Art, Technology, and Literacy Education

Mentoring

2011-09-26T14:01:00.001-07:00

Listening to the authors at the Plum Creek festival Gala (thank you Laurie for the invitation) I was struck by the importance of mentorship mostly informal for the development of "talent". The great illustrator Pinkney told the story of how an established artist took interest in him as he was drawing while selling newspapers and invited him to his studio. The two other speakers that spoke at length also discussed individuals who took interest in them and helped guide their development. As I listened I wondered, do motivated "talented" individuals attract such attention and feed on it or is it a phenomenon that can be expanded and if so. Are we giving students the opportunities to forge such relationships that will lead them to new ideas new images of future selves?

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Excellence- Or it's ok to work with talented motivated students too!

2011-09-22T08:39:00.001-07:00

The credit to this post goes to Jim Lewis a professor of Math and long time math educator. In a conversation yesterday he said (my memory so the responsibility here is mine) excellent educators I work with are reluctant to focus on working with high achieving students, it only counts when you help struggling students. The question is whether our focus on clsing the gap s leading us to neglect our most talented students. We sometimes assume that those are also motivated and understand their own strengths. Do we have art classes for advanced students, those who may with some support become adults who are first and foremost artists: dancers, musicians, authors, actors, painters etc.

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The Question

2011-09-16T09:57:00.001-07:00

A colleague challenged me today. How do you know hat student learning is increased using technology. The context is our discussion about mandating technology in our pre-service teacher ed program. It is a common question that in my struggle to answer at that moment had a hard time calrifying.
Like art technology is NOT just a handmaiden to other learning. Technology at this point is to me like the arts, it is part of the fabric of our lives, not an add on. We cannot afford to teach kids in schools without art and without technology. The world is looking to us as an example of nurturing creativity while we move away from it under the guise of BACK TO BASICS. The problem is we are asking the wrong questions- the goal is not just to improve old ways of knowing- include new ones.
Written during a faculty meeting, the ultimate proof that they are not totally useless...

A World without Textbooks- Lessons from the Art-room

2011-09-10T05:57:00.000-07:00

I have been contemplating the idea of no textbooks for a while. Part of it stems from the onslaught of new editions in higher education. At this point major textbooks are reissued on an annual basis- changed so you cannot easily integrate the previous edition easily. I do not blame the publishers, it is their business and they are trying to stay ahead.
The issue in K-12 is a little different since schools purchase the books directly- again a lucrative market to capture.
When you walk into an art-room the teacher does not use a textbook. Instead she uses the materials of art itself. Side note: Schools often complain about the cost in art supplies but never balance it out with not buying textbooks. What the art teacher has figured out is that in some cases it is better to do the learning than to read all about it. At that point of course we must recognize that not ALL school topics can be covered that way. Still I would argue that much of science, math, art, music, can be done without a textbook. I am not saying that we can teach science only hands-on from experience, instead I argue that we can combine with other non-textbook resources to the same or even better effect.
In many of the other topics digital resources or authentic resources can be found. For example: we can teach much about the civil war from a Ken Burns episode, and museum resources available online.
In higher ed textbooks are a great way to reduce the load on the teacher- the sequence is there the main points, the PowerPoint presentations and quizzes. It is the first step in "teacher proofing" your curriculum.
For me in teacher education I find that whenever I use a textbook I am patently unhappy about it, since it is someone elses idea of what should be taught at what sequence and with what emphases. I find myself spending quite some time ignoring the text re-emphasizing points that are lost or correct what I consider mistakes. In short, even the best textbooks I find are "not just right". This summer I taught a few classes all of which avoided using the classic "textbook" instead I used professional materials- practical books for teachers that are resources for a professional while the pedagogic role of explaining theory, history, and big themes was left for me as an instructor. To that I added many Internet resources that are plentiful in the literacy field, video, podcasts, articles and voila: Textbook free courses.
I just want to close with the idea that I would like to teach without textbooks but NOT without reading or preparing for class. Textbooks are necessary sometimes in one format or another but their application has to be thoughtful. In k-12 schools using less textbooks would lead to great savings that can be turned around to professional development or much needed technology.

Teaching Art Online

2011-09-10T05:20:00.001-07:00

A prospective graduate student came by a few weeks ago. His goal as he stated it is to minimize damage to rural students by providing quality arts instruction online or through distance education in other means. I worry.
I told him that I worried, arts education is a field that requires demonstratin, proximity and more than anything else mentoring. This kind of mentoring is extremely hard to reproduce at a distance. I think that the ability to look at the dancers moves from multiple perspectives, the painters brush strokes or the guitarist hands are crucial elements that cannot be done at a distance. I teach distance courses and Ithink some of

them are great- but not in arts education or arts integration.
My second concern was that by creating online replacements we urge districts that have stuck by their specialists and invested in them to stop. If the quality is there, they might say, why not save a bundle. So what can be done instead?
Here are some ideas:
1. Train classroom teachers in arts integration and enhance their understanding through studio experiences with local artists and museum resources.
2. If online lessons are created integrate them with rich artist in residence programs- mandated not just as an option. The experieneces must be bundled and truly integrated.
3. Educate school boards and administrators about the importance of the arts.

Do not let rural schools do without arts....

Making a difference

2011-08-27T06:25:00.000-07:00

This week I visited the Avenue Scholars Foundation in Omaha. Jef Johnston their chief operating officer said something that resonated with me. Referring to recruiting diverse teachers he said (I am paraphrasing here): this problem is solvable, if it has not been solved yet it is because they don't really want to.

I found this approach to be very much inline with my feelings about many of the problems I encounter in teacher education.

At the heart of it it is a design problem- not the external shiny stuff but design in the full sense of the word- the way someone like Steve Jobs would use it:

In most people's vocabularies, design means veneer. It's interior decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.

Steve Jobs

Visual Art and Reading Comprehension

2011-08-20T05:27:00.000-07:00

In last weeks post I described a student who improved his writing using visual art representations and learning about the writing process through the drawing process. This time I'd like to describe the use of visual art as a reading comprehension scaffold.

J.N. is a student who had a really hard time comprehending texts that were two grade levels below her biological age. Her decoding and fluency were adequate but when she tried to retell a story or answer comprehension question it was clear that she was not able to locate main idea. In fact in text retell she would often mention details sporadically with no connection or clear understanding of what the text was about. After a conversation with me J.N.'s tutor decided to use drawing after reading as a comprehension strategy.

After each chapter in the book J.N. was asked to choose a scene from the chapter. Here, the direction were aimed at creating a thought process that would lead J.N. to choose the key scene - the main idea. The tutor used modeling and scaffolded self-talk to promote this kind of thinking. Next J.N. was asked to draw the scene in as great a detail as possible. As she draw she explained her choices to her tutor and how they made sense based on her interpretation of the story. Finally J.N. wrote a summary based on her drawing.

Within a few week J.N. acquired a deep understanding of locating main idea and supporting detail using the scaffold and metaphor of visual art decision making process. This strategy was extremely useful and J.N. ended up raising her comprehension level to grade level expectations by the end of the five week session.

Visual Art with Struggling Readers and Writers

2011-08-14T06:52:00.001-07:00

This summer I spent nine weeks in our reading center working with pre-service teachers who tutor struggling readers and writers. I love the work but what struck me was how effective visual art supports were.
One student A.S. was a student headed for second grade but having significant delays in achievement and some challenging behaviors to boot. The most challenge was getting A.S. To write. We were lucky to get more than a short sentence. I then suggested starting with a drawing. Now A.S. was more easily engaged, persisted, produced a picture, contributed significant oral language about the picture but still wrote very little. Finally we decided to insist on details during the art creation. In addition we modeled a questioning technique that exposed A.S. to ways of generating text. This time his writing filled a page and was full of detail and interest.
I truly belive that for young writers this link is foundamental and will help all writers do well- as we have seen in our work in Arts LINC.

Composition- Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving

2011-08-09T07:20:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago Kurt and I found ourselves in a Uhaul truck moving furniture. Kurt as is his habit levels a multi-layered question in a matter of fact way. This is in no way a direct quote but the essence of the question was How do you teach and evaluate [musical] composition at the graduate level? What I love about Kurt is that he asks this just as if he was asking "Should we make a right here?" That is while the question is complex it is also very concrete in his mind (and mine I think).
Anyway this post are some of my thoughts about the topic that applies directly to creativity in other domains and has clear parallels in the writing process and in visual arts. I borrow here from Ken Robinson and define creativity as the process of having original ideas that have value. In the context of education as a process I think that most often creativity is about finding novel solutions to meaningful problems. The problems themselves can be defined by an educator or the learner. When teaching composition, writing or visual arts this definition holds, and one can see how we can ask students to create in a familiar style or form (say painting a still life picture or writing a Haiku) making it uniquely our own by identifying the problem and providing a solution to it. In a sense teaching writing is very much just that. Lucy Calkins coined the phrase "Teach the writer not the writing" (I am actually borrowing it from Evi who is one of the best teachers of writing I know) which I take to mean there is no one uniform way to go through a program, instead as educators we must allow room for learners to define their own problems and find solutions to them. In a way teaching creativity is about teaching our students to identify problems, learn how others solved similar ones and then coming up with their own solution.
This is exactly the reason that I believe there is no universal creativity factor but instead expertise leading to creativity in a specific domain. The process in broad strokes has parallels but the details are often too different. For example I have no capacity to identify problems in [music] composition , but I am extremely capable of doing that in educational research (it is a strange field to be creative in I know).
The area that has the most to offer I think for educators interested in developing the ability to compose is Teaching Writing. You must decipher the parallels of course and the elements that are uniquely linked to writing but I still believe that it is useful.
A place to start might be:
The work of Lucy Calkins, Linda Flower, and unl's own Robert Brooke.

Twenty First Century Learning

2011-08-06T05:26:00.000-07:00

We are here at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century and yet the "we" of education and teacher education has not arrived. I retweeted some interesting comments recently (@tgite) about this phenomena so I will not go back into it. Instead I choose to imagine here what a Masters level program around 21st century learning might look like.
The drive is to provide an interesting, relevant, flexible "just structured enough" experience. It makes me giddy with anticipation!
1. Creativity- a class on current view on creativity that will include the work of Pink, Robinoson, Csíkszentmihályi, Gardener, Eisner. (this one is all mine)
2. Problem Based Learning
3. Teaching and Learning in Digital Environments (currently taught by my colleague, friend, and web based education pioneer D. Brooks)
4. Action Research Methods for the Digital Classroom
5. Arts Integration in K-16 environments (a class we have been teaching at UNL for the past 5 years or so)
6. Teaching as an aesthetic text (a fantastic class by M. Latta)
7. Assessment in rich environments

As I was looking for images it occurred that we are once again turning to the Renaissance Man: Leonardo Da Vinci as an ideal, part scholar, part scientist, part engineer and part artist.

Welcoming any comments, this may very well turn into a reality soon!

Parallels

2011-07-31T04:00:00.001-07:00

This week I had the opportunity to consult informally with a local educational leader (I would use names but I did not ask for permission so ... maybe another time). The Discussion focused on ways to implement and measure professional development in social studies education with an emphasis on American History in elementary schools. While it has been a while since I taught history (15 yrs to be exact) the knowledge I brought to the table was actually related to the work we've done in Arts LINC. Interstingly Nancy A. my long time collaborator in Arts LINC is now project director in a Teaching American History Grant.
The parallels between the two domains are uncanny. In the past decade social studies in the elementary schools have been declining, despite the fact that it was one of No Child Left Behind "Core Subjects". The bottom line was that social studies were not tested at the elementary level and thus less and less attention, time and resources was directed at them overtime. Social studies curriculum leaders find themselves needing to convince others that social studies matter for all students and that undertanding of history can have added benefits to other domains through integration and 21st century learning. In short they present an argement not much different than the one we presented over a decade ago in arts integration. Luckily, I could bring to the discussion our lessons of making integration work. So here they are

:
1. Partner with teachers as co-researchers.
2. Allow for leadership opportunities and encourage intitative
3. Measure teacher implementation and student achievement and provide short feedback cycles of results
4. Integrate into existing curriculum (do not add instructional units), let teachers decide where and how much
5. Set lear yet flexible criteria for quality that will become your fidelity checks
6. Develop teacher's knowledge base/ model lessons
7. Visit teachers to teach and learn

Hedonic Adaptation and the State of the Arts

2011-07-22T05:43:00.000-07:00

In his recent book Dan Ariely discussed Hedonic Adaptation, the ability of our mind to adjust to new baseline conditions. An example of short term adaptation is a smell that initially overwhelms us but after some time becomes tolerable and eventually recedes into the background. ariely claims that the Hedonic adaptation to larger changes is about 6 months (e.g. for a new car to not feel to us new anymore). I would like to stretch the concept to the idea of societal hedonic adaptation- when our expectations as a society and culture shift and a new baseline is created. A good example that jumps into my mind is the phenomena that has always fascinated me, the semblance of "normal" life in the height of the ghetto period during the holocaust. The idea that even under horrific conditions Jewish society maintained a new normal with social events, music, art, organization and celebration of life cycle events. Against all claims that our evil nature emerges when the thin veneer of civilazation is scraped by circumstance. That ability of society to adapt through the individual ability of hedonic adaptationcan be a blessing and a curse.
When I think about education I fear the same Heonic adaptation. We get used to excessive pointlessy invalid unreliable testing (see Berliner's post on that recently). So what oes that have to do with a blog about arts integration? As I was reading Ariely's book it occured to me that we have generation growing up with very little to no art in school, heck in the elementary years there is in some places just math and literacy. The same is true for large, complex, and integrated unit of studies. If this becomes he new standard, as past students become parents that will not demand arts education and arts integration for their kids because it has never existed for them then we will be in perpetual trouble. Kaiser pointed that out in his national tour two years ago as well.
Since I do not want to be glum I would like to point to an alternative. It may be that we need the arts in a way that resists hedonic adaptation. Ariely points out that we cannot adapt in this way to eveything. It cold be that he arts are so foundamental to us as humans that we will know them even in their absence and ask for them, just like the fact that music and art lived on in the bleak ghettos. Kurt Knecht suggested in a recent blog that we finally move away from the notion hat to create art one has to suffer, I suggest that we go one step further and claim that art does need us, instead we need art. It may very well be hat it is such a deep need that it defies conditions and we cannot exist for long without it.
This may also explain how after decades of neglect teachers are still seeking opportunities to integrate the arts into their classrooms embracing the complexity of self expression.

