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Using the Arts in the Content Areas: Examples

1. Find works of art that are related in theme, time period, or place and have students freewrite or write in a focused way about the artwork. Students might analyze class relationships between figures in a painting, or analyze life-style by looking at furniture, dishes, and activities of people in the paintings. Paintings that are thematically related to an historical event or to a piece of literature or concept in psychology or philosophy can be analyzed for their stance toward the theme. The use of color, the relationships between figures, the movement of lack of it in an image, can all give clues to the artist's stance. Images can be analyzed to discover the narrative they represent.
 
3. Create illustrated maps of processes, locations, or journeys. This can be as simple as creating a map of a character's physical journey, illustrating locations in a way that shows significant events. An illustrated map could be made of the soul's journey to the underworld in Egyptian mythology. In math, a character could be drawn making a physical journey to gather and process pieces of information. A map could be drawn of an important historical person's political or scientific career. In English, a neighborhood map can be drawn as a jumping-off point for stories.
 
9. Create paper or fabric 'tapestries' for representing historical events. This can be done collage-style or in a way similar to Hmong story cloths.
 
12. Draw or paint various settings. These settings may be historical, fictional, or natural (the human reproductive system, the rainforest).
 
14. Create Kamishibai (Japanese storytelling cards). These might be used to tell myths, historical events, scientific or mathematical discoveries, or processes. Students can use the cards to tell the stories to the class.
 
15. Create graphic novels. These again can be used to tell fictional or historical stories.
 
16. Create Vocabulary posters. Split the poster in two. On one side is a picture which represents a mnemonic for the word. On the other side, the student tells everything he or she can find out about the word: first use, part of speech, definition, connotations, antonym, synonym.
 
18. Draw cartoons. Cartoons can be drawn from poetry, or can depict historical events or processes.
19. Create a mandala. Detailed instructions for creating a mandala can be found in Fran Claggett's Drawing Your Own Conclusions, and is summarized on Dawn Hogue's web site. A mandala is a circular, symbolic representation. Mandalas may represent characters in history or literature, or may be used to represent opposing viewpoints in a political or philosophical debate.
 
20. Make graphic maps representing concepts, processes or relationship. Examples can be found in Fran Claggett's Drawing Your Own Conclusions.
 
21. Create a board game representing a fictional character's journey, the plot of a novel or short story, historical events, or problems solving.
 
23. Create a poetry poster. Paste a copy of the poem onto an 11 x 14 piece of paper. Underline instances of alliteration, circle assonance, double underline repetition of words, put squares around rhymes, using different colors for different instances. On the rest of the paper, illustrate the poem with images taken from the poem. The illustrations taken together should reveal the theme of the poem.
 
25. Create a soundtrack for a character, a work of fiction, or an historical event or period.
 
27. Play music. Music is thought to aid learning in a number of ways. Here's a resource.
 
28. Use chants and songs to help with memorization of math facts, geographical facts, names of elements and other information that needs to be memorized.
 
30. Create process dramas. Go here for an explanation and example of process drama.
 
39. Write letters from the point of view of animals involved in the historical activities of humans. For example, a mother buffalo might write a letter to her calf, explaining westward expansion. A jaguar could explain the plight of the rainforest to its child.
 
40. Write essays relating a work of art to a myth, or to a concept in history, science or math. For example, comparing The Fall of Icarus with the myth.
 
41. Write a math or science autobiography. What is the earliest experiences you can remember? What have you enjoyed? What are some experiences with the subject that have shaped your attitude toward it? Your understanding? Click here for an example and some questions to get things started.