Arts Education
Instructional Practices
.................62
The Arts, Thinking, and Learning ...62
Classroom Relaonships ...............63
Supporng All Students Through Arts
Learning ........................................64
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and
Pracces ........................................65
Meaningful, Authenc Student
Choice and Voice .........................66
Community Connecons and
Authenc Audiences .....................66
Equitable Assessment in the Arts . . 67
Performance-Based Assessment
Tools ........................................... 67
Discipline Specic Model
Cornerstone Assessment Resources
from NCAS ..................................68
Approaches ....................................69
Choice-Based ................................ 69
Design Thinking ............................69
Inquiry-Based ...............................70
Project-Based ...............................70
Arts Education Instructional Practices
This resource provides arts program leaders and arts educators:
Informaon about student-centered learning and instrucon in the arts classroom
Assessment tools to promote equitable assessment and grading pracces
Examples of student-centered arts learning approaches
Classrooms and schools where all students feel
accepted as they are, respected as partners
in their learning, and free to explore and take
academic and arsc risks are essenal to
providing equitable arts learning experiences.
Ensuring certain elements are present within
an art program’s roune, structure, and
instruconal acvies creates both equitable
and engaging opportunies for arts learning.
Arts Educaon Instruconal Pracces | Arts Access Toolkit 61
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Elements of Student-Centered Arts Learning and Instruction
A student-centered arts educaon environment is foundaonal to developing student agency and voice within arts programs. Approaching arts learning
through a student-centered lens creates opportunies to address the full set of Oregon Arts Standards, including the arsc processes of create, present/
perform/produce, respond, and connect. In student-centered classrooms, student agency fosters creavity and innovaon, as students are given the freedom
to explore, build their skills and condence, and take arsc risks.
The following secons highlight important consideraons to make when building a student-centered classroom within an arts program.
1 Tishman, S. (2007). (rep.). Arul Thinking (pp. 3–5). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Graduate School of Educaon.
2 Ritchhart, R., Church, M., & Morrison, K. (2011). Making thinking visible: How to promote engagement, understanding, and independence for all learners. Jossey-Bass.
“Works of art provoke rich, mullayered meaning making in ways unlike other
disciplines. They raise quesons, evoke connecon-making, and in many ways
transform the shape of inquiry. In doing so, it has the power to transform a
student’s historical inquiry into a personal and contemporary one.”
-Shari Tishman
Tap into the power of the arts to help make student thinking visible
1
and highlight important crical thinking and observaonal skills for
students. The analysis of and collecve discussion around artworks and
performances, ulizing simple quesoning strategies and open ended
prompts
2
, leads to the development of these important skills.
Implement protocols in the classroom to increase opportunies for
student interacon and varied forms of engagement.
The Eight Studio Habits of Mind from Harvard Project Zero provides
a framework for the thinking processes that students engage with
during creang, performing, connecng to, and responding to artwork.
Learning these habits helps students grasp the process of arts learning
at a metacognive level, and to build an arsc pracce that leads to
high quality work.
Arts Educaon Instruconal Pracces | Arts Access Toolkit 62
Create classroom agreements with students to ensure everyone is clear
about the processes of caring for each other, the shared space, and
instruconal materials.
Agree together on the process of repair and resoluon of challenges or
conicts. Touch on these agreements every me the class meets.
Build rapport and learn about each other with circle pracce or sharing
acvity before creang together. Module 1 of Oregon Classroom WISE
is focused on creang safe and supporve learning environments, and
provides addional ideas and resources.
Providing opportunies to explore and share through the arts without
judgment can be benecial to students’ processing of dicult topics and
life events.
Learn more about incorporang trauma-informed teaching pracces into
arts programs by ulizing the Oregon Department of Educaon’s Integrated
Model of Mental Health Oregon ClassroomWISE resources. For more
informaon about restorave pracces and Restorave Jusce, see this
Restorave Pracce/Restorave Jusce resource.
Access the Oregon ClassroomWISE Modules
Arts Educaon Instruconal Pracces | Arts Access Toolkit 63
The Universal Design for Learning Guidelines provide a framework to ensure all learners are able to access and fully parcipate in their learning. Ulize
these guidelines to design instrucon that provides a diverse array of opportunies for engagement in learning, representaon of learning, access to
learning, and expression of learning.
Students experiencing disabilies must be provided the proper modicaons or supports to parcipate fully in arts program acvies. This can include
modifying materials, tools, seang arrangements, or equipment as necessary to meet student needs and address student Individual Educaon Plans
(IEPs). Plan in advance and discuss with the student and Special Educaon Department.
Provide translated materials when helpful for students and consider linguiscally responsive structures to any acvies involving reading, wring,
listening, and speaking that support students’ needs. Linguisc supports include sentence frames, word banks, graphic organizers, visual aids, and more.
Consider what Universal Design for Learning (UDL) looks like across program formats, for example, online, hybrid, or in-person.
The Oregon Department of Educaon’s Special Educaon website and English Learners Iniaves website provide resources to support the varied needs of
students. For resources when considering ulizing digital learning within an arts program look to ODE’s Key Components of Digital Learning Guidance.
