VAPA Update - SmART Schools NewsWinter08-09.pdfRegional Blueprint for Arts Education. In January,...

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1 VAPA * Update *Visual And Performing Arts Curriculum and Instructional Services Winter 2008/09 In this issue... Visual and Performing Arts activities in districts throughout Los Angeles County: Pomona • Glendale • Pasadena Santa Monica • Palos Verdes Peninsula Norwalk-La Mirada • Hacienda La Puente (City of Industry) • Alhambra LAUSD • L.A. County Office of Education (LACOE) Mona Lisa Gets a Makeover At Palomares Middle School in the Pomona Unified School District, art students are using higher-level thinking skills while creating their artwork. A recent example of this is a unit on the Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci taught by art teacher Betty Cavanaugh. While viewing a PowerPoint presentation about the artist, students used the Cornell system of note-taking to organize their information. Afterward, students analyzed their writing by incorporating Thinking Maps, a system similar to graphic organizers. The unit covered several Visual Arts Standards and generated many in-depth lessons about Leonardo the artist and the scientist. But a culminating lesson for students allowed them to use their sense of humor along with skills in analysis and interpretation. Students had to give Mona Lisa a “makeover.” Since she has been wearing the same brown dress and sitting in front of the same landscape for six-hundred years, Mona was interpreted with new clothes and a different scene behind her. Although her famous pose and hairstyle had to remain the same, students created colored pencil interpretations that were insightful and amusing. Creative scenes depicted Mona at a football game, on the beach in Hawaii and riding in a spaceship. Through these lessons focused on higher-level thinking skills, Mona Lisa became a new friend and Leonardo da Vinci became an exciting source of inspiration. n —Betty Cavanaugh, Art Teacher Arts for All in Glendale Glendale Unified School District is pleased to announce that the district is participating in the Arts for All: Los Angeles County Regional Blueprint for Arts Education. In January, Glendale educators and community members will begin designing a strategic plan with our coach, Yael Silk. The Glendale Education Foundation has graciously funded our membership fee. We look forward to a fruitful collaboration with our district and community participants. Toll Middle School student working on a standards-based creative art assignment in Judith Bakly’s art class. A Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) lesson plan template has been developed. The template includes the VAPA and Core Curriculum Standards, vocabulary, writing prompts, differentiation strategies, website links, Master Artist biography and information, literature resources and extension activities. The template was used to create lessons that integrate standards- based arts lessons into the Houghton-Mifflin Elementary Language Arts curriculum. Dr. Joan Shoff, VAPA Coordinator, and two GUSD elementary teachers, Lisa Jenkins and Jennifer Epstein, have developed a packet of integrated lesson plans for K-6 teachers. Elementary schools are in the process of piloting the lessons. To assist GUSD elementary teachers the district has created an Elementary Committee that meets monthly to discuss methods of integrating the arts, resources, provide professional development, and guest speakers. The secondary VAPA teachers have been collaborating to implement cross- curricular writing and developing Common Formative Assessments in all four art disciplines. n —Joan Shoft, Arts Consultant Glendale USD

Transcript of VAPA Update - SmART Schools NewsWinter08-09.pdfRegional Blueprint for Arts Education. In January,...

Page 1: VAPA Update - SmART Schools NewsWinter08-09.pdfRegional Blueprint for Arts Education. In January, Glendale educators and community members will begin designing a strategic plan with

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VAPA* Update*Visual And Performing Arts

Curriculum and Instructional ServicesWinter 2008/09

In this issue...Visual and Performing Artsactivities in districts throughout Los Angeles County:Pomona • Glendale • Pasadena Santa Monica • Palos Verdes PeninsulaNorwalk-La Mirada • Hacienda La Puente (City of Industry) • Alhambra

LAUSD • L.A. County Office of Education (LACOE)

Mona Lisa Gets a Makeover

At Palomares Middle School in the Pomona Unified School District, art students are using higher-level thinking skills while creating their artwork. A recent example of this is a unit on the Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci taught by art teacher Betty Cavanaugh.

While viewing a PowerPoint presentation about the artist, students used the Cornell system of note-taking to organize their information. Afterward, students analyzed their writing by incorporating Thinking Maps, a system similar to graphic organizers. The unit covered several Visual Arts Standards and generated many in-depth lessons about Leonardo the artist and the scientist. But a culminating lesson for students allowed them to use their sense of humor along with skills in analysis and interpretation. Students had to give Mona Lisa a “makeover.”

