Critical reading and comprehension strategies

Arts & Education

The Arts: Standards and Curriculum Integration

The National Standards for Arts Education, which was developed by the Consortium of National Arts Education, defines art in terms of two dimensions, i.e. that it is a creative process and an embodiment of one's socio-cultural heritage (the Kennnedy Center Website, n.d.).

It is believed that there is a need for art to be integrated in the curriculum because of its fundamental functions in the development of children's well-being. Hence, the Standards stipulate that competence in art disciplines should begin with a solid understanding of the different art-related concepts in various art forms (ibid).

The Standards

For the K-4 Level, in dance particularly, children are expected to demonstrate dance movements, understand choreography, understand dance as a form of communicating different meanings, be able to tie dance to one's socio-historical periods, be able to connect dance to health and other disciplines (ibid). At this point, we can see dance, or arts education in general, as a multi-purpose socializing tool. Through dance, the student is being exposed to the practices and consequently the beliefs of his/her society. It is through this that the child is being integrated to his/her society. It can be seen that the achievement standards outlined above are actually the values and things that are important to every society such as health and cultural heritage. The student is not simply expected to demonstrate the different movements, more importantly, s/he is expected to have a better appreciation of his socio environment through dance.

For Music classes of Grades 5-8, the standards state that the student should learn to sing alone and with others, perform on instruments, improvise melodies and arranging musical pieces, be able to judge musical performances to name a few (ibid.). What is worth noting at this point is the fact that the standards effectively align itself with the developmental processes of children. If at K-4 level, the importance of introducing the child to the society s/he revolves in (in a rather theoretical or abstract level), this time the arts act as a tool of introducing the child to the larger dynamics of life in a more practical level, e.g. By teaching the child to sing with other people, the latent function of the exercise would be the child learning to adjust to other people and adopt to different and changing circumstances.