Integrating the Visual Arts into the Writing Process

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Date
1995
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The University of Alabama
Abstract

The major purpose of the study was to examine the effects of integrating visual arts and writing instruction at the intermediate level. The effects of the integrated instruction on writing achievement and on the number of unassigned writing samples was analyzed. The subjects were forty-six fifth grade students from a public school in northwest Georgia. They were administered The Young Georgia Authors' Rating Scale as a pretest to determine their competency in writing. They were treated for seven months with integrated writing/visual arts instruction. At the end of the seven month period, they were administered The Young Georgia Authors' Rating Scale as a posttest to determine the progress they had made in writing during the time of the treatment. The pre- and post test scores were analyzed for statistical significance using a test for correlated means set at the 0.05 level of confidence. The results of the test strongly support the hypotheses of the study. There was a significant difference between the pre- and post test scores of students whose writing instruction had been integrated with visual art instruction. Other significant findings of the study were: the total number of writing samples increased during the period of the treatment by 41%; there was a very strong positive correlation between the total number of samples entered in the writing portfolio during the period of the treatment and the posttest writing score; the greatest increase in number of writing samples came in poetry; and there was a strong positive correlation between number of poems written and a high posttest score on the writing test. The findings of this study support the use of an integrated visual arts/writing curriculum.

Description
Keywords
Citation