The Fine Arts and

Students At Risk:
Creating Success

by Julianna Rees
 Honor the Machine

“The human brain is the most complex system

on earth, yet too often it is used in schools as a
simple device for storing and retrieving
information.”

-Anthony Dickinson
2002

Researcher
Honor the Machine, Part II
THE BRAIN is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will include
With ease, and you beside.

The brain is deeper than the sea,

For, hold them, blue to blue,
The one the other will absorb,
As sponges, buckets do.

The brain is just the weight of God,

For, lift them, pound for pound,
And they will differ, if they do,
As syllable from sound.

- Emily Dickinson
If all our brains are capable
of learning exciting,
challenging curricula, why
are some students
underachieving? Are we These are often students
of color who are also

willing to give up on their economically challenged.

They may have learning
disabilities. They may be

innate ability? How can we English language learners.

But their brains are wired
for learning the same

reach them?
material as their more
advantaged peers
Problem:
What can we do? some student populations
underperform or are underserved.

➔ Students of color

➔ Students with disabilities

We may have many kinds of special
learners in our classrooms.

➔ Students who are economically

disadvantaged
Will we always be able to tell?

➔ Students who are English

language learners
It’s California
The Challenge:
In California, 1 in 4 youth in
the general popula-
tion quits school From:
California State
Department of

each year
Education statistic from
2012
Among African American
students
the rate is DOUBLE =AND:
For every student who
drops out, there are

42% many more who stay in

school but who will
graduate unprepared
for college and

For Latinos = 30%

employment
The Gap
There are consequences to the disparity that
starts in our classrooms:

➔ Where do these students end

up? *
➔ Public Education *.
Plays a role in perpetuating personal,
They can’t fully
structural, and societal inequality participate in the
economic, political and
➔ How can we be teachers who social opportunities of
reach these students? society.
What curriculum is effective? Low-wage jobs, or
worse
The Solution:
Research shows arts-based education
is effective in reaching disadvantaged
students who are:

● Economically diverse
● Special education
● Language learners
● At-risk for violence
BRAIN STUFF 1
Some neurological benefits based
on whole brain research:

● The fine arts stimulate the anterior

cingulate (the pathway between the
brain’s hemispheres)
● This develops capacities in reading,
math and science
● Right brain = spatial memory, sensory
also!
recall, intuition, synthesis
● Left brain = verbal, sequential learning,
Reduced
logic, analysis stress makes
● Whole brain = balances the two all learning
● Improvement in focus and concentration,
expression, persistence, imagination, easier!
creativity and and resilience
BRAIN STUFF 2
Some more good science-y stuff
about arts-y stuff:

● Our brains are wired to seek community

- which we can offer in our classrooms
● Our brains are wired to avoid threat and
maximize well-being wait!
● The best learning happens when the
brain perceives a safe environment, free
This doesn’t
from stress where we are connected to mean you
other learners
● This is called deep culture, and it’s what
need to light
we want for all our students candles and
wear socks!
Can you have comfort and rigor
too? Where’s the balance?
 Student engagement in
the arts has a positive
effect in many realms: A simple gesture
● Increased motivation
to learn
● Greater engagement Coaches Gary and Glen knew no
● Lower dropout rate
● Higher academic Spanish.
achievement
● Reduced violence
Tip They used Google Translate to invite
Show how your solution Alberto to join in... “Do you want to
helps the person in
the story reach his or play?”... “Can you defend the left side?”
her goals.
That’s the What. Here’s the Why:

Creativity, Arts = Learning is

learning and Project-based student-centered
“mistakes” are learning + UBD. - students and
natural partners Instruction is teachers can
in success and always diversified discover together
progress
Arts Now.
At its very core, arts education is
everything we strive to incorporate in
our classrooms: it is student-centered,
project-based, UBD, diverse, inclusive,
exploratory, and open-ended. It
creates a safe learning environment in
which students are free to indulge
their curiosity, explore their ideas and
express themselves.
 Student engagement in
the arts has a positive
effect in many realms:
Don’t Worry Math
Greater motivation to
●
learn
and Science
● increased creativity Teachers! You don’t
● lower dropout rate have to teach dance or
● higher academic drama! But there are
achievement
Tip ways to bring the arts
into your classrooms to
Show how your solution make learning more
helps the person in interactive, participatory
the story reach his or and student-centered.
her goals.
In fact, arts integration is just as effective
What can we do better? Here’s what:
Of 30 Industrialized Arts integration = higher order thinking,
nations, the US was 1 of 8 multiple means of expression, autonomy,
with the largest self-regulation, collaborative learning
achievement gap

This can be who we

Doomed: are:
SAT and Common Core subject
The US also shared the
scores increased linearly with
bottom for how strongly a
each year of additional arts
student’s SES predicts her
classes
achievement
 Axe Handles: The Model is Near
And I say this to Kai
"Look: We'll shape the handle
By checking the handle
One afternoon the last week in April
Of the axe we cut with—"
Showing Kai how to throw a hatchet
And he sees. And I hear it again:
One-half turn and it sticks in a stump.
It's in Lu Ji's Wên Fu, fourth century
He recalls the hatchet-head
A.D. "Essay on Literature"-—in the
Without a handle, in the shop
Preface: "In making the handle
And go gets it, and wants it for his own.
Of an axe
A broken-off axe handle behind the door
By cutting wood with an axe
Is long enough for a hatchet,
The model is indeed near at hand."
We cut it to length and take it
My teacher Shih-hsiang Chen
With the hatchet head
Translated that and taught it years ago
And working hatchet, to the wood block.
And I see: Pound was an axe,
There I begin to shape the old handle
Chen was an axe, I am an axe
With the hatchet, and the phrase
And my son a handle, soon
First learned from Ezra Pound
To be shaping again, model
Rings in my ears!
And tool, craft of culture,
"When making an axe handle
How we go on.
the pattern is not far off."
- Gary Snyder
 Arts Integration = Collaboration!
Your subject can
be fully
integrated with
the arts for
dynamic,
project-based,
student-centered
curriculum. Turn
to a colleague
sitting next to
you to discuss
how!
Good luck!
Find another teacher to collaborate with you
on arts integration curriculum. There might be
someone in this room who has the ideas that
will make your material more active,
project-based and student-centered. And that
can only be a good thing!

And you might have just the right ideas to

share with someone else.

Let the games begin!