Integrating The Arts Into The Classroom Essay

In schools around the country there are students eager and ready to learn new exciting information about the world around them. While the students are sitting at their desks, teachers are asking themselves questions every minute of every day. One of the questions that many teachers ask themselves is how can I create lessons in which all the students are able to truly grasp the information that I am teaching them? The answer to this question is actually simpler than it seems. The answer is by integrating the arts into the classroom. Integrating the arts into the classroom allows a teacher to be culturally responsive, meet the needs of all learners and allows students to enjoy the learning process. Today, when you walk into many classrooms there is a wide range of cultures that are being represented. The diversity among the students in these classrooms is a very

For example, many students whose families immigrated from another country are aware because they hear stories about the journey that their families took. In the article, The Power of Art in Multicultural Education: The International Project, it talks about two different projects that students worked on which involved hearing the stories of how people immigrated to the United States and capturing a picture of that person (Graham, 2009). By doing these projects, the students were able to learn about the wide range of diversity not only in their families, but in their community as well. Graham (2009) states, “Although, each photograph tells a unique story about immigration, it also represents the journey each student took toward multicultural literacy, understanding and relationships” (Graham, 2009, p.157). These students were able to get a different look at the world outside of their own and were able to share what they learned with their peers. This is one of many examples of how teachers are able to use art to teach acceptance and