enables various meaningful elements of learning such as numerical and socio-cultural intellect, this helps the community to have cultural values and points of reference doted in the sum of paintings, stories, crafts, music, and so on. the value of Art is in the community that creates, sees, and uses art as a central tool of learning as it has a great component of opening minds in various ways. therefore, it is crucial to include art as a teaching and learning tool to enable the fun learning methodology and boost connection to natural related and science events that make life meaningful.

When I taught Lifespan Development at the college level, I had this assignment called, “The Person Project.” For each chapter, the students would pull a random piece of information about their person that pertained to the chapter. They were tasked to take the 13 pieces of information about their person and integrate it into a coherent story. They then had to tell me their person’s story in a creative way. The Person Projects were my favorite assignments to read and grade.

When I taught the course "The Art of Drama" to a group of American college students some years ago, I used Drama as a a tool to develop narrative forms to inform each other about the own problems and aims in life without outing myself. Drama is an excellent technique to tell each other in forms of imaginations about our own dreams, and by using these tool of Drama you can learn to find, develop and describe several ways out of a dilemma, a trauma or a situation you currently stuck in. Drama technique allows us to play the ways our own life can or should take, or could have taken, if we decide to go in this or that direction. Drama is a collective art, the good thing is, you have fellow friends, who you can consult about your decisions.

Agree with Amy on her points. She also has the experience chops to make her points accessible. It is related to the modeling behaviors approach which has been used by primates for millions of years.

Ich habe immer wieder sehr sch?ne Erfahrungen gemacht mit dem gemeinsamen kreieren von "Klangkunst" .... Mit der Schulklasse den akustisch und m?glichst auch optisch au?ergew?hnlichsten Ort im Schulgeb?ude entdecken. ( Heizungskeller...Treppenhaus...etc.) hier nun extrem leise Experimente mit Kl?ngen machen: Cluster summen....kollektives leises Flüstern etc. Dies kombiniert mit Sounds von Gongs und Becken...tiefen Trommeln...allesamt unorthodox bespielt;-) und bitte keine langweiligen Orff Instrumente. Die sind der "Killer". Den Soundtrack zum Film im Kopf gemeinsam komponieren! Im n?chsten Schritt kann nun ein Text eingebaut werden und somit z.B eine Auseinandersetzung mit Lyrik auf spannender und inspirierender Ebene stattfinden.

Something to consider when integrating the arts are vocabulary words that overlap and how concepts can be connected through the lesson. For example, lines and angles can integrate math and dance in a way that helps students retain abstract concepts, by giving them a means to make it concrete.

In my Art of Drama course, I transferred in the first half the content of a dozen of interesting dramas. In the other half of the course, I introduced drama technique as a tool to inform about own narratives and imaginations, as well as about crises and traumas. The students used the wisdom of the discussed dramas and the technique to find a collaborative way to write and produce a play, that was developed out of their own narratives. The drama was the structure, the narratives were developed out of the freedom to express everything, that was necessary: feelings, imaginations, dreams, even joy, fears and trauma. When we showed the play to other students in the college, that sparked discussions that helped my students to see how others see.

One way to integrate the arts in school in a more equitable way is to use recycled or discarded materials. Some families are able to donate materials, but not all families have the same means. Free magazines, grocery fliers, and other paper/plastic materials work well. Most stores are willing to donate items (they'd otherwise trash) to schools. Making a rock garden by painting rocks is often therapeutic and it could be "theme" based.

In drama, you don't need much new technologies and that huge amount of money and resources. The less money you have the better can be your college production. Try to find a group of creative students in your college, that will find ways to create through imagination. You will find the necessary material in the college itself, if you build up a second group, a 'production team' responsible for creating the environment for rehearsals and performances. Find simple ways of information and do not be shy to early market the production. You will find a lot of friends and voluntary helpers that will surround your production with help and support. These are the real stakeholders, who will feel responsible for the success of the actors + production.