The excitement is palpable among the students at Roots School in Haiku, where students in grades 4-8 are preparing to create storyboards and original books of manga, the culminating project in an arts integration unit connecting visual and language arts. Professional artist and art teacher Eleykaa Tully began teaching upper elementary and middle school art classes at Roots this past fall.
At the same time, Cassandra Jones, theater artist and teacher, guides students in fleshing out the details of the lives of their anime characters. This has students abuzz during their bi weekly Writing Workshop, where Roots students have continual opportunities to grow as writers through mini lessons and regular student-teacher conferences in the school’s characteristic intimate, multi-grade level setting. In the current arts-integrated unit, character development, short story structure and visual storytelling are the focus.
In Writers Workshops for K-3 grades, our students learn to write through an organic approach as well. Throughout the academic calendar year children get to create pieces of art or collage, experience the beautiful outdoors, listen to a piece of music and let inspiration sink in and then write about it! Studies link creativity and inspiration to taking the time to cultivate ideas. Creativity cannot be a forced so our students are given time to think, write with abandon using inventive spelling (K-1) moving towards using word walls and editing processes while writing their own story books, journals, and even reports (2-3). All the while, the students are becoming proficient, competent and inspired young writers and having fun learning along the way.
Arts integration does what disconnected assignments, school plays, or art projects can’t. At Roots, arts integration promotes deep learning in both core academic subjects as well as the arts. Roots teachers, many of whom possess extensive arts backgrounds, are able to prioritize arts standards and further the learning objectives in core subjects.
For more information on Roots School: Call:808-250-7988 Email: [email protected]
Visit: www.rootsmaui.org
