Southeast Center for Education in the Arts, in partnership with the Hamilton County Department of Education, piloted a professional development experience for K-12 arts specialists and literacy teachers that began in June and came to a close this November.
“Arts specialists across the district were invited to find a partner who was a literacy educator on their own campus, and come together to think of literacy as a cross disciplinary event," said Susanne Burgess, director of Music Education at SCEA. "We often think of literacy as text based – as decoding text, when in the arts, we like to think of literacy as being bigger than that; we have to be aurally literate as well as visually literate."
Literacy, the Arts, and the Common Core encouraged approximately 30 arts specialists and literacy teachers to collaborate on interdisciplinary units of study. Educators created electronic portfolios that documented student growth in both literacy and the arts.
“In our district, as in many others, arts specialists rarely have opportunities to engage in professional development that’s relevant to them," said Laurie Melnik, interim SCEA director and director of Theatre Education. "This was an opportunity to not only work in their own areas, but in another area as well. It was very collaborative as well as very flexible in that the work happened how it needed to happen. It wasn’t a cookie cutter approach, it wasn’t a factory process—it was an individual process. They had to take a lot of time to design and implement the curriculum. So they adapted the curriculum to their particular disciplines as well as their community’s needs."
Teachers from across Hamilton County were invited to participate in LACC.
“It’s important that the program was focused locally, to forge those partnerships with the local school district and send the message that UTC is a great place to come for high quality professional development in arts education,” said Ms. Melnik.
The program began with a week-long event in June, modeling instruction techniques with the goal to build interdisciplinary units of study which teachers then implemented with their own students in the fall.
“They came expecting it to be a very passive experience, where they sat and listened while we told them things, but after the initial week of model instruction, it was them interacting and learning," said Joel Baxley, director of Visual Art Education at SCEA. "Some of the most beneficial moments were the conversations that came up spontaneously.
“The work needed to be embedded in their own job contexts, it doesn’t mean anything to come do a general workshop and take home a brick of text. We wanted it to suit their needs. We wanted them not to practice it just around other adults, but see it in practice with kids. We wanted them to see the nuts and bolts of the model, warts and all, and how it works in practice.”
High school teachers in particular faced unique challenges.
“There’s been a lot of work done in arts integration in public schools recently, but typically that occurs in the elementary or middle school levels, because the structure of high schools doesn’t lend itself to that kind of collaboration. So, while we want to, it’s very difficult to incorporate,” said Mr. Baxley.
“I think everyone had to think really creatively about how they were going to enact this collaborative curriculum, because many of them, particularly the high school teachers, taught different grades or had entirely different schedules," said Ms. Burgess. "Many of these teachers gave up their planning periods to work with other teacher’s classes to make this happen. And we didn’t tell them that they had to do anything like that. It was up to them to decide how to make this work."
“Our students have been excited to have learning experiences that seem like play, but in reality require deep thinking with evidence from texts and images,” said one 5th grade literacy teacher.
“The collaboration with my colleague has influenced me to include more literature in the classroom," said a middle school arts specialist in the dance cohort. "I plan to repeat this unit in the future with another group of students. It has been a wonderful experience."
Student artwork and electronic portfolios on were displayed recently in the EMCS building.
“We asked them to show their students’ progress from beginning, middle, to end, to write a narrative about what they were teaching, who they were teaching to, and where they still needed to go. Showing that type of growth in that way was new to everyone in the group,” said Ms. Burgess.
“The program technically ended in November, but in reality, if all goes well, what these educators learned, the reflection and change in practice, will continue into the future,” said Mr. Baxley.