Since she has been wearing the same brown dress and sitting in front of the same landscape for six-hundred years, Mona was interpreted with new clothes and a different scene behind her. Although her famous pose and hairstyle had to remain the same, students created colored pencil interpretations that were insightful and amusing. Creative scenes depicted Mona at a football game, on the beach in Hawaii and riding in a spaceship. Through these lessons focused on higher-level thinking skills, Mona Lisa became a new friend and Leonardo da Vinci became an exciting source of inspiration. n

—Betty Cavanaugh, Art Teacher

Arts for All in Glendale

Glendale Unified School District is pleased to announce that the district is participating in the Arts for All: Los Angeles County Regional Blueprint for Arts Education. In January, Glendale educators and community members will begin designing a strategic plan with our coach, Yael Silk. The Glendale Education Foundation has graciously funded our membership fee. We look forward to a fruitful collaboration with our district and community participants.

Toll Middle School student working on a standards-based creative art assignment in Judith Bakly’s art class.

A Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) lesson plan template has been developed. The template includes the VAPA and Core Curriculum Standards, vocabulary, writing prompts, differentiation strategies, website links, Master Artist biography and information, literature resources and extension activities. The template was used to create lessons that integrate standards-based arts lessons into the Houghton-Mifflin Elementary Language Arts curriculum. Dr. Joan Shoff, VAPA Coordinator, and two GUSD elementary teachers, Lisa Jenkins and Jennifer Epstein, have developed a packet of integrated lesson plans for K-6 teachers. Elementary schools are in the process of piloting the lessons.

To assist GUSD elementary teachers the district has created an Elementary Committee that meets monthly to discuss methods of integrating the arts, resources, provide professional development, and guest speakers.

The secondary VAPA teachers have been collaborating to implement cross- curricular writing and developing Common Formative Assessments in all four art disciplines. n

—Joan Shoft, Arts ConsultantGlendale USD

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My Masterpieces: Discovering Art in My Community

This fall, Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) began pilot-ing a new elementary visual art program called “My Masterpieces: Discovering Art in My Community.” Over a dozen Pasadena-area museums and arts organizations worked with K-6 teachers to create the program, which intertwines classroom instruction with a field-trip experience. The shared goal of PUSD and its arts partners is to expand the program so that all of the district’s 10,000+ elementary school students visit a different arts institution every year, truly integrating arts instruction with the community’s arts resources.

As part of the pilot, seven classes of 2nd grade students from McKinley School were introduced to the public art in their com-munity. After taking the City of Pasadena Public Art Walking tour, students made figurative clay sculptures, abstract geometric murals, and clay “memory” vessels. Lessons met standards in social studies, math, and language arts as well as the visual arts. As one parent who had recently moved her child to McKinley from a private school commented, “Arts programs like this one are the reason why I love living in Pasadena.”

2nd grade McKinley students explore Helmick, Outerbridge & Schecter’s Pasadena Robinson Memorial.

4th grade students from Madison and Willard Elementary schools learned about Eva Fenyes, a prominent arts patron from the early 20th century, and the community of California artists she fostered. To complement the classroom lessons, The Pasadena Museum ofHistory designed a multi-faceted school visit program where students explored landscapes and portraits in Fenyes’ Mansion, painted in the gardens, and re-enacted a scene (in costume) from asilent film made on the museum’s grounds. One of the teachers commented that “the program was a joy to teach. The lessons were so well thought-out, and the field trip was great.” n

— Jennifer Olsen

Arts Education Leadership Series and LA ARTSmart Administrators Series

Deb Brozka, Arts Consultant from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, provided two powerful professional development workshops for Los Angeles arts coordinators and administrators.

The first workshop, entitled “The Art of Leadership: The Power of the Arts for Learners of all Ages,” was designed specially for principals and arts administrators and was held at the Huntington Library. The workshop provided leaders with powerful tools to engage learners through the arts. Administrators were taken through a variety of art-based strategies that could be used with faculty members to help create successful adult learning communities.

