Arts Impacting Achievement

Integrating Arts Integrated Professional Development Into the Classroom:

Observations Using Standards of Effective Pedagogy

By Rise Jones, AIA Internal Evaluator

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I. Introduction

The purpose of this manuscript is to present a review of standards associated with effective pedagogy and examine how these can be supported through professional development opportunities. Specifically, we will examine how opportunities and activities associated with a professional development series focused on the integration of arts into the general classroom curriculum were utilized to support effective pedagogy among general curriculum teachers and outside artist educators.

Using observation outcomes from a multi-year model documentation study, the first part of this article will examine effective pedagogy standards and describe ways in which professional development opportunities extended to the classroom setting support effective pedagogy. Specifically, we will examine how arts integrated curriculum implementation can support enhanced learning environments for students. The second part of this article will provide examples of how enhanced professional development experiences including arts integrated lesson planning and implementation and teaching artist coaching in the classroom can facilitate implementation of effective pedagogy standards in the classroom and the extent of this implementation. Using professional development discussion groups, documentation panels, and critical reflection forms, we will present teacher perspectives on how the enhanced professional development, in general, and the arts integrated work as an extension of professional development into the classroom setting, specifically, support and inform educational best practices.

II. Descriptions of Effective Pedagogy

The Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE, 1998) present “five standards for pedagogy that are applicable across grade levels, student populations, and content areas” emerging “from principles of practice that have proven successful with majority and minority at-risk students in a variety of teaching and learning settings over several decades.” We used these standards along with their associated indicators to understand the role and relationship of an arts integration professional series in supporting best principles and practices in teaching.

Table 1. Effective Pedagogy Standards Outlined by the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence

III. Arts Impacting Achievement Demonstration Description

Arts Impacting Achievement (AIA) was a teacher professional development demonstration initiative of Beacon Street Gallery, Arts at the Center/Chicago Teachers’ Center of Northeastern Illinois University and several other partners. They were funded for a three-year period by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation Model and Dissemination Grant Initiative. The initiative involved six (6) elementary schools in Illinois (three in Chicago and three in Elgin). The initiative was based on over 10 years of professional development and whole school change through arts integration. The goal of AIA evaluation was to document and assess the model for professional development and arts integration.

The teacher professional development series was offered over three years and included three sets of professional development workshops (of 15 hours each) with enhanced professional development activities interspersed. The enhanced professional development activities included co-planning opportunities between classroom teachers and AIA artists and implementation of arts-integrated classroom curriculum in collaboration with the AIA artists.

IV. Arts Impacting Achievement Intended Outcomes

The goal of Arts Impacting Achievement was to support student learning through effective teacher practice. Through their participation in the multiple levels of professional development associated with AIA, teachers would: increase their understanding of arts integration; build expertise in using strategies that engage students; increase their knowledge of arts standards and processes; Increase their use of reflective practice; and, Increase their use of school and community resources.

Through the extension of AIA professional development to the classroom, teachers could apply knowledge and skills gained through the workshops in their own classroom settings. As a result of their applied professional development, teachers should be able to facilitate students learning through teacher practice and educational opportunities that promote engagement and motivation; critical thinking and other higher order thinking skills; and discipline.

Engagement and motivation; critical thinking/problem solving and other higher order thinking skills; and discipline represent the key pedagogical goals associated with the AIA arts integrated setting and the primary outcome variables for the AIA study. The following list includes the primary pedagogical goals of the AIA arts integrated setting along with strategy descriptors which served as the framework for the observational work conducted in the classroom setting.

I. Engagement and Motivation

● Facilitates students’ personal connections to classroom lesson

● Asks and answers questions about the presented material (distinguish between types of asking and responding, e.g. yes/no versus why/how; focus on procedure versus about the process, etc.

● Facilitates learning through the use of images

● Structures opportunities for students to assess their own learning and learning processes

II. Critical Thinking/Problem Solving and Other Higher Order Thinking Skills

● Supports the development of multiple perspectives by his/her students

● Facilitates the generation of multiple responses to classroom questions and projects

● Facilitates opportunities for students to reflect, evaluate all of the responses/options, and develop/generate multiple perspectives, opinions, options and/or choose the best/appropriate responses/alternative

III. Discipline

● Facilitates student assessment and evaluation of knowledge artifacts

● Facilitates student revision of knowledge artifacts

● Facilitates independent student rehearsal

Intended outcomes associated with Arts Impacting Achievement can be linked with the effective pedagogy standards presented by CREDE (1998). The following figure illustrates this association and will guide our discussion of how standards of effective pedagogy can be supported through arts integrated professional development opportunities that extended to classroom planning and implementation. Engagement and motivation are associated with Effective Pedagogy Standard III; critical thinking is associated with Effective Pedagogy Standards II and IV; and discipline is associated with Effective Pedagogy Standards I and V.

