You may recognize her as the formidable Mariah Dillard in Netflix's Marvel series Luke Cage or from popular films like 12 Years a Slave. Alfre Woodard is an award-winning actor on stage and screen, but her work behind the scenes as an arts education advocate is equally notable. As a mentoring artist for the Kennedy Center's Turnaround Arts…

Art/fine art teachers confront the dilemma of whether to include--in plays, concerts, and so on--students whose behavior is disruptive, off-task, or in other ways drags down otherwise good arts performances. Iamarino argues that because the arts are especially helpful to at-risk kids (who are often the very ones with problem behavior), teachers…

An instructional coach argues that STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) programming combined with problem-based learning can offer rich academic experiences--and not just in science classrooms. He outlines relevant problem-based lesson ideas, and discusses ways school leaders can better support instructional practices…

Elementary students at the Milton Hershey School in Hershey, Pennsylvania, don't just learn knowledge and skills; they put it to work. The school's Innovation Lab for grades K-4 offers students hands-on opportunities to use design thinking to solve problems. In this article, two of the school's educators describe how 2nd graders used design…

A three-year grant program at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City encourages teachers to draw connections between curricular topics and works of art. In this article, museum educator Nicola Giardina describes how the program uses inquiry-based lessons to create meaningful learning experiences for underserved students. She highlights…

Students are often required to create work in a vacuum, handing in papers to an inauthentic audience for the purpose of receiving a grade. As a result, students often neglect to consider the effects that their work can have on others. In this article, the author highlights an art project from her middle school in Kings Park, New York, that…

Guided by its arts educators, every school can learn to design activities that foster the serious play of a creatively invested learner. Bring arts educators into one's planning meetings; give them opportunities at faculty meetings to catalyze teachers' creative instincts. This effort does not require a new program or new curriculum. Teachers…

Students are so creative! How can teachers help them use that creativity to learn? This question haunted the author while she was teaching art in a K-8 public school. In art class, she frequently saw students demonstrate refreshingly original ideas in their drawings and paintings as well as innovative problem solving related to their projects.…

Problem solving spans all grade levels and content areas, as evidenced by this compilation of projects from schools across the United States. In one project, high school girls built a solar-powered tent to serve their city's homeless population. In another project, 4th graders explored historic Jamestown to learn about the voices lost to history.…

As co-headmaster of Boston Arts Academy, the author tells the stories of two students whose passion and talent in the arts helped them become more successful in academic subjects. Boston Arts Academy accepts students on the basis of auditions, regardless of their previous academic or discipline records. Yet a large majority of its students go on…

Walter Alvarez, a doctor and physiologist of some renown, decided to send his scientifically talented son, Luis, to an arts and crafts school where Luis took industrial drawing and woodworking instead of calculus. Luis Alvarez won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1968. Einstein was certainly not a standout in his mathematics and physics classes. Yet…

Graphic novels (book-length fiction or nonfiction narratives told using the conventions of a comic book) bring together text and image in a way that seems to capture students' imaginations. Right now, there is little more than anecdotal research about how graphic novels can be used within specific middle school and high school disciplines. As…

Research findings reveal that successful arts programs offer a wide variety of arts; incorporate the broadest possible range of stimuli, materials, tools, and processes; and focus on historical, ethnic, and formal elements. (Author/MLF)

Describes Boston Arts Academy's efforts to use the various art forms (music, dance, theater, and visual arts) and academics to teach students to understand and tolerate cultural differences throughout the world. (PKP)