Arts Integration in Practice: Cross-Curriculum

Arts Integration in Practice: Cross-Curriculum
Find out about examples of arts integration strategies that are adaptable to a wide range of curriculum areas.

What are some arts integration connections that are useful across curriculum areas?

Teaching Artist Interviews
Meet three Kennedy Center teaching artists who use arts integration strategies that have wide applications across curriculum areas.

Verbs, inventions, the 13 colonies—any of these content areas and more can be explored through what Rosalind Flynn calls Curriculum-Based Reader’s Theatre—a rehearsed group presentation of a script that is read aloud rather than memorized. It merges drama, writing, reading, speaking, listening and content learning.

Lyric writing is a strategy for engaging students in learning across the curriculum. Stuart Stotts involves students in writing, singing, rehearsing, and performing original song lyrics that synthesize their learning in any curriculum area.

Faye Stanley uses and adapts transitional songs, chants, and games from a variety of cultures to teach curriculum objectives in social studies, science, math, and language arts. Struggling language learners benefit particularly from these strategies that use repetition, gestures, rhyme, and symbols.

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Editors & Producers

Lynne B. Silverstein
Amy Duma
Kenny Neal
Kennedy Center Teaching Artists

Rosalind Flynn is a Kennedy Center teaching artist who conducts arts integration workshops nationwide and online. Her Ph.D. research focus was the use of drama as a learning method. At The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, Dr. Flynn is the head of the Master of Arts in Theatre Education (MATE) degree program. Her articles on educational drama have been published in Language Arts, Dramatics, Youth Theatre Journal, Teaching Theatre, English Journal, Teaching Artist Journal, and The Reading Teacher. Dr. Flynn is also the author of two books on the educational uses of drama—A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension (co-author Lenore Blank Kelner) and Dramatizing the Content With Curriculum-Based Readers Theatre, Grades 6-12. ; ;

Stuart Stotts, Kennedy Center teaching artist, is a songwriter, storyteller, and author from Madison, Wisconsin. He has worked as a full-time performer since 1986 and gives more than 200 shows a year for children, families, and adults around the Midwest and sometimes farther. Mr. Stotts is a frequent presenter at conferences and workshops for teachers, parents and librarians. He has worked extensively as an artist-in-residence in elementary, middle, and high schools. He has released several award-winning recordings and is the author of five books, the latest of which, We Shall Overcome: A Song that Changed the World was named an ALA Notable Book for 2011.

Kennedy Center teaching artist Faye Stanley's work centers on diversity and arts integration across the curriculum PreK-12. She has designed and conducted hundreds of workshops, residencies and trainings for teachers and students. Faye holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in Music Education, Music Therapy, and Education, and is currently conducting research on culturally responsive learning through the arts in New Zealand and the US. Faye directed Duke University’s Arts and Engagement Project and consults for state and federal grant initiatives, advisory panels, Head Start, Wolf Trap, the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, A+ Schools, Staff Development for Educators, and others. Faye has performed as an actor, storyteller, rock and folk musician, and enjoys leading community music-making.
Updated

January 15, 2020

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Teaching Artist Interviews Meet three Kennedy Center teaching artists who use arts integration strategies that have wide applications across curriculum areas.

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Kennedy Center Education

Teaching Artist Interviews
Meet three Kennedy Center teaching artists who use arts integration strategies that have wide applications across curriculum areas.