5. Integrating the Visual, Performing, Literary, and Media Arts in All Content Areas to Accelerate Learning Gains for All Student Groups

The arts matter. So does creating multiple pathways for learning and for meeting high expectations. Each student learns in different ways and brings to a task varying degrees of knowledge, language skills, and social maturity. Different Ways of Knowing’s arts-in-learning strategies and tools ensure that each student has access to standards-based curriculum and support the development of higher-order thinking. The impact: imagination and inquiry are ignited, student motivation increases, engagement is sustained, and measurable student achievement becomes evident. Teachers learn to integrate the arts in these important ways by providing students opportunities to

• Understand and experience the Different Ways of Knowing Continuum of Artistic Development™ (natural, creative, and artistic expression) and its distinctions
• Use the Different Ways of Knowing research-based and field-validated Arts Integration Framework™ to accelerate understanding through differentiating instructional strategies, making learning accessible to all students

— Access and assess prior knowledge
— Deepen learning and higher-order thinking through metaphor and analogy
— Use multiple symbol systems to represent new knowledge through products of learning

• Use the arts to enhance and accelerate literacy development and mathematical thinking
• Use the arts to celebrate and honor diverse cultural heritages and to express cross-generational voices
• Use the arts to maximize community assets, such as museums and local artists, to enhance academic goals

Learn more about classroom applications of the Different Ways of Knowing Arts Integration Framework.™