V. AIA Methodology

Engagement and motivation; critical thinking/problem solving and other higher order thinking skills; and discipline and their associated strategy descriptors were used to develop the observational protocol. An observational tool was designed by the AIA team to be used by an observation team within the classroom setting. The purpose of this tool was to understand some of the strategies, techniques, and processes used for translating the AIA professional development into the classroom setting.

In addition, to using the pedagogical goals to frame the observation protocol, open-ended items were used to capture emergent themes and strategies along the following dimensions: elements observed to be important for instruction; elements observed to be important for group management/facilitation; elements observed to be important for student progress/movement (both individually and as a group); and, comments on student, teacher, and artist roles and responsibilities in the classroom setting and for instruction and classroom management.

The observation tool was designed to document and describe:

1. the ways in which the artist is used in the classroom for meeting instructional objectives;
2. the strategies that both the teacher and artist utilize to facilitate learning opportunities in the classroom; and,
3. the ways in which the AIA professional development experience and exposure influenced teacher/instructional practice.

In the third year of implementation, the observation protocol was elaborated to include documentation of student interactions, behaviors, and responses to arts integrated curriculum and teacher practice.

A team of observers used the observation protocol to observe a sample of class periods from the treatment and control classrooms and document the strategies and techniques used. The responsibilities of the observer were to document: 1. the presence or absence of the descriptors in the classroom setting; and, 2. (if present) the strategies, techniques, or interactions that were used to elicit and/or support the presence of this descriptor in the classroom setting. In the third year of implementation, observers also documented the frequency with which strategy descriptors were observed in the classroom.

Observers participated in two sets of training opportunities. The first training consisted of an interactive presentation and discussion in which observers were introduced to the overall project, the project and evaluation goals as well as to the proposed instrumentation. This initial training was followed by on-site training in which observers used the proposed instrument in a real-life classroom setting, discussed their documentation and reactions, and further understood their roles and responsibilities. During these trainings, observation expectations (e.g. to remain objective and not assign value or commentary to behaviors observed) were clarified and instrument definitions and instructions were modified based on observer feedback.

VI. Sample

The classroom observation protocol was administered in Years 2 and 3 of the AIA project. During the first set of observations, the observation protocol was piloted with the classrooms of treatment teachers (n=13). In the second and third set of observations, treatment classrooms were assigned to each observer with an expectation that three observations would be conducted during the “life” of the artist-teacher collaboration (e.g. beginning, middle and end of the collaboration).

VII. Analysis

Two (2) internal stakeholder meetings were conducted to support the data analysis. The internal stakeholders included members from the team who had conducted the classroom observations as well as the internal evaluator and representatives from the AIA professional development team. The goals of these workshops were to review the data collection process; to develop categories for emergent themes from the open-ended responses; and, to categorize and group other observational data.

VIII. Findings: Aligning Pedagogy with AIA Observations

The following text provides examples from the observational data about the ways in which each effective pedagogy standard was implemented over time using the enhanced arts integration professional development collaboration among teachers and artists in the sample sites. These data will be followed by a discussion about changes recognized over the life of the project period as well as pedagogy standards that were more challenging than others to recognize over time.

Standard I. Joint Productive Activity: Teacher and Students Producing Together

In the first set of observations, teachers and artists were observed to use both classroom set-up as well as the grouping of students to support joint productive activity.

One strategy that was used to support student engagement, participation, and collaboration was question asking. In addition to question asking, joint productive activity including student revision of knowledge artifacts was primarily supported through facilitators’ suggestions for refinement to work(s) or through their suggestions for working towards making linkages students’ processes and/or products back to the curriculum. Unlike the other descriptors, documented instances of this one were observed to be directed or led by all three educational partners: teachers, artists, and students.

Teachers provided relatively fewer structured opportunities for students to engage in independent rehearsal as compared with other “discipline” opportunities. Although observed to a relatively lesser extent than other discipline descriptors, independent student rehearsal was observed as the practicing that occurred as the teacher and/or artist circulated throughout the classroom and work on individual projects during class time.

