Cleveland Students Thrive in Standards-Based Arts Integrated Experiences

Every day there are great examples of the way in which arts integration is helping struggling students to learn in and through the arts in schools across the country.  Below is a personal account from Kitty Merk, a teacher at Luis Munoz Marin K-8 in Cleveland, Ohio.  Kitty is participating in Art is Education, a program presented by Young Audiences of Northeast Ohio, http://www.yaneo.org, that provides more than 4,000 students in Cleveland public schools with standards-based arts integrated experiences.  Kitty writes:

“It has been my great fortune to be the site coordinator for Art is Education at Luis Munoz Marin K-8 for two years. The goal of Young Audiences’ Art is Education program is to make the arts a part of every child’s education, every day. Luis Munoz Marin Elementary is one of eight Cleveland Metropolitan School District schools participating in Art is Education. We have a large school that includes approximately 100 teachers and 800+ students. Every student in our building has been involved with different artist groups provided by Art is Education for those two years.

There are so many success stories that I have observed at our school, and I wanted to share a few. Many of our students struggle with letter sounds, but through Art is Education we have discovered a kinesthetic method to cement sounds with the written letter. Last year our K-2 students (including our self-contained special education classes) worked with professional dancers from Verb Ballets to learn the alphabet and phonetic sounds through movement. The students loved it and amazed their teachers by writing words using the movements they learned. The first graders this year remembered the movements and were teaching the kindergartners to use the same movements. This year the K-2 students are learning new techniques with Dance Afrika Dance. Actors play different roles teaching students about letter sounds and numbers. The teachers are enjoying the activities as much as the students and the results are positive again.”

To continue reading more from Kitty Merk about the Art is Education program, visit the Young Audiences of Northeast Ohio blog at http://youngaudiences.wordpress.com/ .

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