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.
Guest Post: Creating Space for Child-centered Work
Facilitator Victoria Albaracin and participant Aiano Nakagawa reflect on the September 10, 2019 Practitioner Exchange: Creating Space for Child-centered Work
From Victoria: I love how a community, who does not know each other personally, can come together to discuss different topics and then brainstorm ideas to deeper our practice and pedagogy. I think we have a unique opportunity as educators to collaborate and learn from one another that we might not get in our normal teaching communities. This exchange for me was especially valuable because I am still growing as a dance educator and finding more ways to integrate into my general education classroom. I’m super excited because I’m taking over the dance program for kindergarten at my school and I plan on using the ideas that were shared during our exchange, and I feel like we have a community that can continue to share with one another outside of the Practitioner Exchange.
From Aiano: One major question that came up was: What is the role of the teacher and in true-child centered play? We reminded ourselves that the teacher is not the center. It can feel destabilizing to stand back, like you’re not doing anything as the teacher, when, in many cases, that’s the best thing you can do. Especially in dance, we sometimes feel we have to prove we are teaching/educating, so we take more power/control over the class than necessary. It was validating to hear and agree that stepping back and letting children be is important – and essential – to their development and growth. From this place we can watch children’s own interests and inquiries reveal themselves, and as we listen deeply and ask questions, a new curriculum, one led by our students, can emerge.
Victoria Albaracin is a kindergarten teacher and newly self-identified dance educator at Ascend Elementary School in Oakland, CA.
Bay Area Arts Advocacy Reports
The Bay Area is known for its rich arts ecosystem, and for its history of activism and advocacy – but what about arts advocacy? What is our legacy & our future in speaking up for the arts?
Check out Jessica Mele’s blog on “The Promise of Arts Advocacy” as she shares & reflects on two reports commissioned by the Hewlett Foundation: Current Perspectives on Arts Advocacy & How to Better Support It in the Bay Area and Bay Area Arts Advocacy: A Historical Overview. These reports are visual & easy to read – and they feature Luna’s Director of Creativity & Policy Nancy Ng!
Need easy access to the new CA Dance Standards? There’s an app for that!
Now you can have the new CA Dance Standards in the palm of your hand! The CA Department of Ed has launched a new mobile app that allows teachers to search, filter, and sort standards to isolate specific content, identify standards common across disciplines, and inform decisions around instruction and assessment. Currently available for handy access to the Arts (including Dance), Computer Science, Health Education, History–Social Science, and Mathematics content standards. Forthcoming updates will add standards from additional content areas, such as English Language Development and English Language Arts, and will provide additional features to enhance the usefulness of the application to California educators.
More information about this free mobile download here.
Plus, you can now export the arts standards to Excel by choosing the “Download These Results” option. While this feature is available on any device, you will find the best results appear when using this on a computer with a web browser, specifically Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome. Users can download all content standards or simply what was located in the filtered search.
How to do it:
Visit the Search the California Content Standard page
Select “Individual Standards” drop-down menu
Select “Arts”
Without adding any filters, select “Download These Results”
If your web browser prompts, choose “Save”
An Excel worksheet of all Arts Content Standards will be in your downloads folder
The impact of the Summer Institute – reflections by the SI 2018 cohort
The 2018-19 Summer Institute (SI) cohort includes 12 dance teaching artists and classroom teachers from all over California: the Bay Area, Santa Barbara, San Benito, and Port Hueneme. Collectively, they teach over 2,300 students in schools, preschools, studios, and community centers. During their Midyear Meeting in January, they reflected on their growth as dance educators, advocates, and leaders during their SI year. See what they have to say!
“My coach has helped me with sticking with incorporating dance into my classroom environment, even when I feel like I’m struggling.”
“My coaches helped me feel confident in developing appropriate material in the classroom, backed by research, which also gave me confidence. And in organizing a committee for a union, which we got, and I’m in a leadership role for that. I feel like Luna helped inspire me with the research-based knowledge that helps me fight for what I know is right in teaching.”
“Having the network and the connection, not just with the coaches, but this full team, has helped me feel more connected in feeling the breadth of work happening in dance education. This makes me feel more likely to stay in the field, knowing what other people are doing.”
“The SI has helped me give language to the impact that dance programs have on children, especially in the areas of content standards for dance, making a case for dance, and raising funds for programming. The SI community itself, and communicating with other dance educators has been extremely impactful because it gives me a sense of relief and immediate understanding.”
“This whole experience has been very validating to me. Seeing that it’s not just teaching dance, it’s this lifework & vocation, that’s been very empowering. It did make me want to be a leader in my life. One example: at the school where I work there is an organization that does equity work with the staff. Then they train some of the staff to continue the work, and I agreed to train to be a facilitator.”
“Having the language and the repertoire to explore different concepts has really opened my eyes to the possibilities of movement, even within folkloric forms. I’m now picking up – “oh, that’s that, or that’s that!”. I was always unsure of how to teach young children how to move their bodies because I wasn’t sure what’s appropriate, what’s too much. So I feel a lot more confident with understanding the developmental stages, the language of dancing, and increasing their general vocabulary.”
Guest Post: Early Childhood Curriculum Exchange
by Kristin Burke
Some conversation take-aways & tips
As early childhood dance teachers, we find richness in classroom transitions as opportunities to use dance. Transition dances can include freeze/copy/movement dance or song with added motions. Simple dance movements (such as marching, tip-toe, etc) can also be used to transition from one physical space to another.
To support the needs of each child, try turning your “teacher request” into a goal that is something interesting or a fun challenge; this is especially helpful for 4-to 5-year-olds. Children, especially young ones, benefit from proprioception feedback and activating their vestibular system. Activities to help students in need of more touch include tug of war, tension, feel their bodies, “body surfing” for contact/touch.
As educators and dance advocates, we find it is necessary, and sometimes challenging, to find ways to distinguish dance time from other times in the classroom. In the classroom, perception of safety is critical. Dance time has different rules than other times of the day. A dance “container” can be established by holding a ritual at the beginning of the dance time, with the teacher reminding students that this is a special time for dancing and that dancing has different rules than classroom time. A simple sound (bell) or light cue can also serve as a transition to dance time.
Storytime is a great opportunity to use movement and integrate dance into “non dance” times. Books such as From Head to Toe and Barnyard Dance are good resources. Free dance can be used with children as a way to encourage and invite children to stay in their bodies. Music ideas for dance include movie soundtracks and anything instrumental or dramatic.
Kristin Burke is a lead teacher with Urban Montessori Charter School. True to Maria Montessori’s vision, Kristin feels committed to education that begins in the body and reveals itself through purposeful, connected, and creative movement.