Arts Articles, Videos, Resources, and More!
What An Arts Education Meant to Me – A writer meditates on how the Arts impacted her life, regardless of the fact that she ended up being a writer instead.
Austin’s Butterfly – See how simple critique in the classroom can help a student of any age transform his or her art!
Six Reasons That the Arts Are the Ideal Vehicle to Teach 21st Century Success Skills – Pretty self-explanatory title!
Music: Pathways to Opportunity
As you formulate your vision for this year, consider what you hope will be accessible for students thanks to what your classroom is accomplishing this year. What new opportunities will be available to them? How will you prepare them to take advantage of those opportunities, and be competitive for them?
A list of potential Pathways to consider for your vision are below!
SPOTLIGHT: Mississippi School for the Arts
We are starting a partnership with MSA! They want us to send them our students so that they can audition and try to get into their school on a scholarship! They are also starting a summer program next year, and are hoping to draw many more students in that way. We will also be partnering with them for some professional development later this year… SO, they have been kind enough to give us a glimpse into their audition requirements. Check them out!
- Mississippi School for the Arts: http://www.msa.k12.ms.us/index.htm
- Want to know the rubrics they use for their auditions? Check them out here: Vocal Music Audition Rubric
Potential Pathways for Music
- Berklee College of Music Summer Programs: http://www.berklee.edu/summer… Check out a video of what it takes to get in!
- Julliard Music Applications: http://www.juilliard.edu/apply-audition/application-audition-requirements/bachelor-music-and-diploma-table-contents
- Ole Miss Music Department Auditions: http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/music/prospective_students/auditions.html
- University of Southern Mississippi: http://www.usm.edu/music
- Interlochen Center for the Arts: http://www.interlochen.org/
- Ford Center for the Performing Arts: http://www.fordcenter.org/events/
- Mississippi Arts Commission: http://www.arts.state.ms.us/grants/artist-fellowship.php
Experiences
- Ford Center for the Performing Arts: http://www.fordcenter.org/events/
- Mississippi Theater Asssociation: http://www.mta-online.org/playwriting-competition
- Mississippi Arts Commission: http://www.arts.state.ms.us/grants/artist-fellowship.php
- Bologna Performing Arts Center: http://bolognapac.com
- Cathead Music Calendar: http://cathead.biz/CatHead/Music_Calendar.html
Art: Pathways to Opportunity
As you formulate your vision for this year, consider what you hope will be accessible for students thanks to what your classroom is accomplishing this year. What new opportunities will be available to them? How will you prepare them to take advantage of those opportunities, and be competitive for them?
A list of potential Pathways to consider for your vision are below!
SPOTLIGHT: Mississippi School for the Arts
We are starting a partnership with MSA! They want us to send them our students so that they can audition and try to get into their school on a scholarship! They are also starting a summer program next year, and are hoping to draw many more students in that way. We will also be partnering with them for some professional development later this year… SO, they have been kind enough to give us a glimpse into their audition requirements. Check them out!
- Mississippi School for the Arts: http://www.msa.k12.ms.us/index.htm
- Want to know the rubrics they use for their applications? Check them out here: Visual Art Drawing Rubric and Visual Art Portfolio Rubric
Opportunities
- Rhode Island School of Design Application and Portfolio Requirements: http://www.risd.edu/Admissions/Apply/Freshmen/
- Delta State University Arts Deparment: http://www.dsuart.com/
- Memphis College of Art Application and Portfolio Requirements: http://mca.edu/admissions/apply-online/undergraduate-application/
Other Competitions:
- Ole Miss Brain Brawl: http://www.outreach.olemiss.edu/academic_competitions/brainbrawl.html
Museums
- Mississippi Museum of Art: http://www.msmuseumart.org/
- Mississippi Arts Commission: http://www.arts.state.ms.us/grants/artist-fellowship.php
- Mississippi School for the Arts: http://www.msa.k12.ms.us/index.htm
- Museum of the Mississippi Delta: https://museumofthemississippidelta.com
- Delta State University Art Department: http://www.dsuart.com/
Dance: Pathways to Opportunity
As you formulate your vision for this year, consider what you hope will be accessible for students thanks to what your classroom is accomplishing this year. What new opportunities will be available to them? How will you prepare them to take advantage of those opportunities, and be competitive for them?
A list of potential Pathways to consider for your vision are below!
