Start with the Arts
By Mary Ellen Bafumo

The last months of the school year are already here. It's time to freshen up routines with a bit of novelty to spark student interest and at the same time, expand your teaching repertoire. The best way to do that is to start with the arts.

Still life shapes
It's easy to integrate the arts into your classroom, even if you don't have formal training in the field. Think about the old saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words." You can simply talk about a new topic to provide information, but consider the difference it would make, especially for visual learners, if you started a new topic or a lesson with a painting that illuminates key concepts under study. For example, if you're teaching primary level students about shapes, start with a still life of fruits in a bowl. Once you've reviewed the shapes, you can also talk about color and texture. You might ask about size as well as shape. Have some real fruit handy - are the fruits in the painting the same, larger or smaller than real fruit? You can count the pieces of fruit in the painting, too, and make a pictograph of the numbers of apples, oranges, pears, etc.

Art and math
The same still life works for older students. Use the painting as the basis for word problems that test operational skills. For example, write and solve the equations that show how many fruits would be in the bowl if each was multiplied by four or half were subtracted. Write a ratio for the number of apples to pears in the painting. It's just a bit different from the ordinary, will spark interest and may lead to further investigation of the art form. Are you not sure of where to find paintings? Go to www.google.com and then search any art museum. The J. Paul Getty Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art are two excellent places for you to start your search. Both have extensive collections of many different types of art.

A musical cue
Another easy way to integrate the arts is by using music. An excellent teacher whom I admire always has music playing as students arrive in the classroom. Sometimes it's classical music playing softly as a backdrop to her lessons. Other times children arrive to music that evokes the era they are studying. During a unit on the American Revolution, students became very familiar with the strains of "Yankee Doodle" and a host of patriotic American songs and anthems. The music cued students to their unit topic and focused them in pleasant and meaningful ways.
Many teachers use music to calm or energize students. Primary classrooms are the perfect place for martial music that provides a tempo for marching, exercise or just stretching after being seated for awhile. My favorite middle school teacher uses music from Japan as the backdrop to teaching haiku. Students read their haiku creations with music in the background, creating a pleasant ambience and exposing them to music they might not otherwise have an opportunity to hear.

Two delightful CDs that use music to teach various topics in math, science, history and language are: The Best of Schoolhouse Rock! (Kid Rhino, 1998) and Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks (Atlantic/Wea, 1996). They contain songs revived from the learning commercials for children that appeared between Saturday morning cartoon programs in the 1970s and 80s. The songs are catchy and memorable. If you've ever heard "Conjunction junction, what's your function?" you aren't likely to forget what a conjunction is, even years later. The alphabet, body parts and numbers all get equally joyful treatment that learners of all ages enjoy and easily recall. Visit the Barnes and Noble website (www.bn.com) or www.amazon.com for low prices on either.

The power of film
I've found that film is also a powerful tool for enhancing a multitude of topics in the classroom. National Geographic CDs and videos cover the natural world, history, cultures and space in exciting and beautiful formats. I think they also have some of the best maps available anywhere and many qualify as works of art in and of themselves. Be sure to check these out and don't miss the photographs and audio resources on this amazingly comprehensive website at www.nationalgeographic.com

Other commercial films are also useful for teaching and motivating in ways that a text or simple photos can't match. March of the Penguins will entrance students while teaching about habitat, social structures in the animal world and conservation concepts. Upper grade students learning about ancient Rome can watch excerpts from the film Gladiator. Skip the violence, but focus on the ideas such as social classes, gender roles, leadership and integrity.

Setting the stage
If you aren't using paintings, music, film, movement or poetry in your classroom, why not try introducing just one? If you're starting a unit or one is already underway, match it with artwork or find music that evokes the topic. Search for a film that can be excerpted or a video on a website that can set the stage for learning or enhance it. It only takes a bit of time to locate these resources and plan for their use, but the resulting student interest will be clearly evident.

Start with the arts and you'll finish with student motivation and achievement. Have a great month!

Mary Ellen Bafumo is a Program Director for the Council on Educational Change, an Annenberg legacy group. Email: bafumome@aol.com

March, 2007, Vol.37, No.6