Supporting One Educator at a Time, Over Time
Jochelle Perena and Patricia Reedy – InDance
In a New Place: Dance & Disability in 2018
Patricia Reedy – InDance
Exploring Power and Agency in Early Childhood Dance
Aiano Nakagawa – InDance
Unleashing Dance’s Potential
Nancy Ng – InDance
Employing Teaching Artists: How Luna Dance Institute Strives to Professionalize the Field
by Cherie Hill – Teaching Artist Guild Quarterly
The Rights of Students to Equity in Arts Learning
If you are part of a California organization or school district, consider encouraging your administrators to adopt the Declaration of the Rights of Students to Equity in Arts Learning. Stating that all children deserve to have access to high-quality arts education, this Declaration asks for the dedication of appropriate resources to implement strategic arts plans that allow ALL students to participate in visual and performing arts learning. It also asks for a commitment to promoting arts learning that honors all cultures and languages by developing staff capacities, identifying community resources and creating opportunities for students to contribute to the design of their education. Find out more through Create CA.
California’s draft Arts Education Framework is open for public comment. Five reasons why you should read it.
by Mary Beth Barber, reposted from Create CA
California public school students have learned visual and performing arts under a series of standards and a framework that is 20 years old. That’s about to change. The State Board of Education adopted a new series of California Arts Standards for dance, media arts, theatre, music and visual arts in January 2019, and is poised to pair that up with a new Arts Framework as well.
Professional education writers worked diligently with a team of 20 arts education advisors for months from January to August this year. The draft Arts Framework is available for a first round of public review until December 1. Here are excerpts from the five reasons why you should read the draft Arts Framework and comment before the deadline. To read the whole article, go here.
Professional education writers worked diligently with a team of 20 arts education advisors for months from January to August this year. The draft Arts Framework is available for a first round of public review until December 1. Here are excerpts from the five reasons why you should read the draft Arts Framework and comment before the deadline. To read the whole article, go here.
- The Arts Framework will likely be in place past 2030. . The Arts Framework will be the leading guide for dance, media arts, music, theater and visual arts in California public schools… CDE published the last arts framework in 2004. This one will likely be in place for at least a decade, likely more. This is the time to have input.
- How schools teach the arts shifts with the new Arts Standards. The previous Visual and Performing Arts standards had a focus on content. The newly adopted Arts Standards are grounded in arts processes with anchor standards based on these processes. This represents a significant shift…
- Media Arts now stands alone. Media arts was not considered its own VAPA discipline previously…. That has changed…
- Prevent unintended consequences. While instructional frameworks are advisory, most schools abide by frameworks to the letter, and the language in a framework can have far-reaching consequences….
- Advocate for more arts education. The Arts Framework is not just for those who teach the arts in the classroom…The document directly addresses how to implement robust arts education in schools to further educational goals and positive school climate.
To read the various chapters, download the chapters from the California Arts Framework page from the Department of Education. Send comments to the Instructional Quality Commission through the Arts Framework Online Survey or by email to vapa@cde.ca.gov. When providing direct editorial edits or recommendations, utilize the line numbering as much as possible for straightforward consideration by the Commission.
Guest Post: Embodied Poetics – Writing & Dance
by Amanda Chiado, SI 2018
On October 8th I had the great pleasure of facilitating a Practitioner Exchange on Dance & Writing with the Luna Dance Institute following a year-long inquiry project which began in the Summer Institute 2018.
The PX was totally rejuvenating! It is so important to connect with others who are working in your field. We all shared ideas related to our creative and teaching practices. Participants discussed dance as a way to tap out of abstraction and into the body. For example, students can dance verbs instead of doing a worksheet. Capitalizing on opportunities to connect language to the body is essential to learning. We discussed the challenge of students growing both in dance and writing simultaneously, but determined that there can be a dialogue and fluidity between these two content areas that elevates them both.
We could have talked much longer, but here are some of the highlights:
- Creating dance sequences alongside exploring writing structure can help students learn beginning, middle and end, motifs, and revising and editing.
- Don’t forget a student can be assessed on content knowledge by doing a dance!
- Units centered on relevant topics that incorporate dance are powerful, such as a Dreamers Unit or a Borders & Boundaries Unit.
- Students can dance quotes, and journal about dancing.
- Dance the Pledge of Allegiance to engage students in a writing piece we are all familiar with.
- They can write a poem about Fibonacci and the dance of mathematics.
- Teaching is most engaging when we are trying new ideas, and when the content is student lead. What are students interested in and what is affecting them? Depending on the age of the students, topics can range from pirates to climate change.
- Integrated approaches to creativity support health and well-being, coping strategies, self-regulation and liberation.
- It is important to observe reflect, and evaluate and this goes for you and the students.
- Working backward in your planning to creates systematic learning opportunities.
Our conversation too, was like a dance that moves with meaning and feeling, and even a poem that flows and connects. I really appreciated the sharing of ideas, and the dedication of the group to creating meaningful experiences for their students that incorporate dance or are driven by dance. I came away swirling with thoughts and an affirmation of my deep commitment to my practice. Can we dance to Mad Libs? Let’s try it!
The final image that lingered on for me following our exchange was the Cinnamon Roll. Part of the conversation entailed an experience of dancing as a cinnamon roll, and using the descriptive language connected to the delicious treat as a way to engage in the dance. This image stays with me not just because I love food, but because it’s a concrete object that we can investigate, and use to inform our dancing and inform our writing. The delicate steam, twist and roll, the sticky, and doughy are all words that live boldly in the body. Become the cinnamon roll!
Amanda Chiado is writer, teacher and arts advocate. She is the Director of Arts Education for the San Benito County Arts Council and is an active California Poet in the Schools.