And What about Architecture?

2011-07-09T05:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I happened to go to the Joslyn in Omaha. I was struck by the collection and the superb way it was displayed but more than anything I was struck by the architecture. I admit to having a soft spot for architecture and everyday design, but I have not payed enough attention to the potential in education. Architecture is inherently interdisciplinary part engineering, part technology, part art, part social science. It is all around us, yet we do not spend much time teaching or learning it...
In early education the urge to build is always evident. Young children often build in blocks, Lego and assortments of other toys. As they get older these urges to build and create seem to be channeled to the world of play, while school becomes the serious place of thinking and being academic using our heads but not our hands, solving all problems in the abstract giving up on the trial and error process. Yes I am channeling a bit of Sir Ken Robinson here. While I do not think he is right about everything we definitely can find common ground here!

So my thought for the day is that with some thought we can integrate design process and architecture into our curricula- enhancing them while opening new avenues of creativity and thought for our students and for ourselves!

Engagement in Teaching

2011-06-25T06:17:00.001-07:00

It is a rainy morning punctuating a beautiful but extremely busy week. In a short conversation with Monique who is doing some thinking and writing about what is left from arts integration projects after the project is over.
Our conversation turned to thinking about different responses by different teachers and the conditions under which these responses emerge.

One factor that we did not explicitly discuss was teacher engagement. For me we, as teachers, are not fully accepting a practice until we let that practice "fill" us. That is we enact it with students fully embracing and participating in the practice. This is even more important when integrating the arts, since the arts are meant to be displayed, shared, and audienced (not sure this is a word...).

If we stay reserved while playing a song, drawing, dancing, making a movie- our students will feel our reservation and will limit their own participation, viewing full engagement as "childish". Maybe the term I am looking for is JOY (parallels the notion of ">FLOW). If you find joy in integrating the arts and your students can feel your joy, they will buy into it, fully particpate, and learn what it means to really enjoy what you do.

Now I do not mean that finding JOY in a practice shold stop you in any way from being critical after the fact, evaluating what worked and what didn't and improving a practice. This JOY/FLOW is ot always there because to reach it we must have expertise, practice and confidence. But when we reach it the results and the JOY can fill us with a strong sense of efficacy and empowerment.

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Art Education and the Elites

2011-06-18T04:26:00.001-07:00

It is an untypically pessimistic post for me...

The drive to make sure that students are on grade level in Reading and Math has hurt many of the other subjects. It is simply the arithmetic of time in school, so we're told. All the surveys show that the public wants creative and even artistic students but whenever faced with the false dichotomy of either reading and math OR art, people admit that they think reading and math are more important to them.

Of course this impacts some students more than others. Uper middle class professional parents will support extra curricular programs in their schools and will also fill the gap themselves. At the same time a self reinforcing pattern of alienation from the arts will occur through the rest of society. Depending on what outcome you care about we will have less creative adults (when we need thm most), we will ave less patrons of the art, and finally and mot importantly art will once again be part of class distinction.

If only a small and well off segment of socuety gets true exposure to the arts then the arts themselves become part of class. When people discuss class they talk about class warfare. I do not agree I see instead a slow eroding change that willl not be understood until it is irreversible.

This call is not only for educators and thepublic but also to art organizations- make sure you engage your future audiences and include education in your goals.

Looking Forward

2011-06-11T04:47:00.001-07:00

At a retirement party yesterday I chatted with Margaret Latta, a great colleague, about the future of art education at UNL. Yes, despite the budget cuts we think there is a future. In a previous post I have hinted at that option but yesterday we went one step further.
We are looking to situate arts education as part of an MEd program that focuses on 21st Century learning. Pre and in serrvice

teachers will participate in core courses on creativity, arts integration, technology and media in education. The idea is to transcend the traditional disciplinary boundaries in education to create a more coherent
vision and practice of education.
I am not sure if we can pull it off and get a critical mass of faculty to become interested. To make it work we need enough involvement to ensure sustainability and enough focus to ensure a cohesive program. I think that doctoral students might be a great part of a structure like this...
Part of the challenge will be to reboot some of our existing courses so that they fit our vision of integration as we practice what we preach!

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What do I mean by entrepreneurship?

2011-06-03T19:17:00.000-07:00

In a comment on a previous post Kurt (whose blog is worth visiting) asked what I meant by entrepreneurship. Like all good questions it made me think a little more deeply on the issue- which is the main reason for the existence of this blog in the first place.
For me that word extends to any self initiated activity that interacts with the community in a positive way. It could be economic (and showing the economic importance of the arts is part of it), but it could also be a part of applying an entrepreneurial approach to community involvement, community action or giving.
The idea is that the arts can help students be more aware of their community and connect to it. See themselves as relevant players in building a community. I believe that shared art that crosses personal boundaries shared in new ways can become a vehicle to contain the alienation that kids and adults often feel in their everyday life.
One can argue that our modern school system is a product of the industrial revolution and the structure of the disciplinary approach to school (most obviously in high school) is akin to an assembly line in which each teacher has a specific and narrow task. His output can be measured easily most recently in value-added model suggested by economists (see Kurt's take on this issue here).
What I am arguing is that education and most easily elementary education can strive to create an alternative approach which connects the learner to the community and reduces the alienation not just for the learner but also for the community at large. Art can be such an instruments if we allow and support our students in becoming social and economic entrepreneurs.
Theoretically I am aiming at a sense of agency- a sense that schools (and society) strip away from children instead of finding meaningful ways to foster it.

What if we combined arts, technology and entrepeneurship?

2011-05-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

In a series of conversation about the arts in the last few years I have heard repeatedly the argument that the arts help sustain communities from an economic standpoint. To be honest I have paid little attention to it. Not because I think they are wrong but instead because my main concern is not the business of the arts, it is maintaining the place of the arts in education.

In the last few weeks one of our graduate students Laurie has been conducting interviews and observations with teachers who integrate technology in their instruction. Quite a few of the teachers were art teachers that integrate technology into much of their work, some were technology teachers using art (visual, video and music).

At the same time schools are being "squeezed" and respond by limiting art and technology. What would happen if we combined arts, technology, and entrepreneurship in meaningful ways? What might that look like at the school and community level? I think there is great potential here that would help students see connection become active learners and strengthen communities. There is one risk- doing this might make school learning relevant and meaningful, not much irony actually, if some areas are highly motivating other areas that are less immediately relevant (say physics) may actually decline even further. Much to think about would love some comments.

Budget Cuts and the Arts

2011-05-17T22:31:00.000-07:00

This time I would like to talk about the recent budget cuts at UNL. While this may be not be directly about arts integration I still believe it has direct impact on my main topic. In the recent round of budget cuts a decision was made to cut K-12 arts education. What does it mean? It means that we will cease to prepare arts educators at the undergraduate level within the next few years.

I am sorry to see any program go, and even sorrier to see my good colleague Dr. Jean Detlefsen go, but in times of budget difficulty choices have to be made. The pattern, however, is familiar to K-12 environments- the arts goes out early with PE and other "nice but not necessary" subjects. I argue here as I did before the Academic Planning Committee, that the loss will impact our program beyond that of arts education. The disappearance of the program will lead to fewer graduate students in arts education decreasing our ability to teach art methods to all elementary teachers. In addition, this group of future arts educators interacted directly with future elementary teachers in our arts teaching methods course. But all of that will cease in less than two years.

So what now? As I am more prone to action than dwelling on things I cannot change I started working with colleagues on a new M.Ed. program that will focus on 21st century learning- marrying my care for elementary education and my interests in creativity arts integration and educational technology and media.

In some ways I am very excited about this new idea whose time has come...
Hopefully this idea can support the ongoing creation of diverse art teachers that would be able to combine art media and technology for the benefit of all students.

Art can be a little bit of magic in the classroom

2011-04-07T09:53:00.001-07:00

Evie who is my co-teacher in Elementary methods. She just said that during our class. Maybe just maybe we're raising a new generation.
Technology in its wider space drives this generation to be more creative, more open, more visual and maybe above all more performance oriented with a strong sense of audience.
Today, I am hopeful.

The four Minute Post

2011-03-09T04:39:00.000-08:00

I recently went back listened and read Ken Robinson's work.
I think that education at all levels should develop an agenda with art organizations if we are ever to move this thing. As a parent and a member of the "non artist" masses, I often do not get to have art be part of my daily life. If art is not part of daily life parent and the public will be highly unlikely to keep art as a top priority for school either. If I who aware and really cares about this topic often cannot get to it. How can others?

Art is important we need to make it accessible and a conscious part of everyday life.

Arts Education and the Rise of Skill Based Education

2011-02-18T08:28:00.001-08:00

Art and Technology

2011-01-27T09:33:00.000-08:00

I read recently a blog post contrasting art and technology. The theme was: technology is to the brain what art is to the soul.
As my seven year old says: "Really?!?"

Art and technology have more in common than apart. They both relate to the brain, through creative processes. Finding novel solution to meaningful problems. If games and social media taught us anything it is the centrality of the emotional experience to technology.

A second note is about "right brain" the research presented on TED on brain activity and creativity shows very clearly that "right" brain "left" brain ideas are highly irrelevant to the complex way we use our brains.

That's it for now,
Oh and Happy New Chinese year

Wordles based on the Blog

2010-11-16T10:58:00.000-08:00

Preparing Teachers

2010-11-14T13:02:00.003-08:00

In the last year I have been for the first time in my career fully engaged in Teacher Education. The real struggle, following my previous post from today, is that the field wants educators for education as it is right now not as it could or should be. Jim Walter made this point last friday. The solution may be engaging schools in a dialogue that combines change in schools and preparation programs together, learning from each others strengths and experimenting with new ideas. Research university preparation programs are uniquely positioned to do this well and move education ahead. For this to wotk you need to work with a school system that is NOT under attack, finding opportunities to work without the constant threat of sanctions and political endgame.
Of course I may just be delusional, probably am but right now i am hopeful.
I say all of this because this may be the only way creativity can sneak back into school and get the place it desrves.
The funny thing is that I resisted refocusing on creativity in our grant but now I am preoccupied with its broader implication.

Can we find room for creativity in the curriculum?

2010-11-13T07:43:00.001-08:00

We have competing values in education. We want our kids to be motivated creative and innovative. At the same time we want them to succeed in assessments that are anything but motivating, creative and innovative.
The assessments always win, perhaps because we're obssessed with numbers and international comparisons... Are we first, eleventh? In what?
We need to rethink our assessments to represent what we value otherwise we are doomed to marginalize arts, foreign languages, design, enterprenuership. Marginalize them to magnet school and rogue teachers who find places to teach as they believe they should, half hiding, always defensive- totally right!

Arts Integration in a Preservice Class- log

2010-11-09T21:06:00.000-08:00

In my literacy methods class we went through an accelerated Arts LINC cycle today. We started with a Taylor Mali poem- reminding everyone that poems are often meant to be read out loud. We then proceeded to poetryfoundation.org where each student chose a Thanksgiving poem (their search engine is awesome and now they have a ipod app).
Students joined with1-3 others who chose the same poem and practiced reading it out loud (mini readers theatre). Then we followed up by creating visual art based on the poem- using pastels. The results were stunning and diverse. After the art was completed each student generated 5 vocabulary words (no one cent or nickel words please) to describe the art (and not the poem). Finally they used the words to create a poem describing their art.
Results wer engagement, achievement and deep understanding. We finished with a few minutes of research results from Arts LINC long live arts integration.

It's the first time I've had this much fun with this group.

Thinking about Long-Term change in teaching

2010-10-13T08:26:00.000-07:00

This fall two grants that I have evaluated came to a close. ArtsLINC and Reading First. They could not have been more different from each other is some very foundamental ways. Reading First was a top down federal initiatives while ArtsLINC was a local bottom up effort.
In rReading First professional development was mandated and practices were regulated, in ArtsLINC we sat with teachers to define what how and when they would like innovate and integrate the arts. both grants had exceptional leadership, adequate resources and a well designed professional development.
The progress in both grants have been very different. Reading First had immediate impact on the way Reading was taught, however, after the initial impact very little has changed in subsequent iterations. there were small incremental improvements to teacher practice and very little change in student outcomes.
ArtsLINC on the other hand had a very slow start changes in teacher practice and student achievement lagged. Overtime just like Reading First slowed down ArtsLINC picked up and the change in teacher practice became more pronounced. If you're looking for a quick fix go with the Top Down approach, that seems to be the way we are headed as a nation. If, however, you'd like to have long lasting impact then choose the long and tedious road. The difference is rooted in teacher agency, efficacy and development.

