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Developing a Vital Curriculum
General
Information
The
Planning Process
Help In Creating Lessons and Units
of Instruction
Bibliography
Appendix
Developing
a vital curriculum is at the heart
of the instructional process, and
there are many resources available
to practitioners that can inform and
assist teaching artists and others
as they prepare their plans for what
to teach. A vital curriculum
specifies what it is that we want
students to know and be able to do
as a result of instruction by an
arts teacher, teaching artist,
classroom teacher, secondary school
subject specialist, a company of
actors, dancers, musicians or any
combination thereof. A vital
curriculum then makes it possible to
find out whether students have
indeed learned what the curriculum
proposes to teach. A vital
curriculum is a living curriculum;
it engages students in all kinds of
active learning. Students get out
of their seats, improvise, critique
each other, develop habits of
self-regulated behavior and respond
to the guidance of their teachers in
an energetic and focused manner.
Further, a vital curriculum assumes
that students come to their
instructor with a body of knowledge
and skills that need to be
expanded. They are not empty
vessels that have to go from empty
to full as a result of working in or
through the arts. A vital
curriculum involves planning,
constant monitoring in order to make
indicated adjustments, and an
evaluative process that looks at
both instructional elements and
learning achievement.
The Toolkit addresses these
processes and refers the user to a
variety of sites on the web where
curriculum development tools and
models can be found.
The Planning Process
A vital curriculum requires
extensive, collaborative planning if
it is to be a good road map for
teaching and learning. All teachers
(including teaching artists as well
as art, music, dance, theatre and
literary arts teachers) whether at
their desks alone on a weekend, or
planning with partners during the
school day, or talking over the
phone on a school night, need a
written curriculum enabling them to
decide:
·
what students should learn
·
what teachers should actually do
during the class period
·
what students should do both in
class as well as at home or in the
library/media center
·
what materials, supplies, other
kinds of hard and soft ware need to
be available for use
·
what kind of appropriate time frame
is required that is neither too long
nor too short
The teacher needs to figure out
ahead of time what the culminating
event of a curriculum unit will be
and what space is needed to
accomplish the curriculum’s
activities.
The DANA Foundation Press has
published a very popular guide,
Planning an Arts-Centered School: A
Handbook, which helps
practitioners work through essential
planning issues including curriculum
development, evaluation and
assessment. Edited by NYSAAE’s own
Carol Fineberg (whose essay
“Integrating the Arts into the Wider
Curriculum” is included), the
Handbook is available in pdf
format on
The DANA Foundation website.
The DANA Foundation also publishes a
free newsletter, Arts Education
in the News, that highlights
successful programs and gives
readers ideas for emulation.
Toolkit users can subscribe to
this free periodical online.
Another resource for planning is the
Arts Education Partnership’s
report
Creating Quality Integrated and
Interdisciplinary Arts Programs.
This report examines a diverse group
of arts-education partnerships and
describes tools to help teachers in
their classrooms improving arts
teaching and learning across the
curriculum.
The Association of Supervision and
Curriculum Development (ASCD) is
a membership organization
representing the entire span of
educational leaders –
superintendents, supervisors,
principals, professors of education,
and school board members. ASCD
addresses all aspects of teaching
and learning, and its web site cites
many publications, policy reviews,
professional development
opportunities, and materials to
order that are helpful to arts
education practitioners. ASCD also
offers an Arts Education Topic
Pack, a one-stop resource
including ASCD articles, a
bibliography of journal articles, a
list of internet resources, and
other materials. Arts educators
will find many articles in ASCD’s
flagship publication, Educational
Leadership, relevant to their
work as well as clues to how to
relate to educational leaders in
schools and districts.
The
Chicago Arts Partnership in
Education (CAPE) provides
curriculum-planning forms and
worksheets to assist teachers and
artists in the planning process.
CAPE’s
Arts-Integrated Curriculum Unit
Planning and Documentation Form
breaks down the planning process of
an arts-integrated curriculum unit
and is a useful tool for beginners
who are new to the curriculum
planning process.
The
Empire State Partnerships (ESP)
provides a
Planning Session Worksheet
that can be used by partnering
teachers and artists to outline the
objectives of lessons and what each
component of the partnership hopes
to gain from the experience. This
resource was created to help aid
those applying for Local Capacity
Building (LCB) grants from NYSCA,
but is equally helpful to any
teacher/artist partnership.
