Direct Arts Instruction vs. Arts Integration: A Chance for Reconciliation

In the recent issue of Teaching Artist Journal, Arnold Aprill, Founding and Creative Director of Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE, www.capeweb.org), addresses the dichotomous, and seemingly inimical, relationship between direct instruction in the arts and arts integrated learning, in his article “Direct Instruction vs. Art Integration: A False Dichotomy.” He suggests that the scarcity of funds bore the rivalry, pitting program against program and content area against content area, all the while neglecting the truth that, by working together, couldn’t both parties serve the children better?

Properly delivered, high-quality arts instruction ought to be cultivated as part of the whole culture of the school, both as it is integrated into the core subjects and taught as a stand alone, fundamental element of the curriculum. Developing arts integrated programs that concurrently and significantly impact arts and academic learning involves collaboration among classroom teachers, arts specialists, and teaching artists.

Linking art and literacy through sustained and revised thinking

One can think of many reasons why it benefits students to integrate the arts into the standard curriculum of reading, math, science or social studies.  Some may think that involving students in hands-on art work helps to engage them in the subject matter, thus reaching children that may be habitually distracted or uninterested when participating in more prescriptive instruction.  However, there are many more “unseen” benefits of integrating the arts than meet the eye.

One benefit in particular is the way in which the artistic process of creation that includes cycles of reflection and revision can impact student literacy.

Sustained and revised thinking about texts is a critical skill for literacy, though it is often neglected when teaching children to use reading comprehension strategies.  Because artistic creation intrinsically involves extensive revision, arts integration can help students learn how to change and manipulate their thinking about texts.

Teachers who practice deep reading instruction encourage children to select books that cause them to question and rethink what they know and believe. They also show them how to reread selectively as a way to affirm, expand on, or alter their knowledge and beliefs.

The Arts for Learning (A4L) Lessons Units use different art forms to help students understand and experience how artists rework an artistic piece over time, allowing them to discover, and then rediscover, new and different things about their understanding of their art and their worldview in the process.  By linking these art forms to reading through the process of sustained and revised thinking, teachers can help their students discover a deeper meaning in their texts.

In each A4L Unit, students begin with the text then create artwork that reflects their initial understanding of the reading.  By encouraging students to share their interpretations and art with one another, the class discovers new and different things about the text.  Then, as the students read further, they return to their original artwork and revise it to reflect those new discoveries.  This process not only encourages students to manipulate and revise their interpretations of a text, but it also creates an awareness of one’s thought process and encourages them to be persistent in searching for deeper meaning when reading.