Time to Smile

2010-10-08T04:20:00.001-07:00

Much of what I've been doing lately was griping. Griping about how we're headed down the wrong path, about the politics and about "Waiting for superman".
I have decided to stop griping and move on. There is much to do and many places and people to work with in wonderful ways.
I think part of my gripe comes from our much less intense artsLINC group. The grant is over and we are finishing up the report. I miss the interaction and the sense of something exciting is happening with a group of dedicated professionals. The truth is that I need to snap
Out of it, smile and remember that all of us are still in education and as long as we are there is great hope.
So No, I am not Waiting for Superman.
Integration of the arts technology and different subject matter is happening, will happen because in the 21st century we must be all connected, all integrated if we are to be full global citizens.

Art Technology and Integration

2010-09-04T14:18:00.001-07:00

Recently I had a conversation with a technology coordinator from our local school district. We had a great conversation. At the core though the problems we were discussing in technology integration mirrored similar conversations I've had about Arts integration.
At the end of the day technology is considered as nice but not necessary with most teachers ignoring it.
Instead of integrating most schools employ or nominate a technology teachers often actually reducing the chance of true integration into the curriculum.
As she described what works in technology integration it was very similar to our own growing understanding of connecting to the currculum, fostering technical expertise and providing support for real needs on an ongoing basis.

The Immutability of Schooling Practices

2010-06-05T06:14:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I posted, so I am a little rusty. At AERA I went (among other things) to listen to Michael Cole in a distinguished lecture. I will not claim to present this complex talk in a blog posting. The essence as I perceived it was to say that schooling is a persistent institution not just in goals but in practices, norms, and rituals. In challenging the view of modern schooling as a result of industrial modes of production, he claimed (with evidence) that these modes of instruction are as old as literacy itself.
Faced with this notion of immutability, schooling has a clear and constant structure, I was forced to ask myself: How can we then engage with arts integration and its implications for the classroom (exploration, ownership, professionalism) as educational reform.? We know that as a wide phenomena we are doomed to fail. At best we can insert ideas from our practice to standards that then will be narrowly and mechanically interpreted by many.
Here too Cole provides an answer. He claims that only major social change in goals and dispositions that redefines the way we interact with each others, with other living things and the planet. Our job then is to create ideas and practices that will continue existing in small pockets- waiting for such social change giving future education options and choices to follow.

AERA is Approaching

2010-04-17T06:38:00.000-07:00

So I thought I would pick some of the sessions related to arts integration that looked interesting to me.
Hope to see y'all there.

1. Artful and Creative Processes as Modes for Teaching and Learning

Unit: SIG-Arts and Learning

Session Submission type: Paper Session

Time: Sat, May 1 - 4:05pm - 6:05pm

Place: Colorado Convention Center, Room 707

2. Arts and Learning: Activism, Transitions, and Integrations

Unit: SIG-Arts and Learning

Session Submission type: Roundtable Session

Time: Mon, May 3 - 10:35am - 12:05pm

Place: Colorado Convention Center, Room 109, 111, 113

3. Arts as Innovation for Reforming Practice

Unit: SIG-Arts and Learning

Session Submission type: Paper Session

Time: Sun, May 2 - 2:15pm - 3:45pm

Place: Colorado Convention Center, Room 707

4. Arts, Learning, and Community: Developing Practices and Discovering Identities

Unit: SIG-Arts and Learning

Session Submission type: Paper Session

Time: Sat, May 1 - 12:25pm - 1:55pm

Place: Colorado Convention Center, Room 711

5. Creating Across Languages: The Arts Benefit to English-Language Learners and Second-Language Learning

Unit: SIG-Bilingual Education Research

Session Submission type: Symposium

Time: Sat, May 1 - 4:05pm - 5:35pm

Place: Colorado Convention Center, Room 606

Descriptors: English Learner, Arts Education, ESL/ENL

6. Critical Literacy and Expression in Early Childhood Education

Unit: SIG-Critical Perspectives on Early Childhood Education

Session Submission type: Roundtable Session

Time: Tue, May 4 - 12:25pm - 1:55pm

Place: Colorado Convention Center, Korbel Ballroom 2

7. Diverse Pathways to Literacy Development

Unit: Division G - Social Context of Education

Sub Unit: Section 1: Local Contexts of Teaching and Learning

Session Submission type: Roundtable Session

Time: Sun, May 2 - 10:35am - 12:05pm

Place: Colorado Convention Center, Korbel Ballroom 2

8. Impact of Arts Integration on Content-Area Learning

Unit: SIG-Arts and Learning

Session Submission type: Roundtable Session

Time: Fri, Apr 30 - 4:05pm - 5:35pm

Place: Colorado Convention Center, Korbel Ballroom 2

9. Indigenous Visual Ecologies of Knowledge as Repertoires for Learning

Unit: SIG-Indigenous Peoples of the Americas

Session Submission type: Roundtable Session

Time: Sat, May 1 - 10:35am - 12:05pm

Place: Colorado Convention Center, Korbel Ballroom 2

Descriptors: Indigenous Peoples, Arts Education, Social Context

10. Language, Literacy, and Arts in Teacher Education

Unit: Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education

Sub Unit: Section 7

Session Submission type: Roundtable Session

Time: Fri, Apr 30 - 2:15pm - 3:45pm

Place: Colorado Convention Center, Korbel Ballroom 2

11. Lines of Flight: Studying Children’s Production of Art and Culture

Unit: SIG-Arts and Learning

Session Submission type: Symposium

Time: Mon, May 3 - 10:35am - 12:05pm

Place: Colorado Convention Center, Room 705

Descriptors: Arts Education, Adolescence, Early Childhood

12. Linking Teacher Education to Teacher and Student Performance: Research on National Policies and Assessments Instruments

Unit: Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education

Sub Unit: Section 2

Session Submission type: Roundtable Session

Time: Fri, Apr 30 - 2:15pm - 3:45pm

Place: Colorado Convention Center, Korbel Ballroom 2

13. Making Art to Make a Difference: Exploring the Educational Significance of Using Art to Impact Social Change

Unit: SIG-Arts and Learning

Session Submission type: Symposium

Time: Mon, May 3 - 4:05pm - 5:35pm

Place: Colorado Convention Center, Room 704

Descriptors: Arts Education, Social Change, Communities

14. Mediating the Creative Experience: New Literacies, Methods, and Assessments

Unit: SIG-Arts and Learning

Session Submission type: Roundtable Session

Time: Sat, May 1 - 2:15pm - 3:45pm

Place: Colorado Convention Center, Korbel Ballroom 2

15. New Teacher Induction: Promising and Innovative Practices for Support, Development, and Leadership

Unit: SIG-Research on Teacher Induction

Session Submission type: Roundtable Session

Time: Fri, Apr 30 - 4:05pm - 5:35pm

Place: Sheraton, Grand Ballroom Section 2

16. Poster Session: Culture and Learning Environments

Unit: Division C - Learning and Instruction

Sub Unit: Section 5: Learning Environments

Session Submission type: Poster Session

Time: Mon, May 3 - 12:25pm - 1:55pm

Place: Colorado Convention Center, Korbel Ballroom 3

17. Reflective and Narrative Practices for Aesthetic Development and Learning

Unit: SIG-Arts and Learning

Session Submission type: Paper Session

Time: Sun, May 2 - 10:35am - 12:05pm

Place: Colorado Convention Center, Room 707

Race to the Top of what?

2010-04-14T04:15:00.000-07:00

Two states won race to the top moneys. I highly suspect that arts education and integration was not a big part of these two states application. Moreover, I suspect that future applications to the "Race to the Top Money" will emulate if not flat out imitate the two accepted applications. This in long standing tradition of educational funding born out of the Bush years and continued unhindered by the current one. Even in application there is no room for creativity.
Secretary Duncan has repeatedly made public statements in support of arts education as an essential part oif a 21st century education. The proof, however, is in the pudding. The two proposals that were approved included very little reference to the arts, and the rubric used does not seem to require it.
In many ways it seems that arts education, once again is not part of the national conversation in the way that matters- resources.

Reflection

2010-03-13T08:26:00.000-08:00

This is a part of study reflection one of my students Marsha Silver who has taught art for over a decade:

"When I was in elementary school in the1960’s, I don’t remember having art. I know that I liked to draw and read but why don’t I remember any art? Maybe that is because I did not experience Art Education in a manner that impressed me. Some of the most important and influential artists of the ’60 and 70’s lived in my lifetime! Why did I not know about Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup (Tomato), 1968, or Rauschenberg’s Retroactive, 1964, not to mention Jasper John’s Map, 1961, or Flags, 1968? Art Education is when students acquire different techniques to learn things such as drawing, sculpting, and other artistic abilities. It also teaches about artists from the past and present. In my opinion, I think that Art Education enhances creative expression. Using the multiple aspects of art education such as art history, art criticism, art production, aesthetics and assessments provide students with a greater understanding and appreciation for art. Being organized, defining learning objectives, teaching art production, exploring art history and making connections beyond the classroom helps students become aware of the significance and influence that art has on other subject matter and their personal lives. Art integration, again, is interdisciplinary as I said in the first paragraph. So it does not go unsaid that art and other subjects cannot interact... It is my personal opinion that everyone has their own ideas about how to use the arts in education. Isn’t teaching about sharing knowledge and experiencing the unknown?"

I think we must be aware of the generation gap between us as art educators, the contemporary art world, and the world our students grow up in. The question is how do we who grew up in different eras can stay open to new media and ideas in art and help deliver them to our students. Our own view of art and "what counts as art" is most often formed in our early interactions with art. By the time we become teachers this view is established and we are in danger of not "moving" with the times. I think it is easy to see why a student might not hear the clearest artistic voices in that very same era. Chances are that these voices are controversial in their time, possibly even unknown to the teacher who grew up a different era.
Once in a while we must ask ourselves, are we exposing our students to the voices and media who 30 years from now will come to be the voices representing the first decade of the 21str century?

The Place of Integrated Arts Courses in Preservice Elementary Education

2010-03-06T06:08:00.000-08:00

This week Deborah Loewenberg-Ball visited UNL and gave a talk on the place of Schools of Education in Research Universities. You can access the powerpoint of the talk here, and soon we hope to have a video up.

One notion that I find very interesting now, as I coordinate our Elementary Education preservice program at UNL is the notion of our programs as "labs of practice in which we explore and research new and innovative ways to educate the next generation of teachers. This approach is very much in line with my thinking about the role of formative or design experiments in which rigorous curricular design and assessment are intertwined to create an innovative self- correcting structure that is focused on development not as a result of external pressures but instead of growing understanding of process and product as well as influenced by the research we do in schools.

So what that has to do with the arts? Well we have a unique opportunity to leverage what we've been learning in the field into our preservice program. In the last few years we shifted from a domain approach in arts education (a class on music, visual etc.) to an integrated experience focused on aesthetic experiences. Our masters in elementary education (MAET) program has an integrated arts education course that integrates the arts, science, and literacy in the context of place based education (in our case the prairie). We are now ready to make the arts more prominent throughout our program. I am not yet sure of what form it will take but the possibilities are truly exciting.

Abstract Thinking Concrete Thinking and the Arts

2010-02-27T05:56:00.000-08:00

These are just beginning thoughts and may make sense only to me- oh well, I do welcome comments and questions.

We have a group of professors who routinely think about cognitive theory. On of the results of our thinking is presented in our book "The Unified Learning Model" (or ULM for short). But our conversations continue led by David Brooks who in bouts and spurts pushes our group along. Recently we've been discussing (among other topics) abstract thinking triggered by Elizabeth Spelke comment on Charlie Roses Brain series.

I have been thinking for a while about abstract concepts in relation to vocabulary and started to reject the notion of abstract concepts as concepts that lack objective context- as would for example a chair. Part of this is connected to our work in the arts where a representation of the object helps students realize what the concept is. Of course most of our work happens before students move into what Piaget called the formal operations stage- so my evidence is highly skewed by what I encounter every day.

Initially we tried on definitions for abstract thought. David Moshman noted:
"I've always found the notion of "abstract thought" is too vague to be of much use. Language is inherently abstract in important ways and the process of learning it is in some ways a process of abstraction, but this is obviously not beyond the capacity of young children. The same can be said of elementary mathematics, and one of Gelman's basic principles, which all children come to understand, is the abstraction principle. Piaget defined formal operations as involving hypothetico-deductive reasoning, which involves making deductive inferences to see what logically follows from false or hypothetical statements. This might be considered an advanced form of abstract thought."

As I challenged the notion of a Formal Operations stage David Moshman who spends his days thinking and writing about this responded:

"Is there really a formal operational stage? Well, yes and no (that's my definitive answer).

On the yes side, there are indeed advanced forms of reasoning (and associated metalogical conceptions) of the sort identified by Piaget in his work on formal operations that are commonly seen in adolescents and adults but rarely or never seen before the age of 10 or 11.

On the no side, there is no general stage transition from consistent concrete operational reasoning to consistent formal operational reasoning."

So how does this connect to art? In my mind art can be one of the structures on which cognition can lean on as it learns to become abstract. Art can provide a representation that can help us guide students to ask questions that lead to metaphoric thinking a key to following the hypothetical deductive line of thinking. The point that emerges as we consider science, art, and abstract thought was made by Kieth Jacobshagen as he spoke to our class during the summer. He pointed out that what we perceive as a car driving up the road in the dark in nothing but two abstract yellow dots. That is to say all art is abstract and our brains create an image and fill in the gaps to make sense of it. All using concrete knowledge to understand what is an essentially abstract artifact.

