Integrating Performing Arts in the Classroom: Benefits and a Quick Guide

The burgeoning implementation of technology in education has changed the way we look at learning. In fact, education has taken such a huge leap into the digital world that we have practically come to wrap our learning up in foils of edtech and virtual vitality.Even though technology forms a concrete basis for modern education and caters well to the ‘i-student’ of this age, the cultural cohesion somehow gets lost in the dwindling bylanes of the edtech revolution. It is not just the technology augmentation that has shifted the focus of the education authorities from the cultural to the digital, but also a horde of other factors, some of which include:

• budget cuts
• limited time frame
• an unwavering focus on literacy
• assessments that carry high stakes

And art has been singled out as the sole sacrificial lamb to be slaughtered off the curriculum.

Performing arts have a huge scope in India, but the sole problem that surrounds it is the scanty implementation in the schools and colleges. Actually, the primary obstacle lies in the fact that the full realization of the endless educational benefits of performing arts has not dawned completely on the authorities yet. It is widely accepted as an extra-curricular activity or a hobby or maybe a career-in-the-making, but not as something that can inculcate spectacular studying habits among students.

This, combined with the reasons mentioned above, has ambushed performing arts into the schools specifically dedicated for them. And education silently suffered a profound loss in expanding its horizons. However, a few attempts have grabbed the limelight with an innate belief in the ability of performing arts to change the way we perceive education.

Why Implementing Performing Arts in the Classroom is Important?

I’ll let you in on a personal experience here.

When I was in the 9^th standard in school, our English teacher used to be equally excited to fish out the ‘Julius Caesar’ text from her humongous bag as we were. And once the books were out, and the specific ‘Act’ and ‘Scene’ located, the fights started.

You see, we were supposed to memorize an extract of our choice as an everyday homework and act it out in class with the right set of emotions and gestures to accompany it. And the one who performed the best was awarded knick-knacks. Even though there was a specific sequence to student names for the act, but we all wanted to either go first or last to make a lasting impression.

What we didn’t realize here was that amidst the acting and the recitation, we had achieved two things:

• We learnt the whole of Julius Caesar by heart, while actually feeling the varied emotions that the characters in the play went through. It felt as if we have spent days and months in their shoes. And we didn’t even have to blindly memorize everything.

• Whenever somebody threw us a sentence from anywhere in the book, we knew exactly which act and scene it belonged to and who said that sentence and the whole circumstance in which the sentence was uttered.

Sounds pretty amazing, doesn’t it? Behold the magic of performing arts.

There’s more to implementing performing arts in education than just a bunch of speeches, hand gestures, and expressive faces.

1. Boosts Comprehension and Retention

Comprehension and retention are the two aspects of learning that are like two sides of the same coin, forming an endless cycle. You cannot distil one from the other. Rote learning never took us anywhere. We only arrive at real learning when we begin to understand the text instead of reading through the lines with a huge question mark looming over our heads.

The primary objective of learning is to retain the information for as long as possible and make something good of it. When students create stories out of the boring text in the books and put expressions to them, then the text becomes more comprehensible and succinct. The better they understand the text, the more likely they are to remember it vividly.

The exams turn out to be more like, “Oh! I know this, I acted this out in the class last month to a roaring applause!” And out streams the information in bursts of ecstatic retention skills and answering becomes easy as pie.

2. Provides Opportunities to Single Out Any Scope of Misinterpretation

When performing arts are integrated with education, it provides students with a scope to understand their shortcomings and the parts of the topic that they are unsure about. This way, the students get to identify where they are going wrong and the areas they need to focus on to understand the concept better.

3. Enhances Critical Thinking

An arduous attempt at storytelling, combined with an equally long effort in making up characters and their parts and lines require a lot of dedication. But the stress of the long duration is wiped clean with the fun that students have while making the whole thing happen.

And in this making, while sharing a laugh, students are molded into the critical thinking abilities that performing arts bring along with their other aspects. While students are at it, they are giving it a hard and long thought to make the whole thing a success. And in the process, they:

• analyze the topic carefully
• reflect on the various possibilities that the concept harbors
• catch a good glimpse of a deeper learning experience and its endless possibilities
• become self-critics of what they are presenting, thus refining the learning process

Watch this video to get a better look at the benefits of performing arts in education.