SPOTLIGHT: Mississippi School for the Arts
We are starting a partnership with MSA! They want us to send them our students so that they can audition and try to get into their school on a scholarship! They are also starting a summer program next year, and are hoping to draw many more students in that way. We will also be partnering with them for some professional development later this year… SO, they have been kind enough to give us a glimpse into their audition requirements. Check them out!
- Mississippi School for the Arts: http://www.msa.k12.ms.us/index.htm
- Want to know the rubrics they use for their auditions? Check them out here: Dance Improvisation Rubric and Dance Technique Rubric.
Potential Pathways for Dance
- Julliard Dance Application: http://www.juilliard.edu/apply-audition/application-audition-requirements/dance-division-application-and-audition
- Interlochen Center for the Arts: http://www.interlochen.org/
- University of Southern Mississippi: http://www.usm.edu/dance
- Mississippi Metropolitan Ballet: http://msmetroballet.com/
- Ford Center for the Performing Arts: http://www.fordcenter.org/events/
- Mississippi Arts Commission: http://www.arts.state.ms.us/grants/artist-fellowship.php
Experiences
- Ford Center for the Performing Arts: http://www.fordcenter.org/events/
- Mississippi Theater Asssociation: http://www.mta-online.org/playwriting-competition
- Mississippi Arts Commission: http://www.arts.state.ms.us/grants/artist-fellowship.php
- Bologna Performing Arts Center: http://bolognapac.com/
- Cathead Music Calendar: http://cathead.biz/CatHead/Music_Calendar.html
Other Competitions:
- Ole Miss Brain Brawl: http://www.outreach.olemiss.edu/academic_competitions/brainbrawl.html
Music Articles, Books, Videos, and more!
Articles:
Rocking it Out: Exploring Music Teaching Methods – Check out this fun and engaging activity on the NYTimes blog (and many more)!
Dance Vision for Content
Our Vision for Content in Dance
Children … come into the world … mindless. I know that must sound a bit strange to you. They do not come in without brains. Brains are biological; minds are cultural. Minds are a form of cultural achievement. And the kinds of minds children come to own is in the large measure influenced by the kinds of opportunities they have in their lives. And the kind of opportunities … is largely influenced by the kinds of programs and options that are made available to them in the course of their childhood.
– Elliot Eisner, Professor of Art and Education at Stanford University
With the idea that “Brains are biological; minds are cultural,” we are confronted with the fundamental importance of ensuring our students have the highest quality and the greatest breadth of opportunity we can offer in the arts. To be cultural is to have firm grounding in your identity, to express yourself creatively and uniquely, to feel you have a voice and a critical mind. All of this, and more, can be provided by an arts education.
Developing Key Skills:
Research shows a positive correlation between arts education and cross-disciplinary skills. Students who do not have the opportunity to engage in arts education are often found to be at a disadvantage in the following pillars of learning (for more, see ArtsEdSearch.com):
- Literacy and Language Development.
- Reading and Writing Readiness.
- Reading Comprehension.
- Mathematics Achievement.
- Creative Thinking.
- Problem Solving and Reasoning.
- Engagement and Persistence.
- Positive Behavior.
- Social Development.
Pathways to Opportunity:
While this logically follows from the development of key learning skills, it’s impressive to look at the numbers for how the arts affect future success. Life-long opportunities are at stake for our arts students.
- College-Readiness: The College Board has examined the impact of arts education on SAT scores. Math SAT scores improve by 41 points, and verbal scores improved by 57 points for students who benefit from a music education. Studying the arts for extended periods of time (four years or more) improved total SAT scores by 119 points (68 for verbal and 51 on math).
- College Applications: Should our students want to apply for an Arts and Design College or Conservatory College, they will need to be prepared to speak cogently about their own development, exploration, and ideas on their artistic discipline. Whether heading to the Rhode Island School of Design, Julliard, Memphis College of Arts, or any other Arts institution, our students will need a transcript with competitive GPAs, high standardized test scores, writing samples, as well as a demonstration of their performance skills, and a portfolio that shows depth, research, and ideas. All of these materials – and the opportunities they make available – are correlated to and products of a strong arts education.
- Job Opportunities: The College Board has also researched the job listings that their AP Studio Arts (2-D, 3-D, Drawing), their Art History, and their Music Theory classes make more accessible to students. They list over 100 career paths ranging from Aerospace Engineering to Composers to Computer Programmers to Editors to Fine Artists. Whether or not a student takes these specific courses of study, an arts education will make these careers more available and real. Our students deserve to have these pathways available.
