Year of Award

2007

Document Type

Professional Paper

Degree Type

Master of Arts (MA)

Degree Name

Fine Arts (Integrated Arts and Education)

Department or School/College

Creative Pulse Program

Committee Chair

Karen A. Kaufmann

Commitee Members

Dorothy Morrison, James Kriley

Keywords

arts and culture, integrated education, Scandinavian immigrants

Abstract

Using Scandinavian immigrant culture as a backdrop, this project presents an integrated multiple intelligences approach to teaching Kindergarten and elementary school students about their music, history, and cultural inheritance. The paper describes eight themes that formed the framework of the eight-week music curriculum used in the project. Examples of the children’s artwork and creative writing are included in the work. The author concludes that raising children’s awareness of a single specific culture through their music, dance, art, and food preferences stimulates the children’s curiosity about their own heritage resulting in increased communication with their family members and greater self-knowledge. The project also created a more positive and productive teaching/learning relationship between the instructor and the various class members and gave the students an opportunity to share their discoveries with the rest of the school’s population.

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© Copyright 2007 Stephanie Jeane White