Integrating the Visual Arts Across the Curriculum: An Elementary and Middle School Guide

“If you long for an arts classroom that connects students to the astonishingly interesting world they live in and want some helpful guidance on how to do it, this is the book for you!” ―From the Foreword by Connie Stewart, University of Northern Colorado

With lots of examples and color images, this resource is both a foundational text and a practical guidebook for bringing contemporary art into elementary and middle school classrooms as a way to make learning joyful and meaningful for all learners.

Marshall shows how asking questions and posing problems spark curiosity and encourage learners to think deeply and make meaningful connections across the curriculum. At the center of this approach is creativity, with contemporary visual art as its inspiration. The text covers methods of creative inquiry-based learning, art and how it connects to the “big ideas” addressed by academic domains, flexible structures teachers can use for curriculum development, creative teaching strategies using contemporary art, and models of art-based inquiry curriculum.

Book Features:

• Provides research-based project ideas and curriculum models for arts integration.
• Shows how Project Zero’s flexible structures and frameworks can be used to develop creative inquiry and an arts integration curriculum.
• Explains how contemporary visual art connects to the four major disciplines―science, mathematics, social studies, and language arts.
• Includes full-color images of contemporary art that are appropriate for elementary and middle school learners.
• Demonstrates how arts integration can and should be substantive, multidimensional, and creative.

Julia Marshall is professor emeritus of art education at San Francisco State University and coauthor of Art Centered Learning Across the Curriculum. Contributors: Ann Ledo-Lane is director of arts programming at the Creative Arts Charter School in San Francisco. Elizabeth McAvoy is a middle school visual arts teacher in San Francisco, California.