Arts Advocacy

Arts Advocacy Paper

Sloane Leppen
CTAR 300

Arts Advocacy

Every younger person in America deserves a complete and competitive education that
includes the arts. Americas global stature, culture of innovation, and entrepreneurial
spirit depends on the strength of a world-class education system. Perhaps now more than
ever-as the country becomes increasingly diverse, the world more interconnected, and the
workplace more oriented around technology and creativity- arts education is key to such
a system and to ensuring students success in school, work, and life.
(The Arts Education Partnership, 2013)

Dear Parents,
I am ecstatic to introduce you and your child to a new way of learning this
upcoming year! Recently, schools have had their primary focus on how to achieve
optimal test scores. Attention has been diverted from higher learning, and narrowed down
to fact recollection and test preparation. Majority of all art forms have been pushed into
extracurricular activities, or specials, and often times a lack of funding causes them to
be mediocre. As your childs teacher, it is a top priority of mine to incorporate the arts
into everyday classroom lessons and throughout all subject matters. I am writing this
letter to tell you why I hold such value to this, and why you should too!
Firstly, lets think about how education is usually implemented. When I think of a
typical lesson it usually involves teacher centered lectures, worksheets, power points,
textbook readings, and the assessments of students knowledge is usually completed
through some form of written test. How do you think the students feel about lessons like
these? They see them as boring, monotonous, uneventful, and dry.

Arts Advocacy

By no means am I saying these methods are ineffective or wrong, but I do not consider
them to be an ideal way. A teachers goal is to instill a lifelong love for learning in their
students. By sparking interests and creating fun lessons students will want to attend
school, and in turn love to learn new things.
There are so many benefits with including the arts into the classroom. Students
are able to express themselves through a multitude of different forms. Arts involvement
has shown gains in math, reading, cognitive ability, critical thinking, verbal skills,
motivation, concentration, confidence, and team building (Smith, 2009). Im sure you
are wondering how the arts is linked to so many positive outcomes, so let me give you a
few examples! Through roleplaying, students can build their imaginations, interactions
with others, and also better develop their verbal skills (Leong & Bondrova, 2013). It can
also helps them step out of their comfort zones and center their thinking from testing
logic into critical thinking (Mackenzie & Wolf, 2012). Through drawing, labeling, and
visual arts students are able to connect spoken words into visuals, which helps with a
better understanding of vocabulary (Fung, 2013). Through dance, song, and drama
students are able to recreate cultural or first hand experiences in a more hands-on and
enjoyable fashion. (Fung, 2013). With these types of activities students are able to build
upon their knowledge, creativity, critical thinking, and communication skills. It also
creates an extremely fun classroom environment! Through these art forms I am also able
to assess your childs learning growth in lieu of a typical written exam.
This upcoming year I plan on incorporating many different art forms into our
classroom. These art forms include, but are not limited to, painting, drawing, songs,
instruments, dance, poems, and drama. If you have any questions, concerns, or want to

Arts Advocacy

volunteer inside our classroom please feel free to reach out to me. You can also stay up to
date on our classroom assignments/projects through our classroom website. I look
forward to creating a hands-on learning approach with your children, and cannot wait to
watch them grow throughout the year!

Sincerely,

Sloane A. Leppen
Sloane.leppen@gmail.com
http://mssloanesclass.weebly.com/

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References

Booth, D. W. (2005). Story Drama: Creating Stories Through Role Playing, Improvising,
And Reading Aloud. Markham, Ont.: Pembroke.

Fung, J. (2013, May 17). What You Can Do When the Arts are Missing from Your
Elementary School Retrieved March 25, 2016, from
https://www.teachingchannel.org/blog/2013/05/17/arts-integration/

Leong, D., Ph.D, & Bodrova, E., Ph.D. (2003, October). Playing To Learn: How
Language And Literacy Develop Through Children's Play. Scholastic Parent and Child,
29-34.

MacKenzie, S., & Wolf, M. (2012). Layering Sel(f)ves: Finding Acceptance, Community,
and Praxis Through Collage. The Qualitative Report, 17(31), 1-21. Retrieved March 25,
2016.

Smith, F. (2009, January 28). Why Arts Education Is Crucial, and Who's Doing It Best.
Retrieved March 25, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/arts-music-curriculum-childdevelopment

Arts Advocacy
The Arts Prepares Students For Success In School. (2013). The Arts Education
Partnership. Retrieved March 25, 2016.