After four years of development, Arizona’s College & Career Ready Standards are ready for full implementation throughout the state in the 2014-2015 school year. For educators, this shift offers a unique opportunity to reflect not only on what they teach, but also on how they teach.
Throughout the month of June, the Arizona Commission on the Arts will be presenting a pair of exclusive blog series designed to inspire the creativity of Arizona’s educators and to explore the potential for arts integration within these new standards. In previous entries, Lynn Tuttle, the Arizona Department of Education’s Director of Arts Education, discussed how the Arts Educator could support and enhance English Language Arts & Math curricula.
Today, Paul Fisher, Executive Director at Arts Integration Solutions, continues his five-part series on how English Language Arts and Math educators can strengthen their teaching through Arts Integration. New entries will be posted to the azarts417 blog every Tuesday and Thursday through July 1st.
PROLOGUE
This will be first of two blog-posts addressing the possibilities of integrating physical embodiment techniques with English Language Arts; showing how to use these techniques as tools to mediate classroom instruction; merging with core content through coordinated instructional practice that engages students in learning. It is this process of using multi-faceted strategies (see AiS Portal or follow Education Closet from Facebook) that has been proven to engage a wide range of learners and advance mastery of curriculum content.
OVERVIEW: Arts integration and English language arts
The English Language Arts section of the Arizona College & Career Ready Standards (AzCCRS) calls for increased rigor, use of more complex text, communication of ideas, building knowledge and the use of academic vocabulary. These are beautifully facilitated through the use of Arts Integration strategies that allow children to deepen their understanding of new ideas and concepts while being self-directed and actively engaged in learning that builds perspective and fosters communication and critical thinking skills.
RESEARCH
With careful intent in the planning of lessons, essential life skills can also be the focus of Arts Integration lessons. In her book, The Mind in the Making, Ellen Galinsky identifies seven essential life skills for school-aged children to develop (Galinsky, 2010):
• Focus and self-control
• Perspective taking
• Communicating
• Making connections
• Critical thinking
• Taking on challenges
• Self-directed, engaged learning
PRACTICE
The following are two differing step-by-step examples of using emotion embodiment to “show” knowledge of the vocabulary of emotions. This activity can be scaled up to Middle School or High School by extending the depth and the specificity of the vocabulary.
WHAT AM I FEELING?
AzCCR Emphasis:
- Language Arts: Identifying, spelling and reading feelings and emotions. Learning or identifying adjectives. Learning synonyms.
- Social Studies: Understanding how emotions and feelings influence behavior. Self esteem. Hand raising. Appropriate group behavior.
Theatre Skills: Performance. Using the self to illustrate feelings. Body language. The difference between sincerity and superficiality.
Sign Systems: Drama & language.
Multiple Intelligences: Bodily kinesthetic – Spatial – Visual – Linguistic – Inter- and Intra-personal.
Space Requirements: Any classroom.
Goals:
- To encourage self expression and the expression and recognition of feelings and emotions.
- To discuss emotions and feelings.
- To learn how to exhibit and control a feeling or emotion.
- To examine and learn about body language.
- To elicit expressions from a child’s known world.
- To stimulate the constructive process of evaluation.
- To reinforce or learn about adjectives.
- To reinforce appropriate hand raising behavior.
Teacher Guidelines:
- Explain that the object of the game is to discover what other students are feeling by observing how they act. Tell the students that you’re all going on a “word hunt” together.
- Try to discourage copying what has gone before.
- Offer suggestions to struggling students.
- Use the widest possible interpretation of “feelings,” including hunger, fear, cold and so on.
- Do not encourage exaggeration for comic effect. Look for sincerity.
- Encourage everyone to participate.
Keys:
- Make sure the class is paying attention to the child who is demonstrating.
- Don’t let students shout out the solutions before the demonstration is ended. Encourage students to raise their and hands and wait to be selected.
- Acknowledge the similarities of some “feelings” when put into body language, for example: lonely and shy might look the same. Always ask for other words (synonyms) which could describe the emotion.
- The demonstration of “emotions” is the core of the activity.
Process:
- As a group, name as many feelings and emotions as possible. With students who are still learning to spell, spell them out together and write them down. In any event, you should make a list. In the first round, writing them on the chalkboard will be very useful. With the very young, if they cannot even name a number of feelings, give prompts such as, What do you feel when you haven’t had a drink for hours? What do you feel when you’ve just been told off for misbehaving? and so on.
