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...
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Here I am up at the early hours on Sunday, too. Last night we went to a party to see my brother and sister-in-law off as they move to Oregon. While there, everyone was encouraged to write a note that would go into a scrap book. My grandson drew a picture of them. He made his Aunt Connie riding her horse with her hair flying. As I thought about this picture, its integrity, its personal ideas, its vitality, I considered all the assignments that where everyone makes the same cat. How can that work? there is no composition (in the compositional sense of composing your own ideas), no personal elaboration, no personal story, it is only skill building. It is important to note that there is nothing wrong with building skill, but the writing needs to be based on their own composition not the teachers.
Thus the assignments that are linking to writing or oral discussion must be a more personal interpretation of the subject or content. For example, the teachers who are doing "tame and wild" need to have art in which the child creates their own vision of tame and wild in their own style.
So back to professional development, in this skill based teaching world, I think it maybe difficult for teachers to let go. It is easier for everyone to make the same picture with a kitty on a rug than to say I am thinking about tame and wild animals, what animals do you think about when you think about tame and wild?
(That being said, art instruction prior to this is critical. The student armed with those skill building sessions now can be encouraged to assimilate them into their own composition.
I have been bugged by the "directed draw" lesson for years. Yet, somehow at early ages, they do need to build skill, and it seems easier (for the teacher probably) to teach "one subject" rather than have it be cook's choice. It seems that kids replicate what the teacher models anyway....
Maybe a thought would be to do the directed everyone-make-the-same-cat lesson, followed by now everyone make your own cat.... then write about that one. I think what may be "lost" by teachers like me (because of TIME) is the independent practice lesson that should follow the skill lesson. In art, both may have a product, so it is easy for the skill based product to be the end result.
I have been bugged by the "directed draw" lesson for years. Yet, somehow at early ages, they do need to build skill, and it seems easier (for the teacher probably) to teach "one subject" rather than have it be cook's choice. It seems that kids replicate what the teacher models anyway....
Maybe a thought would be to do the directed everyone-make-the-same-cat lesson, followed by now everyone make your own cat.... then write about that one. I think what may be "lost" by teachers like me (because of TIME) is the independent practice lesson that should follow the skill lesson. In art, both may have a product, so it is easy for the skill based product to be the end result.
I have been bugged by the "directed draw" lesson for years. Yet, somehow at early ages, they do need to build skill, and it seems easier (for the teacher probably) to teach "one subject" rather than have it be cook's choice. It seems that kids replicate what the teacher models anyway....
Maybe a thought would be to do the directed everyone-make-the-same-cat lesson, followed by now everyone make your own cat.... then write about that one. I think what may be "lost" by teachers like me (because of TIME) is the independent practice lesson that should follow the skill lesson. In art, both may have a product, so it is easy for the skill based product to be the end result.
As you all can see I am having technical difficulties "leaving the blog". What I said really isn't so important that it needs to be said more than once...sorry!
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