The Importance of Arts Integration on Deep Learning

When I was a student at Butler University I had a psychology professor named Dr. Neil Bohannan. While Dr. Bohannon and I did not see eye to eye on many things, I readily admit that I learned quite a bit from the man. One of the phrases that struck me, and I recall it often (because I utilize it often), is "Learning = a change in behavior based upon acquired knowledge." This equation, if you will, suggests two things; first - in order to learn anything, one's behavior must change.  An example of this behavioral change might be: We studied the United States Constitution in History Class: I decided to vote, because I recognize voting as a right that is given through the Constitution. (Was it Mark Twain who said, "A man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over a man who can't read them."?)

The second tenet is that behavior will change based on the assimilation of acquired knowledge. The input is the knowledge, but the output will manifest learning through the exhibition of an assimilation. In essence, there must be prior knowledge that sets the original behavior. Synthesizing my first example: perhaps I understood voting, or voted prior to my study, but due to my study I will now vote a certain way. Perhaps I will join a political party? This is a behavioral action taken due to my increased knowledge utilizing my prior knowledge - thus - I learned.

Let me break this down into a simple - yet profound example, so it's easy to understand...

My daughter was 7 at the time. She and her mother were making cookies. I was drinking coffee and grading papers at the kitchen table. The ladies had melted chocolate in a pan on the stove top. My wife took the melted chocolate and turned to the sink to pour it into a mixing bowl. She told my daughter, "Don't touch anything." My daughter looked at the red hot coils on the stove top. I noticed her staring at them. Then she did something insane... she reached out and touched them. Now, my daughter - even at 7 - was a smart girl. For her to do something so inane was unfathomable, but she did it. I quickly grabbed the entire ice tray from the freezer and stuffed her hand in it while my wife called the pediatrician. "Why did you do that?" I asked her. "I don't know?" she answered, with tears in her eyes. 2nd degree burns. A beautiful coil singed on my little girl's hand. It's still there to this day.

Following the ordeal I thought about why my daughter would do something so ridiculous, and what my daughter learned. Obviously, she learned not to touch a hot stove. To a degree she learned how to treat burns. We had a follow up discussion on listening to mom and dad. She knew the stove was hot. She could feel the heat. She could see the red coils. Her mother had given her a verbal directive saying, "Don't touch anything." And yet KNOWING that, she still touched it... So the question becomes: WHY? Did she really know that the coil was hot? Surely, she did.  What does it mean to know something? Can you know something without experiencing it?

Let me give another example:

I know my sums in math. I can add, subtract, multiply, and divide - but I don't know how to utilize math, like the guy in that show Numb3rs. I can't function with math. I can't use it in my life to do much more than make sure the person making change at the cash register is correct. According to Dr. Bohannon's theory - in the purest sense - I did not really LEARN math in school. It does not affect my behavior and I have a limited knowledge from which to acquire utility where mathematics are concerned.

By contrast... I can write music. I can create music. I can manipulate music. I choose music to listen too based on my mood. I can communicate feelings and emotions with music. I can help other people appreciate, analyze, create, and synthesize music. I hear music in my head at all times. I dream about music. I think in song patterns and sound waves. I hear lyrics when I'm in certain situations. I can connect my own behaviors and the behaviors of others to songs. I can hear colors and see palettes in music. I type in rhythms. I walk with a beat that changes according to my motion. I am a marionette of the Muse. I have learned music. I live it. I breathe it. I think with it. I think about it. I love it.

See the difference?

Two things should come to your mind. The first is that I did not like mathematics, but I love music. The second is that mathematics and music have deep connections. Since math and music hold such deep connections, why did I not also develop a love for math? That's an excellent thought. The difference may lie in what I love most about music... A person does not have to understand music to create it.

It's true that music has a form and order to it. I can show that order in the chord structures. There are seven tones in a scale. Utilizing those tones we can build seven chords. Each of those chords can be manipulated into major, minor, half, and fully diminished chords. Also, the chords can be stacked with additional tones to create new chords. Additionally, music has functionality. Each chord works in an orbit around what we call the "tonic" or home-base chord. I did not learn any of this until I was in college, yet I was playing professional gigs through high school. Not fully understanding music did not hinder my creation of music, and my desire to perform it fueled my practice of it.

Because of this universal understanding in music - and, really, all of the arts - they become approachable, meaning students can see themselves utilizing the art. Not everyone acts well, but most people are comfortable acting. The confidence in their ability elicits practice, and the practice elicits better acting skills that can then become refined into even better skills. Because of this principle, the arts can be utilized to create learning experiences in your classroom. These experiences give us a measurement - place, time, sequence of events in order, that students can set their learning anchors on. The experiences will also add to the student's knowledge base. Once the knowledge base is assimilated, they will remember and adapt their behavior based on this newly acquired knowledge.

They will learn.

Do I have proof of this? Yes. Sarah and I have a student, let's call him John. John is completely unmotivated. John's parents have stated that John shouldn't have to do anything that he's uncomfortable with (including graduate, evidently?). I had all but given up on John, but during our Midsummer Night's Dream project, while we were reading through the play, Sarah and I decided to have the students get up and tableaux the scenes to help them understand what was going on. John did not read aloud, but he did participate in a scene or two. After that, I noticed that John was paying attention. When the project ended we had the students debrief, which is a norm for our classes. On the debrief John said, "I din't think midsummer d be cool, but we got to act it out. that was cool." (sic) Did John understand the content? Yes. Would he have understood it if he had not seen it? No. That much is very clear. When did John begin to become involved? During the tableaux. I can give you the date and the time. What will he retain from Midsummer10 years from now? We will see, but my moneys on the tableaux of Midsummer Night's Dream.

