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Arts Integration: Candidates engage learners in critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and
communication to address authentic local and global issues using the arts (music, dance, theater,
media arts, and/or visual arts)

I often feel privileged to be an elementary teacher in Alaska. I can’t think of a more

culturally rich community than what we share here in Alaska. Incorporating the arts into our

teaching practice at the elementary level is both engaging and enjoyable. Our school has a full-

time music teacher, but we do not have a dedicated art program or art teacher, so it falls to the

general education teachers to incorporate art in the classroom. One of the ways I regularly

integrate the arts in my room is to listen to cultural music while creating visual arts that support

academia. As Biddison (2004) explains, “art can provide an opportunity to strengthen

intercultural relations through understanding and appreciation of cultural values” (p. 38).

Similarly, I aim to strengthen appreciation for cultural values through Alaska Native art in my

teaching practice. This paper will focus on two artifacts of practice in which I integrate art

during social studies instruction and how specifically planned field trips afford my students

opportunities to develop deeper connections to local art.

In my fourth-grade classroom, our social studies heavily revolve around Alaska’s First

People. Taking a page out of Beal & Miller’s book The Art of Teaching Art to Children (2001), I

often incorporate art in social studies instruction to stimulate personal and meaningful

expression. In this book, the authors provide practical advice that empowers educators to foster

creative art experiences that encourage kids to explore and appreciate art. One artifact of

practice is an art project my students enjoy year after year that I found by Karen Stromberg

(2006): making Yupik spirit masks. In this lesson, we learn about how Alaska’s Yupik ancestors

made spirit masks to bring good luck in hunting and wore them during storytelling ceremonies.
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We learn about common features of the masks, like animal depictions and weaponry, and how to

tell if a mask is male (smiling) or female (frowning). We talk about how the mask of a hunter

might include darts or arrows, whereas a gatherer’s mask may have hands and feet. You can

view a slideshow I created and some of my students’ work here. We listen to music from a local

Alaskan band, Pamyua, while we create our masks; you can find a link to a compilation of their

songs here. I love seeing the details my students choose to include in their masks, highlighting

symbols they find most valuable in their own lives.

Another artifact of practice is a lesson plan I created about Benny Benson in which I

teach about the history of the Alaska state flag and then students have the opportunity to design

and create their own paper flag. I have reflected on this artifact in a separate framing statement,

as it is truly one of my favorite lessons to teach. I try to leave this project as open-ended as

possible. I ask students to depict what they feel is most meaningful about Alaska and the results

are always really fun to see. Some kids sketch mountainous landscapes with the aurora, others

use what they know about the state flower, bird, or animal to depict what they feel represents our

state. In The Arts and the Creation of Mind (2011), Elliot Eisner posits that arts integration can

enhance engagement across subject areas. His work emphasizes the opportunity to enrich

learning while cultivating the diverse talents of students by making connections across content

areas. In this way, my students can form a connection to Benny Benson who was 13 years old

(not much older than they are now) when he submitted his design for the Alaska state flag.

Benny’s design won the competition and is still used today.

A final highlight of arts integration in my teaching practice are the carefully planned field

trips we take in 4th grade. Some schools take kids to the movie theater or local bowling alley for

field trips. Our team chooses to plan yearly trips to the Anchorage Museum and the Alaska
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Native Heritage Center to explore cultural art that connects to our learning. When we visit the

museum on our annual field trip, I have learned to ask open-ended questions: “What do you

notice?” and “Can you describe what you see?” At the museum, we get to explore hands-on in

the Discovery Center and spend time with our docents as they teach us about ancient technology

of Alaska’s first people. In a way, our museum trips offer opportunities for constructivist

learning. Like Burton explains in The Configurations of Meaning: Learner-Centered Art

Education Revisited (2000), allowing students the chance to use art materials is how they “carve

a niche for themselves in time and space and human culture” (p. 345). This quote reminds me of

the time we spend at the museum where students get to freely explore, observe, feel, touch, and

interact with materials. All the while they can talk about their ideas with teachers, chaperones,

and peers to connect ideas and create meaning.

As you can probably tell, I particularly enjoy integrating art that celebrates Alaska in my

classroom. My aim is to engage students by fostering a deeper understanding of cultural values

and appreciation. By carefully planning art projects and field trips that connect to local heritage,

I hope my students find value in expressing their own artistic talents and abilities.
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References

Beal, N., & Miller, G. B. (2001). The art of teaching art to children: In school and at home.

Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Biddison, D. (2004). Representing indigenous cultures: Alaska native contemporary art exhibits

in Anchorage. Études/Inuit/Studies, 28(1), 37–56. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42870749

Burton, J. M. (2000). The configuration of meaning: Learner-centered art education revisited.

Studies in Art Education, 41(4), 330–345. https://doi.org/10.2307/1320677

Eisner, E. W. (2011). The arts and the creation of mind. Yale Univ. Press.

Stomberg, K. (2006). Spirit Masks. Project articulate.

http://www.projectarticulate.org/lesson.php?Lesson=37

YouTube. (2022, June 1). Pamyua | yup’ik drumsongs from Alaska | homegrown concert.

YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwzZwaqF_Fc&t=3s