Arts Integration

Multiple Means of Representation

The arts, in their many forms (dance, drama, music, visual arts, literary arts, and media arts), offer alternative means for representing information.

Arts integration offers a variety of ways for teachers to represent content through multiple learning modalities—visual, aural, and kinesthetic—and as a result, reach a wider range of learners. For example, in the visual arts, teachers use line, shape, color, texture, and form to represent content. In music, teachers use rhythm, melody, and sound patterns to represent content; and in dance, content is represented through bodily motion with varying forms of energy in space and time. In drama, teachers use both language and physical expression as a means of representing content.

Multiple Means of Action and Expression

Arts integration engages students in the creative process which offers a universal pathway to learning. Students 1) imagine, examine, and perceive; 2) explore, experiment, and develop craft; 3) create; 4) reflect, assess, and revise, and 5) share their products with others. Through the creative process, students build and express their understanding of an area of study and the art form, using the wide variety of languages and formats that the arts offer. Each art form has a myriad of adaptations to accommodate various learning needs5. 

The creative process is accessible to all learners. It’s flexible and can be altered and adapted to fit an individual student’s needs. Students can enter the process at different places and move within it at different rates and in different sequences. While the creative process is flexible, it is not unstructured. Students plan and carry out strategies to reach a goal. Throughout the creative process students monitor their progress and make adjustments along the way to better reach a goal.