Teaching abstract English Language Arts (ELA) concepts using parallels from the fine arts increases student learning due to both biological and psychological responses to the arts. This deliberate duet between the fine arts (specifically visual art, music, dance/theater, and film) and ELA also has great academic benefits, as the beauty of ELA thus becomes more tangible and accessible to all. Narrative is one of these abstract concepts that can benefit from scaffolding from the fine arts.
Fine Arts Integration: Supported by Philosophy, Biology, and Psychology
In ancient Egypt, the arts (especially the visual arts) were a way to connect with something larger than oneself; they “revolved around a concern for the eternal” and were used for both the living and the dead to access the spiritual realm (DeLong 40). As formal education became more structured in society worldwide, philosophers and other political and religious influencers debated the role arts should play in that education—and over time, support for embedding the fine arts in mainstream education has remained overwhelmingly positive, from Aristotle’s belief that the purpose of art is “to depict the hidden meaning of things, not their appearance” to “liberal learning’s preeminent defender” John Henry Newman’s advocacy for holistic learning: “I have said that all branches are connected together, because the subject-matter of knowledge is intimately united in itself, as being the acts and the work of the Creator…They complete, correct, balance each other” (DeLong 19; Gamble 522). In short, the conversation surrounding deliberate arts integration in the field of education has been alive for centuries.
This was solidified in 2015, when the Every Student Succeeds Act was passed by the Senate. Under this federal law, “the arts are included as part of a ‘well-rounded education’ requiring that the arts have equal billing with reading, math, science, and other disciplines in K-12 public education” (Vargas). Most recently, the 2020 Minnesota ELA state standards emphasize not only media literacy (analyzing information from a variety of sources) but also several areas of the reading content area which lend themselves especially well to teaching with the fine arts, such as identifying complex themes, text structure, and influences on content. For example, there are many parallels between the cyclical writing style of Toni Morrison and the improv style of jazz music; if students can identify the recurring motifs and patterns in a selection of jazz music, the teacher can use this skill to help students notice repeating words and images in a selection of Morrison’s work.
Why mix subjects together in the first place, instead of teaching disciplines in isolation? One could argue that there are innate benefits to cross-curricular connections because life itself is interdisciplinary, as different skills naturally support each other. Specifically, though, there extensive research in biology proving that the fine arts create the optimal neurological framework for successful learning: promoting a positive socioemotional learning experience by improving students’ emotional regulation (Fancourt et al.). In his seminal research on the phenomenon of “flow,” psychologist and researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi identifies the term “ekstasis,” used by ancient Greeks to describe an “alternative reality” of pleasurable focus, which is the derivative of the Middle English term “exstasie” and, by extension, our current word “ecstasy”—a word commonly associated with feelings of joy of the highest level (“Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow, the Secret to Happiness”). The arts lower cortisol levels, thereby decreasing stress and improving focus, allowing one to enter the “flow state” and be fully immersed and engaged in a pleasurable activity. In addition, creation of and experience with the arts improves communication skills, which develops positive self-expression and leads to a stronger self-concept (“How the Brain is Affected by Art: Rehabilitation Medicine.”).
Fine arts bring an increased level of dopamine (the “feel-good” chemical) and oxytocin (the “love” chemical), creating a mindset primed for learning: research shows that “we tend to remember things that have an emotional component because our amygdala and neurotransmitters act in concert to ‘tag’ the memories as something important” (Fallin et al. 14; LeWine; Levitin 231). A study conducted by Oxford University found that one of those emotional connections is building “theory of mind” (ToM) skills (defined by the American Psychological Association as “the understanding that others have intentions, desires, beliefs, perceptions, and emotions different from one’s own and that such intentions, desires, and so forth affect people’s actions and behaviors”), including empathy. In this study, two groups of participants listened to selections of instrumental music. One group was told the music was composed by a human; the other group was told the music was computer-generated. In reality, both groups were listening to the same pieces: excerpts from composers Arnold Schönberg and Anton Webern, whose musical styles lack tonal centers and thus often seem disjointed and random, especially to non-musical listeners. The participants who believed they were listening to human-created music experienced activation in their anterior medial frontal cortexes, which is the part of the brain closely associated with ToM. This activation was not present in the other group (Steinbeis and Koelsch 619-620). These findings suggest that our brain processes more than just the individual sounds of notes, but simultaneously tries to build a connection with the musician’s communicated message. Thus, music actively builds listeners’ abilities to see reflections of both themselves and others. There is thus a clear biological connection between the arts and a positive mental mindset that is open to learning, growth, and success.
