BXI - Cause you're working

Building a mystery
Holding on and holding it in
Yeah you're working
Building a mystery
And choosing so carefully
Building a Mystery - Sarah McLachlan

What are the benefits and limitations of integrating the arts throughout the elementary school curriculum? What issues are you encountering as you plan your unit? How do you think these issues might present themselves in the classroom situation? How are you addressing these issues now? How will you address them in the classroom?

I feel the benefits of integrating arts throughout the elementary school are the fact that it would create a more holistic curriculum for the students. Integration of arts automatically show a 'practical' use of whatever that is being integrated, thus defining the integrated subjects into a situation where the student would use the subject in a normal day situation. I find the whole process a bit of a mystery, as you can never really determine how things will integrate... I feel the most integrated of topics kind of take on a life of their own. As for limitations, it's almost the same issue. If something is integrated, you have to make sure the students are definitely aware of what's being integrated and used - otherwise things lose their educational merit in a way. If the students aren't aware what things they're doing are science, math or otherwise, the reason of integration would lose it's integrity. Another limitation to art integration is the ability of the teacher is extremely influential - that is if the teacher has little knowledge of art education, art integration may turn to 'crafty' projects, just as Dr. E fears as crafts have little artistic worth.

Integration in my unit ... well my unit was an integrated lesson so thus, it was the purpose of my lesson! As my age group is 5-7yrs of age, I feel it was quite easy to integrate subjects with art - it's all so intuitive integration as at that age a lot of the curriculum is based on exploration. As I those issues mentioned in the previous paragraph, they were be in attendance in the classroom, I feel they were something I needed to pay attention to. Making notes to read off of while teaching the lesson, just small reminders of what I should be talking about, were extremely helpful. Having made myself some reminders, and documenting the process, made me pay attention to what was happening and what I should be doing. Thus being prepared and making notes for one's self in the classroom was an effective way to keep an integrative lesson plan in check and fully effective. It still remains a mystery to me why there aren't more integrative lessons in elementary classrooms as it seems quite intuitive, but nonetheless, it is the way the system is built.