Using a project-based learning approach, three teacher educators, teaching three different methodology courses, worked together to create, plan, and assess an arts-based assignment completed by preservice candidates. The preservice teachers created an animation project while applying curriculum expectations in three subject areas: visual arts,…

This article is about a year-long teaching and research project conducted with 696 4th graders (mostly 10-year olds) and their 36 teachers in Wyoming/USA. The researchers employed an action research approach. They planned and taught a two-day, Wyoming-themed, interdisciplinary unit, "We Are Wyoming", which integrated Social Studies,…

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, this book helps K-5 teachers provide an age-appropriate curriculum that is accessible to an increasingly…

Like many school systems in economically stressed parts of the country, the Everett, Mass., school district had cut back on arts instruction over the years, to the point where most students were getting only a single art class per week. But since 2013, and thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Everett has designed and…

In this article, I highlight findings from a nine-day unit embedded within a larger, four-month long qualitative action research study set in a public middle school. My goal in conducting this research was examination of relationships between visual culture and art integration as a method of fostering students to find voice while taking risks. A…

Employing the research approach known as portraiture, this study investigated the varying ways in which three secondary English language arts teachers at a visual and performing arts high school conceptualized and designed multimodal literacy learning. Also studied were the ways in which their students responded to these designs; and in keeping…

Professional guidelines for English language arts call for the integration of multimodal literacy in the curriculum (National Council of Teachers of English, 2005). These guidelines are grounded in the belief that all meaning-making systems (e.g., visual, linguistic, spatial) are equally valuable. Each has unique potential that, when used…

Creative classroom constructions imbued with arts integration, a transmediational multimodal pedagogy, are examined in exploratory action research in three bilingual elementary classroom learning experiences. In each of the lessons, there was a whole-group introduction and small-group hands-on arts-based activities inclusive of peer dialoguing,…

This article focuses on the connection between the visual arts and language arts with the many teaching and learning possibilities that may arise from an art curriculum infused with language arts. As a K-5 art specialist in a rural Georgia public school, the author feels passionately about the importance of interdisciplinary art education for…

This study was presented at the American Educational Research Association 2012 conference in Vancouver, Canada. The study explored how action research of arts-based teaching (ABT) impacted at-risk students in three urban public schools in southern California, USA. ABT was defined as using arts, music, drama, and dance in teaching other subjects. A…

There is something disappointing about life. It is messy and out of control. It seems the more one tries to put life in order, the more ordering there is to do. The more one seeks explanations, the more confusing things become. Life's an impossible task. Maybe one should just give up. Or, then again, one might as well keep trying. It's this…

The paper examined expert literature teachers' coping with a novel textbook, integrating literature with visual arts, which is a particular interdisciplinary case of text-image relations in textbooks. Examination was performed within the framework of teachers' responses to curricular changes and of theory regarding strategies of interdisciplinary…

To address arts education disparities in middle level schools, this paper explores evidence that infusing the visual and performing arts into language arts, math, science, and history/social studies courses is a pedagogical approach that meets the developmental needs of early adolescents and fosters a relevant, challenging, integrative, and…

Each year, seventh graders at Woodlawn School in Davidson, North Carolina, learn about Japan through a compilation of literature, history, and art. They are introduced to a wide range of ideas and materials: they study the Heian and Tokugawa Periods as well as modern Japan, the code of the samurai warriors, haiku and its components, and Japanese…

Discusses the life and artwork of Charles Burchfield, particularly focusing on his depiction of nature, watercolor techniques, and use of symbolism in his artwork entitled "Arctic Owl and Winter Moon." Provides lessons for philosophy, visual arts, music, natural science, language arts, and astronomy. (CMK)