Arts Impact Leaps Dramatically Into Math and Writing

There is joy back in the classroom. Teachers are energized and excited about teaching again. They are not as weighed down.” This is what Cindy Horner, principal of Larchmont Elementary in Tacoma had to say about her teachers who are participating in the Arts Impact/Arts Leadership grant.

Forty teachers, their principals, and students in the 3rd, 4th and 5th grades at Birney, Fawcett, Larchmont and Wainwright Elementary Schools in Tacoma School District and Centennial and Spanaway Elementary Schools in Bethel School District are participants in an innovative arts-infused program that uses artistic pathways to teach concepts in geometry and narrative writing.

Arts-infusion is a teaching strategy that pairs shared concepts in an arts discipline with another core subject area. Examples of arts-infused concepts are symmetry in math and visual art, geometric shapes in math and dance, character attributes and point of view in writing and theater. Children who have difficulty learning in traditional ways can often find success learning from an artistic point of view.

Teachers engage students in lessons that approach teaching math and writing through kinesthetic and visual learning strategies. For example, fifth grade students demonstrate geometric shapes and figures in rotation, reflection and translation in a paper collage. They also work on learning properties of triangles by creating right, obtuse and acute triangles with large, stretchy bands, then create choreography by flipping and sliding the shapes. Fourth grade students represent polygons in symmetry by designing achitectural entryways. Third grade students learn how adverbs modify verbs by acting out a verb, like jump, then modifying that action when a partner calls out an adverb, wildly, for instance jump “wildly.”

A teacher from Birney says “Transfer occurred for all students in the adverb/verb “Modify My Action” theater lesson. All the kids got it and now understand the relationship of those parts of speech.”

Anne McAntosh, 4th grade teacher at Centennial says “What I find fascinating is that I am approaching teaching from a much broader perspective now. A few dance classes have helped me think of new kinesthetic ways to teach skills and concepts; art classes have me looking for shapes and lines and color everywhere in our world, and drama...well I told you, I now want to go off and join a drama troupe! One of my students e-mailed me this morning to tell me how much she is enjoying math - for the first time. She said something like, 'I love learning about lines and line segments and rays. Who wouldn't?'”

The Arts Impact/Arts Leadership is designed to reach every student regardless of special needs or academic achievement levels. Included in the study is a class for deaf and hard of hearing students, special education students, and gifted students in the SAIL program in Tacoma School District.

In 2006, Puget Sound Educational Service District’s Arts Impact program received a 4 year, $1.03 million from the U. S. Dept. of Education Arts Education Model Development and Dissemination grant program to research the impact of in-depth teacher training, principal leadership training, and arts-infused teaching strategies on student achievement in math and writing.

For detailed information, visit the Arts Impact/Arts Leadership (PDF) research model.

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