Arts Educaon Instruconal Pracces | Arts Access Toolkit 64
Zarea Hammond, teacher and author of Culturally Responsive Teaching
and the Brain, has proposed that culturally responsive teaching is a
process, not just a set of best pracces (Hammond & Jackson, 2015).
Research and learn the dierences between various frameworks for
culturally responsive and culturally sustaining pedagogies. Find, adapt,
and implement a framework used by school, district, or educaon teams
to ensure that equity is centered in the educaonal environment. If this
does not yet exist, share one with colleagues and begin a discussion to
promote shared learning around these frameworks.
Start with connecon and inclusion. Provide students me for
relaonship building and opportunies to share stories and artwork
from their lives. Center learning acvies in student’s lived experiences.
Maintain high expectaons for all students. If a student is not meeng
co-developed expectaons, connue to work with them and develop a
plan for them to get there.
Include diverse examples of languages, races, ethnicies, cultures,
gender idenes, and abilies in and around the classroom, in materials
such as books and videos, decor, and featured arsc works.
Move beyond the surface level when teaching or sharing about
objects, materials, and work from arsts of dierent races, ethnicies,
cultures, gender idenes, and abilies other than one’s own. Ensure
understanding of what respecul use looks like with any arsc works.
Understand the background of arsts and the inherent meaning of
works before sharing.
The Oregon Department of Educaon’s Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
and Pracces provides examples and resources to help implement these
pracces in any school program. Consider the Oregon Department of
Educaon’s Aligning for Student Success Professional Learning Resources,
including the Engaging Equity online modules, for learning around equity
with school and district sta.
Access the Aligning for Student Success Page and the Engaging Equity
Online Modules
Arts Educaon Instruconal Pracces | Arts Access Toolkit 65
Provide performance and presentaon opportunies for students’
original works, and highlight student driven choreography, wring,
direcng, composing, curang, and staging of performances and events.
Connect to learning goals across content areas ensuring development
of cross-cung skills while promong the transfer of learning between
dierent learning environments.
Provide service learning opportunies for students through the arts.
This might include fundraising, building awareness of student causes,
and making student-driven change in their community.
Encourage a classroom structure and establish pracces based on
desired behaviors and/or principles that encourage crical thinking and
creave development.
Reect with students on their learning. Give them me to learn and
share about their own learning process and needs around arts learning.
For an inspiring example of an Oregon school program that centers student
voice, refer to the feature on Dr. Marn Luther King Jr. Elementary school
and KSMoCA in Communicang the Benets of Arts Educaon.
Access the Communicang the Benets of Arts Educaon
Invite mentor arsts and industry professionals to share their work with
students and engage in dialogue based on student interests.
Discuss school and community needs and provide students with
opportunies to help meet those needs through creave expression.
Find creave ways to showcase student work. In addion to school-
based celebraons, create community connecons for students
to perform or present work for an authenc audience and make a
dierence in the community.
To connect with arts organizaons and teaching arsts in various regions of
Oregon, refer to the Oregon Arts and STEAM Educaon Organizaon Lookup
Tool compiled by the Oregon Department of Educaon. For schools around
the Portland Metro Area, the Regional Arts & Culture Council’s Artlook
Map provides addional opportunies for arts organizaons and schools to
connect.
Access the Oregon Arts and STEAM Educaon Organizaon Lookup Tool
Arts Educaon Instruconal Pracces | Arts Access Toolkit 66
Balance a focus on process and product when designing classroom
acvies and instrucon - both experiences are important for standards-
aligned arts learning.
Incorporate balanced assessment pracces, focusing on formave
assessment strategies and student driven assessment to empower
students as partners in their learning.
Be clear with expectaons and purpose when ulizing summave
assessments. Consider employing and/or designing rubrics with students
to assess performances or products.
Guiding Principles for the Assessment of Arts Learning from the
World Summit on Arts Educaon provides a framework for assessing
the quality of assessment structures and applicaons when planning
assessments for arts programs.
Explore resources from Arts Assessment for Learning and some of these
Formave Assessment Resources from the Oregon Department of Educaon
for ideas to implement more formave assessment strategies in the
classroom.
Performance-based assessment is essenal to the process of evaluang arts
learning. The Naonal Coalion for Arts Standards’ (NCAS) 2021 Naonal
Arts Standards Model Cornerstone Assessments and discipline specic MCAs
provide models for standards-based teaching, learning, and assessment in
the ve arts disciplines of Dance, Media Arts, Music, Theatre, and Visual
Arts.
Arts Educaon Instruconal Pracces | Arts Access Toolkit 67
Dance Media Arts Music Theatre Visual Arts
The Arts Impact Curricula program in Washington State developed these performance-
based assessments to help assess the success of both students and arts educators based on
common criteria for performance.
Criteria-based Checklist & Student Self-assessment (text version of Criteria-based Checklist
& Student Self-assessment) This example includes both a criteria-based checklist, completed
by the teacher, and a student self-evaluaon form.
Peer Reecon (text version) This form is just one example of how students can be involved
in observing and recording criteria. Peer reecon can be used in combinaon with other
assessment tools.
