Arts Can Help Embed Literacy in Students' Culture
based on an interview with David Bloome, Ohio State University
The scholarship of David Bloome, Professor of Language, Literacy, and Culture in The Ohio State University's College of Education, suggests that literacy development should be embedded in activities that reflect students' identities, cultures, and social relationships.
The implications of that approach for arts learning are exciting. "Integrating the arts with other subjects can be beneficial across the board," says Bloome. "When students create or analyze a work of art—whether it is visual art or performance art—they are developing a widely useful ability to manipulate varied and complex symbol systems."
Working with written words, visual images, music, and other symbol systems in isolation is becoming out-dated, he adds. "Students who will thrive in the workplace and as leaders will be those who are skilled in the integration of symbol systems."
His recommendations include more integration of video and photography with the written word and the use of not only fine art but also the art found in popular culture and students' everyday lives.
Approaches vary, but the key to effective integration, he says, is enthusiastic teachers: "I get inspired by teachers who understand that they need to do more than teach to standards, who want students to acquire intellectual curiosity and passion for their work, who study and reflect on how they are integrating the arts with other literacies, and who orient lessons to their specific students in ways that connect to students' lives and communities."
This article was published in March 2006, Volume 2, Issue 2..
Related article: Focus on Literacy
Read more about the arts and literacy.
Also indexed under Perspectives: Reflections by Advocates and Experts
