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The Efficacy of Integrating Art Into Social Studies

Integrating art into social studies is a highly effective way to make abstract concepts and historical events tangible to middle school and high school-aged students.

Through the lens of art, students can relate to history, culture, and geography in a more relatable and engaging manner.

As such, educators at arts-integrated schools and institutions have used their own brand of creativity to help students visualize and internalize the essence of social studies in interesting new ways.

How Teachers Are Integrating Art Into Social Studies

Conventional education often teaches social studies in such a way that content and concepts feel disconnected and detached. There’s also very little context for students so it’s difficult for them to grasp its relevance.

By teaching social studies through art, however, educators can provide that badly needed context by means of a tangible product. Students don’t simply study and memorize facts to understand history. Through art, they connect with it in a concrete and authentic way. In addition, both native and non-native English speakers benefit from teachers integrating art into social studies.

So how do they go about doing this? The following are a few examples:

1. Interactively Exploring Geography and History Through Digital Arts

Digital art includes an innovative range of tools from virtual reality to digital painting and beyond. And it’s become an essential component of teaching social studies in unprecedented ways.

Creative arts-integrated educators have discovered that digital mapping tools can be utilized to create interactive maps. These maps go beyond basic geography. Locations on the maps are integrated with cultural insights, historical data, and art to make the process of learning geography and history much more engaging. They bridge the gap between merely memorizing maps and exploring different parts of the world in a memorable way.

2. Understanding Movements Through Performance

The past is comprised of important events and movements that changed history – for better or worse.

By incorporating acting, music, and dance (in essence, grasping movements through movement), students have the opportunity to physically express their understanding of these events in an entirely tactile manner.

For example, students may come together to create a dramatization of the Civil Rights Movement through re-enacting protests and speaking the words of important key figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr. They may study protest music from that era or even write and perform some of their own. Meanwhile, teachers create clear criteria to measure how well the students are grasping the topic, as well as how they’re using artistic concepts to express it.

3. Grasping Cultures Through Sculpting

Sculpture is an effective tool for demonstrating cultural diversity throughout world history. Because sculptures and artifacts are three-dimensional, students can feel the essence of a culture through its materials, textures, and contours.

In a social studies class, students would be encouraged to create pieces that represent a culture they’re studying. For instance, they may carve a small totem pole while learning about the First Nations of the Pacific Northwest. Or they might sculpt a clay vessel while studying ancient Egypt.

Whatever the case, this hands-on approach allows for an interactive and immersive experience that helps students comprehend the diversity of world cultures.

4. Bringing History to Life Through Painting

Learning history through words in a textbook alone does not do it justice. Each moment in history was nuanced by emotions and the atmosphere of that era. To capture all of this in words would be a herculean task.

On the other hand, a painting does just that.

Students at an arts-integrated school are likely to learn more than just the facts for the signing of a significant historical document, for example. By being asked to paint their version of the moment, they have to consider the emotions, the tension, and the hope that would need to be conveyed. Then they attempt to communicate it through their painting. This delivers a more profound understanding than what a textbook can offer.

Is Your Child a Creative Learner?

If your child is having difficulty with the conventional education system, he/she/they might thrive at an arts-integrated school.

By integrating art into social studies, math, science, and a variety of other academics, educators can engage students who might otherwise struggle to grasp concepts through more traditional teaching methods.

So if you’re curious to see what an arts-integrated curriculum could do for your child, contact us to schedule a tour of our school. We use art to spark curiosity that leads to a deeper understanding (and retention) of the subject matter. We look forward to hearing from you.

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