4. Promotes Collaboration

Apart from the fact that integrating performing arts in education is a plain and simple way to make learning fun, it is also a great way to build collaboration. On the occasion of creating and building up a play, students get to form a group and interact with each other and the teacher as well. This builds a healthy atmosphere of collaborative learning in the classroom.

This way students are encouraged to:

• take positive risks
• uncover and recognize new skills they never knew they had
• connect with the parent and teacher community on a whole new level

5. Stimulates Differentiated Learning

Different students have different learning needs. Some learn well sitting down and gobbling up texts, while some are kinesthetic learners and some fall under the category of visual learners. Performing arts cover a wide range of learning types and, therefore, cater to a vast category of learners. Performing arts take differentiated learning to newer and better heights than you could ever imagine.

Integrating performing arts in the classroom not only promotes a wholesome and dynamic learning environment, but also a productive diversion from the fixation on standardized tests.

Now that you are equipped with the many benefits of differentiated learning, we have for you a few tips to help you make it work.

How to Integrate Performing Arts in the Classroom

You can think of this as a project-based learning endeavor and work towards it accordingly. We have a few strategies to start you off with.

Steps to Integrate Performing Arts in Classroom

1. Do Some Research

Rome wasn’t built in a day. And if you are taking this really seriously, you would need to put in some effort of your own to make it work as successfully as you have pictured it in your head. A little bit of research is all it takes.

What you are looking for here is a sample. When you have one ready, you can show it to your students. It would help them in two ways:

• It would give them an idea about how the whole thing is done.
• It would also help them understand the expected quality of work.

The following video is an example of how well performing arts can be implemented in the classroom to enhance learning. You can use this as a sample.

 

2. Ask Your Students to Write a Script

Once the research is complete, the next step is to choose a topic and write a script for the act. This is the toughest part. The students will have to recreate a topic or a concept. There needs to be characters with specific lines and expressions and their respective positioning on the stage, and so on. So, your students will need a plan.

A storyboard can be of great help. Ask them to draft out the performance in short bits and position appropriate dialogues according to the topic at hand. A lot of creativity oozes out of writing a script. Nurture it and let it grow. It will reap amazing benefits later in their lives.

If you look closely into this part of integrating performing arts, you will realize that it is a good writing practice tool too. Sounds like a win-win, doesn’t it?

3. Have Them Create Groups of Their Own and Work It Out

All of them are working towards a common goal: to gain a deeper understanding of the concepts. So what happens when two or more heads are put together? A creative explosion. Your job is to facilitate that. You can put the students in groups to promote collaboration.

Laura Davis, a History teacher in Honolulu got the sophomores in her U.S. History class to write out their very own 10-minute plays to perform for their parents. Once the drafts were complete, she put them in groups and this led to two things:

• Individuals in each group had to exchange scripts and go through those to find a common setting for merging them together.
• They also had to create scenarios, which would bring the characters in all the plays together against a cohesive backdrop.

Once you hand them some responsibilities, they would be eager enough to complete those with utmost care and professionalism. All you need to do is trust their abilities.

 

4. Get Them to Rehearse

The more they practice, the better they will get at it and they would be able to perform the whole thing effortlessly on the final day. Set a deadline and watch them scoot like mice to get their parts right. However, if there is a problem in getting your students to act, you can always get some outside help to get them going.

5. Audience Support

A little bit of support is all they need to move forward in this challenging endeavor. An encouraging audience can help a lot in motivating students to tap into their wealth of potential and put their best foot forward.

A striking performance is not the objective here. The primary reason behind all this is to make the lessons come alive and help students understand and retain those better. Apart from creating a richer learning experience, performing arts in education have following obvious perks:

• Exposing students to risks and helping them succeed those in astronomical dimensions
• Productive coalition of lessons and the many benefits of drama that encourage student participation
• Draws in parents, teachers, and students to indulge in a ceremony of bridging differences

The process isn’t difficult. It might take up some time, but it is completely achievable. And while you and your students are at it, do not forget to have a ball of a time.