Arts across the curriculum
Cross-curricular creative writing
Organisation: Scottish Arts Council/Future Learning and Teaching (FLaT)/ Seven Scottish Local Authorities
Aim: For artists and teachers to work together in order to devise new and exciting methods of delivering the curriculum in the classroom and inspire learning.
Summary: The Arts Across the Curriculum project sets out to examine the results of a creative teaching and learning programme which allows teachers in all subject areas to plan and teach alongside artists, delivering the curriculum using the arts as a catalyst for learning. Based on the model of the Chicago ’Arts Impacting Achievement’ project, Arts Across the Curriculum has been tailored to fit Scottish systems and to match with national and local priorities. The three year research project is currently being delivered in seven local authorities through their education departments.
Below is an example of one of the integrated curricular lessons delivered in Dumfries and Galloway. Writer, Linda Cracknell and P7 teacher, Nancy McLure from Langholm Primary School, worked together from January to March 2006 to deliver English language lessons. They used the topic of ’India’ to devise purposeful cross-curricular links covering a range of literacy objectives including, reading for enjoyment, reading to reflect on writer’s ideas and craft, reading aloud, imaginative writing, talking in groups, talking about texts and artistic objectives, and to enhance understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of the creative writing process. The starting point was Madhur Jaffrey’s, Seasons of Splendour and the objective was to instill an appreciation of Hindu myths, beliefs, characters and storylines. Through the stories and working alongside Linda, the children devised their own adventures based around asking themselves ’what if?’ There is a link to further writing from Dumfries and Galloway’s Arts Across the Curriculum project, and an anthology of the children’s work, Tiger’s Eye, available from the Creative Education Arts Team website.
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