As compared to the first set of observations, once again, complete independent student rehearsal was not observed. However, more frequently observed in the last set of observations, the teacher and/or artist would incorporate student rehearsal time into the lesson plan either alone/with group members only or coached by artist or teacher. The content of this rehearsal time included the following:

 Students rehearsed individual and/or group contributions and made revisions as appropriate.

 Time built in for students to feel comfortable with the art form or art form materials/instruments (e.g. “dedicated a good amount of time for the students to play the drums and get used to their sound and feel”). At conclusion of work with artist, there is an expectation for students to become “familiar with” and/or take responsibility for being prepared or ready to “perform” or use art form (“The students were given a short amount of time to pick out the instruments they wanted to use for the performance and to get familiar with the instruments they chose.”)

Time was often allocated to make/understand conceptual differences through experimentation and make revisions to knowledge artifacts based on this experimentation.

“[Students were provided with] the opportunity to play the drums until they figured this [difference between base and tone] out”

In the last set of observations, the students are often asked by the teacher and/or artist about time requirements for rehearsal.

“They [the students] are asked if they can rehearse selected movements in five minutes and they agree that they can.”

Observers of the last set of arts integrated units noted that student assessment and evaluation of knowledge artifacts was most often facilitated through use of discussion to support self and peer assessment of classroom products/performances.

One example from discussions about movements used in scene interpretations:

“After the final performances, students had a group discussion of things they felt they’d learned.”

Students were often asked to assess their own “performance” and suggest ways for improvement. Students were gave feedback to peers and suggested ways for improvement. “Students are now making suggestions to each other about how to improve a scene.”

“Students were reminded that the themes they selected could affect their audience’s interpretations of their dances. Some students made last minute changes because of this.”

Standard II. Developing Language and Literacy Across the Curriculum

Image making was a key strategy in the AIA model for supporting learning and understanding and has direct implications for the development of language and literacy across the curriculum. In the first set of observations, the following were used to facilitate the use of images in the classroom: image making with bodies, use of the mind to create images, word images, use of props, and use of textbooks to support image-making. In most cases, the use of images was used as one of the initial steps in the learning process or unit “delivery.”

Image making was observed throughout the last set of observations and used to support more in-depth and complex language and literacy development and/or more in-depth engagement of the students in the curricular material. In the last set of observations, it was most often the case that one image was used by the artist and/or teacher to represent another image and this representation was used and manipulated by the students. Below are a couple of examples of how various art forms are used in image representation:

 Artist/teacher demonstrates how visual images can illustrate tonal differences and students are given the opportunity to make these choices and connections.

 Gestures and expressions are used by students to communicate ideas and personal interpretations.

 Multiple sense creation/understanding of images is used (e.g. students came up with the beats and rhythms for geometric patterns). ‘Graphics are used to facilitate the expression of the musical composition

 Images used to re-create another image; art form is used to create student generated image (e.g. Dance movements are used to recreate book scene. “Students enact interpretations through the use of movements.”)

Standard III. Making Meaning: Connecting School to Students’ Lives

In the first set of observations, connecting school to students’ lives and supporting meaning making through personal experiences and perspective was most often associated with “character” empathy activities and/or other strategies for building empathetic feelings for curricular “characters.” Questions and question asking were used by the facilitators to elicit personal connection by asking students about ways in which they could relate to curricular materials based on life experiences and questions about student feelings were also used to support students’ personal connections to classroom lessons.

Similar strategies were also observed in the last set of observations for facilitating students’ personal connections to the classroom lessons. These strategies supported introduction and development of various phases of the classroom lesson from serving as the basis for warm-up activities to supporting the understanding of key concepts that will be emphasized during the lesson.

 Names and family country of origin were observed to be used as the basis for warm-up or foundation/background knowledge presentation/development.

 Family profession/occupation and consideration of associated job stressors were used to introduce to the concept of “oral history” and the focal text.

Personal connections to classroom lessons were also facilitated through student choices and student demonstration.

 Student products were not only used for presentation/demonstration purposes, these products were used to build personal investment in the lesson and to facilitate involvement of other students (e.g. “a couple of students were given the opportunity to create their own call and response rhythm for the rest of the class”)

 Students used personal experiences to make choices and classroom responses. (In response to question of choices, “the students responded that they looked at their own lives- i.e., the past was a triangle because they were small, made mistakes and accidents and a triangle is sharp and accident prone.”)

 Students selected material for elaboration through art form (“students write down a scene that stood out for them from the book….”)

