Arts Integration in Diverse K–5 Classrooms: Cultivating Literacy Skills and Conceptual Understanding(Language and Literacy)

This practical resource emphasizes the special contribution that visual art, drama, music, and dance can make to student literacy and understanding of content-area reading assignments. Focusing on those areas where students tend to struggle, the author helps K–5 teachers provide an age-appropriate curriculum that is accessible to an increasingly diverse student population.

Table of Contents:
Contents 1. Deepening Understanding Through Arts Integration 1 Understanding Arts Integration 1 Benefits of Comprehensive Education 5 2. Making Meaning Through Verbal Interaction : Laying the Foundation for Literacy 11 The Critical Importance of Oral Language Development 12 Supporting English Language Learners 15 Integrating Drama and Dance Activities 19 Visual Thinking Strategies 23 3. Making Meaning of Narrative Text 27 How Written Narrative Influences Thinking 28 Deepening Children’s Understanding of Narrative 32 Classic Story Structures 42 4. Making Meaning from Informational Texts 45 Using the Arts to Teach Close Reading 46 Meeting the Challenges of Content Area Texts 48 Using the Arts to Scaffold Science Lessons 52 A Crucial Dimension of STEAM 57 5. Building Effective Oral Communication Skills 59 Learning Oral Communication Skills Through Puppetry 60 Introducing Children to Social Studies 61 How Music Builds Rapport 66 Viewing the Past from Multiple Perspectives  71 Introducing Varied Perspectives in K–5 Social Studies 74 6. Expression Through Narrative Writing 77 Combining Images and Writing in the Primary Grades 78 Images as Inspiration for Writing 78 Using Memories for Inspiration Within Classrooms 84 The Poets of El Sol Academy 85 Writing Stories from Personal Experience 89 Skills-Based Gains in Student Writing Abilities 91 7. Expression Through Informational and Persuasive Writing 95 Teaching Writing Through the Arts 97 Responding to Literature 99 8. Building Executive Function Skills with Arts Activities 107 What Is Executive Function? 107 Evidence from Research 111 9. Bringing the Arts Back to the Language Arts 121 Choosing Arts-Based Activities That Reinforce Learning 122 Exploring Human Relationships Through Stories 123 Teaching Abstract Concepts to Concrete Thinkers 124 The Acquisition of Narrative Skills 125 Making Connections and Revealing Underlying Structure 126 Enhancing Executive Function 127 Arts Integration Versus Transfer 128 References 131 Index 143 About the Author 154

About the Author :
Liane Brouillette is a professor at the School of Education, University of California, Irvine and editor of the Journal for Learning Through the Arts.

Review :
"Overall, Arts Integration in Diverse K-5 Classrooms: Cultivating Literacy Skills and Conceptual Understanding offers in- and pre-service teachers a rich platter of texts, activities, and lesson plans that integrate arts in literacy instruction." --Journal of Language and Literacy Education "With a particular focus upon language literacy, the author depicted arts integration strategies found to enhance student performance by offering opportunities for meaning-making (learning to listen, speak, and interact with text) and effective expression (learning to communicate as speakers and writers). A strength of the book is that the author advocates for a co-equal cognitive form of integration where arts learning and language learning are equally emphasized within learning contexts. This emphasis is important because arts educators are understandably critical of approaches that place the arts in a subservient role, or of situations where the arts subjects are replaced by arts integration altogether. A strong arts curriculum is necessary to ensure that students develop high skill levels in each of the arts, a key to effective integration." --Teachers College Record "It is obvious that this book will be of great use to the classroom teacher looking to expand student success through the application of theoretically sound and practically successful arts integration strategies. It is also an important contribution to the general field of the arts in education." --Journal for Learning through the Arts, UC Irvine