A National Problem
Despite wide-spread, consistent findings that participation in the arts is correlated with higher academic achievement, the National Endowment for the Arts has found that the proportion of students receiving arts instruction has been in constant decline since 1985, especially among poor and minority students (see the NEA’s “Arts Education in America: What the Declines Mean for Arts Participation”). While the NEA, the Cultural Learning Alliance, and the Arts Education Partnership have all confirmed that “Low-income students that have the opportunity to engage in extensive contact with the arts are 12% more likely to earn a BA, 33% more likely to read the newspaper on a weekly basis, and 12% more likely to participate in student government at a college level”, it is these same students for whom arts education is least available. In fact, “arts instruction is often least prevalent in schools reporting large percentages of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches,” and a study conducted in 2008 found that only 26% of African American 18-24 year-olds had received an arts education. As we undertake teaching art, we must consider not only how we can generate opportunities for our students this summer or this year, but how we can leave a legacy of change that makes a quality arts education the norm, and not the exception.
The Arts in Mississippi
A recent study conducted by Paul Theobald and Kathy Wood, and featured in Rural Education for the Twenty-First Century, revealed that “rural students and adults alike seem to have learned that to be rural is to be sub-par, that the condition of living in a rural locale creates deficiencies of various kinds – an educational deficiency in particular” even if they are being offered an excellent education (18). This holds true in the numbers: only 6.8% of adults in Mississippi hold a graduate degree, and only 12.6% hold BAs (Measure of America, 2012). If our students are to succeed and become life-long learners, we need to enact a cultural shift that places value on rural culture and cultural identity.
Given these studies as well as our own regional experiences…
… We believe that a strong Arts Education is instrumental to overcoming educational inequality for our students in Mississippi. We know that our students deserve equal opportunities in education so that they may have equal opportunities in their futures. The arts are one of those critical opportunities, and one that is too often ignored. Our students deserve confidence in their cultural identity, pride in their creative expression. They have the right to the long-term benefits of a strong arts-education. They deserve to see the arts as providing them with viable pathways to opportunity, and engage with the arts in their own communities.
It is no mystery that Mississippi is rich in culture, history, art, and music. From entire musical genres such as the blues and jazz, to some of our nation’s most celebrated writers like Faulkner and Walker Percy, from the pottery of McCarty to the portraits of Chris Kruse, to the birth of the Civil Rights movement to the recent ratification of the 13th amendment, Mississippi is brimming with beautiful and difficult culture.
However, the fertile cultural grounds of Mississippi are seldom if ever exposed to our students. Most elementary schools in Mississippi offer arts instruction to their students on a weekly basis at best. In the Delta, where regulation is less consistent, students may not have an art or music class for years on end. While the arts have been federally recognized as a core subject, they are untested and therefore often left to the wayside. Comparing our students’ rural experiences to their urban counterparts, it is only logical that they have less access to museums and concert venues as well as exposure to art we take for granted: buskers, concerts, street art, and other cultural events. Even if they do get a solid arts foundation, they have limited options in terms of real performance venues or opportunities to compete on a national level. It is therefore instrumental that we begin such exposure in the classroom and draw upon the communities we work within to enact a paradigm-shift for the arts in Mississippi.
What an Arts Education Looks Like for Us in the Classroom:
We have found that Discipline-Based Arts Education to be a highly effective pedagogy and structure for ensuring our students receive a holistic Arts Education. While we encourage invention, creativity, and exploration of different pedagogies, we want to ensure that every classroom focuses on the following strands throughout the year :
Production: Creating or performing. How do we know if students are getting it? Dance Performance Rubric.doc
History/Culture: Encountering the historical and cultural background of works of dance. How do we know if students are getting it? Through written or verbal assessments aligned to the New York State Standards and Dance Regents, artist statements, and more.
Aesthetics: Discovering the nature and philosophy of dance. How do we know if students are getting it? Through written or verbal assessments aligned to the New York State Standards and Dance Regents, visible in performances, artist statements, and more.
Criticism: Making informed judgments about dance. How do we know if students are getting it? Through written or verbal assessments aligned to the New York State Standards and Dance Regents, artist statements, and more.
Social Studies Vision for Content
“A primary object…should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing…than…communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country.”