- With young 1st graders and younger it is best to begin this game with one student naming a feeling and everyone showing it together. Have the students “freeze” in the emotion and look at everyone else.
- With the older students, explain that you will walk around exhibiting a particular feeling. The first student, who recognizes what it is, should raise his/her hand, in silence, in order to identify it. But whether it’s guessed or not, you should continue acting until you are back where you began.
- Everyone in the class should have the opportunity to demonstrate at least once. Practice calling on students who are not volunteering.
- Comment yourself, and encourage the class to comment, on the appropriateness of the actions and attitudes.
- Be sure to discuss how the best examples are successful.
- As the exercise is repeated, keep looking for new emotions and feelings. And try to develop and illustrate the different ways that individuals express them. Always ask for synonyms.
- Once you have a full list of feelings and emotions make flash cards. If able, the students should make them. Then take the guessing element out of the game and have the students read the emotion or feeling and perform it.
APPROACHING THE CHAIR
As a follow up activity, put a chair in the front of the class. Ask the students, one by one, to approach the chair, feeling something on the way to the chair. However, when each one comes in contact with the chair, by touching it or sitting on it, it causes a change of feelings. For example, you could approach the chair feeling tired, but when you sit on it you become excited.
SHOW ME AN ADJECTIVE
Ask the whole class to stand up. Tell them that in order to sit down they have to use a “feeling word” as an adjective or as a describing word. When they are ready they raise their hands and you select. The easiest method is to give an example such as, “I am happy Paul.” Explain that happy describes Paul. Tell the students to use the describing word as you did, by putting it between I am and their names. Older students should use more complex vocabulary.
THE LOST DOG
Explain to the class that you have lost your dog in the park where there are many other dogs. You approach a Police-woman and ask her to find your dog. She replies, “Well what does your dog look like?” Challenge the students to think of as many different ways to describe a dog as they can.
Begin by asking, “What is the most specific noun to use to describe the dog?” (You are looking for the breed of the dog.)
Once a student has identified the breed, ask her/him to stand in front of the class. His/Her job will be to state the breed: Bulldog or Dalmation and so on. Then ask the students to think of a describing word for that dog. Take a suggestion and, if appropriate, e.g. “brown,” ask that student to show where she/he should stand in relation to the student who will say the breed.
Ask the class to agree or disagree as to choice of position of the second student. So now you have two students up front. And each time you add a student they all repeat their words in sequence. Keep going by encouraging the students to find adjectives that describe different qualities of the dog. Ask the class to judge where the next adjective should be placed, using their knowledge of word choice and sentence organization. “Does the adjective come before the noun?” “What would come after the noun?”
Further Integration: find emotions and feelings in all curricula and challenge the students to show some from the units you are studying or from the stories you are reading. Keep asking, “What else can you show me?” “Can you find an adjective to help describe this noun?”
FOLLOW UP
- Have the students draw the dog.
- Have the students write a short paragraph, or sentence (depending on grade level).
- Change the noun and follow the same directions as above.
(the body kinesthetic – paulfisher © 2014)
NOW LOOK AT THIS LESSON WITH A VERY DIFFERENT FORMAT:
See Symphony of Seasons for another simple, active lesson using vocabulary to embody understanding of “season” words.
Read Arizona’s College & Career Ready Standards: Arts Integration & ELA, part 2
Paul Fisher is the Executive Director at Arts Integration Solutions. From the classroom to the board room, Mr. Fisher has a host of satisfied clients in many differing venues, throughout the US, in Europe, Russia and Africa. He has consulted for Raytheon, INTUIT, Canyon Ranch, Arts For “Border” Children and many other organizations. He teaches creative thinking and gives lectures on a variety of topics. Mr. Fisher has been recognized with two prestigious awards for his years of distinguished service in Arts and Education. Mr. Fisher is a graduate of the University of Birmingham, Great Britain. He has published a variety of books and articles. Mr. Fisher is a dynamic speaker, writer, director, actor, DJ and educator with more than 40 years of experience. Referred to as “the Robin Williams of education,” Fisher always provides a stimulating, hilarious and brain-blasting experience.
Arts Integration Solutions coaches schools to use the arts to teach and engage students and staff in core content learning: integrating the arts into the curriculum and life skills. We provide leadership to “install” a sustainable arts-integrated pedagogy through strategic planning, professional development, classroom modeling and technical support.
