You Changed School For Covid, Now Change It For Me How To Improve Teaching Of Academics And Sel Through Arts Integrated Lessons

Ward Eames, CEO, Livestream Learning Studio, Emily Aydt, CSM, Livestream Learning Studio and John Schultz, Executive Director, Metro ECSUCXO

EamesFor schools to be invited back into the lives of students after the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, new and innovative participatory teaching models must be invented. Livestream technology is at the forefront of that effort.

Every school administrator and teacher understands the importance of Social-emotional learning (SEL), but they struggle to implement it without losing the academic momentum. One way is to integrate the arts with academic curriculum to produce the desired outcome of SEL. Here’s how this new model can be implemented so that schools don’t have to choose between academics and social-emotional growth. Rather, they can have both.

Using the arts is the key to developing optimal SEL opportunities for your students. Does it sound like we’re pushing another ‘thing’ to add to your plate? Not really; it’s actually just the opposite. Integrating the arts, especially by using livestreaming content, into academics will naturally produce the SEL needed within classrooms today. Here are the four steps to make this process more focused and intentional.

Step 1: Break Apart the Year

Divide the school year into smaller sections, either quarters, trimesters, or semesters, depending on where you teach. If your location does not have standardized grading periods, then divide the school year by seasons—fall, winter and spring.

Step 2- Academic Curriculum

Month-by-Month Curriculum cycles typically span over a few years, which allows teachers to plan, prepare, and reuse materials well in advance. When preparing for the upcoming school year, focus on the academic content covered each month (see Table 1 T-Chart).

Step 3- Themes: Month-by-Month

As there are many unique opportunities related to fall, winter and spring, it’s best to first identify the mandatory content, followed by any additional events or fun celebrations. Monthly themes are limitless. Map out the entire year. No matter the format of lesson plans, it is important to have the academic and thematic content for each month in an organized fashion (see Table 1 T-Chart).

Step 4: Add the Arts

Incorporating the arts into the curriculum is what will promote and provide SEL opportunities for students. Oftentimes, “arts integration” is used as a blanket term for incorporating the arts into the curriculum. However, there is a difference between arts enhancement and arts integration. Both are valuable for teaching and learning. By using the arts to help students learn about an academic concept, you’re only assessing your students’ understanding of the concept itself. We are talking about arts enhancement.

For example, asking students to create a digital art collage to demonstrate their understating of a book they read would be arts enhancement. Whenever students are given opportunities to represent themselves or the understanding of the material in an avenue they enjoy and connect to, engagement and behavior challenges disappear.

“Using the arts is the key to developing optimal SEL opportunities for your student Using the arts is the key to developing optimal SEL opportunities for your student”

Once you have created an academic and thematic curriculum map for the entire year, you can determine where to embed the arts as the final (but necessary step) in lesson planning. This last step cannot be overlooked since the arts produces the SEL growth. Placing the arts activity allows for SEL opportunities to be born within daily lessons.

One example comes from John Schultz, Executive Director of Metro ECSU, who used Theater as the arts tool in his chemistry class: “I gave my science class assigned roles of being protons, neutrons, and electrons to demonstrate the concept of an atom. Protons and neutrons move around in a huddled mass, the center of the sage of the classroom, to demonstrate what is in the atom’s nucleus. While students ran around quickly, they actually have to run at the speed of light around the nucleus as electrons. It was a great way to demonstrate the atom, and demonstrate acting responsibly.”

Allowing the students to demonstrate or ‘act-out’ (theater and dance) the function of an atom not only strengthens the engagement since the students are part of the lesson and moving, but also gives students immediate exposure to the SEL competencies necessary for inclusive learning environments. Students collaborate, reflect, and discuss with their peers during these lessons as they enhance their relationship and social skills and practice their self-management with responsible decision-making.

Another example by Emily Aydt is a poetry- and history-integrated lesson, in which a livestream video is used as the arts tool to embed SEL. During the month of April (National Poetry Month), students watch an interactive program that is a theatrical performance of a poem about the Apollo Space Mission.

Lessons that expose students to collective experiences foster SEL growth and a deeper connection with the educational content standard. Educational streaming and collaborative analysis are a great example of this type of lesson. Streaming videos and live real-time interaction with artists are a great teaching tool to use in classrooms as long as they are carefully selected and connected to your standards. After viewing educational content as a class (not individually), the collaborative opportunities that follow are extremely meaningful. Timing is important here. Students should immediately discuss with each other their emotions, connections or overall feedback on the program. Discussing how they feel about the content is a significant part of the SEL competencies that are integral to collaborative learning.

The performing arts, music, fine arts and video are available to every teacher via livestreaming technology. Arts via livestreams is different from reading, teacher presentations, and lectures because students interact with the creative works that real artists have made. This creates a special kind of social norming that builds students’ “stickiness” to the content. What’s most important is to change the old teaching model by using new interactive technology to expose students to the emotional power of the arts so they can receive the SEL benefits of that experience and brighten classrooms through a joyful learning environment.

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