The six components of language arts are:

1. Reading

2. Writing

3. Listening

4. Speaking

5. Viewing

 

Visually Representing

​Receptive components (decode the message of the sender): reading, listening, and viewing.

Expressive (communicate to audience): writing, speaking, and visually representing.
“Literacy no longer refers only to encoding and decoding texts; it also involves encoding and decoding digital text, the visual arts, music, dance, and drama.:”

Students must have experience in constructing and translating meaning across the visual performing arts.
“The Common Core State Standards emphasize the importance of reading and creating the visual as we as print texts.”

​Multimodal Communication

Multimodal communication: using more than one mode of communication to decode or encode materials.

“The ways of signing- images, print, voices, maps, and 3-D sculpture- are selected and used to animate social life and social actions.”

Semiotics: study of multimodal communication.

 

Visual and Performing Arts as Sign Systems​

As students examine illustrations in children's books so they can better comprehend the written text.

Viewing, visually representing, and other sign systems can function as tools for learning, communicating, and expressing emotions.

All systems connect students to affective and cognitive learning domains.
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Visual Art

“It is a window into an artist’s experiences in a particular time and culture.”

Text and illustration interact in 4 unique ways:

Reinforcing: Illustrations reinforce what the text says or suggests

Describing: Illustrations also provide information about the characters and setting that enhance readers' understanding of the text.

Reciprocating: Illustrations and text are reciprocal, which means that they reinforce the context for each other, resulting in greater comprehension for the reader.

Establishing: Illustrations can establish a parallel story.

​Research supports the need for visual arts to be a part of the regular school curriculum because of their many benefits to student development.
​Studying details in pictures increases students' higher-order thinking skills and their reasoning skills.
​Drawing before writing increases students' writing skills.
​Allowing students to study and experiment with art helps them to analyze how different colors can be used to convey emotion and mood and gain perspectives from different cultures (respect for diversity).

Greatest benefit: confidence by being appreciated for their unique viewpoint, which, according to Abraham Maslow, is a basic human need.

Elements of the Visual Arts

Beginning in kindergarten by choosing children’s literature.

Line: lines can be thick, think, short, long, horizontal, vertical, diagonal, jagged, and even dotted in order to represent different moods. For example, soft and smooth lines represent calm, while jagged lines represent a devious character or threatening situation.

Shape: Viewing what shapes students see in pictures.

Color: The element that draws a viewer to a picture. Different colors represent different emotions and feelings.

Space: Deals with the way the artist positions the main objects, and then what he or she does with the surrounding space.

Texture: How the objects would feel if one could touch them.

Form: The three-dimensional illusion of the objects (height, width, and depth).

Students as Critical Consumers of the Visual Arts

Teachers should expose students to many different artists and many different types of art (i.e. cubism, abstract, realism, expressionism, etc.).

Internet access images masterpieces from museums are viewable online.

Students are more likely to include more detail in their own artwork if they understand how famous artists use detail.

When analyzing work, have students describe the elements (color, form, texture, shape), and ask higher level questions.

​Students as Creators of the Visual Arts

“Students should not only be viewers of the art, but also creators.”

Creating arts helps students with writing, concentration, responsibility, and self-confidence.

Encourage students to illustrate their work so the reader can see the characters and scenes.

Students need to understand that art takes discipline and tine to refine (similar to the writing process).

Self-expression is the primary goal of art.

Students should understand that art must express their feelings and thoughts- not someone else's: it takes discipline and time to refine (it is a process).

Teachers should focus on a different element of art in each lesson.

Teachers should demonstrate the basic ways to use different tools and materials.

Self-expression is the primary goal.

“Showing appreciation for everyone’s work permit all students to express themselves in a risk free environment.

Activities:

Lines: Draw lines from flashlights.

Shapes: Find different shapes in the classroom.

Texture: Create rubbings of surfaces in the classroom.

Color: Making various colors, and noticing colors from their environment,

Space and composition: Compare art pieces and have the students practice drawing the pieces.

Form: Have students draw cubes, cylinders, and spheres.

​Integrating the Visual Arts​

“Examining the art with young students not only gives them the opportunity to learn about the different techniques artists use, but it also helps them develop a critical eye as they learn to read and appreciate children's literature.”

Children’s literature can play a large part in appreciation.

Use both literature and informational books to view colorful illustrations.

​Drama

Includes improvisation, puppet shows, skits, and reader’s theater.

“Research indicates that incorporating drama in the classroom offers many benefits; it increases academic achievement, ELL’s verbal language skills, minority students, reading comprehension and self-concept, and students' ability to show empathy.”

Drama involves teamwork, and students learn social skills, how to appreciate other’s opinions, compromise, and other aspects of cooperation.

Elements of Drama

The elements of drama are similar to the elements of literature: characters, conflict, plot, setting, and mood.

Explain the elements of literature and then compare them to the elements of drama.

However, with drama, the audience understands the characters through their actions, not their unspoken thoughts.

Genres in drama
There are many genres in drama, including tragedy, comedy, historical, and musical.

Make connections between literature and drama.

