More often than not in today’s schools,art-based learning techniques in the classroom are placed at the bottom of the learning totem pole by certain teachers who prefer more conventional learning styles. 

In recent years across the US, funding and access to arts programs in schools have been cut and declining. With the cuts in budgets and endowment money, there has never been more of a pressing need for arts to be re-incorporated into the classroom. 

Just as art can inspire and spark creativity in your classroom, you have to use your own creativity to incorporate it into your curriculum.

Here are 10 ways in which art can be brought back to classroom practice, through using visual arts, drama, dance, and musical performance.

VISUAL ARTS

1. For the development of creativity and analytical skills. 

Many children may struggle to express themselves using conventional writing techniques. Using the visual arts approach can illicit creativity and expression that as a teacher you may not have thought possible from a student. This can be included in all sorts of lessons. 

Whether you want students to use sculpture to identify their favorite scene in the book you are studying or drawing lines and shapes to represent a historical event, the visual arts can be used in the classroom in many different ways. 

2. Encouraging learning through creativity. 

No matter how silly or fun the creative visual arts activity is that you are asking your students to participate in, there is a process of self-reflection and engagement with subject content that has to occur for them to participate. 

This can be a really useful indicator to assess how students are responding to the subject content. Whether it is drawing a picture or writing a short poem, teachers can see individual responses in student learning in a unique way. 

3. Going beyond the surface to critical thinking. 

Most students will have a deep-lying creative process behind the visual art that they produce. If they are able to communicate elements of this process, students start to improve their critical thinking skills. 

This can be prompted by teachers asking a question such as: why did you use rhyming couplets in your poem? Or why did you draw this character in such a fierce manner? 

DRAMA

4. Experiment with role-playing.

Many students will struggle to fully understand the content or ideas that are being discussed in a storybook or textbook. A great way to get them to better understand it is through role-playing as the process of acting something out will naturally improve understanding. 

Role-plays can be done individually or as a group and can be a really important way of understanding students’ emotional responses to challenging topics.

5. Walk around in a character’s shoes.

Sometimes, specific characters’ true motives and personality need further exploration since it might not be so clear within the text. Often referred to as taking the ‘hot seat’, students are asked to respond to questions from other students while playing a specific character. 

6. Tableau performance.

Silent or still performance can be another effective drama tool when trying to represent a character or a scene. This technique can also be impactful if used with really young students who may be apprehensive about to doing any spoken drama. 

It provides students with a richer understanding of moments or ideas within a text. 

DANCE

7. Simple figurative dance shapes.

Most students will be apprehensive about dance—especially those who have a shy personality. But dance does not have to be so complex and mechanical. 

A simple introductory activity using dance is to ask a group of students to form a letter or number using their body. To broaden out the activity, this can be done as a group which has to make a word using their bodies, together. This a great exploration of shape, with students exploring how their own bodies can be representative and give meaning. 

8. Movement and Stillness.

Using movement and stillness is a great dance technique that can be used after reading a specific text. 

In this activity, students are encouraged to suddenly transition into either movement or frozen shape that is representative of a specific character or historical figure. Doing this enables a richer and more critical engagement from students into the fictional, historical or scientific ‘world’ being studied. 

MUSIC, SONG, & PERFORMANCE

9. Sing for familiarity. 

A lot of research has been done with the effects of music and brain stimulation. Song is great for making concepts stick in the minds of students. 

For example, in Math there is the simple TRIG-ONO-METRY song which will help students recall specific learning goals. 

A good tip is to incorporate a familiar tune with whatever the content is. Familiarity improves memorability. For English learners, rhythms of music can also be very helpful when learning the annunciation of the language.  

10. Improving self-confidence through public performance.

Nothing will beat the pressure of learning something if students have to perform in front of an audience. 

While creating too much pressure would be unfair and potentially stressing and hindering, encouraging performance in front of peers or parents can be great for the self-confidence of students. 

Being able to overcome nerves and perform under pressure is a huge and underrated life skill that goes beyond conventional academic learning. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

Arts-based learning techniques should not be confined to history or condemned for being too loose for real learning, theseten strategies present an innovative way to still keep arts-based learning in any classroom—for any subject, regardless of budget cuts.

Beyond learning content, art techniques can have a broader positive on the self-confidence of students as well as their self-expression. Incorporating art into the classroom is pivotal to delivering the holistic education that every child deserves. 

Author Bio

Anne Baron is highly experienced educator, writer and copywriter specializing in academic research.  She has a Ph.D. in Educational Administration with almost 25 years of experience in teaching and academic writing.  She spent a dozen years managing a large college peer-tutoring program and another dozen years in the classroom teaching college students.  She has since retired from teaching and devotes her time and efforts to freelance writing for institutions, businesses and colleges like Patrick Henry College.

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