Arts Integration Day at Kumpf Middle School
Clark Public Schools
Carl H. Kumpf Middle School in Clark recently celebrated their annual Arts Integration Day. Arts Integration helps students to use critical and creative thinking to gain a better understanding of the content being taught. According to EducationCloset.com, “Arts Integration is a research-based approach to teaching and learning that has proven results for the past 30 years. For schools that commit to using arts integration with integrity, the results are astounding. Schools that intentionally use arts integration find student achievement rises by 10% or more across the board.” On Monday, November 7, all teachers in every subject area used visual and performing arts in their lessons.
Sixth-grade science teacher, Joe Rodrigues had his students use watercolors as an introduction to the weather unit. Students created a weather scene with themselves in it. Rodriguez said, “The activity was highly engaging and outside the normal realm of what traditional science tends to be.” Thomas Peitz, Kumpf’s art teacher, was able to give watercolor technique demonstrations to the science class.
Suzanne Hamilton had her language arts students illustrate portions of a graphic novel based on the podcast The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel. They learned how to lay out their two-page spread as well as incorporate shot variety, narrative text, and graphic design.
“Our class had a fantastic time creating a vision of this audiobook and bringing it to life. It was a new and unique way to engage with literature.”
Students in Mrs. Yetsko’s seventh-grade honors language arts classes explored the concept of moods and memories created by color. Using paint swatches as inspiration, students wrote poems incorporating the color names, matching the mood of the color story.
As further inspiration, the class listened to a “colors” music playlist. Danielle Bihuniak, eighth-grade science teacher, is currently teaching natural selection and used Black-out Poetry in her lessons. “The Black-out poetry served as a unique way for students to utilize their creativity while encouraging them to read critically and for detail.”
Lauren Fernandes and the rest of the 6th-grade math team taught how to reduce fractions while exploring the art of Piet Mondrian. “Bringing the arts into the classroom allowed the students to think differently about the topics that we were learning in math. The students were able to write and simplify fractions, which was part of our fraction unit, and apply it to their Piet Mondrian illustration. Students were excited to use the skills and vocabulary that they learned in art class in their math class.”
Brad Terhune and Chris Marcin, both art teachers from Arthur L. Johnson High School came to Kumpf to help all the teachers dive deeper into their lessons using art. Terhune remarks about the day, “It was wonderful to see the arts being used in such diverse ways; I believe this will not only expand students’ experience, but also open their eyes to what art is and what it can be, and how it can be part of all of our lives.”
Marcin states, “I really enjoyed collaborating with the middle school teachers and helping the students design some creative artwork. I am excited to see the final projects and look forward to working with these students when they attend high school.”
One goal of incorporating the arts is to help the students learn non-arts subject material in a variety of ways that will increase student interest. Another goal is to help the teachers become more comfortable with using visual and performing arts in their lessons. Principal, Richard Delmonaco, states, “We are thrilled that the arts have become part of the daily routine in a good portion of our classes and this day was only a small sampling of what goes on all of the time.”
Photo by Clark Public Schools