So art is an abstract form like language and math and can serve as a bridge to advanced abstract thinking. hmmm maybe we should do more art in school.

A Note about Teacher Education Programs

2010-02-17T04:49:00.000-08:00

This stems from curriculum action on my campus recently.
The fact that a student took some arts classes in her past, and then went through an elementary education program with no emphasis on the arts education, does make her qualified to teach art in elementary schools. If we are to take ourselves seriously we must make sure that those who are certified get the best instruction and experience that we can give then. Just being an artist does NOT prepare you to teach the arts. We've known this for years about artists in residence. The same holds true for generalist teachers...
That's it just had to get it off my chest as we realign our programs.

Still Snowing

2010-02-14T09:00:00.000-08:00

In Nebraska snow is still falling and I am wondering about friendships, projects and relationships. In a word back to our networks that become so established they are an integral part of who we are. As a type I found out that I like working in teams. But that is not enough, I like working in teams over long periods of time figuring out everybody's strengths, contributions. But maybe more than anything it is about growing our thinking together.
When I look at my work I have worked with individuals and schools districts over a long period of time.
With Kathy Wilson I have worked for 12 years now, Nancy and Monique- close to decade, the Nebraska Reading First crew- seven. I like this kind of work. It is close, almost intimate, it allows everyone to be engaged in different ways at different time points. And most of all it has space for growth and change over time. This IS professional development, the kind where everyone develops. In this work we are all participants, researchers, evaluators, teachers, developers.
For example, in my last visit to California (great again), one of the kindergarten teachers approached to talk about assessments. She said (I hope I will not misrepresent here) that she as a teacher had her own way of measuring student growth but last year she stopped and instead relied on our project measurement and was dissappointed to see little growth. She hypothesized that the problem was that our assessment required active vocabulary, students had to show kinds of lines without a directive prompt, she felt (justifiably) that vocabulary acquisition could also be assessed passively by asking student to produce through a prompt, e.g. "can you draw a jagged line?". I agreed that there is merit for that approach and then we followed up a discussion about levels of precision within a study and what to do next. This is a great example of a teacher thinking as a researcher and the researcher/evaluator getting a much better idea about classroom needs and perspectives.
Monique wrote in an email recently "You two [Guy and Nancy] have impacted my thinking about education so much in the last ten years." it is more than I deserve but in reality it is a two way street- Monique has impacted my thinking just as much (if not more).
The link to art integration is clear- real integration can only emerge from sustained engagement, thinking AND socialization. It is just as much about relationships as it about achievement.

A new year

2010-01-04T23:50:00.000-08:00

As fresh snow is settling on our frozen Nebraska streets I set to write my first blog of the year.The blog this year is set to take a somewhat new direction.
First I would like to keep others engaged in writing on the blog as we make our way through the project and our growing understandings. Thus, thank you to Qizhen, Katie, Nancy and Monique. Each contributor added a dimension and insight.
I actually do not know if anyone else is happening by so if you do just drop a comment about the things you care about or wonder.
As for the blog for this coming year. I intend on using it first to accompany our data analysis efforts (this is where Qizhen will help) to uncover patterns and wonder about their significance before we come to a polished product- a thinking space if you will.

The second use is as a writing exercises in an efforts to increase my productivity. Finally, it is a way to communicate with an audience... even if that is limited to a few.

Beth Olshansky sent me her book: The Power of Pictures: Creating Pathways to Literacy Through Art.

Beth was part of our first grant and helped kick off our thinking but after a few years of joint work we found ourselves working in different directions. In a way I am eager to see if despite the different paths we end up with similar conclusions. A book is always a complex undertaking but from the skimming I have already done the book shows a promising potential for some of the classes we teach here at UNL. This may actually warrant a review for Education Review- we'll see.

National Reading Conference II

2009-12-02T19:23:00.000-08:00

So, I am here in Albuquerque (spelled right this time I hope). This morning I went into a session about studying visual representation of children and youth.
The presentation focused on analysis of identities and stories that had very little to do with the work we are doing in arts integration. What it did point to was the way visual texts allow choice, and expression that are not usually acceptable in the classroom. The problem, however, was that most of the projects that presented were not part of classrooms either.... Thus, it is not as much integration in school as it is out of school chances for expression. I am not saying in any way that it is not important. Instead I am trying to say that this has to happen IN schools as part of the fabric of instruction.
The second piece was that there is a need to make our voices about integration heard- next year we will again suggest a session or at least a paper.
As for vocabulary Judith Scott allowed me to see today that we have abandoned at least partially the emphasis on wide vocabulary and focused on other aspects more- well more work to do- maybe in the next grant...
More tomorrow

National Reading Conference

2009-11-28T09:25:00.000-08:00

The conference starts next week in Albuquerque NM.
Two presentations target the intersection of literacy and the Arts both with book illustrators:

The following presentation is scheduled on Saturday, 12/05/2009, from 08:30 AM - 10:00 AM in Santo Domingo.

*Voice and Visions of Yuyi Morales: Award winning illustrator discusses her art*
Chair:	Jesse S Gainer, Texas State University - San Marcos
Discussant:	Mary Esther Huerta, Texas State University - San Marcos

This multimodal and interactive session will include an ethnographic interview of Yuyi Morales, an award-winning children’s literature illustrator, providing a “lived-through experience” for session attendees to explore the intersections of art, culture, history, and politics as manifested in her art. This session will feature the illustrator talking about her art while showing it. Facilitators will foreground connections relating to research methodology and data analysis in regard to scholarship pertaining to artwork in multicultural children’s literature.
The following presentation is scheduled on Wednesday, 12/02/2009, from 08:30 AM - 10:00 AM in Taos. *Exploring the intersections of culture and art in the work of one award-winning children's books illustrator*

Taking the Long Way Home

2009-11-20T15:04:00.000-08:00

Our California second grade team has hit a snag recently. The project they were doing was taking too long- disrupting the normal pace and plan of the second grade classroom. They have in consultation with us (meaning those who do not carry the burden) about choosing to finish a long meaningful project instead of doing one more arts integration cycle.
At the same time a colleague of mine came back from watching a second grade classroom. She, who usually spends time in secondary classroom, reflected that the pace moving from one activity to the next was breath taking - and that she as a student would probably fail to thrive in that room because there was no time to think and act with deliberation. Although I do quick pacing as efficient for teaching some things (phonics for example). I did agree with her that curriculum and administration are often pushing teachers to divide their days into small chunks. The small chunks are not connected and so students do not connect them either and are thus left with many fragments of knowledge and procedures that are not well organized- and thus are quickly lost.
When we integrate the arts and ask ourselves and our teacher researchers to think in longer cycles we are disrupting this cycle. We are proud to be the disruptors....

Summer Plans

2009-11-01T09:33:00.000-08:00

I spent the last few weeks trying to make sure we have three different workshops this summer at UNL. All three address integration in different ways.
The first is our literacy and arts integration class. It is the third time we are teaching this class and I am ecstatic that we have been able to sustain this effort and find a niche with new and experienced teachers. That mix has actually been great for everyone's professional development including mine. The experienced Monique Poldberg will be leading this class- one of the most reflective teachers I have ever had the pleasure of working with.
The second piece will be taught for the first time this summer at UNL. It is a week dedicated to Readers' Theatre. The week focuses on scripting in the curriculum and in depth understanding of how Reads' Theatre can be integrated into everyday curriculum and not just as an add on. For me drama is the easiest integration into the language arts and social studies curriculum- almost a gimme. The link is so natural that there is no wonder that despite partial evidence teachers find it useful. The class will be taught by Barbara Egbert- who is internationally trained and brings a broad understanding and classroom experience to the workshop.
Finally, a workshop about technology integration, led by Lance Poldberg closes the line. Lance approaches technology as an opportunity to engage students in making curriculum based media-integrated learning artifacts. It is an opportunity for elementary and middle school teachers to develop and experiment with technology- with an emphasis on meaning making and well fun.
As the plans take shape I will probably add detail...

Time and Integration

2009-10-31T11:05:00.000-07:00

As a classroom teacher, I am always balancing time -- what needs to be done, when it needs to be done and how long it all takes. Frequently my own timeline does not correspond with the students' timeline. It takes them longer or they finished faster than I anticipated. How often am I right "on the money"? When I consider different learners and learning styles and how I might differentiate instruction, time is a big variable.

I ask myself if the time spent was worth the benefit received. Or I might ask if there is a more efficient way to get from Start to Finish.

In the case of Arts Integration... how much time does one spend on each piece? Should it be equal? - Art Lesson - Content Lesson (i.e. Science, Social Studies) - Literacy Lesson -
Is the equation equal or one greater than the other for the greatest student success? If I spend 60 minutes each on art, content and literacy will the product from each be equal? If I spend 90 minutes on content lessons along 90 minutes on an art lesson and student art production and 90 minutes of language arts lessons and student writing workshops will that yield a better content understanding, an awesome art product and an equally amazing writing product than say the 60 minutes did? It really isn't always about minutes when it comes to students learning. Sometimes the going back and forth in a revision and editing mode (in either art or writing) may take pieces of days for our students. Will more time on an art product make it possible to spend less time on a writing product? Will less time on an art product require more time on a writing product? I believe that certain choices in each area will yield the greatest results.

Integration is a way to combine learning in more than one area, yet it still all has to be carefully crafted and then managed in the general classroom.

There is so much to teach and time is my challenge!

A View from Outside

2009-10-25T04:34:00.000-07:00

I have a graduate student who has arrived from China this Fall. I decided to bring her to our Fall professional development meeting as an observer. I was really interested in her view of the process and focus of the group. I of course think we're doing some very interesting and important things and that our group of teachers is outstanding- but does it come across?
Here is what she wrote in response:

It is a precious experience to attend such an eye-opening meeting. When I entered into the meeting room, what caught my eyes were teachers’ engaging in communicating and learning from each other, so earnestly and openly. It is the curriculum for the following several months. Music and arts teachers from two schools came here, worked together, and absorbed new ideas to improve the instructional efficiency. There are two amazing samples showing how to teach music and arts. For music, there are seven hollow beams which were equal to the seven music scales. Then seven kids each holds one beam standing for one music scale. To make music these kids should concentrate on his or her own role as well as working together with other kids harmoniously. It conveys the sense of cooperation, practice and deep impression of music. Brilliant! For the arts, two diverse oil paintings are presented. Kids are given these questions from simple to complex step by step, “what do you see?”, “where are they?”, “what are they doing?”, “why do you think so?” . These kids learn to read arts, from the paintings’ appearance to their essence, from outside to inside, from the gradual developing process. Since they’ve just gained the knowledge about the community, of course, their explanation and imagination about the two paintings has lots to do with community, which is accordance with the theory of schema. One of the kids was such a genius in answering these questions that it raised my concern about what family background he is from, and what he has learned. Would this ground be a backup reason for his outstanding performance? In all, these two examples are really vivid and explicit ways of instruction. Apart from the two examples, teacher Pat has presented us the previous achievement by giving an example about how a cute and smart boy understands the community. By putting kids directly into the real world is such a good idea. They can see and touch the statue of George Washington by themselves when hearing the legendary stories; they can feel the hot whether by standing in the sunshine during the hot summer day. Lost in the thought that kids in my country could also have such an experience, I wonder what would it be like? I am still curious about other kids’ situation and comprehension, which may be unnecessary or futile. The main topic for the next few months is life cycle-- to inform children the basic knowledge about animals, environment, cooperation and skills for how to survive in the wild nature. What I can see is an integration composed by arts and reading, intertwined into each other. Almost everything is perfect and indeed it helps to promote students’ motivation in study and easy students’ development in literacy. I had tried to find the difference between this and my country’s education, which emphasize more on science. Eighteen out of twenty classes were science classes in my high school, and those two arts classes were for those students who cannot go though science class. People had slightly prejudice over arts, considering it of a little practical use and low payback investment. The phenomenon also exist my friend’s country, Chad, Russia, developing countries. Developing country needs to consider the economic factors more for advancing. Still, there is a long way to go before educational systems learn from each other. And yet, what I see is a whole world of arts and reading, almost no science (I even ask Jean why, which is kind of silly of me). Is that because this is the meeting about arts and literacy? I think kids here begin their study about science a little late. Arts and literacy should be considered to be an integral body, and if science is in parallel with arts and literacy’s tempo, then arts, literacy and science would be a better integration too, or interdisciplinary integration. I believe the two hemispheres of the brain need balanced development for uncovering potentials of kids. The end of education here comes out to be the best around the world now, but that does not mean that it has no space to improve. I remember that my high school teacher has said that once a kid is very good at English and math, he probably will be qualified for university. This has been a belief of mine during these years, and I would tell every parent the “truth”. English and math is really opposite and hard discipline in my country. Math classes involve a lot basic knowledge such as probability, geometry, functions, and calculus. And English is a totally different language system. If we believe that “it is too early” or expect children to learn “when they need to”, we may miss the optimal period. Of course, we should not push them and we do not want to. Maybe we just need to think about it, and that is all. Well, in short, it is such a meaningful experience for me. It is like I incidentally fall into a circle full of great ideas.

