The Art of Teaching the Arts: A Workshop for High School Teachers - Nurturing Independent Thinkers
Arts teachers use formal and informal strategies to assess their students’ progress, and to modify their own teaching practice. In this program, participants meet a vocal music teacher who splits his choir into groups that give each other feedback; he also has students tape record themselves during rehearsal, so he can judge their individual progress. A dance teacher critiques original choreography by a student and asks the student's peers to participate in the process; this feedback helps the choreographer deepen the impact of her work. Next, theatre teachers give an in-depth critique to a student, and then ask him for feedback on their teaching. Finally, a visual arts teacher helps students develop their observation and analysis skills throughout their high school careers, so that they learn to be their own best critics.
The Arts in Every Classroom: A Video Library, K-5: Introducing Arts Education
This program includes three segments. "What Is Arts Education?" shows a montage of insights from teachers and administrators, plus examples of successful arts instruction in classrooms across America. "What Are the Arts?" features presentations from teachers, administrators, students, and parents, who offer thoughtful and sometimes humorous comments on what the arts mean to them. In "How Do You Know They’re Learning?" educators from several schools tell how they know if their students are learning.
The Arts in Every Classroom: A Video Library, K-5: Expanding the Role of the Arts Specialist
Three arts teachers work with colleagues around their schools, using collaborative techniques that go beyond the traditional work of arts specialists. Kathy DeJean is a dance artist at Lusher Alternative Elementary School in New Orleans; Mary Perkerson is the visual art teacher at Harmony Leland Elementary School in Mableton, Georgia; and Amanda Newberry is the theatre specialist at Lusher.
The Arts in Every Classroom: A Video Library, K-5: Teaching Dance
Two teachers with contrasting training and approaches to teaching bring rich dance experiences to students at their arts–based schools. Kathy DeJean, the dance specialist at Lusher Alternative Elementary School in New Orleans, promotes inquiry and self-expression in a multi-grade dance class. Scott Pivnik, a former physical education teacher at P.S. 156 (The Waverly School of the Arts) in Brooklyn, New York, uses African dance as a gateway to geography, writing, and personal growth for a class of second–graders.
The Arts in Every Classroom: A Video Library, K-5: Teaching Music
Two music specialists from arts–based schools demonstrate different approaches to serving diverse student populations. At Harmony Leland Elementary School in Mableton, Georgia, all 500 students study the violin. Their classes with Barrett Jackson become lessons in character and discipline. At Smith Renaissance School of the Arts in Denver, Sylvia Bookhardt and a class of fifth–graders explore the Renaissance through choral singing.
The Arts in Every Classroom: A Video Library, K-5: Teaching Theatre
Two specialists work on basic theatre skills with children of various ages, and use theatre education as a gateway to other kinds of learning. At Lusher Alternative Elementary School in New Orleans, Amanda Newberry’s lesson in improvisation with a third–grade class stimulates students’ imagination, heightens language and listening skills, and encourages critical thinking. At Barney Ford Elementary School in Denver, George Jackson teaches basic movement skills to a first–grade class, invites fourth–graders to take center stage as they explore a script, and works with fifth–graders to create masks that reveal inner feelings.
The Arts in Every Classroom: A Video Library, K-5: Teaching Visual Art
Two visual art specialist teachers use contrasting interpretations of the human face to explore inquiry–based instruction and various techniques in visual art. Pamela Mancini, the visual art teacher at Helen Street School in Hamden, Connecticut, uses portraits to foster inquiry and self-expression with a class of fifth-graders. At Ridgeway Elementary School in White Plains, New York, Mary Frances Perkins introduces mask–making to a second–grade art class. In making their own masks, students examine the concept of symmetry, study the vocabulary word for the day, and learn that masks are found in cultures throughout the world.
The Arts in Every Classroom: A Video Library, K-5: Developing an Arts-Based Unit
A team of first and second grade teachers at Lusher Alternative Elementary School in New Orleans plans a year-end project that will let students show what they have learned in science, math, and English. The students write and perform an original play, using a painting by Breughel and an opera by Stravinsky as their starting points.
The Arts in Every Classroom: A Video Library, K-5: Working with Local Artists
Students and teachers at P.S. 156 (The Waverly School of the Arts) in Brooklyn, New York, benefit from the school’s established relationships with artists from local organizations. This program focuses on a first grade class creating original works with visiting artists - a dancer and a writer.
The Arts in Every Classroom: A Video Library, K-5: Collaborating With a Cultural Resource
A fourth–grade teacher and a museum educator in New Orleans collaborate to develop a unit of study with ties to language arts, social studies, and visual art. Students explore the work of a well–known artist, visit an exhibition of his work, meet for a drawing lesson alongside the Mississippi River, and create poems and pictures that they proudly display to their parents.