麻豆传媒入口

Overview

Sharanya Sharma鈥檚 second-grade class at Two Rivers Public Charter School in Washington, DC, surveyed people at Reagan National Airport to find out what they knew about how airplanes fly. They discovered that most people don鈥檛 know how planes stay in the air.

鈥淥ur problem,鈥� says Stuart, one of the students, 鈥渋s people at the national airport don鈥檛 understand the physics of flight, even though they鈥檙e about to get on planes.鈥�

鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to teach people how to learn the physics of flight,鈥� adds Paz, another student.

Sharma partnered with Leah Quinter, an elementary visual arts teacher, to teach the physics of flight. Their final product: a large, whole-class acrylic painting that shows the four forces of flight鈥攖hrust, lift, gravity, and drag. The painting will be displayed at Reagan National Airport to solve their problem in science: teaching people at the airport how airplanes stay in the sky.

鈥淧articularly in the elementary school, we have a heavy focus on arts integration as it relates to our expeditions鈥擺in depth, content-specific, problem-based learning explorations that are a part of ],鈥� explains Tonia Vines, a dramatic arts teacher. 鈥淭wice a year, we integrate social studies or science content with drama or visual arts.鈥� Students have 45-minute visual arts classes twice a week for half the year, and then take drama classes for the rest of the year.

鈥淎rts integration is about reaching as many students as you can,鈥� explains Sharma. 鈥淏eing able to have that tactile experience of flinging paint at the paper, or pouring paint down a paper to see how gravity works, it connects what they鈥檝e learned in art to their everyday experiences, instead of just that one classroom experience.鈥�

How It's Done

Start With Research

If you鈥檙e uncomfortable with your partner's academic or arts subject, try studying the content. 鈥淭hrough researching, you can start to think about ways to integrate,鈥� explains Quinter. She suggests that you ask yourself:

• Where does this match my subject?
• Where does this match my content areas?
• What are my goals for my students, and how can we reach those in both subjects?

Plan Together

Share with each other what your standards and learning targets are, look for common goals, and brainstorm topics, guiding questions, and a final art product that can both deepen the academic learning and teach the art content. At Two Rivers Public Charter School, during the three-week orientation each summer, teachers have two 2-hour sessions to co-plan, and when school starts, they have two or three 1-hour sessions during professional development. They continue to plan after school, over email, and via Google Docs. Here is the (PDF) Sharma and Quinter created connecting the four forces of flight to art.

Test Your Plan

Once you鈥檝e decided on a final art product, make a model. 鈥淲e believe in testing it first ourselves,鈥� says Sharma. 鈥淚f we鈥檙e having fun and learning from it, then it might work with our kids. If we鈥檙e bored, then we go back and start again.鈥� Creating a model not only gives you experience with the process but also shows your students an example of what great work looks like and what they鈥檙e striving for.

Build on Your Strengths and Weaknesses

If you discover a product that resonates with your students, repeat it. 鈥淪haranya and I would discuss the content and what was strong about what we鈥檝e done in the past, and then where we鈥檇 like to push that thinking further,鈥� remembers Quinter. 鈥淲hat we were missing was cementing the two classes together and a lot of debrief time.鈥� With shorter visual art classes, students spent more time on making art and less time discussing the connection to their science. To reinforce what the students have just learned in art or academics, Sharma and Quinter:

• Use common vocabulary.
• Use the same reference materials.
• Ask their students what they learned that day in the other class.

鈥淪he鈥檚 asking them what they did in art, and I鈥檓 asking them what they did in science. That鈥檚 been helpful,鈥� reflects Quinter.

Outside of reflecting with each other, Sharma and Quinter also get feedback on their instructional planning from a group of teachers who analyze their students鈥� work鈥攄iscussing where their students are in their understanding, what鈥檚 being assessed, and what next steps Sharma and Quinter can take to better reach their learning targets. (See Analyze Student Work to Inform Instruction and The Power of Vulnerability in Professional Development.)