Mike on Ken Robinson

2009-10-19T08:45:00.000-07:00

I teach an undergraduate literacy methods block for Elementary teachers and in it my students are asked to reflect weekly on hat weeks readings and their classroom observations. I do allow them occasionally to deviate if they find a topic that is particularly appealing to them.
About a week ago Mike wrote this piece in response to a Ken Robinson piece (I am publishing this with his explicit permission):

"I'd like to take this opportunity to depart from the traditional format of the blogs and comment on something else. A friend of mine recently showed me this link:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

In the video, Ken Robinson talks about the nature of our education system. He says that our educational system is far too linear. We start kids off in elementary school preparing them for middle and high school where we then prepare kids for college. All of this is designed so that the kids end up getting a degree and can thereby be successful in the world. Robinson argues that it was a great idea back when college degrees were comparatively rare to high school diplomas, but today, we have a higher percentage of people going on to get their degrees than ever before. As such, a bachelor's degree is not what it used to be. So if everyone has a degree, what more can we do with education to keep improving? Robinson's answer is creativity. He says that we need to teach kids to embrace creativity rather than cut our arts and music programs from the school's curriculum.

I like what Robinson had to say, but I think he overlooked some key aspects of education. Yes, more and more people are going on to get their degrees in post-secondary education. And yes, it would be really smart to teach those graduates to be more creative and well rounded. But what about the students we have to specifically tailor our instruction around? Special needs students present some of the greatest challenges to us as teachers. I feel like Robinson completely glossed over this very substantial, important group of people. It's naive to think that our current education system is great if not for it's lack of emphasis on creativity. Yes, we're sending more kids off to college than ever, but we still have a lot of work to do with educating every one of our students. Belmont, especially, has driven this point home for me"

Mike's comments contextualize what many teachers are thinking, namely that before we attend to creativity there is a lot of other work to be done. I wholeheartedly agree with Mike that we are not yet great at teaching all children what they need to be full citizens. On the other hand there seem to be an underlying assumption that creativity is the cherry, like higher order thinking or comprehension instruction something that comes after skills.

This is the danger that talks about the big C can lead to- the fact that teachers, administrators and parents worry about regular everyday capabilities and rightly so. The little dancer from Robinson'sstory would be a heartwarming story if she grew up to be a world class dancer- but we all know the chances are slim. We need a Ken Robinson who follows up and says and look how we can use her dancing to enhance her learning so she feels empowered to learn and we to teach through it- so she can be successful in everything she chooses to be engaged in.

The big C the big I and Diversity

2009-10-13T13:23:00.000-07:00

We had a grant meeting in DC last week for currently funded AEMDD and AEPD grants (alphabet soup and a mouthful). It was great being back in a room that included so many people who are facing similar challenges, concerns and joys. The fairly large group spent the better part of the day working in small groups which was a very productive choice. The ability to talk to each other and further our understanding and action was exceptional.
On the positive side we really could be moving forward in our agenda and the ways we integrate the work we do. At the same time I think that lurking under the surface are some meaningful differences. These are differences that we danced around at the meeting but may actually reveal fairly significant divisions in approach.
In my mind it is the big C (creativity) and big I (Integration) groups. I am a big I person- for me it is all about integration. I do not mean that I do not care about creativity, nor that I do not think pure learning in the arts is not important. Instead it is simply not what I do. I support learning in the arts in schools (kids in drama and instrumental music) and need be will fight for it- but when I write, think and teach it is all about integration.
Hopefully we will come out of this year with a conference and possibly publications that will openly discuss some of these approaches and generate some new (or old) insights and ideas for research, advocacy, and most importantly educational practice!

Revision

2009-09-16T21:31:00.000-07:00

Today I taught a well thought-out and planned art lesson. I had even created the project myself in advance for a sample. I had worked with colleagues in the planning process. However, after the direct instruction part of the lesson, when I watched the students work and create, I realized there were many things I did not think about! The students weren't really unhappy with their work, but I knew their potential was far from reached, at no fault of theirs.

At recess I brought my next-door colleague over to examine the work and listen to some of my comments. She had been part of the planning process with me and was in a good position to help me analyze where things went "wrong" or at least "not as I thought they should." I realized in both my "internal" and "external" conversations that there were many things in my lesson I could have done differently. I could have explained the use of the media more clearly. The examples I gave should have been more thoughtfully discussed and analyzed. I also needed to break down the sequence of creation in smaller steps for greater understanding and incremental success.

So... I decided that we frequently talk about drafts and revisions in writing with students, so I was going to go back to my second graders and explain that we were also going to do that with our art. I was revising my lesson to make it better for them and they were going to get to revise their composition. In both cases (mine and my students') we didn't "waste" the first hour, but rather learned by doing, learned from our mistakes or wrong turns and came out with a better lesson and better product.

My students were thrilled with their work and I was happy to have had the time to re-do it right then. The details were fresh in my mind and my motivation was high to try again. Revise and edit. Practice makes better.... for both the teacher and the learner.

Interest and the Arts

2009-08-23T04:22:00.000-07:00

A colleague in a recent meeting passionately described the importance she places on teacher candidates focusing on something they find interesting at the core of their integrated lesson plan. The guiding idea is that our students (future teachers) will find this approach motivating and rewarding and thus will be engaged at a much higher level.
The parallel for me is working with elementary students and my own children. General interest is a very problematic concept as we find ourselves and our students engaged in a topic that they have no apriori interest in. Despite this apparent lack of initial we can engage and motivate enough interest to foster learning- also known as situated interest. This is especially true of elementary teachers who teach many different subjects.
This concept is crucially important since curricula are determined by standards, assessments, and group decision making. Neither students not teachers can afford to be engaged only in what they find initially interesting, thus we need to teach future teachers how to become engaged outside their area of interest and find the interesting and "cool" and exciting aspects of these topics- just like we expect our children to do.
This is very important in arts integration. Engaging future teachers in arts integration is a very important tool that we must promote since they will see very little of it in their schools as they start teaching. My fear is that by focusing on topics that they are excited by we are actually reinforcing the idea of arts integration as a fun but too rigorous activity. One that you engage with when teaching (or learning) a favorite topic in which you are already highly engaged- not the everyday humdrum topic.
The image in the blog was created by a graduate student on a visit to a natural history museum. The students were not motivated in learning science before the visit to the museum but the process and the museum itself created enough situated interest to generate engagement and thus learning.
Arts integration can be helpful in many areas and domains and its success is partially related to arts as an engagement strategy- thus a less effective strategy if the topic is already highly engaging. Ultimately, in the elementary years we teach many topics that we are marginally interested in, we develop situated interest. Arts integration is a way of developing such an interest and not just when we as a teacher are excited about our favorite topic.

Where does art integration reside?

2009-08-16T04:46:00.000-07:00

Art integration happens on many levels. From the federal grants and policies all the way into the water color brush in the student's hand. But, the work we've done over the last eight years, the research, the observations in classrooms and assessment of student performance all point in one direction. Arts integration is a classroom phenomena and it resides in the details- the how of that classroom practice.
All art educators and most writing ones have for decades focused on process. Our conclusion is very much the same- process is at the heart of what we do. We work with our teachers on transforming their practice- the processes that they use to enable student learning, the processes they use to teach. This is not a one way street because every time we interact with a teacher thinking about their process we learn something ourselves that changes the way we work with that teacher but also with the ones that come after her.
At the same I do not want to imply that we must be present and understand everything about the process to understand the product. In many ways the analysis of products: writing, visual art, and music over the past eight years have confirmed the fact that the products correspond to the process. That is you can judge the quality of classroom practice by the products.
Without an understanding of the process, however, you cannot pin down the reasons for the outcomes. As a result a good evaluation and research must include a clear look at both.
As this administration focuses, and rightly so, on teacher performance and development it is useful to remember that it is the details that count.

A New Academic Year

2009-08-09T05:26:00.000-07:00

As August unfolds we face a new academic year. With it a realization that we have to continue to explore ways to bring the arts into classrooms. The promise of a new administration with a different agenda that may help us in classrooms has dissipated. We are faced again with the fact that most of the publi wants the arts in school but consider them secondary to everything else. They are a great addition but also the first thing to go when budgets and time need to be allocated carefully. Thus, we are left in a constant effort to maintain and expand our efforts to teach in and through the Arts.
On our home front in the project we still have a group of teachers that are as committed as ever. All of our indicators show that working on this project empowered teachers as true professionals and helped teachers develop as professionals. We are working on a book highlighting the connected units that our teachers created. As this is a second hand report I will ask Nancy A. to post a little more about it.
The most important thing is that in our last year of funding we are not losing steam, in fact we are gaining momentum.

A thought: We create art to amplify the memory trace of our emotions and to share them with others.

Transition Back

2009-08-05T17:35:00.001-07:00

I’m back at home, reflecting on the month of July and thinking about when and how to share the things I’ve learned. I’ve already made a presentation to one group during our district’s staff development days, but a few other ideas are percolating. I’ve got a supportive team around me, so things will get going with their help. I think the hard part will be making time to plan for one “big” event, so I’ll concentrate on one grade level at a time. Think anyone will voluntarily come?

2009-07-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

I am surrounded here by a depth and breadth of knowledge and experience. Yet we are all learning and noticing things that we may have “walked by” before. The architectural detail, the story within the painting, the artist’s and architect's connection with the community, even the wallpaper!! We have spent our weekdays in class and related field trips and on the weekends we go together or alone and do more touring and learning about this part of the country. There really is not too much down time!

I’ve tried to get a chance to talk with each one of my fellow NEH'ers over the last 3 ½ weeks. About half are from New England and half from the rest of the country. They will be an inspiration and a resource to me after I leave here. We are all busy preparing final presentations for Thursday and Friday. I look forward to hearing from my new-found colleagues. This really has been an experience of a lifetime. (Although maybe that’s not the way to say it because I want to apply for another one when I’m eligible in three years!)

2009-07-24T19:50:00.001-07:00

Wow…this week has zipped by!
This institute has been a wonderful example of scholarly rigor. The presenters/scholars share with us what they know, back it up with references and THEN we get to see the REAL THING in person! This week we talked about landscape and literature. The Hudson River school of artists and authors such as James Fennimore Cooper and Henry Thoreau were introduced to me. We traveled to the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut to experience the paintings in person. Much of the information was in greater depth than I can recall, but the connections between the literature and the art of the time are evident. I knew what I was looking at and had a sense of being in the presence of an artifact of history. There really is sooooo much more to a painting than originally meets the eye at first or quick glance!

Works of Art

2009-07-24T19:48:00.000-07:00

A Salem State creative writing professor came to our class one day this week and presented a wonderful lesson on poetry! We were active participants in a lesson that I will some day replicate in a form for second graders. His “quotable quote” to me was … “A work of art (writing, painting, music) is a way of organizing your world and what you’ve learned.”-- JD Scrimgeour.

I think I need to do more art!

2009-07-19T19:17:00.000-07:00

Reading for class and for my unit. Landscapes will be a topic that our week will begin with. Took in the local landscape yesterday: the northeastern seacoast. Went to two different art museums today… one contemporary and one (old) European. Vastly different … light compared to dark, large spaces compared to small spaces. Working on my assignment (a unit).

Presidents

2009-07-15T17:42:00.000-07:00

I will never teach “President’s Day” the same way! Even at second grade the students know about Lincoln, a log cabin and the penny; Washington as the father of our country. But what do the presidential portraits reveal about the person and the office! Next February I will teach using resources from the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian Institution. Last Friday we were enriched with the knowledge of yet another expert, Ellen Miles, from the NPG. The connections between the portrait, the person and the office were enlightening and fascinating We followed the content with actual doing. We were led in an art-making (self-portrait) lesson with a member of Lesley University’s art education faculty. I REALLY liked this part. I think we should do the art-making more often in this institute, but that’s my bend. It would probably raise the affective filter for some of my colleagues here.

Connections

2009-07-09T15:52:00.001-07:00

I am surrounded by history! Yesterday we toured a federal period house as well as the Salem Custom House. Nathaniel Hawthorne worked there.

Also these last two days we have visited museums and have received welcomes and presentations from their education departments. Representatives of both institutions made it clear that they value working with educators and want to make their collections useful to us. Many, including these museums, have great resources in person and online both. Yesterday was the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem and today was the Worcester Art Museum in Worcester. At the PEM we completed activities related to using objects… observe, write, share. At the WAM she told us about the studio wing of their museum and how they strive to make a connection between looking at art and making art. Both are strategies that we encourage using in our Arts LINC classrooms. At the PEM I saw a “Panorama of a Whaling Voyage” (ca. 1860) --- a wooden stage with scrolling screens. It was a colonial version of Kamishibai. At the WAM I saw a Thomas Hart Benton “Corn and Winter Wheat” that will be a good landscape to show my students for during our Field to Table unit. We are seeing works of artists represented in the Picturing America poster sets that many schools across the country received from the NEH. Today we also saw the “real” Paul Reverse silver tea set too!

Connections, connections, connections.

Picturing America Institute

2009-07-07T19:51:00.000-07:00

I am participating in a Picturing America National Endowment of the Humanities Teacher Institute this month at Salem State College in Salem, Massachusetts. I arrived on July 4 and it started on Sunday, July 5. It will be four weeks of listening, learning, sharing, observing, participating, and integrating visual art, language arts, and history! We have started off at a running pace! It is wonderful to have the opportunity to work with curricular specialists and others who have worked with integration in different settings. The faculty that has been assembled to lead us through these weeks already has my mind going in many directions. Their expertise both individually and collectively is amazing. I will need to narrow down some of my thoughts for a project, but for now I’m taking it all in and it’s comfortably spinning in my brain! This really is incredible! I’m thankful to have received this opportunity!