Not only are students personal connections to the classroom lesson facilitated but also their connection to the classroom itself and one another. Below is one example how personal connections to the group are facilitated by having the students consider how their products and ideas in relationship to the other students’ products and ideas.

 Images developed by each student are used for supporting their role within the classroom. (e.g. By having students explore sounds made by their own body, help to understand their unique place in the group)

Standard IV. Teaching Complex Thinking

The AIA model was designed to facilitate complex thinking among students through teacher and artist facilitation of multiple perspectives; multiple responses; and, the opportunities to reflect, evaluate, and develop or select appropriate responses based on this structured review.

In the first set of observations, teachers provided relatively fewer structured opportunities for students to develop multiple perspectives as compared with other “critical thinking” opportunities. In the first set of observations, the strategies used to support the development of multiple perspectives were primarily facilitated through the art form itself, rather than in conjunction or integrated with the curriculum or the curriculum alone. Through verbal cues primarily, facilitators supported the generation of multiple responses to classroom questions and projects. Generally, these multiple responses tended to be in students’ idea generation. Further, generation of multiple responses was supported by facilitators’ acknowledgement of initial responses. In general, students’ reflection and evaluation relied on facilitator efforts. These efforts included a facilitator directing attention to or “spotlighting” an individual student’s contribution or idea. Often, this attention was subsequently used to generate discussion and critique among the students. In other cases, students were encourages to ask questions and offer constructive criticism about work that was generated or developed during the class by the group.

In the first set of observations, the primary strategy used by facilitators for supporting students’ assessment of their own learning and learning processes was the use of journaling. Directed questions were used to facilitate students’ reflection on class work. However, teachers provided relatively fewer structured opportunities for students to assess their own learning and learning processes as compared with other “engagement” opportunities.

The last set of observations reveals greater utilization and facilitation of multiple perspectives in the classroom. Multiple perspectives were supported by through the communication of classroom expectation; facilitated opportunities for self-discovery and through analysis of roles in relationship to perspective. Below is an example of each of these strategies to support the development of multiple perspectives:

 The teacher and/or artist explicitly communicated their interest and intentions in supporting “students to ‘think differently’ and to ‘try new ways of learning.’”

 Through art form, students discovered/understood that there are multiple ways to perceive and respond.

“At first, students are discouraged [because the same scene was selected by multiple groups & teacher/artist] but were soon encouraged when they saw there were many ways of interpreting this scene…comment, I like how he did that.”

 The teacher and/or artist facilitate a discussion about an “audience” and the “audience’s role” in order to support understanding of multiple perspectives.

“There was a great deal of focus on perspective and interpretations both as performers and audience members. Students kept in mind that as performers, they had to be aware of what they want the audience to walk away with.” “Furthermore, they will be deciding upon a theme which will further influence the interpretation the audience takes away.”

The last set of observations also reveals greater utilization and facilitation of multiple responses to classroom questions and project. Teachers and artists often used and built upon multiple student responses to get to “correct” or most fitting overall response. Below are other examples of how multiple responses were encouraged and facilitated:

 Students were encouraged to select and provide rationale/justification for their individual “image matching” responses. (e.g. “find an instrument that expresses their shape”)

 Students engaged in the negotiation around selections and final selections “…then finally in groups of 3 or 4 in which they negotiate movements to convey their small group interpretation of a scene of theme they have decided upon”

 “Experimentation” was also used as a strategy for supporting multiple response development (e.g. “open experimentation with instruments” after which time students make choices for music creation).

 Lastly, question asking by teacher also supported consideration and acceptance of multiple responses.

“Teacher further asked if it was possible for each person to come away with a different interpretation of the dance and they discuss that further.”

Several examples were observed from the last set of arts integrated units in which the artist and/or teacher structured opportunities for students to assess their own learning. This self-assessment was one strategy for reinforcing complex and critical thinking. The content of this student assessment varied. Below is one example of the type of assessment of learning that is considered and structured:

 Students considered individual contributions in relationship to other/group contributions (“By having students explore sounds made by their own body, help to understand their unique place in the group.”)

The strategies for encouraging student assessment varied and included:

 The use of essays and responses from peers to support individual reflection on own work;

 In small groups, students involved in peer assessment (e.g. “one student watching her partner and then suggesting, do it this way.”;

 In the large group, students ask each other about choices and selections;

 Students engaged in hands-on activity to assess/verify conclusion presented by instructor (e.g. …he/she was given the opportunity to play the drum and to figure out the difference between base and tone.);

 Reflection structured within product/performance (e.g. “The question and answer period was a good time for the students to look back on the unit and what they had learned and why their final performance ended up the way it did.”); and,

 Self-assessment and providing constructive criticism to peers becomes ritualized within classroom or unit. (“Throughout the unit, there has been constant discussion assessing each other and themselves.”).

