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Login Create AccountThe art room is a great place to explore, create, and use your imagination. It can also be a wonderful place for students to broaden their scope and breadth of knowledge. Incorporating other skills, subjects, and connections into an art lesson can promote a student’s critical thinking, analytical, and problem-solving skills. It can also reinforce more abstract concepts, improve reasoning skills, and allow for personal expression. Our students may not all become artists, art teachers, graphic designers, or interior decorators. We can support those who do and also give meaningful knowledge to those who do not go into the art field.
Make natural connections that are prebuilt into a lesson. For example, if you are teaching students how to create movie posters with Google Drawings, you can discuss graphic design or filmmaking. You may even be surprised to learn some of your students’ families are involved in these careers! This can spark some enriching conversations. For more lesson ideas that tie into careers, check out this article.
While arts integration and an interdisciplinary experience can be beneficial, if it does not make sense to use a connection, then refrain. If it is clunky and seems like you are cramming everything in except the kitchen sink, dial back. An interdisciplinary art lesson should enhance the teaching, not hinder it or make it more confusing. Let your students be an indicator of this. If they seem confused or overwhelmed, a tweak is probably needed somewhere.
A place-based education approach pulls local knowledge into your lesson. This is specific to the community in which you teach. Examine key areas in your teaching community and draw those into your curriculum. Maybe you live in a rural area where farming is a major industry or in a location with a rich Native American history. Take a field trip or collaborate with another staff member to enrich learning. A place-based approach has the potential to motivate students, create an awareness of their community, and even improve their academics.
Survey your students and see what careers they are interested in. Then, try to tailor a few of these talking points in upcoming lessons. If a student has a heavy interest in being an auto mechanic, express the many benefits of the artmaking experience to help them achieve their future goal!
Check in with your classes each year. For example, you may have a lot of students interested in comics one year, so a comic lesson with a discussion on being a comic artist may fit the bill. But another year, you may have kids with a curiosity about fossils. Adding in some paleontology or archaeology references can hook these students.
Now that you have the nuts and bolts of incorporating real-world connections into your art curriculum, let’s look at some lesson plans to make easy, fun, and meaningful connections.
This lesson is perfect for science or engineering concepts. It uses a discovery-based teaching method and even allows for student collaboration. For this project, students can use many materials to make a bridge. Suggested materials include popsicle sticks, wire, pipe cleaners, tape, glue, foil, and paper. Also, decide whether this should be a timed, one-day assignment or a multi-day lesson.
Next Generation Science Standards:
Here are the suggested steps for the lesson:
Students create an invention idea on their own, first by drawing it on paper, then creating it in a sculptural medium. This lesson works best with the upper elementary to early middle school years but can be adapted if need be. It utilizes the process of design thinking, which is applied in many facets of the job world, such as engineering, product design, and manufacturing. The prototype phase at the end serves as a culmination of the project. It shows the students how the whole design thinking process comes full circle.
Next Generation Science Standards:
Here are the suggested steps for the lesson:
Much like the bridge-making project, this involves using the discovery-based learning method. Students use one sheet of paper to build the tallest tower. The catch is that you give students one sheet of paper, one roll of tape, and one pair of scissors. Limit supplies and time to impel students to efficiently and creatively problem-solve. This directly applies to real-world scenarios where one gets limited supplies, a finite budget, and the need to make the best of what they are given. This may even sound familiar to some of us in the art classroom, where ingenuity is the key to success.
Next Generation Science Standards:
Here are the suggested steps for the lesson:
The possibilities for real-world connections in the art room are vast. The typical art connections like graphic design, illustration, artist, art teacher, or art historian are easy to plug in. But other links, such as engineering or science, can be just as simple. With anything in the education world, it helps to know your students, their backgrounds, and their interests. Tailoring your instruction to meet their needs is always important. Look for that natural fit and comfort to give your lessons an authentic, meaningful feel. As a result, your lessons will have a greater impact on your students!
Portions of this work are based on the National Core Arts Standards. Used with permission. National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (2015) National Core Arts Standards. Rights Administered by the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education. Dover, DE, www.nationalartsstandards.org all rights reserved.
NCAS does not endorse or promote any goods or services offered by the Art of Education University.
Do you have lessons where you integrate real-world connections? If so, what are they?
Can you strengthen a lesson you already have to incorporate some of these ideas?
Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.