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Learn about ways to increase student participation and skill building during interactive read-alouds.
You don’t have to be an artist yourself—though everyone is, whether they know it or not—to open the door to using arts as a way to support your English language learners throughout the curriculum. The capacity to learn is limitless, and students learning English have the experience of growing up with at least two languages and cultures. As teachers, we must support and encourage their learning, confidence, and application of language.
When students are learning a new language, they often have a stronger understanding of subject matter than their vocabulary or self-confidence allows them to demonstrate. Here is a great example of a middle school teacher discovering that her student understood a lot more than she expected as a result of creating a science lesson with illustrations:
“The student has difficulty turning in his assignments for science class, partly for personal reasons, but mostly language reasons. The student speaks English but can barely read or write it. The magical moment occurred while integrating science and arts. The objective was to draw a cell through a microscope, label cell parts, and write a reflection [about] how the shape of a cell is related to the function of that organism. Well, it turns out this student is an extremely talented artist and was able to write a reflection piece of equal quality (of mind) because it was on his cell drawing. The student has since turned in all his labs on time. The art bridged the language content gap!”
Here are a few ideas to get you started with using the arts to enhance student understanding:
For reinforcing reading and English Language Arts skills, enhancing instruction with arts-centered tasks can cement key concepts:
Another arts discipline that is full of potential is dance and movement. Nearly every student loves to move about, and movement can be a wonderful way to reach students learning English. In one college class, a professor challenged his students to dance DNA. The challenge was so successful that he said this particular class learned more about DNA than any other he had ever taught.
Movement is also wonderful for mathematics and can be done with simple movements for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. For example, ones can be handclaps, tens can be stomps, and hundreds can be twirls. Students can act out or dance equations and then write them on the board.
“Teaching through the arts,” remarks one teacher who uses the arts as a methodology for teaching, “opens the floodgates of a second language, the gate that keeps them back, that keeps them limited and maybe questioning their own self-worth. It opens that gate because they have been actively involved and showing you they are feeling really good.”
Writer
Merryl Goldberg
Editor
Katie Freeman
Producer
Joanna McKee
Updated
October 8, 2019
Sources
Learn about ways to increase student participation and skill building during interactive read-alouds.
How theater and visual arts can help to engage your students to read.
How to incorporate dance into a traditional English classroom.
Learn how parent volunteers can contribute to the learning environment with the right goal-oriented guidelines.
In this K-2 lesson, students will create their own adjective monsters using paper sculpture techniques. They will explore the connections between visual art and language arts, and how both are used to creatively tell stories and express emotions.
In this K-2 lesson, students will examine how illustrations contribute to the telling of a story. Through picture books (without words), students will discuss and interpret details about the characters, setting, and plot. Students will create illustrations to accompany a text and then write text to accompany illustrations.Â
In this 6-8 lesson, students will create mandalas using mathematical concepts and skills. They will explore symmetry as well as the natural and man-made shapes found in mandalas. They will design a mandala, then analyze other students’ creative work for style and message.
In this K-2 lesson, students will listen to and/or read Aesop’s time-honored tales to create Greek-inspired theater masks and perform fables. Students will develop insights into human nature and make a connection between ancient Greek culture and their own contemporary culture.
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