Standard V. Teaching Through Conversation

Question asking was observed throughout the arts integrated units and teacher/artist collaborations as a key strategy for supporting teaching through conversation. In the first set of observations, questions asked in the observed classrooms tended to require students to rationalize or justify their choices, selections or decisions or to clarify or further elaborate on their responses. Often questions focused on the same areas used to facilitate students’ personal connections to classroom lessons – questions about character “motivation” and questions about personal feelings. Additionally, questions were asked about student generated images or their use of visualization, asking them to describe these images/visualizations. Finally, questions also focused on asking students to provide inferences about missing pieces of information (e.g. guessing about details or character reasoning).

As noted above with complex thinking, questions and question asking were the primary strategies used for supporting student assessment and evaluation of knowledge artifacts. Facilitators engaged students in reflective conversation by asking them about their work. This dialogue in many instances caused students to overtly and explicitly consider revisions to their initial effort. Often during this reflective conversation, the facilitators would ask students to compare and contrast the pre-determined criteria, expectations, and/or required elements with their responses and/or products.

In the last set of observations, questions continue to be a key strategy for facilitating conversation. Questions are asked to encourage students to make connections.

 Students asked to make connections between the art form and visual image or curricular content (e.g. “Does anyone have any ideas how we can make this (geometric pattern) into a rhythm?”) and/or translate the art form concepts into description of curricular concepts (“Who can tell me how many beats that (geometric shape) is?”)

Questions are used to support speculation and inference building. Below are three examples of how questions are used in this way:

 Questions used to generate speculation about art form and curricular topic connections and speculation about the potential use of art form in description of self or of concept (e.g. Students were asked what they thought drumming could say about their own changing.)

 Students asked to speculate about character reaction and strategies for illustrating this reaction through art form (Teacher, “What do you think was the reaction to Rufus shooting squirrels?...He then encourages them to think about how they would choreograph his reaction and students discuss this.”)

 Students are asked to make inferences based on text (“After reading a paragraph from Studs Terkel’s Division Street America, she has students determine the character’s age, origin, occupation, [and] whether he is satisfies or dissatisfied with his life.”)

 Question asking supports comparison and contraction. “She asks them to describe some differences in a story they would tell about going to the store today versus going to the store in the 1920’s.”

Students are asked about their choice and feelings about choices (e.g. “They are asked about their movement choices and how those movements felt.” “…the students were asked why they chose certain shapes to represent certain times (past, present, future)”)

Students asked question(s) about time needed to complete tasks/activities

As one indicator for teaching through conversation suggests, the rate of student talk time should be higher than the rates of teacher talk time. We find this to be the case with the observed lessons, not only in that the questions asked require longer responses from students but also students are generating questions for facilitating conversation themselves. Below are a couple of examples of the types of questions generated by students for themselves and one another:

 Students asked questions to elicit decisions about “order” (e.g. They make suggestions regarding the order in which they should do things.”)

“Students ask questions of each other and make suggestions regarding the choreographed movements created to depict group interpretations.”)

 Students ask each other about choices/selections.

Important Elements and Strategies Employed for Integrating Arts Integrated Professional Development into the Classroom

Observations from First Set of Units

The observers documented several elements that were important for the classroom operations and learning opportunities during the artist-teacher collaborations (the extended/enhanced professional development opportunity). These elements were perceived as being important for supporting instruction; group management; individual and group progress; and, classroom roles and responsibilities in the implementation of the arts integrated units. Below is a list of four elements from the first set of observations that were observed to be critical, including the use of the art form/discipline; grouping of students; multiple ways to demonstrate knowledge; and expectations for students’ responses/responsiveness.

■ Use of the art form/discipline

Differentiation within the art form or arts discipline and the use of the art form for comparing and contrasting concepts and ideas (e.g. differentiation between soft and hard sounds; experimenting with different rhythms created using various combinations of musical instruments) were viewed as being important for instruction. Additionally, the art form/discipline “basics” was also observed as being important for instruction (e.g. review of specialized techniques and vocabulary associated with the art form).

