Teaching Curriculum through the Arts

Teaching Curriculum through the Arts is a guide for teachers that should be required reading for every educator, while Play with Purpose is a workbook for students.

Both books were written by William Thomas Sly, Joseph Brockett and Ronn Kistler, founders of Creative Educational Systems.

Based on over 33 years of residencies in thousands of K-12 school classrooms, the user-friendly teachers’ manual offers practical activities designed to spark learning through the use of visual and performing arts as teaching strategies for all subjects in all grade levels. The strategies show how to design arts-based thematic curriculum’s; offer a plan to utilize professional artists in the classroom as co-mentors; and train teachers in the use of arts techniques.


Play with Purpose: A Student Workbook

Play with Purpose: A Student Workbook is a multiple-intelligences-based, innovative guide for students and is a companion piece to Teaching Curriculum Through the Arts. It is designed to expand ways of thinking and creative problem-solving for students. And it provides creative challenges, rather than merely academic tasks to be checked and graded by teachers. It lets students have fun while learning, and learn while having fun.

Everything needed to launch a successful arts-in-education program is included in these two books, which feature creative drama and improvisational techniques.


About the Authors

William Thomas Sly, Joseph Brockett, and Ronn Kistler are the authors of these books. All three have extensive backgrounds as professional actors, directors, playwrights and consultants for such entities as the United Federation of Teachers, Marymount Manhattan College, Pilgrim State Psychiatric Hospital, businesses, nonprofit service organizations, as well as the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education. Together they have written 17 books and over 75 original plays for use in the K-12 classroom. Sly is also a published poet.