Infuse the Arts, Infuse Engagement

Will classroom instruction and children’s learning improve through the infusion of the arts into the core curricula?

That's exactly what a team from Anderson Academy in Aldine ISD spent the last two years researching, with the support of a Critical Friends Group As Research Team Grant from the Houston A+ Challenge.

Nestled in the Acres Homes community in northwest Houston, Anderson Academy is a 1st through 3rd grade magnet school for fine arts, Montessori and Direct Instruction. Although Anderson has a proud tradition of exposing students to the arts through ancillary classes in drama, art, dance, and violin, the Anderson faculty wanted to explore how they could take their focus on arts from simple enrichment to full-scale infusion in math, science, social studies, and language arts.

The research team, consisting of several teachers and other key staff members, began their inquiry by seeking out information and inspiration from schools that share a focus on the fine arts. They attended events such as an action lab at neighboring Kujawa Elementary in Aldine and the Pine Shadows Fine Arts Collaborative in Spring Branch ISD.

The research team initiated a faculty-wide book study of Arts With the Brain in Mind by Eric Jensen and met regularly to look at student work and share art-infused lessons. Resources for these lessons included the Learning Through Art materials from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, as well as the Crayola Dream-Makers teacher guides.

As part of the action research process, the faculty was encouraged to document their work, collect evidence of changes in practice, and make their findings public. The student journals and teacher reflections that they collected are replete with evidence that the classroom atmosphere improved.

First grade teacher Ms. Houston shares: "Art-integrated lessons have really allowed me to connect with my students. My class began to respond enthusiastically and discussion for whatever subject I was teaching began to deepen. It was awakening to see how my students' focus was undisturbed; behavior became less of a problem and socialization between peers increased." The teachers found that the arts-infused lessons were very engaging and tapped into a broader range of learning styles.

Ms. Hilton describes how one usually reluctant student successfully planned the steps of painting a scene and that observing that process "really gave me a deep insight into there's more there than was coming out in the written or oral assessments."

The students of Anderson Academy have used drama, music, and visual arts to deepen their understanding of everything from literature, to fractions, to the life cycle of the butterfly. Perhaps most importantly, the arts-infused curriculum develops the whole child. One second-grader summed up his appreciation for the arts by writing "When you draw . . . you have this feeling inside you, but inside of me is love and passion."

Article by Donna Reid, with contributions from Lochie Welch.