■ Grouping of students

Both instruction and group management were supported through the use of grouping. Often smaller groups, rather than acting solely independently of other groups, were interdependent. Often these groups were used to respond to other groups’ work or to demonstrate the interconnectedness of the class. For example, products of smaller groups often built upon other smaller groups’ products. Choices and decisions in the class were also associated with different student groupings (e.g. students chose images individually or partners cooperated on content of container).

■ Multiple ways to demonstrate knowledge

From responding to facilitator questions to sharing the results of experimentation with a new concept or medium, the observers perceived that students used multiple avenues for demonstrating knowledge and that these were important for the instructional process.

■ Expectations for student responses/responsiveness

Whether through intentional question-asking (e.g. “Why would the instrument represent the image?”; “Why do different images remind of day…night?”; “What sounds represent day? What sound should represent night?); subsequent probes (e.g. following general questions up with direct/in-depth questions, usually beginning with” why?”); or the expectations for students to provide justification or rationale for choices (e.g. students gave reason for identifying sound; or students gave reasons why rhythms resembled artifact), (clearly) communicated expectations for students’ responses and expectations for active student responses were observed to be important for instructions.

Observations from Second Set of Units

These same elements were perceived as being important in the subsequent observational outcomes. These observations were conducted after subsequent professional development workshops and master class opportunities and reflect the growth from two additional artist-teacher collaborative experiences. The following text describes how these elements and strategies were elaborated over time as well as provides a description of additional elements that were perceived as being important in subsequent observations.

■ Use of the art form/discipline

Often the art forms presented used repetition and emphasized listening as well as modeling as an instructional strategy.

“The artist leading by example was also very important for instruction.”

And often the “rituals” and routines of an art form supported student focus and served to support review.

Examples: beginning in a circle with songs “to get the attention”; movement warm-ups)

“…as they do their warm ups, she asks them if they remember what “condensed” means, if they remember what “expression” means in terms of performance, etc.”

More opportunities for experimentation, exploration, risk taking, and leadership were provided to students in using the art form and discipline. We observed more times in which students were asked to assume responsibility for the direction/vision for the use of the art form in representation, image making, and product development as well as opportunities in which students were responsible for leading art form “rituals” and routines and for describing the application of the art form to the curricular content.

Additionally the art form was more often observed to support social roles. Specifically, an emphasis on the giving and receiving respect as it related to the art form was more often observed to be an important classroom element. The giving and receiving of respect was observed to be important in several areas: in the attention given to each student’s contributions, around the “tools” of each art form, and in the appropriate roles associated with “performance” and “response.” Below are several examples:

“Once the performers realized this [that the audience took the performers seriously] it was observed that they [the students] were more confident in their performance.”

“Everyone had to be respectful of other’s space as well as other’s performance timing.”

“Also, students were very careful with each other’s bodies. They took care not to hurt each other and their choreography reflected this.”

“…students were asked about their responsibilities as audience members.”

The art forms as facilitated by the artist and/or teacher supported the use and assumption of various roles and responsibilities among the students.

“Constant discussion and review of roles and responsibilities as performers and audience members.”

“She has students pair off: one student is the choreographer and the other is the dancer. The choreographer directs the dancer in the movements he/she wants to use to depict his/her interpretation of the sentences of scene they’ve identified and written down.”

“There was very little classroom management necessary as students were eager to perform and then very engaged in the discussion afterward.”

The use of the art form supported practice with experimentation and revision. Art form processes such as “rehearsal” supported progress and project completion.

Example: “Students were organized in terms of using the larger space reserved for rehearsal in the middle of the room. They took the time to first discuss their movements, then using paper and markers they drew the spaced they’d use and where the dancers would move. They practiced sound accompaniment using a desk or chair, then when they were ready, they used the drum and “formal” rehearsal space and were very respectful of each other as audience members.”

■ Grouping of students

Both instruction and group management continued to be supported through the use of grouping (i.e. small groups, teams, and pairs). These groups continued to be interdependent and support individual development and overall classroom progress.

In the last set of observations, we observe more opportunities in which students assume responsibility for managing their small groups (“students’ self control”; “shared classroom management”).

■ Multiple ways to demonstrate knowledge

The observers continued to notice that multiple avenues for demonstrating knowledge were important for instruction. There were additional examples cited in which additional artistic elements were introduced in a lesson (building on previously incorporated art forms) in order to facilitate further exploration, elaboration, experimentation with art form and/or concept. Below is one example:

“Students showed a lot of creativity in the use of sound incorporated into their movements.” “[Students were asked] if adding music affected their interpretations.”