Annotated Rubric for Teachers (text version) In this example, a four point weighted rubric
scale is used in both a teacher checklist and a student self-evaluaon.
Autonomy Rubric for Teachers (A.R.T.) from Arts Impact
The Autonomy Rubric for Teachers (A.R.T.), is designed as a tool for facilitang connuous
growth in teacher pracce.
Source: Arts Impact Assessment Tools
Arts Educaon Instruconal Pracces | Arts Access Toolkit 68
Student-Centered Arts Learning Approaches
Along with employing well-known instruconal strategies such as direct instrucon, modeling, discussion protocols and guided release, educators can apply
various approaches to ensure space for student voice and choice in their instrucon. These are just a few of the student-centered approaches that apply in an
arts learning context.
In choice-based arts learning, students are presented with
a range of art learning opons or acvies, and they are
encouraged to choose the opons that best meet their
individual learning needs and interests.
Choice-based learning oers educators the opportunity
for modeling, pracce, and guided release, through the development of
dierent technical skills with arsc media. However, in this model, students
are able to choose which technical skills they want to develop and what they
wish to express with these skills. Choice-based learning could also involve
students working in small groups or collaborang with their peers, allowing
them to share their knowledge and experse and learn from one another.
Together, these experiences encourage students to take ownership of their
learning and arsc development.
An example of choice-based learning in the arts could be students learning
about dierent art media techniques through mini-lessons at staons in
their classroom, and choosing which media and techniques they want
to focus on. Aer me to pracce, students could propose an idea for a
capstone project, and work toward sharing this body of work in an art show
or gallery.
Design thinking is an instruconal approach that
encourages students to use a creave and iterave
process to solve problems and create innovave soluons.
This approach is based on the idea that the same
design principles used by professionals in elds such as
engineering, architecture, and product development apply in educaonal
contexts, helping students develop skills such as crical thinking, creavity,
and problem-solving. The design thinking process in educaon, as dened by
the Harvard Graduate School of Educaon, consists of ve stages: discover,
interpret, ideate, prototype, and test.
Design thinking is oen used in hands-on, project-based learning
environments, and applies to a wide range of subjects and topics. It has
been shown to promote higher-order thinking skills in the learning process
(Razzouk, 2012).
An example of a design thinking project in the arts classroom could be
students designing an approach to share their work with the school
community. This could lead to many dierent design projects; for example,
designing a website to exhibit student performance highlights or porolio
work, or designing a community event to spotlight student arsc
achievements.
Arts Educaon Instruconal Pracces | Arts Access Toolkit 69
This work is funded by the Expanding
Access to Well-Rounded Courses Grant,
a 5-year, 9.8 million dollar Federal grant
that ODE received from the US
Department of Educaon in 2020. The
Arts Access Toolkit is a poron of the
work of the Well-Rounded Access
Program, along with supporng access
projects for courses in the arts and
STEAM across the state. Over me, the
Well-Rounded Access Program team
hopes to connue to develop and
rene this resource with the
collaboraon of administrators and
educators statewide. If districts or
schools have addional resources,
examples, or success stories to
contribute, please contact the Well-
Rounded Access Program team at
ODE.WRCoursesGr[email protected]ate.or.us.
Inquiry-based learning focuses on
students acvely exploring and
discovering new knowledge and
concepts through asking quesons
and conducng invesgaons. In an
inquiry-based arts learning environment, students are
encouraged to ask quesons, seek out informaon,
and engage in hands-on acvies and experiments
to learn about a parcular topic. This approach is
designed to promote deep understanding and crical
thinking skills, as students are encouraged to consider
mulple perspecves and draw their own conclusions
based on the evidence they gather.
3 PBL Works, Buck Instute for Educaon
Inquiry-based learning oen begins with a driving
queson or problem that students are asked to
explore and invesgate. Through this exploraon,
students develop arsc research skills, collaboraon
and communicaon skills, and engage in
opportunies for both teacher and peer feedback.
An example of inquiry-based arts learning in acon
could be students researching the queson “What
makes music enjoyable?” Students could research
their favorite music genre, learn about the structure
of musical works in the genre, develop specic
composion skills, and create their own music based
on this invesgaon.
Project-based learning (PBL) is an
instruconal approach that involves
students acvely exploring and
invesgang real-world problems
or challenges through hands-on,
experienal acvies. In a project-based arts learning
environment, students work on a long-term, open-
ended art project or piece that requires them to use a
range of skills and knowledge to research, design, and
create a product or soluon to a problem
3
.
PBL is designed to engage students and promote deep
learning by allowing students to apply their knowledge
and skills to real-world situaons. In PBL, students
are acvely involved in dening the goals, processes,
and products of their projects. This provides many
opportunies for problem-solving and crical thinking.
Projects oen involve the use of collaboraon and
communicaon skills, as students work together to
research, plan, and execute their projects.
An example of project-based learning in acon could
be students integrang arts learning across disciplines
while wring, performing, choreographing, and
producing a musical to raise awareness of an issue
they have deemed important.
Arts Educaon Instruconal Pracces | Arts Access Toolkit 70
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