Dr. Bohannon was right. The question is: How do core-curriculum (traditional academic) classes utilize aesthetic experiences to create these learning anchors? I think the answer lies fully and completely in the curriculum that creates aesthetic experience: the Arts. Arts integration, by being approachable and creating experiences for learning, is the key.

Until next time.

PBL + Shakespeare = SWAG

Did you know that Shakespeare had swag before anyone else? According to my friend and colleague, Sarah Papin-Thomas, Shakespeare invented the word "swagger". He also invented "eyeball." Pretty cool, eh? What can you do with Shakespeare in a PBL classroom? Turns out, quite a bit... I cannot think of a more pronounced PROJECT than the creation of a play. The sets, research, character building, voice, tone, inflections, nuance... Music! Lights! Costumes! Putting on a play is a huge multi-faceted project.

Sarah and I had done Julius Caesar in years past, but we wanted to do something else this year. The Indiana Repertory Theater was putting on A Midsummer Night's Dream. We decided to do that instead. We converted our Caesar play materials and began to fit the rubric for Midsummer.

Theseus and Hippolyta in Chicago Dream

Entry event: We handed the students a playbill with the date that they would be doing their plays. Then we handed everyone a copy of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." We began the Know, Need-to-know, and Next Step process which lead us to read the play. We held a reading where students stood and acted out the parts while reading their lines. The acting part is important, because they must physically go through the scene to process what is going on. Since Shakespeare left out stage and prop directions, the students had to pull it out of the text. It's more tableaux than acting, but it works. Students begin to visualize what is happening in the context of the King James' English. The reading took us 3 days. (300 minutes of class time.) Anything that the students were unable to complete was given to them as homework - yes, we still assign it.

At the end of the 3 day reading session we took our students to see the play at the Indiana Repertory Theater, which was most accommodating for us, and the play was a great experience. Director, Peter Amster's vision was superb! The students found themselves completely enthralled with the play and came back to school the next day ready to dig in. (Thank you IRT!)

Stage 2: After seeing the play, the students took a fresh look at their entry event - the playbill. "We have to make a play, don't we?" They asked us. We just smiled. The students then asked the typical questions - "Is there a rubric?" "Who is on my team? How many are on a team?" and "Does it have to be in iambic pentameter?"

Concerning the language, Sarah and I decided that the students could put the play into modern day language. (I pause here to note that Shakespeare was writing in MODERN English. We are speaking something else. "American" I suppose? Or, at the very least, Post-Modern English. Beowulf is Old English. Chaucer is Middle English.) The reason that we decided that it was okay for the students to change the text was twofold; first, the students must create a one act play (7 to 15 minutes) script covering an important incident or event in Midsummer. Time is a factor, so they were allowed to utilize the language that they speak. The second reason that we agreed to let them convert the text is that students must comprehend what they read to translate it. Asking them to put the scene in their own words demonstrates that they understood what was happening in the scene. The words that they choose to utilize define their understanding and become a very quick and easy assessment for us.

Each student was also instructed to be creative. We asked them to put their mark on the play without ruining the heart of the play, much like the example that Peter Amster gave them at IRT.

Puck freezes the scene

Once each student had created a script, the students worked in small groups. Each group read the scripts that they had aloud. Then the groups voted on one to move on. The "winning" script was sent into a larger group - which was 2 or 3 groups combined. We repeated this process until we had 2 scripts in the class. Then we divided the room into 2 teams. We assigned the groups insuring that each group had a personality that could play each role. The "winning" script writers became the directors of the play associated with their script. Some titles for this year: "Romeo's Dream," a juxtaposition of Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. "Time-travelling Puck," a play dealing with Oberon's instruction to Puck to fix his error. "Schitzophrenic Dream," a play where the dreamers wake up to find themselves in an asylum under the care of a doctor worried about their strange dreams. "Chicago Dream," where Egeus isn't just an angry father, he's a mobster. "Zombie Midsummer," a play where Pucks mischief creates a whole new problem...  

Team Meeting

Once the teams were established the students began the hard task of putting on a play. They struggled with rehearsals, lighting, sound, and costuming. Directors had to deal with whiny peers and people that didn't do their homework. Per usual, the students had to create original music to fulfill my music theory standards.  The students opened Finale and began scoring their music and matching it up with the blocking and stage choreography. Also, students were constantly writing and communicating with e-mails, texts, and hand-written notes. Sarah and I received notes, storyboards, scripts and all manor of artifacts from students during the process.

To aid them in staging, Sarah and I elicited the help of our colleague and friend, Tina Mahr. Tina holds a degree in Theater from Columbia University and specializes in working with kids. She flew out from California and taught workshops on make-up, projection, fake blood making, safe falling, stage blocking, stage combat, and the keys to being a good thespian. During this time, Sarah and I managed the classes and the hallways and put out any small fires that erupted between group members.

On Stage: Finally, the day came. We scheduled 2 shows per block and invited the entire campus - elementary, middle school, and high school. The crowds came and the plays were performed to the delight of thespians and audience alike.

As a debrief, Sarah and I asked the kids, "What did you learn?" Here are some of the things they told us...

A Mid-School Year Daydream

"I truly learned, and understand now, how artists can create things - inspired or alternative - versions of a  form of art." - C.H.

"I learned that you cannot get far in life if you cannot communicate well with others." - K.F.

"During this project I have learned how to be a leader." - T.H.

"I had no idea how much work needed to go into a play." - L.B.


Theater and Music Appreciation: Check. Reading and understanding a Shakespearean play: Check. Getting students to recognize the amount of work that real art takes: Check. Script writing, communication, music composition, set design and creation, costume design and creation, teamwork...

We felt like it was a success.

A toast during Chicago Dream