TIP #74: How to Use Cross-Curricular Teaching with Art
Make learning a creative adventure for your students! By using cross-curricular teaching with art, you can enhance any subject area, deepen learning, and provide an engaging art experience for your students.
What is “cross-curricular teaching”?
Cross-curricular teaching is a creative approach to education. It goes beyond the boundaries of traditional subject “silos” by bridging two or more academic areas together.
Students can explore and connect diverse subjects like math, science, history, literature, and more, all through the lens of artistic expression.
How do you use Art to teach other subjects?
Almost any subject area can be enhanced using a cross-curricular approach with Art. This involves integrating creative activities, projects, and concepts into the curriculum of a different subject.
Cross-curricular teaching with Art is often project-based. It could look like an art lesson with ties to an academic area like math or science. Or, it could be a lesson within a core academic subject that features a creative aspect. Either way, by blurring the lines between subjects and adding a hands-on element, the educational experience is enriched.
Here are some examples of cross-curricular teaching with Art…
Teaching Math through Art
- Explore geometric shapes, patterns, and symmetry through art. Kaleidoscope Lettering is one example of the incredible designs you can make with symmetry. Or teach students the geometry involved in drawing a soccer ball.
- Create visual representations of mathematical concepts. Fractions, percentages, and angles can be presented in creative ways to check for understanding.
- Use art to solve real-world math problems, like measuring and scaling up or down. Students can use grid drawing to accurately scale an image larger or smaller. Masterpiece Mosaics teaches the concept of scaling up while creating a collaborative art piece for your school auction.
Teaching Science through Art:
- Illustrate scientific principles like the water cycle or the life cycle of a plant.
- Explore environmental topics by creating art with recycled materials.
- Design visually appealing infographics, charts, and graphs to represent scientific data.
- Create a diorama of the habitat of an endangered species.
Teaching History through Art:
- Analyze art from different cultures and historical periods, and create a project inspired by that.
- Illustrate historical events or portraits of famous people throughout history.
- Examine political cartoons to understand the socio-political climate of different eras.
Teaching Writing and Literature through Art:
- Interpret scenes, characters, or themes from literature through drawing, painting, or sculpture.
- Have students write about a personal experience with a Fingerprint Self-Portrait.
- Analyze how an artist illustrated a favorite book and talk about the choices they made to do that.
- Write a story or poem inspired by a famous work of art. Or use a postcard as inspiration to make a Haiku Tunnel Book, combining art with poetry.
Teaching Social Studies through Art:
- Examine how Keith Haring used his art to reflect social issues. Then have students create their own art inspired by him.
- Have students make posters that explore human rights or global citizenship.
- Encourage critical thinking by analyzing art that conveys social and political messages.
These are just a few of the ways you can enhance other areas of the curriculum with art. The possibilities are limitless once you start looking for them!
Using art in cross-curricular teaching will enrich every student’s learning experience. It breaks down the “walls” between subjects and helps kids “connect the dots” between otherwise unconnected disciplines. Art can help students understand complex concepts while encouraging creativity, critical thinking, and a deeper appreciation for each subject.
an inspiring quote
“The arts, it has been said, cannot change the world, but they may change human beings who might change the world.” – Maxine Greene
When we consider the arts, their aesthetic value is often what we think of first. But the arts can also be a catalyst for personal growth and discovery.
Art transforms us by teaching us to go beyond just “looking” and learn to “see like an artist”. When we observe the world this way it leads to greater compassion and a deeper understanding of ourselves and others.
Art fosters creativity and innovation, helping us become better problem-solvers and solution-finders… two “job titles” our world will always need.
Art has the power to inspire us to become better in a myriad of ways. From empathy to invention, art can help us improve our world and create a brighter future for us all.