Before considering the specifics of
lesson planning, it is important to
understand some of the challenges
presented by an arts or
arts-integrated program.
Creating Islands of Excellence: Arts
Education as a Partner in School
Reform underscores how the
integration of arts-based
instruction can either create
breathtaking educational moments in
and out of the classroom or confound
the most conscientious
practitioner. Teachers,
administrators, and curriculum
developers will be guided around the
problems that can derail
well-intended reform efforts.
Help In Creating Lessons and Units
of Instruction
Designing lesson plans and units of
instruction can present a challenge,
especially when trying to enrich an
already existing arts program or
incorporate arts into the everyday
curriculum. This section includes
some helpful information on
curriculum topics at each grade
level, resource guides designed by
the New York State Department of
Education, and other sources to help
teaching artists and others know the
latest practices in the education
field and ideas on how to get enrich
classroom curricula.
NYSAAE
has created two documents to help
teaching artists familiarize
themselves with school curricula in
the arts and in the general school
syllabus. The first, usually
referred to as The Standards,
outlines curriculum topics according
to arts disciplines and grade
level. It then shows, grade by
grade, how the topics are treated
with increasing complexity over the
years of schooling. For example, a
third grade theatre curriculum
includes developing dialogue at the
simplest level. Seventh and eighth
grade classes may work on analyzing
a segment of a script for how
dialogue among several characters in
one scene is handled. Younger
students may try to find the
“message” in a play that they see or
read or act out; older ones may
study the whole genre of theatre as
social commentary.
The second
NYSAAE publication
outlines broad curriculum topics in
the general school syllabus. For
example, a first grade science
curriculum will cover the different
types of plants and how they grow.
A fourth grade math syllabus
includes angles, sequences, and
symmetry. Referencing this source
can quickly and easily help teaching
artists find out what each class
level is learning which can then
help the artist to plan an
arts-integrated session that fits
the academic intentions of the
class. Of course, if a teaching
artist is partnering with a
classroom teacher, this teacher will
be the best source of information on
lesson specifics and the
appropriateness of lessons for
student abilities. This information
is available on the
NYSAAE website or can be
requested by contacting the Program
Associate at the New York State
Alliance for Arts Education office.
The New York State Education
Department’s
Curriculum, Instruction, and
Instructional Technology web
section offers a number of
resource guides for the arts.
Under the publications section on
the website you will find a section
titled, “The Arts.” This section
has music and theatre resource
guides, assessment information, and
a listing of other arts-related New
York State Education Department
publications. The “Arts
Resource Guide” includes a
number of sample “Learning
Experiences” that were designed by
teachers from across the state.
Here you can sample units of
instruction and find useful tips and
assessment information. This is a
great way to learn from the
successes of fellow New York State
educators.
New York State’s
Office of Educational Television and
Public Broadcasting’s website
includes a map of regional PBS
stations. By selecting your local
station, you can find information
about EdVideo Online, a free
internet-based film downloading
service. This service allows New
York State educators and students
access to over 30,000 video clips
and over 3,000 full-length
educational films at no charge.
Potential users need to get a
password from their school or school
district office. Teaching artists
need to contact their client
districts for access.
Similarly, the
New York State Art Teachers
Association has created
the NYSATA Curriculum Companion,
which addresses the NYS Learning
Standards, synthesizes NYS Syllabi
with local curricula drawn from
across the state, and relies on the
best practices and experience from
the field to provide a comprehensive
plan for visual art education.
The Curriculum Companion is a
sequential document that follows the
NYS Standards through Performance
Indicators at each grade level.
Beginning with the Elements of Art
and the Principles of Design,
educators move through art
application and connections to other
disciplines. The Scope and Sequence
Section has been adopted by the New
York State Education Department as
the basis of the Visual Arts Core
Curriculum Resource Guide.
Another resource for creating
lessons is Young Audience’s
Arts for Learning Resource Index.
The Index has lesson plans,
information on planning, workbooks,
assessment information and more.
The Arts for Learning Resource
Index helps create an effective
arts or arts-integrated curriculum.
You need to register on the YA
website in order to use the Index.
The Chicago Arts Partnership in
Education (CAPE) has two
resources for creating an arts
integrated curriculum including a
checklist and an
outline of desirable criteria.
These documents are listed under
Planning Forms & Resources and
are available in .pdf format.