–George Washington
From the Outset:
In 2009, Leon Wieselter, editor of The New Republic (an admittedly opinionated website) responded to a New York Times article that claimed “In Tough Times, The Humanities Must Justify their Worth” as follows:
In tough times, of all times, the worth of the humanities needs no justifying. The reason is that it will take many kinds of sustenance to help people through these troubles. Many people will now have to fall back more on inner resources than on outer ones. They are in need of loans, but they are also in need of meanings…. We are in need of fiscal policy and spiritual policy. And spiritually speaking, literature is a bailout, and so is art, and philosophy, and history, and the rest. … Regression analysis will not get us through the long night. We need to know more about the human heart than the study of consumer behavior can teach.
The words of Wieselter are remarkable because, rather than defend the worth of the Humanities when these are being questioned, he ultimately questions the purpose of studying everything else. What is its value if it does not impart meaning and spiritual growth? It is through the study of identity and history that we gather meaning and the reasoning abilities to move forward in times of crisis.
Developing Key Skills:
Research shows a positive correlation between an education in Social Studies and cross-disciplinary as well as life-long skills. Students who do not have the opportunity to engage in Social Studies education are often found to be at a disadvantage in the following pillars of learning (for more, see The Ohio Department of Education and Reading Quest):
- Reading and Writing Readiness
- Reading Comprehension
- Classifying, Interpreting, Analyzing, and Evaluating Information
- Decision-Making
- Metacognition
- Social and Political Participation
- Social Development
Pathways to Opportunity:
While this logically follows from the development of key learning skills, it’s impressive to look more closely at how Social Studies affects future success. Life-long opportunities are at stake for our students.
- Social and Political Participation: Studies have shown that children may learn to accept and embrace biases – such as racism – as early as 3 years of age. However, the same studies argue that there is hope: if the child can be introduced to environments in which new ways of thinking are fostered, these biases can be re-considered and dismantled. In addition, “a developed sense of justice and law” is a pre-requisite to being an activepatricipant in a democracy (for more, see Social Studies.org) and classrooms in which students must actively think and communicate about each other’s reasoning facilitate this type of growth.
- College Applications: Should our students want to apply for any top-tier college or university, they will be expected to have a minimum (keeping in mind that applications are looked on more favorably when they exceed the minimum requirements) of 2-3 years of Social Studies classes. Whether or not our students decide to go to college, we must ensure they have access to these opportunities. Harvard, MIT, NYU, and Pomona all require at least two years in the Social Studies classroom.
- Job Opportunities: The College Board has researched the job listings that their Social Studies courses and tests make more accessible to students. They list over 130 career paths ranging from Acting to Legislators to Health Educators to News Analysts. Whether or not a student takes these specific courses of study, a Social Studies education will make these careers more available and real. Our students deserve to have these pathways available.
A National Problem
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), in 2010 only 24% of all graduating seniors were proficient or above in Civics. Breaking these numbers down by race, 30% of White students were proficient or above, and only 8% of Black students were proficient or above. These trends remain consistent across U.S. History, Geography, and Economics. Considering the extent to which this course is directly correlated with engagement in society, these statistics are at a massive detriment to our nation, and to minorities in particular. Most evidence points towards the fact that these are not required or prioritized contents: the Thomas Fordham Institute found that, between 1987 and 2003, the amount of instructional time dedicated to Social Studies in public schools decreased by 18 hours a year. This takes into account only the first year of No Child Left Behind, under which student assessments focused mainly on English/Language Arts and Math – the result being that schools struggling to make needed gains on the test often axed Social Studies instruction in favor of test-prep. And the effects are being felt: despite the election of 2008 being the highest voter turnout in years, only 58% of eligible voters showed, and the number of people who are writing letters to newspapers or to their Congressional representatives have declined by 15%.
Despite all this, there are some slight glimmers of hope. The NAEP also found that there has been a score increase since 2006 for Black and Hispanic eighth-graders on their Civic assessments. And, while there are some legitimate concerns towards the adoption of the Common Core curriculum, the requirements emphasize the importance of non-fiction even within the English/Language Arts classroom.
Social Studies in Mississippi
A recent study conducted by Paul Theobald and Kathy Wood, and featured in Rural Education for the Twenty-First Century, revealed that “rural students and adults alike seem to have learned that to be rural is to be sub-par, that the condition of living in a rural locale creates deficiencies of various kinds – an educational deficiency in particular” even if they are being offered an excellent education (18). The Thomas Fordham institute studied Mississippi’s state standards in social studies and rated them at a 1/7 for rigorous content, and a 1/3 for clarity and specificity. This is an obstacle to our teachers, students, and active participation in democracy. The effects of these mindsets – caused by genuine educational deficiencies – are manifest in the numbers: only 6.8% of adults in Mississippi hold a graduate degree, only 12.6% hold BAs, and only 37% of eligible voters showed up for the presidential elections (Measure of America, 2012). If our students are to succeed and become life-long learners, advocates for their own cause, we need to enact a cultural shift that places value on rural culture and cultural identity.
