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A larger role for arts in the
classroom It was the second annual ArtStart Summer Workshop, sponsored by ArtsTeach, a local organization that works to tie arts education to the rest of the academic program. "We have something unique here -- classroom teachers, arts teachers and teaching artists, all working together," said Deborah Cooper, executive director of ArtsTeach. The workshop took place at University Park Creative Arts Elementary School in northwest Charlotte, itself an example of the potential positive impact of the arts on test scores. Students at University Park, a creative arts magnet school, last year registered one of CMS's biggest increases in scores on the state writing test. "The scores here are proof of what is possible," Cooper said. Timmy Abell, an Asheville-based musician with a national reputation as a performer and teacher, was among visiting artists at the workshop. During one session, Abell met with a group of about 30 music teachers and showed them how the folk song "The Unicorn" can be used as a teaching tool. Aided by his wife, Susana, he showed teachers how to use body movement and the song's descriptive words as a means of helping students write about the lyrics. "You can take a simple folk song and make it do a lot," Abell said. Susy Watts, a Washington-state-based consultant on arts education, showed teachers how to tie drama and music to students' writing. "A drama teacher can show emotions, throw a chair -- something visual and vivid," Watts said. "The student can write much more descriptively by describing those actions." The workshop is not the last part of ArtStart. Teachers will gather again this fall, and visiting artists will travel to CMS schools next winter. |
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About
150 Charlotte-Mecklenburg teachers spent three days at a seminar last
week, working on ways to turn song, dance and paintings into a way of
improving students' scores on state achievement tests.