December 2009
Father Ryan Arts Center Receives Grant to Expand Reader's Theater Program
Photo Credit: Christopher Rolinson December 2009 | As former students will attest, combining elementary school children with fantastic stories of life and adventure, student-made props and a real theater setting, add in a little imaginative storytelling along with a few sound effects, and the end result is a reading and comprehension class disguised as a fun, creative learning experience for self expression.
Take Tara, for instance, who said, “I would rather read now than watch TV.”
Building on the success of last year’s Reader’s Theater program, the Father Ryan Arts Center of Focus On Renewal, has invited six more schools, in addition to the two already served, to participate in its innovative reading enrichment program. This is the second consecutive year that the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation has supported this program by awarding the Father Ryan Arts Center an additional $90,000 grant to expand Reader’s Theater for the 2009-2010 school year to include a total of more than 500 children from eight local schools:
- Sto-Rox Elementary School: (5) third-grade classrooms
- St. John of God Catholic School: (3) third-, fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms
Along with the addition of the following schools:
- Montour School District: Ingram Elementary School: (2) second-grade classrooms
- Montour School District: Burkett Elementary School: (4) second-grade classrooms
- Montour School District: Forest Grove Elementary School: (6) second-grade classrooms
- Cornell Elementary School: (3) second-grade classrooms
- St. Malachy Catholic School, Kennedy Township: (2) third- and fourth-grade classrooms
- St. Joseph Catholic School, Coraopolis: (1) third-grade class
Reader’s Theater incorporates drama, music, hand-made props and storytelling by re-envisioning the written word so -web.jpg)
Photo Credit: Christopher Rolinson students using expressive voices and gestures may explore subjects and characters more thoroughly. During the first term, which begins October 6, second, third, fourth and fifth graders will receive age-appropriate introductions to the reading materials, as well as hands-on involvement from professional theater experts and visual artists, (who will provide coaching and help create props,) while spending their reading classes at the arts center. The second term begins March 9 and runs through May 12. At the end of each nine-week course, students will stage their presentations before their peers and families.
Sto-Rox third grade teacher, Jennifer Bannon, also noticed a weekly improvement in her students’ fluency during last year’s program. “Their reading comprehension improved as they became more involved in the characters and plots of the stories,” she said.
For more information on the Reader’s Theater Program at the Father Ryan Arts Center, call 412.771.3052 or visit www.FatherRyanArtsCenter.org.
2010 Digital Media and Learning Competition: Reimagining Learning
December 2009 | As announced at the White House by President Obama on on November 23rd, the MacArthur Foundation and HASTAC unveiled the 2010 Digital Media and Learning Competition: Reimagining Learning.
Set to launch December 14, the Competition seeks proposals in two categories: 21st Century Learning Lab Designers and Game Changers. Both categories focus on participatory learning experiences that incorporate the principles of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Proposals will be posted for public comment at three stages and multiple awards will be made in each category, including a People's Choice Award in each category, for the proposals voted by the public as the most innovative and engaging.
Winners will be announced at a high profile event in Spring 2010. For more info, go to http://www.dmlcompetition.net.
New Free Online Learning Community - Choral Arts Society
November 2009 - ArtsEd Digest | The Choral Arts Society of Washington has launched an online expansion of its K-12 music education program: the FREE Choral Arts Online Learning Community. The website draws on Choral Arts’ 45-year history as an organization and its 15+ year history providing education programs for teachers and students in Washington, DC. The Online Learning Community includes free lesson plans aligned with the National Standards for Education, music-integration resources, full-length recordings of vocal works, downloadable composer study guides and teacher contests, among many other resources for classroom use. It also provides expanded resources supporting Choral Arts’ two print curriculum publications, Voices: A Teacher’s Guide (Civil Rights) and Celebrating Sacred Rhythms: A Teacher’s Guide (Latin American). To gain access to these resources, interested educators should visit the Choral Arts website and register for the Online Learning Community.
Dana Foundation and Johns Hopkins Release Neuroeducation Book
November 2009 | Last month , the Dana Foundation released Neuroeducation: Learning, Arts, and the Brain, its newest free education resource. The book, the culmination of a summit sponsored by The Johns Hopkins University School of Education’s Neuro-Education Initiative, focuses on the convergence of neuroscientific research and teaching and learning, with an emphasis on the arts.
In Neuroeducation: Learning, Arts, and the Brain, education and brain experts discuss their experiences, challenges, and potential next steps to allow for the crossover from classroom to lab and lab to classroom. The concerns and hopes of those working in the field are presented in a summary of the roundtable discussions that served as the centerpiece of the summit.
The book is available online. To request a free hard copy, e-mail jgoldberg@dana.org. Please include your institutional and mailing information.
Kennedy Center Enlists Art Groups for Education
November 2009 - Backstage.com | The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is starting a new program that could reinvent arts education for schools struggling with budget cuts and fewer art teachers, organizers said Friday.
The pilot "Any Given Child" project announced Friday for schools in Sacramento, Calif., could be expanded to as many as three cities each year, the center said. Under the strategy, the Kennedy Center will link local arts groups with schools to help teach students in grades K-8.
The groups will draft long-range plans specific to each city to ensure all students have access to music, theater and the visual arts. The Kennedy Center is devoting about $500,000 to begin the program and expects to keep costs low for local schools. More...
Achieving Balance in Districtwide Arts Assessment Systems - New SRI International Publication
November 2009 - ArtsEd Digest | California Alliance for Arts Education and California County Superintendents Educational Services Association are pleased to announce the publication Achieving Balance in Districtwide Arts Assessment Systems, authored by SRI International. The report reviews issues in district-wide arts education assessment systems.
The purpose of the research is to clarify issues and decision points that California school districts will face in developing assessment systems, improving program quality and enhancing reciprocal accountability for arts education.
No Child Left Behind and the emphasis on accountability exerted a considerable influence on what is taught in our schools. A broad curriculum, which includes the arts, has been narrowed, as schools must adhere to rigid standards of how academic progress is measured. In this context, what does accountability mean for the arts?
This report suggests that large scale assessment systems do have the potential to drive instruction in the arts, and that such systems are a vital mechanism toward achieving visibility among education leaders and policy makers outside the school district as well as improving program quality in arts education within the educational setting.
The full report is available online.