The Arts Education Leadership Series Session I, presented in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, was held on October 16th, at the Pacific Asian Museum in Pasadena. During the workshop, educators learned methods to deepen and assess student learning in the arts. Educators learned to effectively design performance task assessments and reflective practice sessions to be shared with their teachers. The workshop received high praise from all participants, who now realize the power of art assessment, especially if it is student driven.

Deb Brozka will continue working on arts assessment throughout the year with the Los Angeles County Office of Education’s Visual and Performing Arts Consultant, through the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association (CCSESA) Arts Initiative. n

— Geraldine Walkup, VAPA AdministratorLos Angeles County Office of Education

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SmART SchoolsSmART Schools is a project of Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), a global nonprofit organization that develops, delivers, and evaluates innovative programs to solve some of the world’s most urgent challenges in education, health, and economic development.

Over the past year, SmART Schools has been providing profes-sional development and on-site support to four participating Santa Monica elementary schools. This work is funded in large part by the U.S. Department of Education’s multi-year, research-based Arts in Education Development and Dissemination grant.

This summer SmART Schools launched a new strand of professional develop-ment focused on helping teachers culti-vate culturally responsive classrooms. This bold and innovative pilot effort is currently being offered to the four par-ticipating Santa Monica schools as part of SmART Schools’ ground breaking international partnership with Habla, the Center for Culture and Language, a lab school and international center based in Merida, México.

In both the summer and fall workshops, Santa Monica educators experienced a variety of innovative tools and techniques for integrating the arts into classroom environments. (This toolkit was assembled by the team of artists and teachers based at Habla.) Workshops utilized and modeled the best arts-integration practices from around the world, including: The Cordel from Brazil, Images and Words from México, and approaches for developing student literacy created by the Arts/Lit Project at Brown University.

The Cordel was also embraced, and put into immediate prac-tice, by school administrators to showcase a selection of their school’s best work at a district administrative retreat. An elegantly open-ended yet simple tool, the Cordel has been seized upon by teachers for the way it resonates and enriches the interaction of a small group of students or an entire site as it generates creativity and dialogue.

SmART Schools staff, partners and national and local master teach-ing artists will continue to enrich teacher practice at participating Santa Monica sites by providing professional development and on-site support. n

— Lynn Robb, Site Coordinator, SmART Schools West

K-6 Visual and Performing ArtsCurriculum Guide: Examples of Integrated Lessons

The Arts Education Branch of the Los Angeles Unified School District was pleased to partner with LACOE this summer in developing samples of quality arts integration with the other core disciplines: English Language Arts, Math, Science and History/Social Studies. This project was funded by the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association and will appear on their website, along with other resources for arts educators.

To write the lessons, we assembled four teams consisting of arts specialist teachers and classroom teachers, one in each art form - dance, music, theatre and visual arts. The teams spent one day with Creative Directions presenter Karen Erickson, practicing the elements of strong integration. We then parceled out the lesson tasks, so that there is one lesson in each art form, integrated with each of the other disciplines, at each grade level.

All this work does not add up to a curriculum, but it does give a teacher a representative example of high-level integration in lessons that begin with essential questions that offer substantive exploration in both the art form and the integrated discipline. An added advantage to us in LAUSD is that we can connect directly to these lessons from our K-6 Arts Instructional Guide, which is nearing completion this spring. The guide is available to view online at http://www.ccsesaarts.org/content/toolbox.asp. n

— Robin Lithgow, Elementary Arts Coordintor, LAUSD

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Velasquez Meets Picasso We are currently implementing our K-5 Visual Arts curriculum. We have art residencies in all of our third and fifth grade classrooms and grade level lessons on the elements of art. The units begin with observation and discussion of a work of art. Students are led through a discussion by the classroom teacher with questioning techniques learned in Visual Thinking Strategies. “What is happening [in the painting]?” “What do you see that makes you think that?” “What else do you see?” “What do you wonder about?” Or, “What questions do you have about the painting?” The classroom teacher acts as facilitator, not art expert. Students make meaning from the observations and insights of their peers.

When discussion of the painting(s) has taken place, the teacher has a menu of activities/projects to choose from that connect other curricular areas to the painting: Visual Arts• Make a list of things that appear in the foreground, middle,

and background.• Explain how the artist used color to focus the viewer’s attention.• Describe which painting you prefer and why. • Using clues in the painting, predict what will happen after

this scene.Theatre• With a partner or group, write and perform a script as the

characters of the painting, answering the questions of “who, what, where, when, and why.”

