New Partnership: Arts for Learning and the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Atlanta

Arts for Learning Program Breaks New Ground

Boy's & Girls Club, Mary Moya and Teaching Artist, Roberta Stutzman

Young Audiences' Arts for Learning Program breaks new ground by starting off the 2011-2012 program year collaborating with the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Atlanta. The after school program at both the Lawrenceville Center (Lawrenceville) and A. Whorley Brown (Norcross) will feature an Arts for Learning Residency in October and early November. One day a week for 6 weeks, students in grades 2-5 will create an individual collage representing their own interpretation of the qualities of a hero as described in the featured story. They will share their experiences in this work with an invited audience. The weekly classes are taught by an Arts for Learning Teaching Artist with the support of the Boys & Girls Club's Education and Visual Arts staff.

RECOGNITION FOR ARTS FOR LEARNING SUPPORTERS

Woodruff Salutes & Arts for Learning Supporters

The Arts for Learning Program congratulates Elizabeth Eppes and Roberta Stutzman for being among the 2011 Nominees of the Woodruff Salutes. The Woodruff Salutes Georgia Arts in Education Leaders Recognition Program is designed to promote the value of the arts in education through recognition, cultivation, and engagement of leaders throughout Georgia who have championed and demonstrated the ability of the arts to positively impact the lives and learning of young people in grades Pre-K through 12. The honorees are chosen for their exemplary leadership in arts education and their impact on the community, state, and discipline they serve.

Elizabeth Eppes is the Coordinator of Visual and Performing Arts with the DeKalb County Schools. The strength of Elizabeth's early program vision served as a catalyst for the collaboration with Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center that brought the Arts for Learning Program to the DeKalb County Schools.

Roberta Stutzman is a former Art Educator at Rainbow Elementary School in DeKalb County and the 2010-2011 Teacher of the Year for Rainbow. Roberta is now a Teaching Artist in Young Audiences' Arts for Learning Program.



Arts for Learning at Decatur Arts Live

 Arts & Literacy Programs Alive in Decatur Festival

Young Audiences and the 4/5 Academy at Fifth Avenue
host
Decatur ARTS Live

Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center, partnered with the 4/5 Acacemy at Fifth Avenue to present,for a second year in a row, the family arts festival know as Decatur Arts Live. August 27, 2011, over 40 artists on the Young Audiences' roster performed on the main stage and conducted workshops and hands-on crafts in smaller settings throughout the school.

Young Audiences literacy initiatives were also included in the line up of programs on display. Educators and parents interested in bringing arts intergrated literacy programs into their schools could check out the details on smART stART, Arts for Learning and Digital Storytelling.

Young Audiences is the premier arts-in-education provider in Georgia with a mission to transform the lives and learning of young people throught the arts.

STEM + ARTS

STEM + ARTS = STEAM

Can you see a Cardinal, Indiana's State Bird, in this sculputure?

Young Audiences Arts for Learning Network of Affiates gathered in Indianapolis in late April, 2011,  for an anual conference with the theme of Full STEAM Ahead. Representatives from Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) came together with Arts administrators and Arts practicioners to explore the learning impact of adding the Arts to this formula. Science, Technology, Engineering, ARTS, Mathematics becomes a powerful force for innovation and creative thinking.

With the start of a new school year, THINK STEAM!

Planning for a New School Year

Arts for Learning Gets Ready!

August in Georgia means the start of a new school year. Arts for Learning (A4L) Lessons, the integrated arts and literacy program offered by Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center, begins a second year of programming with the start of the 2011-2012 school year.

A4L programs offered this year will include Visual Arts (Everyday Heroes), Music (Planting a Community) and Dance (Words in Motion). Check back soon to see an announcement of the schools that are bringing Arts for Learning Lessons to their school this year.

Rebecca organizing materials for collage activity.

Quality programming depends on the best efforts of a professional staff and dedicated volunteers.  Arts for Learning Lessons Program Director Barbara O'Brien is grateful for the advanced preparations completed by Heather and the Young Audiences team along with volunteers Becky and Rebecca to ensure a succesful learning experience for A4L students and teachers.

Arts for Learning (A4L) Lessons is a national professional development program developed by Young Audiences, Inc. in collaboration with the University of Washington. It is designed to train teachers in strategies for arts and literacy integrated instruction. The program is research driven with outcomes that measure teacher effectiveness, student engagement, and student achievement in reading and writing.

