Creative Arts, The: A Process Approach for Teachers and Children, 5th edition

Vignettes

Each chapter begins with a true story, collected from my own years as a teacher and from the experiences of practicing teachers and student teachers. These stories set the stage for each chapter and highlight children’s involvement in the creative arts process in real-life settings. These glimpses into the creative activity of children can serve as discussion starters for introducing, overviewing, concluding, or reviewing concepts, and they provide a wide range of experiences to observe and to reflect on.</P>

Special Content Coverage

Many chapters also present, in separate sections, overviews of important components of the learning environments in today’s classrooms: developmentally appropriate practice, children with special needs, and viewing the arts through a multicultural context.

• The sections on Developmentally Appropriate Practice  present concrete experiences and ways to maintain practice appropriate to the developmental levels of children.

• Sections about Students with Special Needs discuss how to provide creative arts experiences for all the children in your classroom.

• Each chapter also includes an expanded discussion of Gardner’s multiple intelligences theory as well as coverage of global art, which introduces you and your children to the richness of the arts found around the world.

The Personal and Professional Growth of Teachers.

Each chapters concludes with examples of activities that relate to the personal and professional growth of teachers.  These exercises provide opportunities for college students and instructors to experience the power of the creative arts process for themselves.  They also enable these adults to understand creative arts concepts as they relate to their personal life.

A Family’s Role in Developing Creative Arts at Home

Each content chapter contains strategies for encouraging family involvement in the creative arts. These process-oriented activities are appropriate for caregivers and children and are written with the home environment in mind.

The Literature Connection

Children’s literature is a wonderful resource for learning about the arts and creativity. Each chapter includes recommended children’s books that teachers can use to enhance children’s experiences in the creative arts and provide a literature connection to the content of the chapter. An annotation is included so the teacher can select books about the arts to read while children are participating in the arts process.

Integrating the National Standards for Visual and Performing Arts Education

These sections provide in-depth coverage on why we must look to these standards as challenges for bringing the arts back into the mainstream of the curriculum. This edition focuses, in an appropriate way, on the National Standards for Music Education, Dance Education, Theater Education, and the National Standards for Arts Education. Also provided, through examples, are ways in which we as teachers and teacher educators can make interconnections between the content-specific standards in the arts and the other content areas of the early childhood curriculum.

Children’s Drawings and Paintings

Included in this edition are visual images of children’s work. These images are included as examples of the various stages of a child’s creative development. All of the drawings and paintings were gifts from the children at the Miles Early Childhood Development Center at the College of Charleston.

The Creative Arts as Viewed Through a Multicultural Context

The arts are ideally suited to address the wonderful diversity of children in today’s schools. The arts provide teachers with a multicultural avenue for seeing diversity from viewpoints that may be different from our own. The multicultural coverage in this fourth edition is expanded through both content and examples that deepen the multicultural coverage. This focus on viewing the arts through a multicultural context is included to highlight its great potential as a resource for creative expression and awareness of the diversity of global arts.

Quotations

The powerful words of philosophers, musicians, dancers, artists, writers, and actors throughout this edition promote new ways of thinking about the arts. Some quotations are presented to provoke serious thought, while others use humor to convey a message. All provide inspiration to teachers for including creative arts education in the lives of young children.

Contemporary Theories and Models

Expanded coverage of Vygotsky and Parson’s theory of aesthetic development. Vygotsky’s work provides a foundation for understanding the social formation of learning. Parson’s theory is noteworthy in that he presents us with a systematic way of viewing aesthetic awareness and development in the arts. His theory is particularly relevant to the aesthetic sections in the National Standards for Arts Education.

Multiple Intelligences Theory

Gardner’s multiple intelligences theory provides a framework for approaching multiple intelligences and the implications of this theory for creative arts education. Each chapter also presents an area of multiple intelligences theory in concert with creative arts contents. For example, the chapter on creative drama is grounded in interpersonal and interpersonal intelligences.

Research

More than ever before, research studies and theoretical contributions provide a comprehensive view of why the arts are an integral component of education for all learners, especially children. To accurately reflect this growth, current and relevant research is included in this new edition to provide the foundation for continued study of the arts. Practical articles and references to which teachers can refer for additional information are also provided.

Margin Notes

The book also supports your learning through the use of margin notes that provide suggestions and alternative ways for reinforcing and enriching your learning. These notes are particularly helpful for outside assignments; extended research; classroom arrangement; individual, cooperative, and large-group activities; and as suggestions for establishing professional contacts with artists outside the field of education.

Many changes and major revisions in this fifth edition provide a comprehensive look at the creative arts and how the arts can expand our understanding of the teaching and learning process.

Inclusion of Mathematics, Science, Social studies and the Language Arts Standards.

Each of the content chapters presents the national standards for mathematics, science, social studies and language arts and describes how these standards can be integrated into visual and performing arts lessons.  This feature will help students and instructors answer the question: “How do I include the creative arts within a standards driven curriculum?”  This new feature will enable students and instructors to address all of the national content areas standards in ways that are appropriate for young children.

Curriculum Planning, Lesson Plans and Arts Integreation.

The chapters on music, dance and movement, visual arts and theatre (drama) presents strategies for developing lesson plans to encourage using the arts as an all encompassing arena for including mathematics, science, social studies and the language arts within a creative arts curriculum.

Assessment.

Assessment procedures are presented and described to provide students and instructors with concrete ideas that will provide children opportunities to demonstrate their capabilities in a fair and accurate manner in an authentic setting that is integrated into the instructional process.

Theory Into Practice: Implications for Teaching.

These sections take a critical look at theory and presents ideas for linking theory to practice. Suggestions are provided for developing activities based on the developmental level of the children.   This feature demystifies what can be abstract theoretical ideas and describes theory in terms of children’s active learning modalities.

Where Does a Teacher Get Ideas for Creative Arts?

This feature presents ideas gleaned from practicing teachers about how they use children’s interests in deciding on ideas for process oriented art lessons.  Successful lessons from teachers are included throughout the chapters on music, dance and movement, visual arts and theatre.