■ Expectations for student responses/responsiveness

“ Question asking” was still observed to be important for supporting student choice, decision-making, and rationale development in the classroom and around curricular topics. Discussion often included reflection on and responsibility for choices.

“Students were constantly talking about their choices [in response to instructor facilitation/encouragement].” “…constant classroom discussion regarding choreographic choices, how these choices felt, what they could do to improve it….”

Use of continued questioning was also used to ensure student/group understanding/progress. Group discussion was often used to review/assess what was learned or gained. This reflection considered understanding/progress in the art form/discipline, in the general curricular content, and the experiences with both. The following is an example of this “check-in”:

“After the final performances, students had a group discussion of things they felt they’d learned. This included the following: [We learned about] levels in movement. [We learned] how to put movement to a book you are reading. Taking a scene and acting it out. Using your imagination and how frustrating it can be. How to express ourselves. Point of view. Different perspectives. Using freedom. How to see words.”

The learning processes that the students engaged in and the responses and products that they developed often required use of negotiation around concepts and interpretations.

“Students selected scenes that were powerful to them. Then, working in groups, they negotiated a final choreography that depicted their group interpretation of the theme in that scene.”

Student progress was observed to be supported through active student participation, experimentation, and revision of student response(s). And students were encouraged by the artist and teacher in this work.

“It was also important for each [the artist and the teacher] to offer encouragement to the students throughout the period as many were shy in front of their audience of peers.”

Additionally, the following element was also observed to be important:

 Teacher and artist sharing and exchanging roles

Both teacher and artist were classroom disciplinarians and instructors (example of teacher being the artist “conducting the group’s rhythm and the artist being the teacher “reviewing vocabulary”).

“Teacher/artist team worked around the room coaching the student teams”

“Teacher participated fully in every exercise.”

The shared responsibility of the teacher and artist in time management and the use of available time was a consideration.

“Both the artist and teacher had to get through (rehearsal and performance in one period) and had to be mindful of the time.”

IX. Discussion

The original analysis of the observational data retrieved from the classrooms in which professional development opportunities were extended into instructional practice through teacher-artist planning, collaboration, and co-teaching. The original analysis focused on examining the strategies used by artists and teachers to facilitate development and growth in the areas of engagement and motivation, critical thinking, and discipline. As a team, we have benefited from the opportunity to examine these same strategies in relationship to effective standards of pedagogy using the criteria established by the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence. Below is a summary of our work.

Standard I. Joint Productive Activity: Teachers and Students Producing Together

Indicator 3 for Standard I suggests that teacher arrange “classroom setting to accommodate students’ individual and group needs to communicate and work jointly.”

Teachers and artists used both classroom set-up as well as the grouping of students to support joint productive activity. We observe “question asking” as a supportive strategy to overall joint productive activity by encouraging students’ consideration and revision of knowledge artifacts. This question asking was observed to be initiated by all three educational partners: teachers, artists, and students.

Complete independent student rehearsal was rarely observed however the teacher and/or artist would often incorporate student rehearsal time into the lesson plan either alone/with group members only or coached by artist or teacher. And as Indicator 6 suggests the “teacher plans with students how to work in groups and move from one activity to another, such as from large group introduction to small group activity, for clean-up, dismissal, and the like” – specifically in the area of time management.

Indicator 2: “Teacher designs instructional activities requiring student collaboration to accomplish a joint project” was part and parcel to most of the arts integration units and was also noted in the roles structured for students for self and other assessment and critique.

Standard II. Developing Language and Literacy Across the Curriculum

Indicator 5 for Standard II suggests that “the teacher connects student language with literacy and content area knowledge through speaking, listening, reading, and writing activities.” Not only do we observe examples of strategies for using multiple communication modes to support language development, we also observe multiple examples of how these communication modes (and more) when used through the introduction and manipulation of the art form support image making as a strategy for concretizing language and literacy concepts.

In providing rationale and justifications for their artistic choices, e.g. why they selected particular gestures to represent a character and their world view or why they selected certain rhythms to represent a geometric shape, the students use “content vocabulary to express their understanding.” (Std. II, Indicator 6).

Standard III. Making Meaning: Connecting School to Students’ Lives

Not only do so many of the arts integrated experiences require students to “begin with what students already know from home, community, and school” but also requires them to consider this basic knowledge and expand it, challenge it, and make inferences based upon it. The direction of the meaning making through making connections to students’ lives is often from the outside-in; strategies are pursued to make connections between the curricular material to the individual student. This occurs often in the observed arts integrated units. It is also observed where making the connection occurs from the inside-out; students are asked to make choices about an art form or curricular content based on decisions about personal relevance (e.g. The example in which students make decisions about their curricular response based on self reflection: “the students responded that they looked at their own lives- i.e., the past was a triangle because they were small, made mistakes and accidents and a triangle is sharp and accident prone.”)