Prairie Bliss

2009-06-09T14:16:00.001-07:00

Peace

2009-06-09T13:37:00.000-07:00

We have a class of practicing and future teachers who are all learning about arts integration into the elementary classroom right now. The focus is the prairie and its' enveloping sense of place. As they are composing their narratives I am writing for the blog. As I/we teach this class I have this uncomfortable feeling. I am not as much in control as I'd like to be. It is a disconcerting feeling but in many ways it is good for me, for this is what I ask the teachers around me to do- get out of your comfort zone and try something else. Stay in this place where you are not in total control and be ok with it. We plan the lessons around the big ideas of integration but the truth is we do not know how it will come out, what will fall flat and will succeed.

This morning we stepped into the prairie in Spring Creek right outside Denton. We spent close to two hours walking around taking photographs. Slowly as time progressed we hushed fanned out and spent time connecting with the surroundings- with photographs as the focal lens. The mood was muted and perfect for sensing and focusing on emotions. We took the risk and the time... Still there is a lot to do to help these practicing and future teachers as well as ourselves make connections and link all of this to actual classroom instruction.

It would be great to examine these experiences as they develop, my guess is that my concerns and feelings are not unique.

Another Denver Airport post: Creative Teachers

2009-05-22T19:55:00.000-07:00

We had our end of the year meetings in both sites over the last 10 days, Nebraska and California. As Monique, Nancy and I discussed the energy and immense productivity we saw in the meeting we started recognizing how uniquely creative and collaborative our teachers are. Our approach focuses on key ideas while letting teachers create their units and variations. The idea is that fidelity is to core ideas and not a prescribed lesson. Our principles are about process, thinking and integration. Our teachers have become amazing at using this platform to be creative. Even though grades have created units together the products were often different in meaningful ways. For example all second grades created a stamp as one assignment- but those were not uniform in the classes- showing that kids are creative, not between classroom showing that teachers are creative. More than that they UNDERSTAND what are the key ideas and where they can be creative and create variations that reflect their classrooms, individuality and skill/ comfort level.
As a researcher this has cost me much- and they are constantly aware of the research asking " we don't want to screw up the data". But the results are exactly what we wanted- implementation that is powered by teachers, sustainable, meaningful. For a second there I thought - if I had to retire right now, I would have retired happy.
If we want a creative generation we need to let teachers be creative! For that to happen professional development must provide the space for teacher creativity to emerge.

More Thoughts about Creativity

2009-05-18T03:57:00.000-07:00

Before I start I'd like to send a hello to Regina Murphy of Ireland, and invite her to contribute to the blog (let me know and I'll set this up). I never intended this blog to be a one person act and what Regine is doing I find extremely interesting (I'll let her tell about it...).

In my last post I focused on skill as a part of creativity and potentially a filter for measuring "higher order" processes.
The question stays- what is creativity? My understanding is still evolving and this blog seems to be one of the places I do my thinking, so here goes:
Creativity has a strong creative domain component- like expertise in any field it is highly contextualized. If you are a sculptor a painter or a mathematician your deep understanding of your field is part of being creative or it at least a necessary but not sufficient condition. Such domain knowledge is what enables the artist (and I use this term to include anyone attempting to create an art product) to translate a vision, intent to a product. As Mike Jackson explained to me [I am paraphrasing] For me creativity is when I can translate what I see in my mind on the paper, then it is a good product. I care about the process the most, once it is done I stop being engaged.
Yet, people who describe themselves (or by others) as creative seem to be able to carry some of their creativity with them into new domains explore them and finally be engaged with them in full. Looking at the Universal Learning Model that my colleagues and I are focusing on- creativity becomes a multi-dimensional construct that combines several aspects of learning. The first is knowledge of the domain, most important is procedural knowledge that drives the creative process itself. Second is focus- single minded focus of attentional resources (i.e. working memory) to the task at hand. It is the experience of Flow or just extreme focus on the work that is often romantically portrayed. Finally and maybe the characteristic that most often helps the artist transcend a creative genre and learn a new one- Motivation.
The most universal feature of creativity is motivation. Motivation directs attention and allows the focus described above, which in turn leads to learning of new knowledge of the domain and most importantly the process. In motivation I think the most important features are slef-concept, seeing one's self as an artist or creative person. The second is the longing for complete engagement or flow. I think that once you develop Flow, you constantly search for it. And if you cannot find it you look for new domains in which you can re-experience it. Oliver Sacks describes such a case in "The Case of the Colorblind Painter". A desperate search by the artist for the way to rediscover flow probably the experience that ancient artists used to describe as the presence of a muse.
More later

On Being Skillful

2009-05-07T07:47:00.000-07:00

We often disregard the skills. We want kids to think (adults too for that matter). As we try to measure things like creativity, we try to avoid the skill threshold or work around it.
I am like that too to a certain degree. But, as I think about these constructs I strongly believe that creativity, intelligence, and learning are all deeply embedded in domain knowledge and a threshold of skills that allow you to engage meaningfully with the the subject matter.
In other words, Tiger Woods that cannot putt well is just a golf bum who thinks a lot about the game, Einstein without his knowledge of math is just a crazy dude sleeping on a park bench. Before we disregard skills in favor of other "higher order" thinking we must remember that when Bloom created his taxonomy he did not mean that knowledge is not as important as any other level in his hierarchy.
Sooooo, my point is that teaching skills and measuring them should not be disregarded. Moreover, if we intend to measure any higher order thinking about these things- creativity, interpretation. We must also measure skills- to make sure that skills are not the filter that mediates what we measure. If we do not, what we claim is creativity may just be a proxy to skill level and out of school experiences.
In fact, I would argue that the only way to reliably measure creativity is a dynamic assessment in which students are first provided a meaningful context to work in and provide content knowledge and then their actions with these building blocks are measured.

AERA

2009-04-17T13:02:00.001-07:00

I just finished the AERA presentation on literacy and arts. Despite the fact that we had a round table presentation on a friday afternoon- 7 people showed up.
I presented our the results but on the way conveyed key ideas that have been guiding our research for the past three years.
The first thing I thought was- we need a better forum. As much as I like the Arts and Learning special interest group- too few people pay attention. We must make sure that we reach a wide audience. I think we have something to say. There were also two graduate students in the mix and I thought to myself... they seem to be getting their education in a place that cannot support their interest in arts yo... So nery few places do that. Maybe we need to advertise our expertise or offer a way for students to participate in classes across institutions.
As you can sense these are only beginning thoughts as I enjoy my free afternoon in San Diego.
I can see a number of institutions with faculty interested in education in and through the arts creating a consortium that would help graduate students the kind of classes that really enhance their thinking. Maybe AEP can be the organizing mechanism...
Another random thought- Oxford University Press is interested in a book about arts integration. The editor and I had some ideas about what is needed and how a book can be molded in that direction but I invite comments from others...
Off to get some fish tacos...

What did I learn?

2009-04-11T07:25:00.001-07:00

In my last post I was just before my visit to Skinner Academy Arts magnet.
So what did I learn? I learned that things are much better than I imagined in many areas but not all the way where we should be in other ways.
What is encouraging? Well all of our teachers are enthusiastic, they are excited to participate and do the cycles and all of that even when the project stops. What they really have said is- these are well designed units and they are part of our teaching now. We like them, the kids like them, they achieve our learning goals and require some energy in maintenance. I think that the project really encouraged this pattern by focusing on providing professional development and supports that lead to independent application. Our teachers do with a lot of support and very little other resources. As a result once practices become entrenched these "scaffolds" can be easily removed and the building still stands. After we will be gone teachers will not miss the resources as much because they have not come to rely on stipends, lavish classroom products etc.
So if it's all so good what is still missing?
The ongoing struggle is define the boundaries between the arts and music specialists and the classroom teachers. We have different ways of negotiating the boundaries in our different schools (this goes well beyond Skinner). The patterns are- disconnect: you do your thing I'll do my thing, Soap box: I am the expert on this (classroom teachers do this too) you must listen to me, Servitude- Tell what you need me to do . These are all paths on the way to true collaborative practice. We are simply not there yet.
Finally, I've seen only some evidence that the practices we encourage are "spilling over" to the general curriculum as an everyday occurrence. But more on that next week...

Spending Time

2009-03-29T04:32:00.000-07:00

Monday I am spending a whole day at Skinner Magnet Center. This is very exciting as I often do school and classroom visits but they are so short that I do not have enough time to sit and talk at length with multiple groups of teachers. As we planned our work this semester, the emphasis was on understanding what is happening in our schools. The results is this visit coming after multiple observations of participating teachers' classrooms.
The questions on my mind are many:
What is working well?
What are the obstacles to arts integration in the different grades?
How is the depth and consistency of arts integration mediated by teacher dynamics (leadership, group vs. individual teacher)?
How do they feel collaboration with Arts specialist is going?
Are teachers stretched or is there some capaciuty (now in our third year) to push even further?
Most important of all- how do they see and feel about arts integration? will they still be doing it after we left?
More questions than answers this week. I'll fill in some answers (or more questions) next week.

Change in Teacher Practice

2009-03-15T07:34:00.000-07:00

It is still cold but I am assured that spring is almost here...
The question that is always on our mind is how do we help teachers change their every day practices while honoring the efforts and pressures they have to contend with daily.
Recently I read a masters thesis by Alinda Stelk one of Dr Kathy Wilson's students in it she quotes from Black and William:
Similiarly, Black and William state in their 1998 volume Inside the Black Box, "Teachers will not take up attractive sounding ideas, albeit based on extensive research, if these are presented as general principles which leave entirely to them the task of translating them into everyday practice- their classroom lives are too busy and too fragile for this to be possible for all but an outstanding few. What they need is a variety of living examples of implementation, by teacher with whom they can identify and from whom they can can both derive conviction and confidence that they can do better, and see concrete examples of what doing better means in practice" (pp.15-16)... Cahnages require teachers seeing temselves as learners and working with researchers to learn more."
The fit to our experiences is immediatly validating and daunting. Validating since it is identical in many ways to our practice, daunting because we need to imagine what such a system might look like. It does show as many of the AEMDD grants have in past and present that demonstration projects are invaluable labs for examining such change.
The question still remains; How do we translate it beyond existing projects? Or are we 'doomed' to have pockets of excellence in a sea almost completely devoid of Education in and trough the Arts? One possible answer has grown out of practice in Reading and more recently Math- coaching. Coaches are part of schools but they have the great advantage of focusing on "close distance". They are not of the classroom, but available enough and know enough to be immediately helpful. Their focus is mainly on helping teachers reach their potential and thus reach students mostly through the change in teachers practice. Coaches have the time and distance to think compare and transfer new ideas as well as plan, assess, and critique.
In a recent visit to a reading first school I discussed the new vocabulary emphasis with the coach (one of our best).
She said "We wanted all of our teachers to go into the units and decide which vocabulary should be taught. It was too much for them, finally me and [a coach from another school] used some time in the summer to go through the units and pull the vocabulary out. They simply did not have the time!" Her experience similar to ours is that teachers can be asked to do so much at any point, as expertise grows they can do more but still they need modeling, support and ideas- and I would claim, coaches in their close distance are the way to go.
We can think about it as re purposing the teaching artist/ artist in residence more explicitly guiding them to work with teachers as many projects have been doing to a certain degree for a long while. But as I read my own text I realize that repurposing is the wrong approach. We need the artists to help us build domain knowledge but coaches who are (were) classroom teachers as coaches. It goes back to the observation of Black and William:"What they need is a variety of living examples of implementation, by teacher with whom they can identify and from whom they can can both derive conviction and confidence that they can do better".
Can we (those outside the classroom) do better?

Honesty

2009-02-27T19:20:00.001-08:00

We have reached a great point in our project. As in all professional development we spend quite a while building understanding , confidence in each other, and fidelity to the program.
We use fidelity in a very different sense than other programs. When we talk about fidelity is not about adhering to a specific script, instead its about confirming to "big ideas" of integration, quality and discourse.
The process by which teachers learn trust and accept the research team and vice versa is long. In my experience, it takes at least two full years of work together usually much more. I also believe that many projects never actually get to the point where participants from all sides feel confidence about what they are doing and what everyone else is doing.
In Arts LINC we are there. We now have quite a few teachers that keep us honest. Let me give you an example, one of our teachers emailed me today about a problem in our Teacher Log. Some other teachers expressed concern but he questions were concrete grounded in the work. I immediately found that in answering her questions (coming from a need to understand and help the research) I found some of the redundancy in our data collection. I was called to the carpet and found wanting (in a small way). Similarly another teacher looking at the data for kindergarten is asking pesky questions. When I say pesky I mean they bother me because they force me to think again about my chain of reasoning and force me to retrace my steps and make sure my data and interpretations are correct. I lose that- so if you are teachers on any research project, ask, question, participate. Do not let your question prevent you from action, but remember that the researchers can learn from you as much as you larn from them. That is what makes ist so valid ... and fun.
Not much about art this time-

Getting our hands dirty

2009-01-23T03:35:00.000-08:00

We all are afraid to get our hands dirty, metaphorically speaking.in the army every friday was dedicated to cleaning our equipment, as a loader and later Tank commander I was in charge of cleaning the machine guns. Early friday I would start the dance of trying to clean without getting dirty. The problem is that everything needed to be washed in a half barrel of diesel and motor oil. The dance would usually end midmorning with me covered with a few diesel stains. From that point on I would embrace the dirt and oil. I did not care anymore, but as a result had the cleanest MGs in the company. The metaphor for me is clear. To do something well we sometimes have to get our hands dirty, and embrace the dirt.
Some teachers I know are literally avoiding trying any 'messy' media. I have really tried to resist professional development. It's not that I do not do a decent job, instead it's the feeling that I'd rather do something else. As a result I tried to use colleagues and students in that capacity. Having done some professional development recently- which turned out well, I finally realized I have to get my hands dirty and love it. Stretching the metaphor, I think that Education in and through the arts should identify these areas that canbeuseful but nobody wamts to touch. Then we shpuld take the plunge.
Come to think of it, quantitative research is exactly one such area, but I am sure there are others. Thoughts anyone?

