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Guiding students through the bold colors and statements of graffiti art. Teaching them how to blend their voices in song. Arts experiences like these can open students to new ways of thinking. But they can also offer teachers powerful opportunities to develop students鈥� social and emotional skills.

The trick to maximizing that potential, according to a new report, is careful thought and planning. If arts teachers recognize that each 鈥渁rts practice鈥濃�攐r component of arts instruction鈥攄raws on specific social or emotional skills, they can design their teaching to facilitate students鈥� growth in those skills.

What does that look like in the classroom? Two Chicago teachers helped answer that question.

Jonathan Neumann teaches visual arts at Richard Henry Lee Elementary School. He used a lesson on graffiti art to build his 6th grade students鈥� social-emotional vocabularies.

He walked students through the intellectual stuff: the history and meaning of graffiti in cultures around the world, the question of when it constitutes vandalism, its artistic value. But as he moved students into creating their own graffiti art, Neumann was as focused on their social-emotional skills as he was on their artistic expression.

Planning for the Social-Emotional Parts

He recognized that the graffiti assignment was going to challenge his students in specific social-emotional ways. They鈥檇 have to use discipline and time-management skills to get their projects done on time, a growth area that most teachers recognize and plan for. But they鈥檇 also have to confront powerful thoughts and feelings.

So Neumann did something teachers may overlook, according to the new report: He structured the assignment to include space for the development of social and emotional skills. Partway into the project, students had to work in groups of eight to discuss what they were trying to say with their graffiti creations, and how they could boil those messages down to a few, powerful words that filled the page.

They also had to talk about how to manage the feelings they were expressing in their art.

Neumann鈥檚 school population is predominantly low-income and Hispanic. Many of his students鈥� families include undocumented immigrants, and fears about deportation鈥攆ueled by national political rhetoric鈥攈ad seeped into his classroom. In that environment, he said, students faced a key challenge: How to 鈥渢alk about current issues in an appropriate way.鈥�

鈥淭hey had to figure out how to have the discipline to get their point across, to know how to tone themselves down, not to be vulgar, if they鈥檙e talking about an extreme issue,鈥� Neumann said.

Some students opted for a political tone in their graffiti pieces, with phrases like 鈥淒on鈥檛 Build the Wall.鈥� Others took a different route, saying, 鈥淏e Kind,鈥� or, simply, 鈥淟ove.鈥�

The assignment sparked classroom discussions that gave students a forum to express feelings they hadn鈥檛 expressed before, such as the fear of deportation, Neumann said.

鈥淚 think the whole process helped students feel comfortable expressing their ideas and their feelings, and they saw they could do this in acceptable ways,鈥� Neumann said.

The authors of the , argue that if teachers recognize the hidden social-emotional potential in arts instruction鈥攐r any instruction鈥攖hey can unlock powerful learning by carefully planning that instruction to support and develop those skills. Instead of just teaching music theory and piano technique to an anxious student, for instance, a teacher could work deliberately to incorporate breathing and mindfulness practices, and discussion of strategies for managing anxiety, the report says.

Deliberately attending to social-emotional skills like those helps build broader competencies such as emotional self-regulation, responsibility, and confidence expressing complex ideas linked to personal thoughts and feelings, according to the report.

More Than a Song

In her room at Jones College Prep High School 10 miles away from Neumann鈥檚, Katie Colby thinks about her students鈥� social-emotional skills as she plans her instruction, but in different ways.

She recognizes that the pieces of her music instruction鈥攍earning to sing in unison and in harmony, refining vocal technique, working with rhythm, following the conductor鈥攅ach offer distinct opportunities for social-emotional development.

As she works on vocal technique, she teaches students to balance the sound of the choir with their own individual sound. That choice reflects good musical practice, but also helps students build important social-emotional muscles.

鈥淭here鈥檚 development of 鈥業 am an individual,鈥� and perseverance to improve technique,鈥� Colby said. 鈥淏ut there鈥檚 also the idea that you have to be conscious of what鈥檚 going on around you, that you can鈥檛 be lost in your own world all the time.鈥�

When the chorus is learning a new piece, Colby deliberately lets them struggle and find their way a little at first. For a minute or two, she lets the singers 鈥渕ess around with it, try to figure it out,鈥� she said.

鈥淚 think 鈥榯inkering鈥� is a really important idea here,鈥� she said. 鈥淭o know it won鈥檛 be good the first time, but we鈥檙e trying to figure it out.鈥�

Colby creates space in her instruction for students鈥� discomfort, she said. Learning anything new involves risk, and she engages students in conversation about it to help them recognize and accept it.

鈥淚n my beginning choir, in the first few weeks, there鈥檚 a lot of discomfort,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of laughter. And I tell them, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e laughing at each other, and yourself, not because it鈥檚 funny, but because it鈥檚 scary, and that鈥檚 uncomfortable.鈥欌��

The authors of the new study didn鈥檛 detail how teachers of academic subjects can weave social-emotional skills into their instruction. But they encourage them to explore the possibility.

鈥淓ducators at large can and should draw inspiration from the pedagogical and relational strategies used by arts educators,鈥� the study said.

鈥淲ho is to say that science or math could not be taught in highly differentiated, relationship-driven ways that recognize the social aspects of teamwork or the emotional aspects of public performance?鈥�

The study arrives amid ongoing conversation among policymakers and educators about the role of the arts in education, and how to integrate arts with academic subjects.

The Every Student Succeeds Act, also, has created new funding opportunities for arts integration, said Jane Best, the executive director of the Arts Education Partnership. The partnership has created an online tool, 鈥�,鈥� that tracks how states are incorporating arts education into their education plans.