How I Address the Arts in My Classroom

     I have to admit that before I worked on my National Board certification, I did not integrate art into my lessons very much.  I thought this was the job of the art/music/drama teacher.  I had other things to do.  I would give myself a pat on the back when I did the little cutesy lessons with an art project included, but I rarely thought about ways to use art to make the lesson stronger. 
     When I had to include art in my social studies entry for National Boards, I found myself researching the topic and trying out ideas I never would have attempted in the past.  To my surprise, my students were incredibly motivated by the art part of the lesson.  When used correctly the arts help my students understand what is being taught.
     One of my students' favorite arts activity is music.  I use a lot of music in social studies class.  I try to find music from the time period we are studying and my students sing the songs and explain what the songs tell about that period in history.  Drama is another favorite activity.  I have used both pre-printed plays and student written plays in the classroom.  We discuss costumes, stage directions, how to use props to get our ideas across, etc. as we act out stories we are reading in the classroom.  I also have a collection of posters of famous oil paintings that are on history topics such as the Trail of Tears.  We looked at these masterpieces as a class and discussed how the artist shows emotions or other details that make the masterpiece helpful to a study of a certain era. Students then created their own art work in a similar style that shared the topic being taught.
     Using the fine arts makes my lessons more interesting and motivates stduents that may not enjoy a subject to participate in the class.  I've found that once I've gathered a collection of art pieces, songs on cds, or plays that go along with the novels I am teaching, integrating arts into my lessons isn't all that difficult.  Of course, the internet and all of the resources available online make my "stash" unnecessary since I can find almost anything I need on the world wide web.

Week 2 Know-Do-Be

   This weeks's reading in Meeting Standards through Integrated Curriculum had an interesting idea in Chapter 3.  The section on  "Know-Do-Be" made so much sense that I felt ashamed that I haven't been planning this way all along.  Obviously I always have in the back of my mind what I want my students to learn, but having a formal structure like this to follow would help insure that I am covering everything I need to cover in order to create the best lessons I possibly can for my students. The idea of "Be" was one I hadn't given a lot of thought to in the past, and certainly hadn't placed a lot of emphasis on as I planned my lessons.  But after reflecting on what I want from my students as I read this lesson, I see how vital it is that I do include this piece.  This is especially important with my age group as they stand on the verge of adolescence and all that occurs during the next few turbulent years. I plan on sharing this with my colleagues at school to see how they feel about planning this way in the future.

Week 1: Reading as Thinking (Ch. 2)

     When I read the secton in the textbook on reading as thinking (Chapter 2), I felt so relieved to discover that I was doing the right thing in my language arts classroom.  I had recently been criticized for my read-aloud time.  I was told that, with testing time right around the corner, there was no time for "Barney" activities like reading aloud to students.  This was a slap since I, and my fifth graders, really enjoy our read-aloud time.  I hadn't thought of what I was doing as reading as thinking, but after reading the textbook, I discovered that is what I was doing.
     I believe reading as thinking is a valuable strategy that I can use in my classroom to help show my students how to read. When I read aloud to my students, I frequently stop so we can discuss what I am reading.  Many times this is just a "connections" moment where I tell my students things of which the book reminds me, and where the students share ways they can connect to the text as well.  I suppose this may not look as serious as some lessons, but I think it is important for students to make these connections.  I also use the time to review previous lessons (recent lessons on figurative language have allowed me to question students on the type of figurative language we see in our read-alouds).  I've asked questions about the plot, made comments about characters, predicted what will happen next...we can do lots of things during our read aloud. 
     Having a label such as reading as thinking will make it so much easier to defend this practice the next time I am accused of having Barney time in my classroom.  This is an important part of my instruction and I believe it provides my students with a model they can use as they read on their own.  My next step is to use some of the reading as thinking ideas from the text during students' read alone time so I can see if they are using the strategies they see me model on their own.

Introduction

     As a part of my EDUC 520 class, I am required to post responses to my class readings on this blog.  Since the topic of the class is integrating language arts and social studies, I imagine I will find plenty to write about on this page.  I enjoy teaching reading and social studies to my fifth grade students and I'm eager to learn ways to make my teaching more exciting and motivativating for my students.  Of course, it would also be great if I could discover ways to combine some lessons and make my school day easier to manage.