UCLA SMP EdNews, April 2006

by Pat Martinez-Miller and Barbara Linsley, UCLA SMP Faculty
in collaboration with Melinda Williams, Director of Education, Music Center Education Division

As the national conversation on high-stakes testing and the narrowing of public school curriculum and instruction heats up, the Music Center: Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County is perfecting a “grass-roots” way to improve student learning—not just in the arts but across the curriculum.  UCLA SMP is excited to be a collaborator in the Music Center’s planning.

The Music Center has been a leader in the professional development of educators since 1981.  Music Center programs help teachers and administrators understand an arts discipline through in-depth study of a classic or “anchor work” of art.  Educators work at a deep and personal level as preparation for developing lessons that do the same for students.  With funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Music Center’s acclaimed “Institute for Educators” take on the challenge of the “inch deep—mile wide” curriculum.  By engaging educators actively in the use of a single anchor work, the Institute allows teachers to develop thoughtful and effective lessons that teach not only to the Visual and Performing Arts Standards, but result in standards-based learning across the curriculum.

One Institute participant, Ann Fredal of Farragut Elementary School (Culver City USD), had her students study Robert Rauschenberg’s offset lithograph poster, “Earth Day.” The following poem by student Zoe Littleton is in response to Rauschenberg’s work, and it speaks for itself:

I Wonder Why there is Trouble on Earth
By Zoe Littleton, 4th Grade

I wonder why
people are polluting
our planet
I wonder why
they are taking away
our natural resources
Cutting down trees
and littering
all over the place
Hurting endangered animals
by taking away
their habitats
Smoking cigarettes
and causing people
to get sick
I wonder why
people are causing trouble
for the Earth.

During five-day Institutes, teams of teachers and administrators learn together, and then collaborate to develop four to five lessons that they will take back to their classrooms and schools.  Music Center artists and staff educators support the learning and continue a relationship with the schools and teachers after the Institutes to learn about the impact of the work, and to help Institute participants delve even deeper into the arts and effective pedagogy.

When this past year’s Institute participants reconvened in November to share their work following the July 2005 Institute, they cited the following lessons learned:

SUCCESSES Success for all students Students use arts vocabulary and higher level skills Teachers learn new strategies Easy to integrate Institute activities Students understood literature on deeper level Students owned work of art Renewed energy for teaching and learning Students ready to perform and enjoyed process Allowed for personal expression – enthusiasm conveyed to students Work from your heart The courage to teach the arts transcended the barriers
WHAT THEY WOULD REVISE OR DO DIFFERENTLY Without time constraints could go deeper Add writing reflection(s) Raise the bar for students Work in smaller groups more often
WHAT THEY WILL INTEGRATE INTO THEIR ONGOING PRACTICE Use strategies across the curriculum Look at something in depth to get deeper understanding Use Music Center Education Division website to get other lessons The arts are a springboard

In the words of participants themselves:

This is the best professional development that I’ve ever seen – ever.  Useful, engaging lots to learn.  I am filled with ideas; this will connect all the pieces.  This will become the core of how we look at things.

I was surprised how much I learned about the blues and Langston Hughes. [E]ven though I knew some of these things, I learned them in a deeper way.  I experienced it, I own it.

[In regards to Open Court], . . . if you really look at the themes and the skills that are addressed, the anchor works could apply beautifully.  We think of this as thematic teaching.  The teachers may find the anchor works approach a breath of fresh air with concepts that they have taught over and over.

Below are links to resources and education centers mentioned in this month’s issue:

Music Center’s Institute for Educators

Sample curriculum units that teachers developed and implemented after attending    the Institute for Educators

Music Center Education Division’s professional development programs

Information about Music Center Artsource materials

California Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) Standards

Link to join the Music Center Online Educator Network

In our March issue, we focused on integrating the arts throughout the curriculum and asked our readers, How does your school support the arts?

Richard Burrows, Director of the LAUSD Arts Education Branch, responded: I read with interest comments about the dismal state of affairs regarding the arts in public schools in California.  Please find attached information regarding the renaissance of dance, music, theatre, visual arts and media arts in LAUSD.  Many, many good things are happening.

Mark Slavkin, Vice President for Education – LA Music Center, Education Division, shared the following information: I'm glad the SMP newsletter focused on arts education.  However, I had a concern about one section lamenting the decline of arts ed in LAUSD.  The reality is, since 1999, LAUSD has made steady progress in reinvesting in the arts, hiring hundreds of arts teachers, and expanding access to quality programs throughout the District.

Marcus Connaghan, 8th grade Physical Science teacher from Berendo Middle School responded: As a new teacher in an LAUSD middle school, and someone who grew up with band and choir classes through most of my K-12 years, I was curious to know what we had available at my new school. From the bits that I have gleaned so far this year, we appear to have two music teachers serving a population of over 3300 students (one teaches band, the other choir and dance), one of whom I know works a "rainbow" shift -- i.e., he works year-round, serving all three tracks at our school. Because of our three tracks, some students are off-track when performances take place, and so have to come to afterschool rehearsals during their vacation in order to participate. I have heard and seen the band practicing, but have never heard the choir, and I have yet to attend any student-performed music assemblies (perhaps that only occurs when the C-track is away). There are posters and announcements made regarding this spring's performance of Fiddler on the Roof, which will be performed in a few months, again when C-track is gone, but I have yet to hear or see any rehearsing going on. I don't know how we can serve the artistic needs of our students when so much of our energy goes toward handling overcrowded classrooms and struggling to meet standards, but I'm glad that these two teachers are trying.

For this month’s topic:

Share with us a story from your own classroom experience about an unexpected, surprising, and/or powerful moment in a child’s learning, that was an outcome of his/her experience with the visual and/or performing arts.

We invite you to share your stories.  Please click here to email us your responses to this month's Combined Brainpower. We look forward to sharing your thoughts in future issues of EdNews.

“Art does not solve problems but makes us aware of their existence.
It opens our eyes to see and our brain to imagine.”
-- Magdalena Abakanowicz, Polish sculptor

Look for a special edition of SMP EdNews to be sent in late April 2006. This issue will focus on other unique test-taking strategies and successes!

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A nonprofit school reform initiative of the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, the UCLA School Management Program (UCLA SMP) is devoted to the sustainable transformation of public schools into learner-centered organizations where all students can achieve at high levels.

UCLA SMP works with educators, building and district administrators, and community members to improve student achievement by fostering well-managed schools where professional development enhances teacher effectiveness, builds community, and results in personal transformation.

Since the program was launched in 1992, UCLA SMP has worked with over 800 schools in districts throughout California.