Curriculum Integration

Abstract

oes this situation sound familiar? Mrs. Smith, a classroom teacher, comes to you on Monday morning dressed in a bear costume and says, "Today I'm starting a unit on bears. Could you sing some bear songs with my kids when they come to music class?" Elementary school general music teachers receive many requests like these. Administrators and classroom teachers continue to recognize that including music in the general curriculum is a wonderful tool for enhancing classroom activities. While it's encouraging to see that .more and more-classroom teachers want to integrate music with their subject areas, tasks such as providing musical reference lists, singing holiday songs, or altering the music curriculum to meet classroom teachers' needs do not constitute integration. Many music educators are frustrated with the current state of integration because it tends to put music in

Arts Teachers’ Perceptions and Attitudes on Arts Integration While Participating in a Statewide Arts Integration Initiative

“…A key component to arts integration is teacher collaboration. An effective and efficient collaborative team should include teachers with complementary skills who will share equal responsibility for planning collective goals and objectives to provide meaningful integrated lessons (Berke, 2000; Cornett, 2007; Fisher & McDonald, 2004). However, having enough time for meaningful collaboration with classroom teachers is often a challenge (Whitaker, 1996).…”

“…An effective and efficient collaborative team will have members with complementary skills and will communicate well to target important questions, analyze data, focus on the larger purpose, and communicate decisions (Cane, 2009). Arts integration should not be the task of the arts specialist alone but should be a collaborative effort of the team—a “two-way street” with equal responsibility for planning the collective goals and objectives (Berke, 2000; Cornett, 2007; Fisher & McDonald, 2004). Finally, music specialists are concerned about maintaining music integrity and validity, where music is not distorted or trivialized but connected meaningfully and organically to another subject (Barrett, 2001; Barrett, McCoy, & Veblen, 1997).…”

Preparing Music Preservice Teachers to Enhance Language Arts Reading Skills in the Elementary Music Classroom

“…Results could be attributed to the controversial discourse among music educators about the concern that music content could be placed in a subservient role to other subjects if they participate in integrative practices. Scholars also agree that music educators have mixed emotions on the topic of interdisciplinary curricula, which, in part, contribute to concerns that the value of music education may diminish as a result of classroom instruction time being relinquished to assist, tutor, or teach literacy (Barry, 2008; Berke, 2000; Bresler, 1995; Whitaker, 1996).…”

Celebrating the Arts With The Noisy Paint Box

“…Ideally, both content areas should be presented in a way that makes practical and intellectual sense (Burnaford, 1993). Meaningful collaboration between teachers is important to executing successful arts integration lessons (Berke, 2000; Fisher & McDonald, 2004).…”