Integrate the Arts Through Experiments

A common challenge with arts integration is ensuring that you鈥檙e meeting your arts standards. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just an add-on or something fun at the end,鈥� emphasizes Quinter. 鈥淚t鈥檚 something that truly deepens their understanding of that content, and also the arts.鈥�

鈥淭his year, they used the forces themselves to make the art,鈥� says Sharma, 鈥渨here in past years they would draw a picture of that force at work and incorporate that into their final product, which was a booklet incorporating illustrations of the physics.鈥�

Along with their collaborative acrylic painting this year, Quinter鈥檚 class did three experiments:

Three Experiment Ideas

Marble Experiment: Quinter鈥檚 students started with a copier paper box lid. They put paper, two to three drops of tempera paint, and a marble inside. Students grouped into pairs, moved the lid around, and watched how the marble interacted with the paint.

鈥淲e rolled the marble around, and it made the lines of thrust to go forward because thrust means to go forward,鈥� explains Paz.

Salad Spinner Experiment: 鈥淭hey placed circle-shaped paper at the bottom of the salad spinner,鈥� explains Quinter. 鈥淒ripped six to eight drops of liquid watercolor inside, closed the lid, and spun it鈥攖heir arms demonstrating thrust to power the spinner, and the paper conveying drag lines visible as the paint was pulled. They could go fast. They could go slow. When they opened the lid, they observed what happened.鈥�

Waterfall Experiment: In pairs, Quinter鈥檚 students poured watered-down tempera paint onto paper attached to a clipboard. 鈥淭hey would manipulate the board to see if it would change the reaction of the paint,鈥� says Quinter. 鈥淲hat they would often discover is that it did not, that gravity was always pulling the paint down, no matter how they spun the board.鈥�

During your experiments, ask your students guiding questions. Ask them what they鈥檙e seeing and have them explain why. Challenge them -- say, 鈥淚s it this? Is it not that?鈥� advises Quinter.

鈥淏efore they start doing this in art, they just think, 鈥楶hysics has to do with planes,鈥欌�� explains Sharma. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 occur to them that physics is actually all around us, and science is all around us. Anyone can be a scientist. It鈥檚 not just someone who studies science.鈥�

Use Artist Statements for Assessment

Have your students show their understanding through an artist statement. 鈥淎rtist statements are a great way for artists to share what they鈥檝e done in their artwork, why they鈥檝e done it, the materials they鈥檝e used, and how it has changed their thinking or deepened their understanding,鈥� explains Quinter. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a way for students to present their artwork and their understanding through the artwork.鈥�

To create an artist statement:

Step One: Begin by showing your students real artists statements. Have them analyze what does and does not make a good artist statement, and ask them what they should include in theirs.

Step Two: Have your students critique each other鈥檚 artist statements: What word choices did they use? How did they make their artist statement come alive? In what ways did they describe their artwork?

鈥淭he whole point is for the teachers to facilitate rather than direct,鈥� says Sharma. 鈥淚t would be easy for us to say, 鈥楢 good artist statement has three sentences that describe the art, and they say something like this鈥�.鈥� But in order for them to have ownership over their own learning, we say, 鈥榃hat makes this artist statement good? What do you think?鈥欌��

For each art experiment, every student writes their own artist statement, and they use those critiques to inform their collaborative artist statement for their final product.

鈥淭he learning objectives for the artist statement are twofold,鈥� explains Sharma. 鈥淭he first one is a content-based learning target, explaining how the the forces work together to make an airplane fly. And the second is our literacy learning target, using descriptive words and strong adjectives to describe their art.鈥�

Jessica Wodatch, Two Rivers鈥� executive director, believes, 鈥淚t鈥檚 exciting to see kids who have been stuck on a concept, and all of a sudden they get it. The arts are another avenue to help kids understand something, and they make the classroom much richer.鈥