Transition

2008-12-22T22:45:00.000-08:00

The new administration that is getting ready to settle in DC is a cause to celebrate and a cause to worry. President elect Obama is quoted as a supporter of arts education a good sign. Further, a change is always an opportunity to do something new and bold. On the other hand this administration is handicapped by major challenges economically and on the international stage. Will there be enough political will for battles in education let alone arts education?
At these point I always emerge as the eternal pessimist. The choice of secretary of education and the focus of this administration may signal that the time is not right.
Politics aside the economic situation may very well signal that we need a new creative generation, that the whole child initiative (ASCD) and specifically arts education can provide answers not found anywhere else.

Reading the Signs

2008-12-02T04:52:00.000-08:00

As the economic situation turns sour across the nation and the world funders and the public at- large seem to shy away from the arts. "This is not the time to support the arts..." they seem to say, people are hungry. I understand the need to support the hungry and homeless now, but at the same time we cannot let the arts and arts education clear the stage until things get better. If the arts are basic then they apply in good times and bad.
It is the shadow of "high" expensive art that is a luxury most enjoyed by the rich that is cast over the whole field. If arts education helps all students be better citizens, more aware of the world, more creative, and higher achievers across the board- then we must especially in times of difficulty make room for arts education.

Out in the Real World

2008-11-13T09:59:00.001-08:00

I'm on my way back from southern California and a visit with our teachers at Lake Elsinore Unified School District. Unlike previous times this was not a professional development day for, but instead I visited about nine classrooms. In some I got to see products and exchange a few words. In others I saw integration in action- both visual art and music.
So, what did I learn? First I re-learned that we must stay close to our classrooms. We must understand the complexities and pressures that our teachers face and celebrate the ways they find to be professional in uneasy times.
The picture on the left is from one of our classrooms. Students drew a tree in four seasons and wrote an artist statement discussing the choices they made as artists.
The work was great- diversified and creative. It illuminates a topic we've been thinking about in assessment of creativity at the classroom level. The more products look identical the less likely it is that students were actually creative. This classroom showed that you can have a teacher who is not an artist be able to guide a very specific art activity and still leave a lot of room for creativity.
In music integration we observed kindergartners playing ORFF instruments to Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals. The children really started taking to it after a while. It did make me acutely aware of how important classroom organization is with music, and the importance of creating a routine that our students can get used to in transition to music.
More thoughts about music integration next time.

Adding Music

2008-11-06T15:57:00.000-08:00

We are now trying the addition of music to our literacy classrooms! It is truly an adventure! We are learning to use the Orff Schulwerk process. Already I've found moments that I can do an assessment of vocabulary knowledge by the movements (actions) the children choose to represent their vocabulary words!

Around the Corner

2008-10-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

I am sitting in Washington DC surrounded by leaders of arts education projects nation-wide. Seven years ago we all fitted around one long table in Charleston SC. It was a lot more intimate and in some ways more helpful. The question in my mind is whether it represents a true change in the direction for educational reform. ASCD started the Whole Child initiative and Hal talked about a shift in public opinion as part of his Imagine Nation report. Is this shift real? Or does it stay in this room? The realities that we see in schools are still far from this vision. They may be around the corner, and we who are very close to the wall with our eye on the classroom cannot see it coming. It could also be that we are simply “going to church” and dreaming of a better world, willing to suspend our belief until we go back to the challenging environments of schools and high stakes.
The only way to go and change is low stakes assessment of students and teachers- regardless of how much money or directives we can write. If we are to move in the direction of an Imagine Nation we need teachers ready to do that. Art education is rarely taught in teacher preparation program by full time faculty. Very few research universities have faculty researching Arts Education. So a shift to an Imagine Nation needs a shift in our teacher preparation programs- are we even close? I am eternally skeptical and would love to again be proven wrong.

Working with future teachers

2008-10-23T18:25:00.000-07:00

I spend a good portion of my time with pre-service teachers. For a while I was reluctant to challenge them with arts integration. But now that I am bringing it up and even modeling a full VIEW process I can see the difference it makes. About a third of my students decided to integrate the arts into their writing lessons in practicum. The message has definitely resonated with my students and I am oh so curious to see what will happen.
For me this was in some waysan unintended consequence. While it makes sense it took me a while to connect this aspect of my research with my teaching. Now, I am consiously looking for ways to help future teachers see the connections. It is about turning the tide from a fragmented elementary curriculum to a more cohesive integrated approach.

Bracing for Impact

2008-10-18T05:55:00.000-07:00

No matter who wins the elections next month we can expect a shift in the way education is talked about and funded. (Education Week is sponsoring a debate between the two education advisers)
I wonder how funding for Arts education will change or even if it will.
Regardless I feel that those of us who are integrating the arts need to start looking for funds beyond the ones earmarked for the Arts. If we can support our claim of benefits going both ways we should be able to convince grant panels in literacy math and professional development. I am not we will be successful immediately but a change in administration may be just the right moment to try.
A short post of some fairly random thoughts this time.

Boots on the Ground

2008-10-04T06:07:00.000-07:00

Our project is challenged by working in two very different contexts. In California we work mainly with generalists (classroom teachers) while in Nebraska the work centers on the collaboration between specialists and generalist. Further complicating this issue is the geographical distance of 1500 miles. The Department of Education have asked us to present about ways we resolve the conceptual and geographical distance effectively.
This is where technology is enormously helpful, and I am always technology happy. Experience have taught me though that technology can have only a supporting role in a project like ours. I believe very strongly that professional development can be most successful when we understand each others context and practices. Further, there is no way to understand context and practice without sharing the same contextual space, seeing students, classrooms, and interactions.
As a former soldier it is a "Boots on the Ground" approach. Beyond understanding the context I believe that deep professional development the kind we know makes a difference is about relationships of trust shared experiences and even friendship. Such relationships can only happen in face to face meetings.
We travel from site to site for more than just a 4 hour PD we visit classrooms, and when budgets allow we take teachers with us so they can learn from the different contexts and practices.
Technology used on top of that can help maintain the relationships created during face to face meetings but not replace them.

Not Just Friday Afternoon

2008-09-28T13:17:00.000-07:00

We gathered on a Sunday a few weeks ago with some friends and their friends. There was this teacher-thread throughout the group. One was another primary grade teacher at an arts focus elementary school in another area of the state.

Arts LINC, etc. came up in the conversation (imagine that!) and the teacher from afar was excited to tell me that each week they give their seven and eight-year-olds a prompt and related instruction with the end 'assignment' to write a five paragraph essay. They are given time each day and have until Friday to finish it. However, if they are finished early, say Wednesday or so, they can do art that is related. The kids that take all week to write don't have time to do art (my comment: don't get to).

The arts program there includes a focus on an artist and composer of the month, a two-year cycle (so the kid will get same artists/composers in K, 2, 4) and the time designated for that is Friday afternoon. They also have a “club time” one afternoon a week with things like guitar club. I’m guessing that this is a program example that plays out in some other schools across the country.

It is becoming clearer each day that I am involved in Arts LINC that we ARE about INTEGRATION and not about ENHANCEMENT. I started to explain the difference to her, but then decided to save that for another situation. At least her students were getting something from a teacher that was enthusiastic and committed to including the arts.

I have always so off-handedly given an example from my own childhood as a differences to the philosophy, strategy and research of Arts LINC. (The example I use: "You may write about your summer vacation and if you have time, you can illustrate it.") I know now that an example like that is still real. So....the next article we write should be titled, "Not Just Friday Afternoon".

Thinking Like an Artist

2008-09-14T04:47:00.000-07:00

There is a growing pattern in the professional development of teachers to move away from an emphasis on pedagogical skills to thinking like domain experts. In many ways the idea is not new, yet the application is intriguing. Science teachers spend the summer being scientists working in university lab- thus learning the fabric of science. Math teachers spend their time learning and working math. Perhaps the most established of such ideas is the Writing Project. In the Writing Project each participant is encouraged to write and see herself as a writer, as a result, the logic dictates, she is more likely to teach writing, understand her students process, and finally help them identify themselves as writers.
The question that started emerging in our work is whether that is also true for teachers who are charged with teaching the arts in their classroom? We envision trying to foster Studio Habits of Mind with teachers as a way of transforming their practice. I think this may be a transformational piece for classroom teachers who are not formally trained as art specialist. For them (and me in all honesty) the last time they were engaged with any sustained effort of art making was in school (K12).
There might be a catch that must be considered: can elementary teachers who are asked to teach all, or almost all, subjects be domain experts in all these areas? Can we really expect depth of understanding and real experiences in Math, Art, Science, Writing, History etc.? I am excited about this idea but as I look at the larger context and being able to scale such practices up- I am sure we can scale our pedagogical ideas up (VIEW) but as for teachers thinking like artists, I am not so sure anymore.

Back in Action

2008-09-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I watched a presentation on a video podcast out of TED Talks. In this particular one the speaker stated that the apparent failure of instructional technology in making large achievement gains is linked to the fact that most studies are conducted in "high achievement" schools. His point was that in such schools technology cannot make much of a difference. In struggling schools, however, it may make tremendous difference. It started me wondering whether that was true about arts integration too.
That is, does arts integration help students in lower achieving schools? In a way it's an empirical question we'll be able to answer this year.
On the other hand the arts are very different from technology. Class and professional status influence exposure to technology much more than exposure to the arts, especially creating art. My sense is that middle class/professional parents are much more likely to expose their children to technology than arts (sadly). So, the question is still open waiting for some data to shed light...

Thinking Statewide

2008-08-05T06:07:00.000-07:00

Just before I go on vacation I had the chance to work with the teachers on the Sheldon Statewide project. The teachers who showed up were fantastic to work with. Ideas flowed and I am interested in seeing the lessons in action. This year I hope we can actually video classrooms in action and record teacher thoughts immediately after they engage with arts integration. The idea is to get as close as possible to the action without being in anybody's way.
At the same time I was looking around the room and observed how essential the conversations between content teachers and art teachers were. What we tend to forget is that we speak very different languages and have a very different view of the classroom. In many ways we do not see the same kids as some of our students act very differently in the art room and the classroom. For us to be able to make integration work in our schools we must make these partnerships more permanent. The effort of understanding each others language and emotion will pay off only if we continue interacting.
If you have any ideas about sustaining collaboration I'd love to her about it.
The blog will be back the last week of August- ready to start another year of arts integration.

Arts Wall

2008-07-23T04:49:00.000-07:00

I was invited to participate in the process of developing ideas for the Sheldon statewide art education program.
The language arts focus will be on poetry but that's not what I wanted to write about this time. In the discussions the idea of using word wall to focus students' work in the language arts. It struck me that we can in units use a parallel arts wall. So what can be part of the arts wall? Well it really depends on objectives and accumulated ideas.
The arts wall can have basic shapes lines or textures, color wheel, a list of techniques (for example tissue, taping, and salt in a unit using water color as medium). The idea is to represent things on a an arts wall using both words and artifacts- so it does not just become a word wall of arts words but actually something different.
Another part of the art wall can be reproduction of art that fits with the subject matter, for example scenery when discussing foreground, middle ground, and background. If for example students are exploring a museum (in person or online) they can bring examples to the classroom arts wall and explain to their classmates why they think it belongs (oral rehearsal). I like even better reproducing parts of art in a way that allows a focus on technique o detail.
Moe about the statewide will probably emerge after the workshop on July 28th and 29th.

Music in the Heart of summer

2008-07-14T18:42:00.000-07:00

Monique left last weekend. We've worked very hard and achieved a lot during the past few weeks. I really appreciated her thoughts every time we met, which was quite often even if not as often as I wanted to. Our conversations about music was a strand we followed all five weeks since it is a part of our grant, it is starting in earnest next year, and of course because Monique was participating in a music ed course.
I don't think we still know everything we want to do next year, but here is an idea we started developing. One thing you have to know Monique and I are very concrete albeit in different ways. That is why our conversations moved from big theoretical approaches to the nuts and blots of a unit.
In this case its a life cycle unit focused on the butterfly. The idea is for the students to integrate music in a meaningful way that supports learning about the butterfly, life cycle AND music. For example students can be set up in pairs, with a music instrument (ORF based but also keyboards etc would work). Each pair would be responsible for creating music to fit the stage in the life cycle of the butterfly. Each pair would record the music (on paper and/or tape) and play it to the group explaining why they chose this representation (Oral Rehearsal) . It could also be used for a game where the rest of the class tries to guess what stage it is and present a reason why they think there is a fit.

