New strategies for effectively integrating the arts as a tool for learning in the classroom were introduced to area teachers during two workshops Tuesday at MSU Riley Center.

Part II of a series of arts integration workshops of the John F. Kennedy Center's Partners in Education program, the morning and afternoon sessions were not only informative, but also fun, according to participating teachers from the Meridian and Lauderdale County Public schools.

"It's awesome, really enlightening and engaging – it will definitely impact my students' learning," said Felisha Powell, who teaches fifth-grade language and reading at Southeast Middle School.

Karen L. Erickson, a Kennedy Center workshop presenter from Chicago, conducted both sessions, "Focusing on Arts Integration" and "DRAMA! The Missing Link to Teaching Literacy."

The first workshop provided a definition of the characteristics of arts integration – what it is and what it is not. Participants were given the opportunity to uncover the characteristics and how the information might impact their own arts integrated session designs.

In "DRAMA! The Mississippi Link to Teaching Literacy," teachers discovered how to build vocabulary skills, improve reading comprehension and expand writing techniques through drama integration.

"Literacy goes with more than just language arts, it also goes with science literacy, social studies literacy – whenever kids have to read and interpret material and read, be able to read and comprehend material," Erickson said.

"It's about using drama techniques and integrating those techniques with the teaching of literacy."

Participants worked in three areas during the session: word study – where children work with words and vocabulary; inferencing and predicting – reading comprehension skills; and working with a book.

In drama, the teachers created dialogue, characterization and scenes with a partner. They also did a detail writing activity, with one partner writing and the other person acting out what is written.

Johnny Hill, a special education inclusion teacher at Witherspoon Elementary School, said the workshop will help him to tap into the artistic talents of his students.

"I have students who are very artistic, but don't read well or don't do math well. But a student may find their niche in the arts," he said.

Hill, who has attended in several teaching workshops at the MSU Riley Center, said the sessions have been very enlightening.

"Dr. George Thomas (professor of education at MSU-Meridian Campus and city councilman) spoke at the morning session and he commented that 80 percent of students in the Meridian Public School District are in the poverty level and don't have access to the arts. I'll take the information I've learned today back and share with the other teachers at my school, and then we can incorporate that into the curriculum for our students to improve their learning."

The Kennedy Center workshop is part of a public/private partnership of Mississippi State University Riley Center for Education & Performing Arts, The John F. Kennedy Center Partners in Education Program and corporate sponsor, Structural Steel.