Given these studies as well as our own regional experiences…
… We believe that a strong Social Studies Education is instrumental to overcoming educational inequality for our students in Mississippi. We know that our students deserve equal opportunities in education so that they may have equal opportunities in their futures. Social Studies set students up for those critical opportunities, and yet they are too often ignored, denying their civic power and future pathways. Our students deserve confidence in their cultural identity, and pride in their voice as world citizens and thinkers. They have the right to the long-term benefits of a strong Social Studies education. They deserve to see Social Studies as providing them with viable pathways to opportunity, with a civic voice, and a knowledge-base of history with which to form their own opinions about the world today.
It is no mystery that Mississippi is rich in culture, history, politics, and a need for civic engagement. From the birth of the Civil Rights movement to the recent ratification of the 13th amendment, Mississippi is brimming with beautiful and difficult history, as well as a long and challenging pathway forward. We need our students to be prepared and willing – or perhaps ready and compelled – to engage with it.
However, the fertile grounds of Mississippi are seldom if ever exposed to our students. Comparing our students’ rural experiences to their urban counterparts, it is only logical that they have less access to museums, information, and civic venues where they can see history play out. The locations where Mississippi history is commemorated, celebrated, and criticized are few and far between for our most rural students. Even if they do get a solid Social Studies foundation, they have limited options in terms of real experiences or opportunities to compete on a national level. It is therefore instrumental that we begin such exposure in the classroom and draw upon the communities we work within to enact a paradigm-shift for Social Studies in Mississippi.
Art Vision for Content
Our Vision for Content in Art
Children … come into the world … mindless. I know that must sound a bit strange to you. They do not come in without brains. Brains are biological; minds are cultural. Minds are a form of cultural achievement. And the kinds of minds children come to own is in the large measure influenced by the kinds of opportunities they have in their lives. And the kind of opportunities … is largely influenced by the kinds of programs and options that are made available to them in the course of their childhood.
– Elliot Eisner, Professor of Art and Education at Stanford University
With the idea that “Brains are biological; minds are cultural,” we are confronted with the fundamental importance of ensuring our students have the highest quality and the greatest breadth of opportunity we can offer in the arts. To be cultural is to have firm grounding in your identity, to express yourself creatively and uniquely, to feel you have a voice and a critical mind. All of this, and more, can be provided by an arts education.
Developing Key Skills:
Research shows a positive correlation between arts education and cross-disciplinary skills. Students who do not have the opportunity to engage in arts education are often found to be at a disadvantage in the following pillars of learning (for more, see ArtsEdSearch.com):
- Literacy and Language Development.
- Reading and Writing Readiness.
- Reading Comprehension.
- Mathematics Achievement.
- Creative Thinking.
- Problem Solving and Reasoning.
- Engagement and Persistence.
- Positive Behavior.
- Social Development.
Pathways to Opportunity:
While this logically follows from the development of key learning skills, it’s impressive to look at the numbers for how the arts affect future success. Life-long opportunities are at stake for our arts students.
- College-Readiness: The College Board has examined the impact of arts education on SAT scores. Math SAT scores improve by 41 points, and verbal scores improved by 57 points for students who benefit from a music education. Studying the arts for extended periods of time (four years or more) improved total SAT scores by 119 points (68 for verbal and 51 on math).
- College Applications: Should our students want to apply for an Arts and Design College or Conservatory College, they will need to be prepared to speak cogently about their own development, exploration, and ideas on their artistic discipline. Whether heading to the Rhode Island School of Design, Julliard, Memphis College of Arts, or any other Arts institution, our students will need a transcript with competitive GPAs, high standardized test scores, writing samples, as well as a demonstration of their performance skills, and a portfolio that shows depth, research, and ideas. All of these materials – and the opportunities they make available – are correlated to and products of a strong arts education.