2008-07-06T21:09:00.000-07:00

Interesting that Guy would say this today-- “exposure to rich experiences in different domains in our home and community is what makes us diverse and different contributing to the rich tapestry of society”
Today I got re-acquainted with one of those community members that contributes to the rich tapestry…
In 2005 I met Tom Palmerton, at the Lewis & Clark Visitor Center in Nebraska City. He is the sculptor of “Pointing the Way” a Lewis, Clark & Seaman bronze. It was a casual meeting as neither of us was interested in getting in the middle of the crowd at the Opening Program and were standing around outside the building with a few others. Once I realized who he was and what he had created, I began asking questions. He graciously explained his process to me and I knew that some day I would like to visit his studio in Brownville. Today was the day.
He is a 77-year-old artist (father and grandfather) that received his formal training from the Kansas City Art Institute using the GI bill. Originally from Council Bluffs, IA, he returned to that area and spent some time in Omaha. In the early 1970s he came to Brownville. His studio and gallery are in one of the historic Brownville buildings. He spends his days there creating and is usually closed on Sunday. But we called ahead, and he was happy to come and open it up for us (I was with my parents). He’s made many historical figures and many animals and birds. He also is quite a painter and has many framed paintings on the walls. He showed us both working areas—the room for the bronzes and the loft for the painting. He once again, graciously explained the entire process to me. (I think I have to try it to really understand it!)
Today he was working on the wings of a butterfly that will be part of a large bronze butterfly sculpture. The completed sculpture will be part of the Butterfly & Insect Pavilion at the Henry Doorly Zoo. Of course, I took an immediate interest in the subject matter because of our Arts LINC & Science Unit, “Living Things Grow and Change”. Sometime when I’m in Omaha, I’ll go the zoo. He already has several sculptures there. I’ll have to see art at the zoo!
A connection between art and science. A connection with a living and working artist. I feel like I’ve met a rock star.

Home and School

2008-07-06T04:39:00.001-07:00

My Mom is visiting from Israel this week. I our conversations we turned to the importance of home environment to the development of visual art. The discussion started from my comment that Itai my youngest (2) seems to enjoys visual art activities (sometime on inappropriate surfaces such as counters, tables and the inside of my car). Art was never emphasizd in our house (though my sister became a musician) we visited museums but were not really encouraged to be actively engaged in any art form. In her comment I am not sure if my Mom meant that Itai will not really ever be an artist because we at home are not ourselves very artistic... This got me thinking about breaking the cycle of non-engagement. Since the home is so important in determining the disposition and capabilities of students, can school change any of that? This is true with language, literacy, and of course art.
As parents I can encourage Itai (and the rest) to be engaged with art, to feel safe trying new forms of expression and seeking out art. As educators our role is to provide the same experiences, environment, attitudes, and expectations that will support a relationship with art and literacy regardless of the home environment. We do need to understand though that our actions cannot erase all differences between home environments... there is too much to overcome.
And in reality exposure to rich experiences in different domains in our home and community is what makes us diverse and different contributing to the rich tapestry of society.

The Language of Art

2008-06-30T04:58:00.000-07:00

I am continuing in an Eisnerian angle. Monique and I have been talking about the idea of using the language of the artistic process in Arts LINC. Right now we aren't emphasizing this element. Should we? Te students we're working with may be too young to understand how artistic language can be used beyond the art lesson. I think we are afraid of mechanical application without a depth of understanding.
At the same time I have gone back to something we did in the past, have students discuss colors with precision. In Project RAISE we had such emphasis that led to writing about color for example "the tortilla brown smoke". Most color metaphors used by students, however, were not based on actual observation and were used indiscriminately. I think though that this can be a great opportunity to discuss metaphoric language with a concrete referent.
The progression starts with reading and speaking about colors, the art work focusing on observing the color of the object you are painting. In oral rehearsal students describe the work in terms of colors (not exclusively). The teacher models and help students come up with color metaphors that are highly descriptive of the art. In following sessions the focus shifts from description of the art to using the metaphor to create an emotion and disposition in the written pieces. Finally the discussion can turn into observing the use of color in the work of artists and the use of figurative language in text and how both are very intentionally and consistently used to create a cohesive piece.
We must be ready, though, to adjust this process to developmental level. We also must be OK with students applying these concepts at varying degrees of accuracy and proficiency- students must be allowed to be playful here before they become proficient.
Joy in language and art y'all.

2008-06-24T10:11:00.000-07:00

Nancy & I were asked to participate in the Arts Integration Forum at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. So… in early May we presented our model of arts integration for professional development. In preparing, we refined and solidified our views and practice of delivering professional development in arts integration. These have developed over the years using our experiences with previous grants and currently with Arts LINC. In Chattanooga, we were surrounded by many experts in the field of arts integration in all arts disciplines. We were honored to be part of the conversation and collaboration in this work as well as inspired to keep on track with the research… and the writing!

http://www.utc.edu/Outreach/SCEA/forum.php
http://www.utc.edu/Administration/UniversityRelations/news/2008/05/09/national-arts-and-education-forum-hosted-by-southeast-center/

Walking is always a part of travel that I do, it at least gives me an “overview” of the area. I took the photo on one of my morning walks before we gathered each day. The Tennessee River is in the foreground, downtown Chattanooga in the middle and Lookout Mountain in the distance.

Art Cognition and Meta Cognition

2008-06-18T11:37:00.001-07:00

Monique and I have been thinking about our theoretical foundations as we explore the benefits of arts integration (we are writing a paper really). We came up with two distinct categories linked to learning. The first was cognitive. In this category we included the use of intertwined symbol systems in young children's' writing development as in Anne Dyson's work. The overlap between mental categories are also common to all academic domains e.g. careful observation unites science and visual art. Also the emphasis on motivation, engagement, and emotions as Burger and Winner claim. The work of social constructivists transfers us from the cognitive to higher order thinking and metacognition. Our claim that the process that Vygotsky identified as developmental carries over into mental operations in new domains- that is when we enter a domain we know very little about we have to rely on a semi-developmental progression from concrete to abstract ideas. Here enter Elliot Eisner and his emphasis on the mental operations connected to creativity, appreciation and complex processing. Efland and his focus on Metaphor as a key mental process fits the scheme here too.
I know this is a little heavy for a blog but these are the ideas we're exploring now.

Summer Promises

2008-06-09T01:40:00.000-07:00

More than any other summer, this summer opens with the promise of great achievement. I (we really) have much data to go through- the goal is to send at least three papers for publications- we must take all that we've learned and gathered evidence on and share it with others. Monique has made it to Nebraska and we are going to set the bar high- but I hope reasonable. We will spend the next five weeks improving existing texts that we've been working on for a while. As I said high hopes but- then again it is much easier at the beginning of summer than at its end.
Nancy is staying in California finishing her dissertation that I hope she will share with us through this blog.
I've said it before but it is worth repeating- I see my role as moving the field from lore to evidence. I believe that we know and we've seen the impact of the arts in the curriculum but we must also provide evidence. The kind of evidence that decision makers would like to look at. In my case it is quantitative- the challenge is continuously look for valid measures that do not reduce a complex story to a single measure.
Jean and I have also promised to work with the Sheldon Museum of Art on their Statewide program, nothing is set yet but I hope we'll be able to contribute something to this great program serving communities across Nebraska.

Evidence Based Education and Patience

2008-06-01T04:02:00.000-07:00

There is great pressure right now for educational research to focus on evidence based practice. At the same time there is pressure on students to teach using the same kind of evidence. I have no problem with the approach- but I would like to see space and time for activities that may not have immediate visible impact on students. For example, I am pretty sure that taking students to the Opera, museum, and theater will not produce much of a result on their achievement tests that year. The experience is just not enough. The cumulative effect of these experiences over time should make a great difference but I suspect we are not patient enough to wait.
The same seems to hold for vocabulary development. Not every word that students read or hear will become part of their working vocabulary immediately. A year or so ago I was talking to one of our kindergarten teachers about vocabulary growth in her students. We were both somewhat frustrated by what seemed to be the lack of use of target vocabulary by the students. The conversation really started me thinking about the patience. We want results now but need to recognize that in some areas we need patience and the understanding that the impacts are beyond one or even three years in school.

A Day with CA Teachers

2008-05-23T15:52:00.001-07:00

I love coming to work with Arts LINC teachers in California. There is a charge in the air- they are here to work- as professionals. I shared our latest findings. Students starting the writing process with visual arts gain more in vocabulary and their writing is much improved in both quantity and quality. Furthermore, English language learners benefit greatly from the visual arts strategy.
We also found that creating the art was a lot more powerful than just observing it. The teachers reported that they can do without the arts but they find that they have to work much harder to motivate and scaffold their students. The art is a powerful scaffold and the personal investment with it as a motivator, memory bank, and resource should not be underestimated.
The teachers are a powerful group to interact with and I am energized to go back and start looking in more details at our data. It is going to be a great summer to look at the data and ponder how we can make this even better. All areas visual arts, writing and vocabulary seem to benefit. The works the teachers brought with them from spring units were fantastic sa sample of kindergarten art is at the top. Oops boarding the plane back to NE. Great Memorial Day weekend to all.

Assessment of Student Art

2008-05-18T05:43:00.001-07:00

I sat all Friday morning with Mindy Amy and Kristen with the explicit goal of looking at kindergarten student Art and trying to come up with a scoring scheme.
Some people refer to such attempts as "subjective" others resist any attempt to assess student art. My experience shows that these assessments are not more subjective than others we use- as long as we clearly define expectations. If the person making the judgment is well trained and the definitions are clear there is no problem. The only risk is in starting to make assumptions about student intent, that's where our work gets tricky. I have a really hard time attributing intent in art making to young students. We, therefore, tried to limit such attributions and make judgments only based on what is actually present in the artwork. In the future I'd like to accompany some of the work with some audio and a few aesthetic question son we can better understand intent- then again there is always more data to collect.

A few months back we brought an graduate student with Art experience to work with us on assessment. She pointed out that we cannot understand the assessment without knowing the teacher's goals within a lesson. The media and directions controlled the outcomes to the point that interpretation losses validity. While I do not completely agree [in early childhood we observe often like that] tapping into teacher goals has been very illuminating. For example in the attached student art the intent was to focus on secondary colors as students drew apples with watercolors. Despite the explicit goal focusing on colors the art allowed to observe two more features. Many students tried to give their apples a three dimensional feel by using color gradations and lines. The second was that in trying to describe their apples they almost never described the colors in any way...

Looking at the Art provides a window to what students can do. It also provides a window to what teachers are emphasizing in their instruction and what they deem less important. The vocabulary [not presented here] by the way was great.

Our assessment of student art includes now the developmental rubric (originally by Nancy A.) though we are adding to it a parallel space rubric that will apply to still life portraits etc. Then we assess whether state standards are achieved and teacher explicit goals are met. Finally we assess the number of links between the art and language activity. In the case of Apple art the language generated was a list of three descriptors for the apples. Even for a first time I must say that we were incredibly consistent with very few disagreements. We will continue working on this for most of the summer so stay tuned.

Sunday Morning Tea- Looking for Clarity

2008-05-11T04:50:00.001-07:00

As I sip my tea, black with honey, I am looking for clarity. In her Swanson award acceptance speech Margaret Macintyre-Latta used the fog of her childhood's Canada as a metaphor for her educational worldview. The talk made me think of my own childhood and the bright unrelenting light of Israeli summers as well as the clear crisp days where you can see for ever. In my own work I look for clarity, the kind that I can hold firmly in my hand. This approach is limited as somethings are elusive and defy clarity. The context is a chapter I am writing about Evaluation of Arts Education programs, I am trying to clarify to myself what I mean by Professional Development as Curriculum. Curriculum doubtlessly matters, but in recent years we seemed to start focusing on curriculum as the only thing that matters, maybe even more it is curriculum as driven by assessment but I digress. [the tea cup is empty and my throat feels much better] The failure of this approach may be the seen in the demise of Reading First [disclosure I am the Reading First evaluator for Nebraska].
In Arts LINC we are using a different approach that looks at teacher professional development as the key to changing the way classrooms work and student achieve. This is by no way original, but we are explicitly trying to change the way we all talk about change in school. It does take guts to say what we offer is not the only thing that can work just a version of it. But what does it mean to turn the Professional Development in the curriculum? We have some teachers that have internalized the ideas of arts integration into their practice so well that in their day to day practice it is inseparable. Others do the units we ask them to with varying degrees of fidelity but it is clear that they have not internalized it as part of everyday practice. Maybe clarity is by looking at examples. The tea is done children waking up more later...

Oral rehearsal

2008-05-09T10:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I gave every student had a different piece of metamorphosis art created by Maria Merian. I had them observe their own silently for a few minutes.

I then used a QUEST book to provide questions and had them each share their responses with a partner. At one point I gave them one minute to talk before they had to switch turns.
They had to use as many of our target vocabulary words as they could that "worked" with the painting.

When the timer went off, they said, "That went too fast!"

Arts and literacy connections

2008-05-09T07:09:00.000-07:00

In the quote from the Writing Committee NCTE 2004 they wrote: Writers often talk in order to rehearse the language and content that will go into what they write.
It would seem to me that the arts provide another vehicle to rehearse the ideas and content in a more holistic manner. They go on to discuss how important writing is for thinking--thus I would propose that the arts also provide children with opportunities for thought that then can be translated into text. NancyA

York

2008-05-08T19:10:00.000-07:00

Arts LINC was born out of the work on visual art and writing, a part of Project RAISE (Reading and arts integrated for Student Excellence). The project uncovered a consistent theme of vocabulary development with students who were involved in active VIEW (Visual Integration to Enhance Writing) classrooms. As the project evolved we observed the change in oral language for all students. At the same time research literature about vocabulary development has reached a point of maturity. Research has pointed to increasing vocabulary as a key to narrowing the achievement gap. Arts LINC seeks to build on the work of VIEW that helped children communicate through art and writing and add the dimension of focused vocabulary development. It is the conviction of this project that the arts add for the student the dimension of meaning and emotion to literacy acquisition.

We spent the day with our teacher-researchers in York. The energy in the room was great. The question is how can we maintain this energy and get better at what we do...