Social Studies• Describe to the class the elements in the painting that depict

another time and culture.Language Arts• Explain to the class what is happening, in your opinion, in

the painting (oral presentation)• Write a story from the point of view of one of the characters

in the painting. n

—Julie Beckman, Arts Facilitator, Palos Verdes Peninsula USD3rd Grade Lesson: Students compare two versions of the

painting “Las Meninas” by Diego Velasquez and Pablo Picasso

Norwalk-La Mirada VAPA

The Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District continues to move forward with its Visual and Performing Arts plan of adding new VAPA courses, integrating the arts into core curriculum, and continuing teacher professional development in the arts. VAPA courses have been added at various schools throughout the District, including Guitar at El Camino Continuation HS and Los Coyotes MS, Vocal Music at Hutchinson MS, Corvallis MS, and Los Coyotes

MS, World Percussion including Steel Pans at both Los Alisos MS and Corvallis MS, Orchestra at Morrison and New River Elementary Schools, as well as Beginning and Advanced Orchestra at Corvallis MS. Moffitt and La Pluma Elementary Schools have both added 6th grade band and choir classes taught by a full-time music specialist. Benton MS has added Visual Art courses into their schedule, Los Coyotes MS has added Art History, and Corvallis MS has added both Art and Ceramics courses into their schedule. Edmondson Elementary School has contracted with the Music Center of Los Angeles County to provide a school-wide Theatre Residency, including year-long teacher professional development. Nuffer Elementary School and Norwalk High School have both been selected to receive a California Arts Council Grant. This grant will place a Music Center Residency Artist in several classrooms at both schools, working with teachers and students integrating the arts into the core curriculum. n

—Karen Calhoun, VAPA ConsultantNorwalk-La Mirada USD

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Arts for All: Los Angeles County Regional Blueprint for Arts Education

Arts for All, the county’s strategic plan to restore dance, music, theatre and the visual arts in the 80 county school districts, has become a national model and has been recognized most recently as:

• The recipient of a $1.2 million grant from The Wallace Founda-tion. This grant will enable Arts for All to deepen its partnerships with the 28 school districts which joined the initiative between 2003-08 and strengthen advocacy for arts education.

• The focus of the very first Americans for the Arts’ Knowledge Exchange, “District-Wide Change in Arts Education,” October 27-28, 2008, hosting 100 national arts, business, education, and government leaders to explore Arts for All through interactive workshops and conversation. Case study workshops were presented by teams from Burbank USD, LAUSD and Mountain View SD. Leaders from Culver City USD and Inglewood USD were also featured as speakers.

• One of only six collaborative arts education efforts in the nation included in a June 2008 RAND study. Arts for All was cited as an outstanding example of “how organizations that pool resources and coordinate activities can make it possible for more children to benefit from arts learning.”

With the support of The Wallace Foundation grant, several new elements will be added to the technical assistance provided by Arts for All with the goal of providing all students with quality arts education. These include:

• The creation of an Arts for All leadership fellows program to enhance the arts education knowledge and awareness of school district leaders;

• The launch of a comprehensive professional development program for arts coordinators to support the delivery of quality arts instruction;

• The creation of a searchable database in LAArtsEd.org to centralize access to local and national professional development

providers for teachers; and • Pilot programs for the inclusion of arts education in teacher

preparation programs.

Arts for All School DistrictsLos Angeles County school districts that have or are in the process of adopting and implementing arts education in partnership with Arts for All include:

ABC, Alhambra, Bassett, Beverly Hills, Burbank, Castaic, Compton, Culver City, East Whittier, Glendale, Hacienda La Puente, Inglewood, LACOE, Lancaster, Little Lake, Lynwood, Manhattan Beach, Montebello, Mountain View, Norwalk La Mirada, Palmdale, Palos Verdes, Paramount, Pasadena, Pomona, Redondo Beach, Rosemead, San Marino, Santa Monica-Malibu, Saugus Union, South Pasadena, Temple City, Wiseburn.