New York City’s Department of
Education Office of the Arts (Project
Arts) developed a Blueprint
for Teaching and Learning in the
Arts for dance, theatre, music
and visual arts. These publications
outline benchmarks of achievement
for different grade levels as well
as lesson and unit ideas, regional
resources and more. While
Project Arts’ focus is the New
York City public schools, the
Blueprints are useful for any
arts-education practitioner looking
for help creating an effective arts
curriculum.
ArtsEdge – The National Arts and
Education Network. The
ArtsEdge website is a joint
effort between the Kennedy Center
and
MarcoPolo, a consortium of
national education organizations,
state education agencies, and the
MarcoPolo Education Foundation. A
program of the John F. Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts,
ArtsEdge contains the national
arts standards and hundreds of
lesson plans, “How-To’s” in
assessment and the four major arts
disciplines, advocacy information,
articles and publications, and a
“Look-Listen-Learn” section that
brings to life subjects like dance
in “A Dancer’s Journal: Martha
Graham” and music with “Drop Me Off
in Harlem,” an exploration of the
Harlem Renaissance.
ArtsEdge supports the placement
of the arts at the center of the
curriculum and advocates creative
use of technology to enhance the
K-12 education experience.
ArtsEdge empowers educators to
teach in, through, and about the
arts by providing the tools to
develop interdisciplinary curricula
that fully integrate the arts with
other academic subjects.
Teachersnetwork.org
is a national site that includes
ever-increasing numbers of vetted
lessons and units related to
teaching in and through the arts
pertinent to a span of grades,
subjects, and special needs. All
downloads are free once the user
registers, a painless process.
The Smithsonian Education
website offers a searchable index of
teaching materials and links to
online resources. Sources can be
searched by subject and grade level
and subject matter spans from Asian
and Native American art and culture
to fossils and gemstones. The
student section of the website has
online activities exploring an
online gallery of “Women of Our
Time” and touring America through
the prints of artist Robert
Cottingham. This is a great site to
tap into the best the Smithsonian
Institutes has to offer.
The
U.S. Department of Education has
an online resource center with a
great offering of arts topics.
Federal Resources for Educational
Excellence (FREE) has over 300
links to materials from the
Smithsonian Institutes, the Library
of Congress, the National Endowment
for the Humanities, and other
National sources. The site is
searchable by subtopics and links
directly to the original source of
information.
Project Zero, a research group
at the Harvard Graduate School of
Education, investigates cognitive
development and the process of
learning in the arts and other
disciplines.
Project Zero’s mission is to
understand and enhance learning,
thinking, and creativity in the
arts, as well as humanistic and
scientific disciplines, at the
individual and institutional
levels. A number of Project Zero’s
research projects deal with learning
in and through the arts. This is a
good site to learn more about the
challenges and successes of
arts-education projects.
PBS Teacher Source’s
Arts and Literature section
includes a number of lesson plans
and activities searchable by grade
and subject. For example, search
“Dance” and find lesson plan ideas
that range from “Bob Fosse and
Dance” to “Hawaiian Traditions:
Dance, Chant, and Culture” and
beyond. PBS also offers online
Professional Development
opportunities through
PBS TeacherLine.
Teaching artists working within a
specific arts discipline who want
more information relating to their
discipline can check the last
section (which is continuously
updated) for a range of resources
including websites, periodicals,
professional organizations, and
sources of curriculum materials.
There is also space to add your own
tried and true favorites!
The above list is by no means
complete, and we welcome suggestions
for other resources which we will
insert. Send suggested resources by
email to
director@nysaae.org.
Bibliography
Arts Education Partnership. (2005).
No Subject Left Behind: A Guide
to Arts Education Opportunities in
the 2001 NCLB Act.
Washington,
DC:
AEP.
Baum, S., Viens J., and Slatin, B.
(2005). Multiple Intelligences in
the Elementary Classroom: A
Teacher's Toolkit.
New York,
NY:
Teachers College Press.
This book is structured to assist
teachers in creating successful
curriculums for students with
varying learning abilities. It
provides a clear path for teachers
who wish to utilize the MI theory in
elementary schools. Five pathways
are discovered, which MI can be
developed in the elementary
grades.
Booth, E. (1997). The Everyday
Work of Art: How Artistic Experience
Can Transform Your Life.
Naperville,
IL:
Sourcebooks Inc.
The author expresses a new way of
understanding art, and encourages
the reader to see art as a process
in all aspects of our lives. The
book will enable readers to observe,
understand and appreciate our world,
and provide skill needed to
implement change.
