Arts Integration
Arts integration is instruction that integrates content and skills from the arts—dance, music, theater, and the visual arts—with other core subjects. Arts integration occurs when there is a seamless blending of the content and skills of an art form with those of a co-curricular subject. There are over seventy schools within twelve counties incorporating the arts integrated approach to instruction. Professional development programs including the Maryland Artist/Teacher Institute and the 21st Century Learning Institute offer training in the arts integrated approach to instruction. Organizations such as the AEMS Alliance and Arts Every Day host workshops on integrating the arts across the curriculum.
Download a copy of the AEMS Alliance Creating an Arts Integration School Resource.
Are you interested in downloading ready to use arts-integrated lesson plans? Check out the ArtsEdge website. Cecil County Public Schools has posted their lesson plans online as well! Interested in arts-integrated lesson plans that support 21st Century Skills? Check out the Verizon Foundation's Thinkfinity website.
The Maryland Arts Integration Resource Guide, compiled by Arts Integration Specialist and Teaching Artist Karen Bernstein, is designed for teachers and administrators in Maryland schools and is filled with resources to improve the quality of instruction in your classroom by teaching in and through the arts. The information in this document will assist you in locating high-quality individual artists and companies to bring to your school to support this effort and help you identify sources for funding to make it possible. This guide lists the professional development available for teachers to help gain insight into new strategies on how to be more effective and confident teachers using arts integration. The information included will also lead you to arts organizations, web sites, conferences, and books to discover more about the arts and arts integration.
Download your copy of the Maryland Teachers Arts Education Resource Guide and the Art Education Resource Guide.
The Arts Education Partnership (AEP) provides information and communication about current and emerging arts education policies, issues, and activities at the national, state, and local levels. AEP has produced a number of useful publications that focus on arts integration.
Dowload a copy of Creating Quality Integrated and Interdisciplinary Arts Programs and Arts Integration Frameworks, Research & Practice: A Literature Review.
RealVisions is pleased to announce the availability of its new book...
The ARTS Book: Designing Quality Arts Integration with Alignment, Rigor, Teamwork and Sustainability by Linda Whitesitt, Ph.D. and Elda Franklin, Ed.D.
Eric Booth has called it "...a thorough, reliable, wise, inspiring, user friendly, distillation of the best the field of arts learning knows. ... a book that will take the national experiment in arts integration ahead a giant step."
Ralph Opacic (president of ASN) says the book "...clearly defines what authentic arts integration is... an excellent book for any classroom teacher or arts administrator interested in enriching instruction..."
"This book should be required reading for anyone wanting to start [or evaluate] an arts integration program." John Ceschini (Executive Director, AEMS Alliance)
Valerie Morris, dean, School of the Arts, College of Charleston says The ARTS Book "...provides essential tools... for anyone interested in the power of arts integration to transform schools."'
Written by Drs. Linda Whitesitt and Elda Franklin, this in-depth narrative guides the reader through a logical and achievable process that is based on extensive evaluations of arts integration projects and programs that include more that 1000 classroom observation. The book addresses 'how to' establish and/or evaluate a quality arts integration program or project.
The ARTS Book describes four factors that are essential in quality arts integration programs: alignment, rigor, teamwork and sustainability.
Based on the authors' evaluations of eight arts integration projects over the past seven years in which they conducted over 1,000 structured classroom observations of arts-integrated lessons, The ARTS Book explains how to: Align project vision, activities, and outcomes; Align professional development offerings with arts integration curriculum and instruction; Ensure rigorous professional development; Guarantee rigorous arts integration curriculum and instruction; Include teamwork as a foundational strategy in project design and professional development; and Embed the sustainability of transformed teacher practice in the overall project design.
Learn more about The ARTS Book now. Visit us at www.realvisions.net.
SAVE THE DATE: MARYLAND ARTIST TEACHER INSTITUTE, July 8-12, Inn and Conference Center, University of Maryland University College.
Click on the 2012 MATI Brochure and Application using Acrobat Reader 8.
America's Future Through Creative Schools
REINVESTING IN ARTS EDUCATION
WINNING AMERICA'S FUTURE THROUGH CREATIVE SCHOOLS
The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) announces the release of its landmark report Reinvesting in Arts Education: Winning America's Future Through Creative Schools.
This report represents the culmination of 18 months of research, meetings with stakeholders, and site visits all over the country. It provides an in-depth review of the current condition of arts education, including an update of the current research base about arts education outcomes and an analysis of the challenges and opportunities in the field that have emerged over the past decade.Recommendations for federal, state and local policymakers are included in the report.
The report cites the AEMS Alliance as an exemplary model of an organization that has successfully connected artists and arts programs to schools.
Download your copy of the Summary Report and Full Report.
The Imagination Conversations
Imagination, the ability to visualize new possibilities, is a prerequisite for success in the 21st-century global economy. America has long been at the vanguard of creation and innovation, but an economic downturn and increased worldwide competition mean that we cannot take our position for granted. Now more than ever, we must teach imagination in our schools and nurture it in our communities.
The Imagination Conversations respond to this need and prepare us for the future by: building national awareness of imagination as a vital tool in work and in life; sparking dialogue about imagination across the professional spectrum; leading to the creation of an action plan to make imagination an integral part of American education.
The Imagination Conversations, a project of Lincoln Center Institute and a part of the Lincoln Center 50 Years celebration, run from the fall of 2009 to the spring of 2011. Many are hosted by state government, business, and cultural leaders. They feature diverse groups of panelists with distinctive perspectives and draw a wide range of audience members from the public and private sectors. Moderators facilitate the conversations, some of which reach viewers nationwide via live and archived streaming video.
This two-year initiative will culminate in America’s Imagination Summit, to be held at Lincoln Center in July 2011. Click here for more information on the Imagination Conversations.
Maryland Conversations: Executive Summary
Maryland Conversations: Full Report
CAFE XII: Imagination, Creativity and Innovation - Panel Discussion
CAFE XII: Imagination, Creativity and Innovation - Breakout Sessions