Understanding Fine Arts & ELA Integration: Narrative
It should not be surprising that English literature and composition share many features with the fine arts. After all, elementary schools group reading and writing as the English Language Arts, highlighting the artistic skills developed in creating, responding to, and appreciating written texts. Both the fine arts and the language arts start with understanding and interpreting the individual building blocks of their respective crafts as the foundations for more complex analysis. The fine arts explore elements such as line, shape, color, texture, melody, and movement—elements that are visually observed, defined, and understood. Together, these smaller pieces constitute the grand completed product: a painting, a choreographed dance, a piece of music. Similarly, literature introduces individual characters, setting details, and clearly defined plot points to build a larger narrative; compositions are written with individual parts of speech and syntactical constructions that create a general purpose and tone. This cross-curricular approach offers necessary support for struggling learners, as it allows for abstract concepts to be taught using more tangible artistic elements. It also gives high-achieving students the opportunity to dig more deeply into the concepts from an expanded and holistic perspective.
One of the key intersection points between ELA and the fine arts—that is, a shared area between ELA and the fine arts in which one can be used to teach the other—is narrative. At its core, a narrative is simply a story, and stories can be told through different media. One of the most obvious extensions is film. A director must decide how to convey the desired narrative using visuals in addition to dialogue to create a multidimensional narrative. Films that are based on literature are no different; the text must be used to inform a screenplay that captures the spirit of the original work (except in cases of creative divergence), but in a way that allows cinematic elements to build the narrative. In short, “A novel and a film may share the same story…but they may vary widely in their literary or cinematic forms of discourse” (Costanzo 14).
Narrative study can be found in other arts as well. Consider how gamification research has expanded the concept of narrative to include those created by multiple people (e.g., the game creator and players) in a transactional relationship; players make real-time decisions that in turn direct the course of the story (Nash et al. 4). This research builds on Rosenblatt’s theory that a narrative’s meaning is ultimately shaped by the reader’s response (Nash et al. 9). Or consider dance, which uses physical movement to convey a story: “A certain posture in the ballet, a series of film shots, a whole paragraph in a novel, or only a single word—any of these might manifest a single narrative statement” (Chatman 146). This is not an exaggeration; rather, this interpretation of dancers’ movements was a central conflict in the development of ballet. Early classical ballet of the Italian Renaissance had simple allegorical plots, primarily taken from mythology or medieval romances (Nordera 19). The 18th century ballet d’action, or narrative ballet, replaced ballet de cour after years of disapproval from noted music critics. One such critic was English dancing master John Weaver. In his “Essay towards a History of Dancing” written in 1712, he claimed dancing had become a shadow of its former glory, stating that dancers “pretended to nothing more than a graceful Motion, with strong and nimble Risings, and [by] casting his Body into several [perhaps] agreeable Postures: but for expressing anything in Nature but modulated Motion, it was never in his Head.” This lack of an overarching narrative was also criticized in 1754 by Louis de Chausac, a librettist, Secretary of the Comte de Clermont, and contributor to the Encyclopédie of the French Enlightenment, who wrote, “Everything that is without action is unworthy of the theatre; all of it becomes an ornament without taste and without warmth.” Finally, in 1760, choreographer Jean-Georges Noverre proposed a new genre of ballet, the ballet d’action, that would feature “a dramatically consistent narrative with character portraits and a clear subject, a piece that was totally different from court affectation and allegorical plots full of myths and gods.” In short, “Dance alone told the story” (Wieckmann 53-54, 61).