It highlights seven ways to
awaken the inner artistic self.
Readers are challenged to reconsider
art, to surround every-day acts. It
offers an inspiring look at what art
has to offer.
Burnaford, G. E., Aprill, A., &
Weiss, C.(eds). (2001).
Renaissance in the Classroom: Arts
Integration and Meaningful Learning.
Mahway,
NJ:
Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
What possibilities exist when
artists and arts educators come into
the classroom to work with
teachers? Based on six years of
arts integration in the Chicago Arts
Partnerships in Education (CAPE),
this book develops the possibilities
of learning and growth in engaging
students in drama, dance, visual
art, music and media arts. A basic
introduction to arts integration, it
provides the basic elements of the
curriculum in grades K-12, in how
students, teachers and artists begin
arts integration. The book
encourages a deep student engagement
in the arts throughout the year.
Cornett, C. E. (2002). Creating
Meaning through Literature and the
Arts: An Integration Resource for
Classroom Teachers.
Upper Saddle River,
NJ:
Prentice Hall.
This is a practical guide in taking
full advantage of drama, dance,
music, literature and art in the K-6
classroom. Based on a “how-to”
format, it provides a plethora of
ideas, hands-on activities,
integrated unit ideas, and classroom
structures which utilize the arts in
all areas of curriculum. The book
proves that the arts can be
implemented in social studies,
science, reading, language arts and
math. A powerful clearly defined
summary, this book provides an
argument for implementing at least
one art form into every lesson,
every day. Topics include
assessment, classroom management,
intervention as well as adaptation
for special needs.
Fleming, M. (2001). Teaching
Drama in Primary and Secondary
Schools : An Integrated Approach. Publisher: David Fulton
Publishing.
This book outlines the argument for
an arts-integrated structure in the
primary and secondary schools. The
author advocates for a structure
that provides integration of
external and internal experiences,
as well as integration of form and
content. Focusing on drama
instruction, the author hopes to
help practitioners create a
theoretical rational for their
work. In guiding students in a
varied and well-rounded experience
of drama, detailed lesson plans as
well schemes of work are provided
for teachers.
Isbell, R. T., & Raines, S. C.
(2002). Creativity and the Arts
with Young Children.
Florence,
KY:
Thomson Delmar Learning.
A book specifically created for
early childhood educators and
professional who work with children,
it focuses on presenting the
powerful connection between the arts
and the classroom. Highlighting
connections to music, movement,
drama, and the visual arts, the
author hopes to foster an artistic
environment and develop creative
teachers and professionals.
Jensen, E. P. (2000). Learning
with the Body in Mind.
Thousand Oaks,
CA:
Corwin Press.
Recent research shows that movement
activities can be critical in the
learning process. Learning is
activated when the body is involved,
whether in theatrical participation
or physical challenges. The text
provides ways to implement movement
in arts for all instructors seeking
student motivation, improved
attitudes and increased
achievement.
McDonald, N L. & Fisher, D. (2006).
Teaching Literacy through the
Arts: Tools for Teaching Literacy.
The
Guilford
Press.
It is a well known fact that
learning is increased by activity
and creativity. Utilizing this
fact, the book offers teachers a
greater insight to literacy
learning, by providing guidance and
support in utilizing the arts to
improve learning. In utilizing art
activities, instructors can
successfully complete instructional
goals.
Prince, E. S. (2002). Art Matters
Strategies, Ideas, and Activities to
Strengthen Learning Across the
Curriculum.
Chicago,
IL:
Zephyr Press.
This culmination of lesson plans and
ideas will instruct educators in
ways to integrate art into the
teaching curriculum. These selected
methods utilize the arts to enhance
creative writing and drama, as well
as explore math, science and
history. This book instructs not
only liberal arts educators, but art
educators as well, in ways to
incorporate other areas of study
into the art classroom.
Remer, J. (1996). Beyond
Enrichment: Building Effective Arts
Partnerships with Schools and Your
Community. Americans for the
Arts.
This text faces the major issues of
current arts education including
school reform, artist training,
curriculum standards, and
partnerships. Essays and interviews
conducted by more than forty
professionals in the field are
provided. In addition case studies
are highlighted which include a
plethora of personal insights and
strategies for educators.
Salisbury,
B. T. (1986). Theatre Arts in the
Elementary Classroom: Kindergarten
through Grade Three. Publisher:
Anchorage
Press.
