Arts
Integration
At the Introductory Level of CETA,
participants attend a five-session course, “Integrating the Arts Across the
Curriculum,” where they learn how to integrate visual arts, dance, drama, and
music with other subject areas (English language arts, social studies, science,
mathematics, and others). From each
school, general classroom teachers, arts specialists, and the principal form a
study group of 6-10 people. This
study group attends all course sessions together with the study groups from the
other schools. In addition, the
study groups continue to meet once a month in their schools to continue to read
and discuss articles, share arts-integrated lesson plans, plan collaboratively,
and discuss/study arts integration.
Each study group completes an action plan in order to identify their
groups’ goals for the year related to arts integration.
Course sessions are led by artists
and arts specialists from across the country identified by the Kennedy Center
and the schools. In addition, some
of the leading educational experts in their field are working with CETA (i.e.,
Jay McTighe on curriculum development and assessment, and Laura Lipton on
mentoring/peer coaching).
Student
Learning
CETA has concrete evidence
on the following:
·
rising student test scores
on the state exams. For example,
Fort Hunt Elementary progressed from “not being accredited” to being
“provisionally accredited” to being “fully accredited” within the course of
three years.
·
fewer student disciplinary
referrals to the office.
·
higher attendance
rates.
·
anecdotes by teachers about
student learning in the arts and other subject
areas.
Partner
Benefits
The
primary benefit to the Kennedy Center’s Professional Development Opportunities
for Teachers program involves its focus.
Instead of working with individual teachers, the CETA program implements
school-based change with the goal of increasing the degree to which the arts are
integrated throughout the curriculum.
The Kennedy Center benefits as it works more closely with and learns more
about education and professional development from the schools and school
systems.
The
schools benefit as they become communities of learners engaged in ongoing,
systemic professional development focused on arts integration. This is reflected in the governance
structure of the school and the school improvement plans as well as teachers’
roles within the CETA network.
Teachers take a leadership role in establishing their own professional
development plan and can serve as mentors and peer coaches to other teachers in
their own schools and other schools.
Teachers also are advocates for arts integration and teaching about the
arts at the school and school system levels as well as proponents for a
systemic, self-sustaining professional development program that is
school-based. Students benefit by
having opportunities to learn about the arts, develop higher-level thinking
skills, social skills, and learning skills through arts integration learning
activities, be actively involved in learning about the arts and other subject
areas, and have more fun while they are learning.
In
addition, there is increased communication between the Kennedy Center, the
schools, and the school systems.
Learning
Partnerships
Many lessons documented in Learning
Partnerships: Improving Learning in
Schools with Arts Partners in the Community, A Guide to Arts and Education
Collaboration have been learned and experienced first-hand.
Professional Development for
Teachers: CETA has been built on the premise of
empowering teachers through professional development. The importance of effective, practical
professional development cannot be stressed strongly enough. The professional development is
standards-based and based on guidelines identified by the US Department of
Education, National Staff Development Council, Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development, National Education Association Foundation for the
Improvement of Education, and others.
CETA also employs different formats of
professional development—participatory workshops, structured planning time,
curriculum development, study groups, classroom observations, sharing sessions,
and mentoring/peer coaching. The
formats have been carefully implemented in “layers” so that formats that require
less experience or little risk, such as participatory workshops, structured
planning time, and study groups, were utilized in the first year and continue to
provide the foundation for the program.
More advanced formats, such as classroom observations, sharing sessions,
and curriculum development, were introduced in the second year and will continue
to be utilized. The mentoring/peer
coaching format with artists and arts specialists serving as “Arts Coaches” is
being added in the third year.
Looking for Expertise Outside the Arts
Community: CETA has made an effort to learn from
other arts organizations. But just
as important, CETA has expanded our learning universe to include the world of
education, learning from schools, school systems, nationally known consultants,
and education organizations about the formats and models of effective
professional development. CETA is
working to take the best from resources in education and adapt and apply the
information to our specific situation involving arts integration. An additional benefit has been the
education community becoming more aware of the needs and issues of arts
education through our working relationships.
Allowing Principals and Teachers to Guide
the Program: As the facilitator of CETA, the
Kennedy Center has listened carefully to the feedback from teachers and
principals. They are not only
mirrors, reflecting feedback, but they also serve as guides and decision
makers. Without their input, CETA
would not meet their needs nor would they feel invested in the program.
Learning From Each Other: One of the lessons learned early in the
process, was to be willing to explore and learn together. For example, exploring what arts
integration means. Teachers also
have a chance to learn from each other across schools and school systems as they
share lessons, units, and activities that have worked in their
classrooms.
How do you and your partnership
define arts integration? What art
forms and other school subjects are included?
CETA
defines arts integration as finding a natural connection(s) between one or more
art forms (dance, drama/theater, music, visual arts, storytelling, puppetry,
and/or creative writing) and one or more other curricular areas (science, social
studies, English language arts, mathematics, and others) in order to teach and
assess objectives in both the art form and the other subject area. This allows a simultaneous focus on
creating, performing, and/or responding to the arts while still addressing
content in other subject areas. (A
document, “Guidelines for Integrating the Arts Across the Curriculum,” is
currently being written.)
How do you engage and assist the
school personnel (teachers and administrators) involved in your partnership to
implement and sustain arts integration?
Ongoing, sequential professional
development is the key. The
professional development sessions/courses are designed to build on one
another. From the beginning, the
sessions rely on sharing and input from artists, teachers, and arts
specialists. Using different
formats of professional development is also important because teachers prefer
different methods of learning.
Secondly, by organizing teachers,
principals, and arts specialists into study groups, they continue to meet in
their schools between the course sessions.
The study of arts integration and sharing of how the learning activities
work in the classroom is ongoing throughout the school year. This information is shared with the
Kennedy Center by faxing a study group log after each
meeting.
Lastly, sharing within the CETA network
occurs in sessions and through the listserv. Teachers and principals provide other
schools with new ideas for integrating the arts and encourage the enthusiasm
needed to sustain a new initiative.