- Job Opportunities: The College Board has also researched the job listings that their AP Studio Arts (2-D, 3-D, Drawing), their Art History, and their Music Theory classes make more accessible to students. They list over 100 career paths ranging from Aerospace Engineering to Composers to Computer Programmers to Editors to Fine Artists. Whether or not a student takes these specific courses of study, an arts education will make these careers more available and real. Our students deserve to have these pathways available.
A National Problem
Despite wide-spread, consistent findings that participation in the arts is correlated with higher academic achievement, the National Endowment for the Arts has found that the proportion of students receiving arts instruction has been in constant decline since 1985, especially among poor and minority students (see the NEA’s “Arts Education in America: What the Declines Mean for Arts Participation”). While the NEA, the Cultural Learning Alliance, and the Arts Education Partnership have all confirmed that “Low-income students that have the opportunity to engage in extensive contact with the arts are 12% more likely to earn a BA, 33% more likely to read the newspaper on a weekly basis, and 12% more likely to participate in student government at a college level”, it is these same students for whom arts education is least available. In fact, “arts instruction is often least prevalent in schools reporting large percentages of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches,” and a study conducted in 2008 found that only 26% of African American 18-24 year-olds had received an arts education. As we undertake teaching art, we must consider not only how we can generate opportunities for our students this summer or this year, but how we can leave a legacy of change that makes a quality arts education the norm, and not the exception.
The Arts in Mississippi
A recent study conducted by Paul Theobald and Kathy Wood, and featured in Rural Education for the Twenty-First Century, revealed that “rural students and adults alike seem to have learned that to be rural is to be sub-par, that the condition of living in a rural locale creates deficiencies of various kinds – an educational deficiency in particular” even if they are being offered an excellent education (18). This holds true in the numbers: only 6.8% of adults in Mississippi hold a graduate degree, and only 12.6% hold BAs (Measure of America, 2012). If our students are to succeed and become life-long learners, we need to enact a cultural shift that places value on rural culture and cultural identity.
Given these studies as well as our own regional experiences…
… We believe that a strong Arts Education is instrumental to overcoming educational inequality for our students in Mississippi. We know that our students deserve equal opportunities in education so that they may have equal opportunities in their futures. The arts are one of those critical opportunities, and one that is too often ignored. Our students deserve confidence in their cultural identity, pride in their creative expression. They have the right to the long-term benefits of a strong arts-education. They deserve to see the arts as providing them with viable pathways to opportunity, and engage with the arts in their own communities.
It is no mystery that Mississippi is rich in culture, history, art, and music. From entire musical genres such as the blues and jazz, to some of our nation’s most celebrated writers like Faulkner and Walker Percy, from the pottery of McCarty to the portraits of Chris Kruse, to the birth of the Civil Rights movement to the recent ratification of the 13th amendment, Mississippi is brimming with beautiful and difficult culture.
However, the fertile cultural grounds of Mississippi are seldom if ever exposed to our students. Most elementary schools in Mississippi offer arts instruction to their students on a weekly basis at best. In the Delta, where regulation is less consistent, students may not have an art or music class for years on end. While the arts have been federally recognized as a core subject, they are untested and therefore often left to the wayside. Comparing our students’ rural experiences to their urban counterparts, it is only logical that they have less access to museums and concert venues as well as exposure to art we take for granted: buskers, concerts, street art, and other cultural events. Even if they do get a solid arts foundation, they have limited options in terms of real performance venues or opportunities to compete on a national level. It is therefore instrumental that we begin such exposure in the classroom and draw upon the communities we work within to enact a paradigm-shift for the arts in Mississippi.
What an Arts Education Looks Like for Us in the Classroom:
We have found that Discipline-Based Arts Education to be a highly effective pedagogy and structure for ensuring our students receive a holistic Arts Education. While we encourage invention, creativity, and exploration of different pedagogies, we want to ensure that every classroom focuses on the following strands throughout the year :
Production: Creating or performing. How do we know if students are getting it? Creation Rubrics (Elementary Childhood Education Rubric as well as the Delta Creation Rubrics).
History/Culture: Encountering the historical and cultural background of works of art or music. How do we know if students are getting it? Through written or verbal assessments aligned to the New York State Standards and Art Regents, artist statements, and more.
Aesthetics: Discovering the nature and philosophy of art or music. How do we know if students are getting it? Through written or verbal assessments aligned to the New York State Standards and Art Regents, visible in artworks, artist statements, and more.
Criticism: Making informed judgments about art. How do we know if students are getting it? Through written or verbal assessments aligned to the New York State Standards and Art Regents, artist statements, and more.