Connections to the students’ lives are infused throughout the arts integrated classroom experiences. This infusion even is witnessed in the sustained rituals associated with each art form/discipline. According to CREDE (1998), one indicator for meaning making is that “the teacher varies styles of conversation and participation to include students’ cultural preferences, such as co-narration, call-and-response, and choral, among others.” These examples were most vividly witnessed in the music and movement integrated lessons in which ritual that supported various styles of conversation and participation was included in every phase and aspect of the classroom instruction from warm-up to in-classroom performances and responses.

Standard IV. Teaching Complex Thinking

Opportunities were provided through the arts integrated units to not only build on prior knowledge (“real life experiences”; Std. IV, Indicator 4.) established outside of the classroom but also to build on prior knowledge or building blocks established within the classroom. Most of the arts integrated experiences supported the concept of learning as accumulating over time rather than gathered and developed in discrete segments and episodes. In other AIA data sources (e.g., professional development surveys: see report), teachers describe their experiences of “finally” being able to construct and deconstruct the process of learning and support their students in those experiences so that more complex thinking can occur (Std. IV, Indicator 1: The teacher assures that students, for each instructional topic, see the whole picture as the basis for understanding the parts).

Another opportunity presented by the arts integrated units was the opportunity for students not only to be presented with “challenging standards for student performance” (Std. IV, Indicator 2) but also with opportunities that call on their initiative to adhere to and maintain these standards. In many of the artistic experiences, students are provided with a basic/foundational understanding of the tools of the discipline as well as the basic/foundational quality standards associated with the discipline. Time and time again, students are called on to refine and revise their own processes, products, and responses based on this understanding. Therefore “clear, direct feedback about how student performance compares with the challenging standards” (Std. IV, Indicator 5.) is co-created by teachers, by artists, and by the students themselves.

Standard V. Teaching Through Conversation

Opportunities for teaching through conversation were not only facilitated through the careful insertion of and attention to discussions throughout the arts integrated units but also through the types of questions that were asked to support the conversation. As time progressed and teachers had more opportunities to be exposed to the traditional and enhanced professional development experiences, we observe greater adeptness at asking and answering questions.

From the onset, we observed questions that elicited “how” and “why” responses” but as we continued to observe we also recognized questions that required in-depth probing of a content or student choice, again supporting complex thinking. Teachers and the artists are required to listen to the initial set of responses and develop questions that support student progress in understanding and inference (Std. V, Indicator 6.). Additionally, we recognized that the questions required more choice and more actual “talking time” (conversation contributions) by the students (Std. V, Indicator 3.:ensures that student talk occurs at higher rates than teacher talk). In fact, we see in many examples where the students themselves have assumed the role of question askers.

Throughout the observational period, teachers and artists were observed to ask students about their choices/responses and about their rationales/justifications for their choices. These choices and rationales were substantiated through multiple forms and images including dance, music and dramatic interpretations (Std. V, Indicator 4: The teacher guides conversation to include students’ views, judgments, and rationales, using text evidence and other substantive support.)

CREDE (1998) suggest that the room arrangements and set-up have implications for the nature, direction, and extent of conversation and the teaching that occurs through this conversation (Std. V, Indicator 1). Small group work was regularly integrated throughout the arts integrated units and the work that occurred in this group was “coached” by either the teacher and/or artist with student leadership and direction.

Acknowledgments:

Thank you to Gail Burnaford for directing us to the CREDE materials as a way to look at arts integrated practice.

Observers

• Olga Avalos*
• Zanoni Cuesta
• Matt Dealy*
• Kathy DeNicolo
• Glenna Godinsky
• Megan Murphy
• Kerri Nowicki
• Carolyn O’Neal*
• Eduardo A. Salas

AIA Leadership Contributors

Lara Pruitt*

Jackie Murphy

Cynthia Gerhie*

* Denotes observation team and AIA personnel responsible for the piloting and refinement of the observation tool and protocol.

One student said, “I don’t know how to say this…putting sound to movements was weird, but in a good way.”

References:

Dalton, S. (1998). Pedagogy matters: Standards for effective teaching practice (Research Rep. No. 4). Washington, DC and Santa Cruz, CA: Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence.