Art teachers aren't the only ones requiring students to tote crayons and colored pencils to class. Classes such as English and language classes are also integrating forms of art into their curriculum.
Teachers use creative, visual and musical approaches to enhance their courses so students have more than a written understanding of what they are learning.
French teacher Meg Weston assigns projects in which students do outside reading on French impressionism and surrealism.
English teacher Rachel Becker’s lesson plans on the Bible also involve art. Becker’s students look at work by different artists to interpret the artist’s view of the biblical text.
Becker said her classes use art not only as a way to practice analysis, but also "as a pathway to better understanding of the core text itself.”
Some students find art refreshing and educational in a curriculum that focuses mostly on the writing. Other students, however, sometimes feel unsure of where to begin. Sophomore Grace Nathans, one of Becker’s students, notices both benefits and difficulties to art in classes.
“I like the change in pace, but [these assignment are] more difficult because we never really learned how to do this,” Nathans said. “Right now I feel sort of lost.”
To Becker, who took art history classes in college, “using visual analysis in the classroom felt really natural.”
Other teachers who are less familiar with the concept are still open to incorporating art into their curriculum.
English teacher Joe Scozarro, who has not used much art in his lessons in the past, believes students finding their own pictures or portraying their thoughts visually can be helpful, but does not think that incorporating art in the classroom should be required. “If it’s required it becomes a burden,” he said.
Sophomore Isabelle Granahan-Field agreed.
“Learning about art shouldn’t be required because some students do not think it is helpful and do not enjoy [it]," she said.
But English teacher Alan Reinstein has experienced different reactions from his students. He uses music in his classes to enhance not only the curriculum but also the classroom environment. Reinstein keeps a guitar in the corner of his classroom, a situation he said is “a really great thing.”
“I play the harmonica and the guitar, so I became a songwriter and performer,” he said. At the end of each term Reinstein “play[s] a song, just to kind of finish things up as a gift to the class.”
He added that playing music “reveals a different side of [him]self to the students.” He has found that having a guitar in the room makes the class more memorable. “I have students who have graduated and who come back asking about the song of the week.”
Students he has never taught before even approach Reinstein asking him to borrow the guitar to play in the common rooms.
Sometimes at the end of each week, Reinstein plays a song for the class and asks his students to tie the song to ideas in the books they are studying. “It enforces the idea of making connections,” he said. “These songs could apply to anything.”
Weston also uses music in her classes to give students a sense of French culture.
She creates activities in which students receive the lyrics to a song with certain words missing; the students must fill in the blanks after listening to the song. “The missing words usually illustrate a grammar point or vocabulary we are learning,” she said. “World Language teachers have been doing this for quite a long time.”
Weston believes that students enjoy listening to music in class. “Students always enjoy listening to songs, as they bring the study of the language to life,” she said. Weston also added that students even sing along sometimes.
"I have learned that some students have found the songs on the Internet and have downloaded them to their iPods.”
“[Art] definitely enhances student understanding [of the curriculum],” Scozzaro said.