Salisbury,
B. T. (1986). Theatre Arts in the
Elementary Classroom: Grade Four
through Grade Six. Publisher:
Anchorage
Press.
Silver, H. F., Strong, R. W.,
Perini, M. J. (2000). So Each May
Learn: Integrating Learning Styles
and Multiple Intelligences.
Alexandria,
VA:
Association for Supervision &
Curriculum Deve.
Teachers are currently facing a
difficult challenge in identifying
students individual needs, due to an
increase in diversity among
learners. This book assists in
integrating Jung’s theory of
psychological types with Howard
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple
Intelligences to provide a new model
of integrated performance
assessments, an introduction to
learning styles, as well as an
introduction to multiple
intelligences. It includes
inventories for the two models as
well as a teaching index.
Stokrocki, M. (ed). (2005).
Interdisciplinary Art Education:
Building Bridges to Connect
Disciplines and Cultures.
Publisher: Americans for the Arts.
This book argues that the art
education field must be informed
about the best practices of
interdisciplinary learning. The
author outlines theoretical concepts
and provides suggestions when
developing curriculum. The provided
research proves the effective
application of interdisciplinary
concepts which are complete,
coherent and appropriate. Those who
wish to incorporate these practices
will find this book especially
helpful. It explores the delicate
balance in keeping the integrity of
art theory and practice, while at
the same time develop innovative
ways of reconstructing the art
education field.
Tomlinson, C. A. (1999). The
Differentiated Classroom: Responding
to the Needs of All Learners.
Alexandria,
VA:
Association for Supervision &
Curriculum Development.
Addressing the elementary or
secondary classroom setting, Carol
Tomlinson unites theory and
real-life examples to explore the
impact of teaching. An emphasis
placed on differentiated instruction
in current educational practices.
The advice touches experienced
teachers, who wish to develop
differentiation in their schools.
Tomlinson, C. A. & McTighe, J.
(1999). Integrating
Differentiated Instruction and
Understanding by Design.
Alexandria,
VA:
Association for Supervision &
Curriculum Development.
This book provides a new approach to
learning though design. It explains
the logic of backward design, and
offers a substitute to the
activity-oriented plans.
Winner, E. (ed). (1991). Arts
PROPEL: An Introductory Handbook.
Cambridge,
MA:
Project Zero and Education Testing
Service.
This handbook explains PROPEL and
provides an introduction to its main
aspects. It presents an outline of
the principles which guide PROPEL,
discusses the projects and
“process-portfolios,” and describes
its impact on individuals.
Winner, E. & Simmons, S. (eds).
(1992). Arts PROPEL: A Handbook
for Music. Cambridge,
MA:
Project Zero and Education Testing
Service.
This handbook discusses the role of
the PROPEL model in music, and
provides example domain projects,
student work, process-portfolios,
and assessment procedures.
Wiggins, G. P. & McTighe, J. (2005).
Understanding By Design.
Publisher: Association for
Supervision & Curriculum.
This newly revised resource guides
K-16 educators in areas of design
curriculum and assessment. At the
basis of this book lies an improved
Understanding by Design Template,
explains backward design and
investigates meaning of ideas in
depth. Readers are encouraged to
use the six facets of understanding
to improve student learning.
Educators are informed as to the
success of backward design, and why
activity-based approaches to
learning are less effective.
Wilhelm, J. D. (2002). “Reading
Is Seeing: Using Visual Response To
Improve the Literacy Reading of
Reluctant Readers.” In R. Deasy
(Ed.), Critical Links: Learning in
the Arts and Student Achievement and
Social Development.
This particular study focused on the
following question: Can the visual
arts be used to help reluctant
learning-disabled readers begin to
enjoy reading? The study
showed after nine weeks of
visualization training, students
began to interpret reading rather
than acting on passive reading.
To gain more information or to
access this study please visit www.aep-arts.org
and download the PDF form.
Appendix
Broad Curriculum Topics Covered by
Grade
New York State Alliance for Arts
Education
New York State Learning Standards
New York State Department of
Education
New York State Learning Standards
for the Arts
New York State Department of
Education
Arts in Education Blueprint
New York State Council on the
Arts
Documentation Approach and Process
Chicago Arts Partnership in
Education (CAPE)
Documentation Ideas and Tips for
Partnership Classrooms
Chicago Arts Partnership in
Education (CAPE)
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