(The following information is taken verbatim from the Doral Academy Fire Mesa's website.)

What Is Arts Integration?

"Arts integration is instruction that integrates content and skills from the arts—dance, music, theater, and the visual arts—with other core subjects. Arts integration occurs when there is a seamless blending of the content and skills of an art form with those of a co-curricular subject."

Why Integrate the Arts?

"Arts integration is highly effective in engaging and motivating students. It supports the academic achievement and improved social behavior of students while enhancing school climate and parental involvement. A rich array of arts skills and intellectual processes provide multiple entry points for students to approach content in other subject areas, while the arts instruction is likewise deepened through integration of content from the other subject areas. The arts provide students multiple modes for demonstrating learning and competency. It enlivens the teaching and learning experience for entire school communities. At its best, arts integration is transformative for students, teachers, and communities. The imaginations and creative capacities of teachers and students are nurtured and their aspirations afforded many avenues for realization and recognition."

How Is Art Integrated?

"Arts integration is a fundamental culture shift. It takes time to build awareness, understanding, and commitment among members of the school community.

Ongoing professional development is essential to give classroom teachers facility in arts disciplines, enable them to analyze curricula to find the natural connections between arts curricula and the curricula of other subject areas, and create lessons and units of instruction.

Collaboration is essential between and among classroom teachers and arts specialists. Common planning time is critical.

Arts specialists are key resources, collaborators, and leaders in developing arts integration programs. They are extremely valuable in guiding the planning of professional development and supporting collaboration among teachers and with partners such as cultural institutions and teaching artists."

What are budget and structural priorities for becoming an arts integration school?

"Staffing that includes as many arts disciplines as possible and an arts integration specialist or lead teacher is a priority. Some schools use part-time or shared positions to extend their reach.

Professional development—schools that are highly successful in arts integration provide ongoing training experiences for their teachers, whose capacity in arts integration will deepen over time.

Schedules that include common planning time allowing classroom teachers to collaborate with arts specialists and others are vital.

Arts organizations and teaching artists can collaborate with teachers providing rich arts integration experiences for students and professional development for teachers."

Frequently Asked Questions by Doral Academy of Colorado Families

Will Every Class Integrate Art Everyday?

No. Arts integration takes time, and cannot possibly be done every class, everyday. Some lessons lend themselves well to arts integration, while others work better with more traditional instructional strategies. Having a good blend of arts and lecture at the middle school level is important for preparation beyond middle school.

Will Every Teacher Integrate Art in the Same Way?

No. Some teachers will use ...........