Students can learn a lot about the importance of comic relief in a tragedy.

​Teaching students to become critical consumers of drama

Every elementary student should be exposed to a play at some point in their lives.

Attending a play often ignites students' creativity and unleashes a desire to act out stories.

Before attending a play, teach students proper audience etiquette.

If the play is based on a work of literature that the students have read, you can discuss how the plot and characters are similar or different to the book version.

Ask "why" questions to develop higher-thinking skills.

Give students ample time to critique the video and give their reasoning= better comprehension and writing skills.  

Teaching students to become actors and playwrights
Model to students how to stand up straight and speak so that their voices project to the back row and how to move on stage without turning their backs to the audience or blocking other actors.

Before writing a script, explain how a script differs from a narrative piece, and then teach the format.

Common dramas found in the classroom: improvisation, pantomime, reader’s theater, storytelling, puppet shows, and theater acting with scripts.
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​Dance
​Dance is a way to communicate, express feelings and emotions, convey a story, and elicit a response from the viewers.
​Like visual arts and drama, dance brings many developmental benefits to young people by increasing academic performance.

​Elements of Dance

Body: Dancers use all parts of their body, from their heads to their toes. They must know how to concentrate each part of their bodies as they move, stretch, walk, glide, etc.

Energy: Devoting the appropriate amount of energy to all parts of the body.

Space: How each individual dancer moves across a stage and how the dangers inhabit the stage together?

Time: Rhythm, tempo, accent, duration, and phases/patters (the elements of music). Dancers' movements must typically be in sync with the music they are dancing to.

​Students becoming critical consumers of dance
Students should have the opportunity to watch a live performance.

Invite a local dancer or dance instructor to come and demonstrate how dancers use their entire bodies and how they use the elements of dance to tell a story or create a mood.

Students as creators of dance

Students should learn to enjoy dancing.

This means listening to closely to the music, following the rhythm, understanding the song's mood, and knowing what they want to convey through their movements.

Dance is often the interpretation of a piece of music, so it is a good idea to have a wide variety of music available so students can listen critically to various beats, tempos, and moods as they are learning this form of interpretation.
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Integrating dance with the language arts

Many dance forms originate with specific cultures or ethnic groups, so it is easy to enrich a unit on multicultural literature with dance.

Students can choose a dance to research and report on.

Dancing is also integrated with writing as students can write about a dance they watched or create a poem to describe the dance.

Just as you teach your students about authors, you can have students research, read, and report on well-known dancers, past and present.

​Music
The music should be played softly so students have to be quiet to hear it (classical music).
​Students in Kindergarten who listened to music scored higher on the DIBELS test than the students who did not listen to music.

Students can learn the week days, months, and the alphabet through music.

“Scripp found that listening to music while one studies or reads temporarily affects learning, but he found that being musically literate has a long-term positive effect on learning.”

Elements of Music

Tempo: Relates to the speed, rhythm, and basic meter of the composition.

Pitch: Treble clef id for the higher pitches, and the base clef is for lower pitches.

Timbre: The unique quality of a voice or musical instrument that distinguishes it from other voices or musical instruments.

Dynamics: The variation of the volume.

Texture: The layering of different instruments or voices.

​Teaching students to become critical consumers of music
​“In order for students to appreciate diverse types of music, they need to know music's basic elements, recognize the sound of many instruments, and understand how the elements of music combine to communicate meaning.”

Encourage discussion about themes, characters, and instruments in relation to the musical.

Students as creators of music

Encourage students to create their own music, make notations, and then perform it for the class.

Give students the opportunity to sing every day.

Singing develops students' oral language skills.

Build cooperation among students by creating a class choir.

Integrating Music

Music enriches the reading of multicultural literature.

Share various books that feature music prominently so that students become inspired to learn about it.

Student’s vocabulary increases as they learn musical terms.

Activities:

Understanding how Illustrators use color in picture books.

Character descriptions from text and illustrations.

Performing for America's Got Talent.

Comparing information from illustrations and text in two versions of a fairy tale.

Using art to demonstrate comprehension (literature circles).

Portrait Poem.

Multimodal presentation.

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​Transmediation: The process of taking understanding from on system and moving them into another sign system.

​Example: Take information from a book and reproduce its meaning into another form (i.e. drama.

Needs to be achieved with very young students to promote higher-order thinking.

 

The Internet and Multimodal Communication

Comprises images, text, sound, and video.

Reading electronic and online text requires higher-level thinking skills such as analyzing, evaluation, and synthesizing.

 

Using Hyperlinks

Leads students to a topic that may be interesting to their research- does not follow linear organization of traditional texts.

Teach students to scan the page to keep them on track.

 

Using other Web Page Features

Ads, videos, and other elements can prevent students from taking notes (they get distracted).

Need to demonstrate how to view a video, take notes on the main topics, and cite.

 

Characteristics of Sites Appropriate for Elementary Students

Visit sites with:

Pages with lots of white space, just like traditional text.

Large print.

Graphics that explain concepts.

Pages that require very little scrolling.

Pages that are not overloaded with information.

Pages that are at the appropriate cognitive level.