Activities and Discussion (50 minutes)

Analyzing the Effect of the Arts (25 minutes)
Facilitator: Divide participants into three groups, one for each Learner Team school. Distribute to each participant in a group the profile for that group’s school: Ridgeway Elementary School (PDF), Drew Model School (PDF), or Kingsbury Elementary School (PDF).

In your group, examine the profile of your designated Learner Team school. Think about the role of the arts in that school before the summer workshop and what changes occurred after the workshop. Identify similarities with your own school and discuss how some of the strategies employed by Learner Team members might help broaden the role of the arts in your school. Consider these questions:

• What parallels do you see between the Learner Team school and your school?
• How would you build on what the Learner Team did?

Exploring the Role of the Arts in Your School (20 minutes)
Facilitator: Lead a discussion on the role of the arts in your school.
Divide into small groups and discuss these questions:

• How do knowledge about the arts and hands-on making of art interact to enhance student understandings?
• How can your planning and instruction focus more on the why and how of the arts, rather than the what?
• What are some challenges to broadening the use of the arts in your classroom?
• How can the role of arts specialists be expanded or changed to enable increased professional collaboration?
• How might you collaborate with your colleagues to evaluate and reflect on your own teaching practice?
• How would such collaborative professional reflection benefit student learning?

Share your findings with the group or keep a journal of your own ideas.

Reflection (5 minutes)
Facilitator: Use the following questions to focus a closing discussion:

• Before viewing The Arts in Every Classroom programs and participating in this workshop series, what did you think about arts education?
• What do you think about arts education now?

To download PDF files, you will need a free copy of Acrobat Reader.