MEETING INDIVIDUAL NEEDS
The Arts and Intervention
after all, intervention specialists. Nevertheless, we got to work to make this
as successful as possible.
Storybooks
During the first year, we worked with
classroom teachers using their ideas,
but in the second year, we were asked
to use our content areas to help with
the process. We each picked a grade
level and a content area. I chose reading with second grade. I wanted students to make books of different kinds
to help them retain content.
First we read a nonfiction book
about owls and brainstormed the main
points students would include in their
own books. After that, we switched
groups of students and began a new
book. I chose Where the Wild Things
Are by Maurice Sendak. Each student
created a new character for the story,
then described and illustrated that
character. As a class, they made their
own story with their characters for a
collaborative book.
The word “intervention” has been used in education for many years. It means different hings to different teachers,
and its framework varies from school
to school. Yet, intervention is a word
and a process that can make even the
most seasoned art teacher nervous.
A few years ago, our art, music,
and physical education teachers were
told that there was a new idea on the
horizon: whole-school intervention.
We knew of intervention groups in the
regular education classrooms and had
mainstreamed students in our classrooms already. We learned that integrated classrooms were only a small
part of what we needed. Our students
were having a hard time passing the
standardized tests. We needed something new; we needed something
more.
Cindy Vehovec
Reflections
Even though this effort wasn’t easy,
we realized that it was extremely
beneficial to our students. In the end,
individual test scores rose, as did our
school’s ranking. This was a wonderful experience and proved to be a lot of
fun for all of us.
We may not be intervention spe-
cialists or qualified to teach math,
reading, science, or
social studies, but
art is connected to
all of these areas. So,
when you are told you
have to do something
you’re unsure of, don’t wait to be told
how to do it. Make it your own. Pro-
mote the arts while having fun and
help both students and staff see the
arts as an integral part of education.
Students who study art
test much higher than
students who do not.
Taking Action
We were informed that our schedules
were being revamped to open up time
at the end of the day for whole-school
intervention. For forty minutes, two
days a week (in year two it would be
twenty minutes, three days a week),
every adult in the
school would work
with a small group of
students on an area of
concern.
As art educators,
we knew the benefits of integrating
art with subjects such as science and
social studies. Many studies have
been done on the connection between
the arts and standardized testing. Students who study art test much higher
than students who do not. Even so,
we were scared to death. We were not,
Cindy Vehovec is an art teacher in the
Mentor Public Schools in Mentor, Ohio.
