Integrating Art into the Classroom

The first domain is the cognitive domain which relates to the lower level and higher level of thinking. Art can help with each level of thinking, when used correctly. The second domain is the psychomotor domain which relates to learning threw your body. It can be used to help understand art by “acting out” a piece of art. The third domain is the affective domain which relates to the feelings that art can bring us. Drawing pictures about how the protagonist of a book feels at a certain point of a book is a great way to integrate this domain into the classroom. These domains play a part in the visual cultural approach, which is “art as an instrument for social change” and is increasingly focuses on the meaning of images (Emphasis Art, p 245). The meaning of images can be explored by each domain. Art can be integrated to core subjects like math science and language arts. An example in class was given in class about having the children write their names on a folded piece of paper and cutting it out. Their name is turned into an alien and they write a story about why the alien is beautiful on their alien planet. For math, for the younger grades, each child can draw a flower and you can count how many petals they have or add the petals of each flower together. An idea for science was given in the book; the children can draw animals that they are learning about and be able to match it with a photo of the animal (Emphasis Art, p 77). I think that art integration is very valuable. I think that it will help children learn their core subjects and about the world that surrounds them at the same time. Integrating art gives children an interactive learning process for any subjects and I have found that when children can learn by doing something hands on, they will remember it better.