About one century later, Tchaikovsky would extend Noverre’s vision by embracing fairy tale narratives of ballet in his pieces The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake, and using the music to add even more depth to the story. For example, in the final battle scene between the Nutcracker and the Mouse King, the upper strings perform a “swelling ascending scale leaping to a high C and then quietly descending over [a] heartbeat motif”; at this point in the story, “the Nutcracker is no longer a doll, for we hear his heartbeat and the scale as the breath of life, bestowed upon the Prince” in a climactic “musical metamorphosis” (Hurley 167). In this way, the narrative is expressed through both music and movement.
A student who struggles with linear processing in composition—for example, multilingual students whose cultures utilize more cyclical approaches to writing—may be able to identify a narrative told through dance, where patterns often repeat themselves throughout the piece. Similarly, students who excel in ELA may enjoy the challenge of building a narrative told solely through a dancer’s movement. Revisit the previous claim that a “certain posture in the ballet” can express a “single narrative statement.” How does that particular gesture reflect a specific statement? What tone is present in the physical movement? How does the musical accompaniment support that tone? Consider the collaboration of Igor Stravinsky’s orchestration and Vaslav Nijinsky’s choreography in the ballet “The Rite of Spring.” This composition “shattered the conventions of classical music” with its blend of dissonant harmonies, atonality, syncopation, multiple time signatures, and twitching contortion movements fighting against the flow of the music to illustrate the “rawness of pagan ritual” (“Iseult Gillespie: The Ballet That Incited a Riot”).
Similarly, each song in the theatrical production Hamilton: An American Musical features many physical nuances that support the overall narrative, and analyzing them may appeal to students looking to go far beyond the basics. For example, the chorus of “My Shot” repeats the following lyrics: “I’m just like my country—I’m young, scrappy, and hungry—and I’m not throwing away my shot” (Miranda and McCarter 26). According to the show’s choreographer, Andy Blankenbuehler, “a physical vocabulary” was necessary to “[pull] these themes through the show,” referring to the repetition of five movements throughout the song:
- Hamilton’s stance is confident and forward, like the American people facing revolution at the time.
- Dancers reach left and right to illustrate the diverse expanse of people united in revolution.
- The hand-to-heart motion is an allusion to the soon-to-be created Pledge of Allegiance.
- Hamilton’s downward hand flips show disregard for the existing British government.
- Hamilton sings “not throwing away my shot” at the beginning of the song with his finger pointed down to the ground and later up to the sky to foreshadow his death in Act II (“Choreographing Hamilton: The Meaning Behind the Moves”).
Putting It into Practice: Teaching Narrative through the Fine Arts
- Play a piece of instrumental music with a specific title (not simply “Prelude” or “Sonata no. 14”). As students listen to the song, they jot down notes about what may be happening at each point in the music: why is the tempo getting faster? Why did the music stop abruptly? What is the new instrument supposed to represent? Write the completed narrative as a creative writing piece. Or work backwards: Play the piece of music without sharing the title, and ask students to create the narrative they hear in the music.
- Share a historical photo or painting with the class. (This piece should have a clear connection to a specific time period or historical event.) Ask students to describe what’s going on in the picture as a neutral observer. Then ask students to view the scene from a specific point of view. Who is and isn’t included in the picture? Whose political, social, or cultural perspective is being highlighted, and whose is being excluded? Continue the conversation by sharing contrasting primary sources (e.g., journals, articles, etc.) that describe a similar time period from very different views: what do both perspectives contribute to the narrative?
- Students create a collage of a single meaningful year of their life and identify an overarching Somebody/Wanted/But/So (SWBS) arc using themselves as a character. What major character traits do we see from that small character arc? How are they visually represented to illustrate a certain trajectory of growth or ending destination? Extend the project by asking students to create a collage and corresponding SWBS chart for a fictional character in a short story or novel.
