The New Zealand early childhood curriculum, Te Whariki, encourages teachers to intentionally implement learning experiences so children learn about and through the visual arts. Acknowledging the tensions between intentional teaching and play-based learning, teachers are urged to be neither hands-off nor very structured in designing visual arts…

This paper reviews two scholars' experiences teaching about the subjects of graffiti and street art to undergraduate students in U.S. universities. Using auto-ethnographical methods, the instructors review the challenges that they encountered and the various strategies they experimented with to overcome these difficulties. Issues discussed include…

Continuing the traditions of the avant-garde, contemporary artists often question notions of originality through the practice of appropriation and repurposing familiar or loaded symbols and signs (Barrett, 2011). This Instructional Resource focuses on three aspects of artistic practice: improvisation as a way of emphasizing a process-driven…

Just as students should leave their Foundational year of art with a beginning sense of composition, color, value, and materials, so should they be cultivating their creative capacities. With the equipment exercised and the waters tested, students will be prepared to continue their journey; for it is the interplay of personal experience, social…

Visual arts, such as drawings, are attractive to most young children. Marks left on paper by young children contain meaning. Although it is known that children's oral language could be enhanced through communication with adults, rarely is there a series of dialogues between adults and young children about their drawings. Often heard instead…

This article demonstrates how Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) art discussions and subsequent, inspired artmaking can help reach the goals of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, & Technical Subjects (CCSS-ELA). The authors describe how this was achieved in a remedial…

All children have the right to creative expression through the arts. The creation of art cultivates critical thinking, reflection, and problem-solving skills. It also encourages systems thinking; the color choices, individual brushstrokes, and materials all contribute to a greater whole. Infusing art-making and arts education throughout the…

The author discusses four specific strategies for enhancing and supporting the spatial aspects of the science, mathematics, and social studies curricula. However, these four strategies are examples of what can be done, not an exhaustive list. The overarching concept is to embrace the spatial visualizations used for discovery and communication in…

The current Alberta Social Studies curriculum places a strong emphasis on recognizing the importance of multiple perspectives in the interpretation of Canada's past. The three drawings that the author has created represent the progression from the overall arching grand narrative of Canadian history to the introduction and embedding of the multiple…

To foster learner focus and deepen engagement while embracing contemporary standards for teaching art and other subjects, teachers must help students more fully understand art images, objects, and events, present and past, so that they can understand the relevance and significance of art in their lives. Using a balanced approach that attends…

There is a dynamic synergy between the visual arts and the natural sciences. For example, science relies heavily on individuals with visual-art skills to render detailed illustrations, depicting everything from atoms to zebras. Likewise, artists apply analytic, linear, and logical thinking to compose and scale their work of art. These parallel…

Imaginative and attractive, cutting edge in its conception, this text explicates a model for the integration of language arts and literacy education based on the notion of framing. The act of framing--not frames in themselves--provides a creative and critical approach to English as a subject. "Re-framing Literacy" breaks new ground in the language…

Cassidy, a talented artist in my third-grade classroom, struggled with classroom assignments. It's not that she wasn't capable of high-level work, but tasks such as spelling tests, arithmetic practice, and test preparation worksheets were making for a very unhappy child. Cassidy was consistently eager to participate in learning activities that had…

Art education offers a way to reach students and make schools more relevant for them. Art teachers can create alternative formats that allow students to explore and learn about their lives. Thereby, students and their communities become the focus of the curriculum and students' responses are valued as individual expression. While teaching art in…

The author describes an ongoing National Endowment for the Humanities project that is devoted to building multiple competences by studying Rembrandt and seventeenth century Dutch culture. Its uniqueness consists in its designing of a state-of-the-art Web site that interrelates the humanities, social studies, visual arts, and technology. A major…