The Arts Go to School: Classroom-Based Activities That Focus on Music, Painting, Drama, Movement, Media, and More

Anne Hutchings, a former elementary-school teacher-librarian with the
Durham Board of Education, is an educational consultant.

Any book with David Booth’s name on the cover is worth a second
glance, and The Arts Go to School is no exception.

An appealing feature of this lucidly designed book are margin
quotations from well-known educators and supporters of the arts. For
example, the opening chapter, which emphasizes the value of arts—not
just in the school, but in the community and world at large—features
this quotation from Maya Angelou: “I’ve learned that people will
forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will
never forget how you made them feel.”

Chapters 2 through 7 (“Visual Arts,” “Music,” “Drama,”
“Dance,” “Media,” and “Partnerships in Arts Education”),
written by experts in the field, present a brief rationale for one of
the arts, followed by sample units demonstrating a variety of relevant
activities. Each chapter concludes with further comments and reflections
on the topic from other artists and educators, as well as a handy
checklist of outcomes/activities to which teachers may refer when
planning programs.

The final section, “Voices from the Arts Community,” includes
appendixes containing a guide for “Developing a School-Based Arts
Policy,” “Research and Resources in Arts Education,” and “A
Checklist for Assessing Growth in and through the Arts in Education.”
A list of references and an index conclude this useful guide, which is
recommended for elementary school library professional collections. Many
teachers may wish to add the book to their personal collections as well.