To learn more about Arts for All, please visit www.lacountyarts.org or email [email protected]. n

— Kimberleigh Aarn, Arts EducationPlanning & Implementation Mgr., L.A. County Arts Commission

Linking the Arts Across the Curriculum at Cal State FullertonThe goal of professional development provided by Barbara Ricchio, Arts Point Person, Hacienda La Puente Unified School District, is to help teachers make the connections between the power of the arts and to enrich the learning processes across the curriculum.

This workshop correlated all four disciplines of visual and performing arts standards with key standards from other curricular areas: Language Arts, History Social Science, Science, Physical Fitness and Health. For example: workshop participants responded to music in writing, singing, and playing percussion instruments; engaged in a dramatic storytelling experience using core literature linked to historical and/or scientific facts; danced to music from the time period being studied or move to show the scientific processes; and participated in creative visual art experiences that connect to the artist’s life, illustrating a colorful time of history, science or literature. n— Barbara Ricchio, Arts Point Person, Hacienda La Puente USD

Los Angeles High School Showcases Student Artwork

The Los Angeles High School Art Department has incorporated a unit on East Asia and New Media into their curriculum. The lessons are aligned with the California Visual and Performing Art Standards. This multicultural unit is a series of lesson plans aimed at teaching the history and production of Chinese seals, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese landscape painting, and Chinese ceramics. Explore the free downloadable lesson plans and view student galleries online at www.ucla.onunwa.com. n

— Moohay Ahn Choe, Assistant PrincipalLos Angeles High School

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Los Angeles High School BandMarches to 19th Consecutive Win

Under Music Director Darnella Davidson, Los Angeles High School has won the All City Band Championship for the 19th consecutive year.

Los Angeles High School is the only LAUSD school that has achieved this honor. The Annual LAUSD Band and Drill Championship was held on December 13 at East Los Angeles College with 34 bands in the competition. The bands are judged in the areas of music, general effect and visual performance according to criteria established by the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association (SCSBOA). A 1-A Division school, Los Angeles High School band and color guards outscored bands in both the 1-A and 2-A divisions and received First Place in the 1A Blue Division.

Incredibly, the LAHS band has been winning the city champi-onships longer than some of the students have been alive! n

— Moohay Ahn Choe, Assistant PrincipalLos Angeles High School

From Alhambra Unified School District

The Alhambra Unified School District has continued instrumental music instruction for the fourth through eighth grade students, as well as the Gifted and Talented Visual and Performing Arts afterschool program this 2008-2009 school year. Utilizing the talents of retired arts teachers, the district has been able to extend arts offerings. The retired teachers have been providing professional development for the elementary teachers and specific instruction for the students. The first grade has been learning about literature, vocabulary, rhythm, and movement with the integration of the California State Standards for language arts and dance. Using the state-adopted text for music, as well as support materials, the second grade has been receiving a series of eight lessons in classroom music.

A Traveling Art Show with art prints and artifacts from ancient cultures, as well as follow-up visual arts lessons that correlate with the 6th and 7th grade social studies and visual arts curriculum and standards, has been presented at all thirteen elementary sites. This year the high school visual and performing arts curriculum has been enriched with the new and updated material and supplies that were purchased last year with the funding from the Arts and Music Block Grant. Many of the instrumental music students at the three comprehensive high schools have been working intensely with the band teachers. Their training has been in preparation for their debut on January 1, 2009. The Alhambra City Marching Band participated in the Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year’s Day! n

— Lynn Snowden, Arts Consultant, Alhambra USD

9300 Imperial Highway, Downey CA 90242-2890

Darline P. Robles, Ph.D., superintendentLupe Delgado, Ed.D., assistant superintendent Educational ServicesGeraldine Walkup, Visual and Performing Arts Administrator Division of Curriculum and Instructional Services

Visual and Performing Arts Contact Information:Geraldine Walkup, Visual and Performing Arts [email protected] • 562-922-6890

Jacqueline Negrete (pictured), 8th grade student from Fairgrove Academy, Hacienda-La Puente School District, was selected to design a Christmas ornament for the White House Christmas tree. The ornament represented Congresswoman Grace Napolitano’s District 38. Jacqueline and her mother attended the the First Lady’s artists reception at the White House on December 2, 2008. n

– Lisa Ruiz, teacher, Fairgrove Academy

Fairgrove Student Artist Goes tothe White House