Arts for Learning Lessons: Beyond the Pilot

IMAPCTING LITERACY THROUGH THE ARTS

THE PILOT

Arts for Learning (A4L) Lessons was developed nationally by Young Audiences, Inc. in collaboration with a University of Washington design team led by Dr. John Bransford. The strength of the program is that it educates the whole child by developing the students' ability to learn and process information as they work back and forth between arts and literacy tasks. Young Audiences trains teachers to deliver 16 hours of sequential instruction, 2-3 sessions per week, 40-60 minutes per session, to students during the regular school day. Students spend time working througth text with the instructor and reinterpreting what they learn througth hands-on group work. Outcomes are characterized by student driven learning, strengthened critical thinking skills and highly engaged hands-on learning.
 



The second part of the program is 5 hours of of arts instruction in a residency format. Led by a Young 

Audiences teaching artist, the residency allows students to work individually in a particular art form. At the program's conslusion, student are given a chance to share their knowledge and artwork with peers, parents, and the community.

Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center introduced this program to Georgia in the spring of 2010. Teachers from seven DeKalb County elementary schools were nominated by their principals to partipate in the Professional Learning experience. During this training, the teachers developed their skill in blending reading, writing and art techniques in order to analyze and interpret their understanding of an assigned book. (See intial post for this blog on October 4, 2010 for more details.)  Returning to their schools, each teacher pair guided their students through the same process of analysis, critical thinking and creativity.

The research components of the Arts for Learning Lessons program were conducted by WestEd and Roanoke College.

YEAR ONE

Fall, 2010

The fall semester marked the first opportunity for schools to apply to be accepted into the Arts for Learning Lessons Program.

Adrian School of Performing Arts



Adrian School of Performing Arts was the first school outside the Metro Atlanta area to collaborate with Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center in the use of the Arts for Learning (A4L) Lessons Program. Teachers in grades 4, 5 & 7 plus the literacy coach particiapted in a full day of professional development held at their school. With funding support from the Nordson Corporation Foundation, the participating Adrian teachers and students worked with A4L Unit 3: Everyday Heroes. A Young Audiences teaching artist delivered the Hero's Journey Residency. A 7th grade boy, after reading the biography of Roberto Clemente and creating a community collage on that text, commented that that "It (A4L Lessons) is better than just reading a book and answering the questions. It helps you remember the story better". 



Sawyer Road ES

Teachers at Sawyer Road Elementary School introduced Arts for Learning (A4L) Lessons to students in grades 3, 4, and 5 of the schools' extended day program. Students met 3-days a week from October - December. The results of their hard work were shared with fellow students. Principal Jill Sims presented them with A4L certificates. Ms. Debbie Burleigh, Assistant Principal, described the Arts for Learning Program as "a wonderful experience for our students and our teachers".

Spring, 2011

In the Spring sememster of the 2010-2011, we returned to our roots in DeKalb County Schools to work with three new elementary schools.

Atherton



Selected Atherton teachers and students in grades 2, 3, 4 and 5 participated in Arts for Learning

Lessons  during the school day. Atherton gave us the model of a music teacher and 5th grade classroom teacher collaborating to deliver this arts and literacy integrated program.

Glen Haven



Glen Haven served as our first school completing a second year of Arts for Learning Lessons. Classroom teachers and YA teaching artist once again delivered Arts for Learning Lessons in an afterschool format for students in grades 4 and 5. From the Glen Haven Arts for Learning Team: "The Arts 4 Learning After School Program provided our students with an additinal literacy safety net. The Instructional Units are correlate to the Georgia Performance Standards which helped our boys and girls to acquire a deeper understanding of literacy while learning more about Art Forms, Techniques, and Elements. We were excited to learn that 96 % of the students that participated in the program (during the Pilot) met or exceeded the Reading Standards on the Georgia Criterion Referenced Competency Test".

Idlewood

Idlewood taught us how to work with an entire grade level. The Art Educator served as A4L Site Coordinator and Team Leader, and all 6 classes of second grade students participated in the Arts for Learning Program and Residency.  One of the teachers carried the A4L arts and literacy strategies into work her students did in Science and also in the creation of cards for Mother's Day.

Special Activities

During this first full academic year of Arts for Learning Lessons in Georgia schools,  Arts for Learning Program Director attended and gave presentations at several state and national conferences, including Georgia Arts Education Association, Beyond School Hours, and National Young Audiences.

Arts for Learning Lessons Goes to Camp: Camp Stories

The Journey Continues

The Hero's Journey (Arts for Learning Lessons Program) is one of the scheduled classes Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center offers campers at City of Atlanta Recreation Centers (Morningside, Dunbar, Bessie Branham, Rosel Fann) this summer.

Students follow the story adventures of a fictional hero on a quest.  As the students hear about the hero's wisdom, courage, and compassion, they reflect on those characteristics in their own lives and represent these stories in their art projects.

Teaching Materials Based Upon Arts for Learning Lessons Residency Plan and Created by YA Teaching Artist, Roelna Bashew