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Session 2. Music, Drawing, Drama and Craft in Core Subjects
Objective. Apply the decoration test, choose an art form that fits the shape of the idea, and redesign a decorative task so that the art carries a subject outcome.
When teachers add art to a lesson, the usual risk is that the art takes the time and the subject loses it. The pupils are busy and happy, the room looks good, and the test shows little change. This lesson looks at how to check, before the lesson, where the thinking will happen, and how the explain step turns a product into evidence. It uses ordinary classrooms with limited time, not an art studio.
Key ideas
The decoration test
- Ask: if I removed the art, would pupils learn less of the subject? If the answer is no, the art is decoration.
- Typical decoration: colouring a printed picture, copying a drawing, adding a pretty border, a poster that only shows the title.
- Decoration is not wrong in itself, but it should not use up the time that a subject outcome needs.
Four doors into a subject
- Draw: diagrams, labelled sketches, comic strips, maps. Act: freeze frames, role play, hot seat. Sound: rhythm, chant, song. Make: models, paper folding, craft.
- You do not need to be an artist. You need to know what the pupil will think about while making.
- Start with one door that you and the class feel safe in, and add others over the term.
Match the form to the shape of the idea
- A sequence (events, steps, life cycles) suits drama or a comic strip. A structure (parts, causes and effects) suits a labelled drawing or model.
- A pattern or beat (fractions, syllables, repeated rules) suits rhythm, clapping or song. A whole made of parts suits folding, weaving or clay.
- When the form fits the idea, the art makes pupils think about the idea. That is what separates integration from decoration.
Keep it inside 45 minutes
- A workable shape: 5 minutes brief and criteria, 20 minutes making, 10 minutes sharing, 10 minutes explaining and a short check.
- Always add an explain step: pupils say what their product shows, using words of the subject.
- End with a two-minute exit ticket in subject words. If pupils cannot write it, the art did not carry the learning (see course 5.5).
Decoration and integration
Decoration
Art beside the subject
- Colour a printed picture
- Copy a model
- Border and title
- No explanation needed
Integration
Art carries the subject
- Draw or act a sequence
- Show cause and effect
- A decision about content
- Explain in subject words
Where will the thinking happen?
Take any art task and list what is hard in it. If the hardest part is cutting a straight line or choosing a colour, pupils will think about cutting and colour. If the hardest part is deciding which arrow shows cause and which shows effect, they will think about the subject. Redesign so that the hard part belongs to the subject: reduce fiddly work (use pre-folded paper, stick figures, rough sketches) and increase decisions about content.
This is not about lowering the art. A good dramatic scene still needs voice and timing. But in a subject lesson the question is always: what decision about the content does this force a pupil to make? Write that decision at the top of your plan. If you cannot write it, the task is not ready.
The explain step turns a product into evidence
A drawing, a model or a scene can look right while the idea behind it is wrong, or look weak while the idea is strong. Only an explanation shows which. Build in a short explain step: partner talk with a sentence frame ('My drawing shows ... because ...'), a one-minute spoken answer to a question from another group, or an exit ticket in subject words.
Use a simple routine such as see, think, wonder when pupils look at each other's work: what do you see, what does it make you think, what do you wonder? This makes viewers do thinking too and gives you a way to listen for misunderstandings in a large class.
Examples from the classroom
The poster that only said Aral
Scene. Malika's Grade 8 geography class in Tashkent had made posters titled 'The Aral Sea' with maps and borders. The test showed that few pupils could explain causes. Malika redesigns: pairs draw three panels on one sheet (before, cause, effect), with one arrow between panels and a verb on each arrow. In the last ten minutes each pair explains one arrow to another pair.
Insight. Moving the hard part of the art task to cause and effect makes the art carry the outcome.
Clapping fractions
Scene. Jasur teaches Grade 4 mathematics in Bukhara. He claps a four-beat pattern, with two loud claps and two soft ones. Pairs use counters to show the loud claps as 2/4 and the soft ones as 2/4, and write 2/4 + 2/4 = 4/4. Then they invent a new four-beat pattern with 3/4 loud and explain to a partner why the parts still make one whole.
Insight. Rhythm has the same part-whole shape as fractions, so the beat carries the idea.
Hot seat for a trader
Scene. Aziz's Grade 7 history class in Samarkand has read about trade along the Silk Road. One pupil, Dilnoza, sits in the hot seat as a trader. The class asks questions, but every question must use a fact from the textbook ('Why do you carry silk to the west?'). Dilnoza answers in role and the other pupils write on a card whether her answers matched the textbook.
Insight. A role play works when questions and answers are tied to specific content.
Common pitfalls
- Letting the fiddly part (cutting, colouring, perfect lines) take most of the time.
- Skipping the explain step because the lesson is running late.
- Choosing an art form because it is fashionable rather than because it fits the shape of the idea.
- Putting every pupil's art on the wall but never asking what the art shows.
Decoration or Integration?
- Open the Activity Kit: six SAMPLE tasks from different subjects and grades. Pairs (10 min): apply the decoration test to each and mark it D (decoration), P (partly) or I (integration). Write one reason in subject words.
- Groups (7 min): compare answers. Where you disagree, ask: what will a pupil think about while doing this? What must they explain?
- Pairs (13 min): choose two tasks marked D or P and redesign each with the redesign card: name the subject outcome, the art move (draw, act, sound or make), the time, and what pupils must explain.
- Gallery (5 min): put your redesigns on the desks. Walk round and put a tick on the one where you could not remove the art without losing learning.
- Alone (5 min): write your classroom action task from the Kit.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which task was hardest to classify, and why?
- What did the redesigned tasks ask pupils to explain that the original did not?
- What part of your own teaching is decoration at the moment? Would you stop it or redesign it?
Reflect
- Which art activity in your school gets the most time but teaches the subject the least?
- Which art form do you feel safest using? Which would you like to try?
- What could a pupil who dislikes drawing do to show the same idea?
Try it tomorrow
- Pick one art task you use and write, at the top, the decision about content that it forces pupils to make.
- Add a sentence frame 'My work shows ... because ...' to your next product task.
- Use see, think, wonder for two minutes when pupils view each other's work.
Further reading and links
Remove the art in your mind. If learning stays the same, redesign the task.