Conclusion
As English teachers, we want our students to connect with the material we teach, to apply lessons from novels and short stories to their own contexts. Using the fine arts to teach basic and complex literary skills creates an environment of accessibility for students who may struggle with written texts, while also challenging those who seek opportunities for more advanced study. Research proves that our biological and psychological responses to the arts prime the neural pathways for more successful and sustainable learning, and by helping students draw those parallels between the arts and literature/composition, we are expanding their definition of literacy beyond the page and into the interdisciplinary world in which they live.
Works Cited
Chatman, Seymour. Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. Cornell UP, 1978.
“Choreographing Hamilton: The Meaning Behind the Moves.” YouTube, uploaded by the Wall Street Journal, 24 May 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmYTsOrnWP0.
Costanzo, William. Reading the Movies: Twelve Great Films on Video and How to Teach Them. NCTE, 1992.
DeLong, Patrick, et al. Art and Music in the Humanities. Prentice Hall, 1966.
Fallin, Jana, et al. Using Music to Enhance Student Learning: A Practical Guide for Elementary Classroom Teachers. Routledge, 2022.
Fancourt, Daisy, et al. “How Do Artistic Creative Activities Regulate Our Emotions?” PLOS ONE, vol. 14, no. 2, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211362.
Gamble, Richard. The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What it Means to Be an Educated Human Being. ISI Books, 2009.
“How the Brain is Affected by Art: Rehabilitation Medicine.” American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, 27 August 2020, https://acrm.org/rehabilitation-medicine/how-the-brain-is-affected-by-art/#:~:text=Art%20and%20Neuroscience&text=Art%20can%20also%20raise%20serotonin,pathways%20and%20ways%20of%20thinking.
Hurley, Thérèse. “Opening the Door to a Fairy-Tale World: Tchaikovsky’s Ballet Music.” The Cambridge Companion to Ballet, edited by Marion Kant, Cambridge University Press, 2007, p. 164-174.
“Iseult Gillespie: The Ballet That Incited a Riot.” TED, 14 January 2020, https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-ballet-that-incited-a-riot-iseult-gillespie https://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_flow_the_secret_to_happiness?subtitle=en.
Levitin, Daniel. This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession. Dutton, 2006.
LeWine, Howard. “Oxytocin: The Love Hormone.” Harvard Health Publishing, 2023, https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/oxytocin-the-love-hormone#:~:text=Music%20also%20seems%20to%20have,adds%20the%20element%20of%20bonding.
“Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow, the Secret to Happiness.” TED, 2004, https://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_flow_the_secret_to_happiness?subtitle=en.
Miranda, Lin-Manuel and Jeremy McCarter. Hamilton: The Revolution. Grand Central Publishing, 2016.
Nash, Brady, et al. “The Reader-Player Interactivity Framework: How Do Readers Navigate Diverse Varieties of Narrative Texts?” Reading Research Quarterly, vol. 61, no. 1, 2025, pp. 1-17.
Nordera, Marina. “Ballet de Cour.” The Cambridge Companion to Ballet, edited by Marion Kant, Cambridge University Press, 2007, p. 19-31.
Steinbeis, Nikolaus, and Stefan Koelsch. “Understanding the Intentions Behind Man-Made Products Elicits Neural Activity in Areas Dedicated to Mental State Attribution.” Cerebral Cortex, vol. 19, no. 3, 2009, p. 619-623.
“Theory of Mind.” American Psychological Association, https://dictionary.apa.org/theory-of-mind.
Vargas, Annette. “Arts Education Funding.” Journal of Women in Educational Leadership, vol. 212, 2017, http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/jwel/212.
Weickmann, Dorion. “Choreography and Narrative: The Ballet d’Action of the Eighteenth Century.” The Cambridge Companion to Ballet, edited by Marion Kant, Cambridge University Press, 2007, p. 53-64.
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