Arts for Learning Lessons: Impacting Literacy Through the Arts

 The Arts for Learning Lessons (A4L) Program was highlighted in 2 workshop sessions during the recent Beyond School Hours XIV that was held in Atlanta for educators and staff in afterschool programs. The hands-on activity was the high point for the A4L workshop participants.

THE PROCESS

Glen Haven ES teacher, Kimberli Maxwell, read an excerpt from Jose Clemente, Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates by Jonah Winter to the participants. Members in each small group were asked to listen to the story of Clemente's early life in Puerto Rico and determine what details were most important. Each group had to agree on the most significant information given the facts they had just heard in the story excerpt.

The next task was to turn to turn to their  box of art supplies and select materials that would help them re-create the parts of the story that they found to be "most important".

THE FINAL PRODUCT

The A4L team presenting the workshop modeled the process students experiences as they move back and forth from reading text to group discussion, writing and hands-on art making. In the A4L Lessons Unit, Everyday Heroes, students complete this same cycle of work as they read the full story of Roberto Clemente's life and create narrative collages to express what they found to be the important details. 

Teachers, students - and workshop participants - all come to realize the powerful learning that results when literacy & the arts are combined.

Some of the final collages from the workshop are shown below.

Partnership Model for Student Success Through Literacy & The Arts

A4L LESSONS PROGRAM & GLEN HAVEN ES PARTNER for STUDENT SUCCESS

A4L Presenters: Barbara O'Brien, Vera McKenzie, Francine Goodman, Kimberli Maxwell

The good news came in November, 2010. The conference proposal to tell other educators about the partnership between Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center's Arts for Learning (A4L) Lessons and DeKalb County's Glen Haven Elementary School had been accepted! More importantly, we could now share the success students achieved by working with dedicated teachers in a curriculum based program grounded in literacy and the arts. February, 2011 was circled on the calendar as the date to give two presentations at the  Beyond School Hours XIV national conference in Atlanta, GA.

Inspired by the students' work in the A4L Lessons unit on Everyday Heroes, we designed a workshop that would allow participants to explore strategies for reflective thinking, creative problem solving, and critical thinking through literacy and the arts.

We used a team approach to talk about the partnership between the A4L Lessons program and Glen Haven Elementary School, the professional learning for the teachers, resources and instruction, assessment, and documented success for the students.

 

Participants working on Everyday Heroes Collage

For the participants, having the opportunity to experience the dynamic hands-on aspect of the literacy and arts activities was the highlight of the workshop. They heard an excerpt from the book, Roberto Clemente, Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The next task was to work in small groups (collage communities) just as the A4L students do to determine the important facts in what they heard then represent those facts in a group collage. The sharing at the end of the workshop again supported what we see in students who participate in the A4L Lessons program: the high level of engagement, processing information, decision making and unique responses from each group. 

Sharing Accomplishments

A4L Lessons & Grade Level Reading

Conference Organizers Include A4L Lessons Presentation in Grade Level Reading Strand

Participants attending the national Beyond School Hours Conference XIV in Atlanta could concentrate on a strand of program offerings that focused on helping students read on grade level by the end of 3rd grade. Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center's Arts for Learning (A4L) Lessons program was included in the list of 13 presentations available to educators focused on that topic.

Foundations for a Brighter Future, the organization that sponsored the conference,  shared their initiative Grade Level Reading, An Action Framework for School and District Leaders with all conference participants. This publication and the program offerings available at the conference were designed to help educators help students to stay on track with literacy skills. What research tells us is that students who are reading on grade level by the end of the 3rd grade are the students most likely to be successful throughout their school career.

More on Beyond School Hours Conference



Susan McQuade & Barbara O'Brien





A4L Leadership Team Takes Advantage of Conference Offerings

Susan McQuade, Director of Program Initiatives for Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center and Barbara O'Brien, Arts for Learning (A4L) Lessons Program Director, attended the Beyond School Hours national conference in Atlanta.  The conference workshops & large group sessions provided an ideal setting for professional learning as these members of the Leadership Team begin to plan the A4L program for the 2011-2012 program year.

Some of the sessions Barbara & Susan attended included topics on Family Engagement, Project Data Collection, Community Partnerships, Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners, Program Funding Sources and Creating Partnerships for Summer Program Delivery.

Afterschool: Effective & High Quality

National Conference In Atlanta

Beyond School Hours  XIV, the national conference organized by Foundations, Inc., is meeting in Atlanta from February 23-26, 2011. Programs at the conference offer opportunities to focus on student success in school, afterschool and in the community.

In one of the first sessions, we were all reminded that an effective & high quality afterschool experience for students and teachers is created when the following realities are in place:
> The staff sees themselves as educators.
> The responsible adults in the program know what students are learning during the school day
> Leaders are trained in appropriate methods & techniques for afterschool instruction and activities.
> The afterschool team has plans & tools to reflect on and assess the programs along with student progress.

This session was interesting and helpful as the Arts for Learning Lessons Program builds on its initial introduction in DeKalb County as an extended day program at 7 elementary schools.

A4L Lessons Teachers Presenting at Beyond School Hours Conference

Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center and DeKalb's Glen Haven Elementary School

Present at National Conference



Francine Goodman, Kimberli Maxwell, Vera McKenzie

Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center introduced the Arts for Learning Lessons Program to Georgia in Spring, 2011.  DeKalb County's Glen Haven Elementary School was one of the original 7 school sites for the extended day collaboration around this Arts & Literacy curriculum based program know as Arts for Learning Lessons.

The 3 Glen Haven teachers and Arts for Learning Lessons Program Director, Barbara O'Brien, decided to tell the story of the collaboration, teacher team building, and student achievement in the context of arts & literacy curriculum activities. They submitted a proposal to the Beyond School Hours XIV when this national conference convenienes in Atlanta, February 23-26, 2011.



Barbara O'Brien



Barbara is pleased to announce that the conference proposal has been accepted. Look for the A4L team at 2 sessions of the conference. The topic: Inspiring Everyday Heroes: A Partnership Model for Student Success Through Literacy and the Arts.