Utah State University sent BTSALP specialists and classroom teachers “back to school” with strategies and lesson ideas to reach every learner. Arts Are Core: One World, Many Makers held on August 1, 2019 provided professional development arts-integration for K-6 classroom teachers, arts specialists, administrators and university students/pre-service teachers.
Educators participated in a full day of professional development exploring how the core curricula of Math, Science, Language Arts and Social Studies can be taught using the rich hands-on art forms of dance, drama, music and visual art. Participants delved into the foundation of arts-integration, unpacking all of the quality characteristics of best practice. They also walked away with enriched lesson plans to kick off the upcoming school year!
If this looked like fun, check out some of the other workshops coming up at Utah State University!
The University of Utah, College of Fine Arts, presented their ArtsLink 2019 conference on Saturday, March 2nd. ArtsLink is free to students and is a daylong introduction into the wonderful world of arts integration. Plus breakfast, lunch, swag bags, and lesson plans for all!
It was a fun day filled with art making and educational conversation. Breakout sessions, integrating the beautiful book, Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth, by Oliver Jeffers, were held in the four art forms of Dance, Drama, Music and Visual Arts.
Dance with Jana Shumway: “Here We Are”on the LAND THAT WE LOVE!
Curriculum Connections: At the end of this workshop, students understood more about our earth’s land. They danced the different biomes (desert, plain, tropic, tundra, grassland, mountain, forest, wetland.) They choreographed movement about the levels in the soil (topsoil, subsoil, bedrock;) and created shapes of many land forms, then moved like the forces (water, wind, gravity, ice) that case weathering and erosion. Quite a workout!
Drama with Penny Caywood: Notes for Living on Planet Earth
Curriculum Connections: Students in the Drama workshop connected the Drama standards of Creating, Performing and Responding with Literacy standards (Connect.) Students read, listened to and told stories from a variety of cultures, genres and styles. They identified characters, setting, plot, theme and conflict in the stories. They also identified historical, global, and social issues connecting them through drama/theater work. Sounds heavy duty but it was SO MUCH FUN!
Music with Susan Swidnicki: Come Dance and Sing Around the Ring
Curriculum Connections: The geography of a community influences the cultural development of the humans who inhabit the community. There are relationships between climate, natural resources and other geographic characteristics and a community’s cultural development.
Students explored the idea of interrelationships between community and environment. Susan explained ways people respect and pass on their traditions and customs. Students then identified physical features of a community and could explain how they affect people’s activities in that area – All Through Music!
Visual Arts with Jen Terry: Animal Maps
Curriculum Connections: Mapping builds higher order thinking skills and brings meaning-making to place, thing, concept and idea. This sense of scale, perspective, representation, symbol and observation connects deeper understandings to the experience and helps break apart place, thing, concept or idea into meaningful chunks of information to form an understanding of the whole
Students created a variety of maps – animals maps out of shapes, map of a fish, character maps and scientific drawings. So many ideas. So little time!
Jeremy Chatterton, principal at Dilworth Elementary School in Salt Lake City School District, is definitely a friend of BTSALP. He is willing to share the success of the BTSALP every chance he can! Jeremy presented information about his school and the program at the Principal’s Symposium held at the University of Utah and at the BTSALP Legislative Dinner.
Jen Terry is a BTSALP Professional Development Partner and elementary art integration coach at Alpine School District. She believes that art integration transforms learning into purposeful experiences that are worthwhile for the teacher and student. Jen holds a B.S. from Utah State University in Early Childhood Education with a Visual Art emphasis and a M.Ed. in Integrated Curriculum from American College of Education. As a practicing artist, she is passionate about the arts and children’s literature. She is a curator of children’s picture books who works to bridge stories and inspire ideas in the hearts of children and educators.
Jen presented on the Best Children’s Books of the Year panel at Utah Valley University’s For the Love of Reading Conference held in October, 2018. Specialists in all art forms will find inspiration for integrated lessons within the pages of Jen’s “Best Books of 2018.”
This book is from a french author/artist and beautifully encourages unplugged exploration. A book about seeing the world through a different mindset and lens. The illustrations and color will leave you wanting to go out, play in the dirt and experience nature.
A heartwarming story about empathy and imagination. Pair with Sam, Bangs and Moonshine to bring the importance of being kind and that understanding is sweeter than judgement. Luyken’s illustrations really make you take the time to look over and observe Adrian’s “horse.”
Dreamers is a celebration of what migrants bring with them when they leave their homes. It’s a story about family. Also included are a brief autobiographical essay about Yuyi’s own experience, a list of books that inspired her (and still do), and a description of the beautiful personal images, textures, and mementos she used to create this book.
In creating this book, Valerio was inspired by the German Expressionist group known as Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), which formed in Munich in 1911 and included painters Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky. The colors and shapes in this book will inspire and make you get up and create your own colorful story. Valerio has created a wordless book that speaks volumes about how art can transform us beyond the sometimes dreary world of the everyday.
National Book Award winner, Jacqueline Woodson and two time Pura Belpre illustrator award winner Rafael Lopez have teamed up to create a poignant, yet heartening book about finding courage to connect, even when you feel scared and alone. We find when we reach out and begin to share our stories, others will be happy to meet us halfway. The illustrations will move you just like in Drum Dream Girl.
Pair with Vivid: Poems and Notes About Color by Julie Paschkis. Why did Roman emperors wear purple? Which color is made from crushed beetles? Find out the answers to these and many more questions in this vibrant exploration of the stories behind different colors, and the roles they’ve play throughout history.
This is a collection of almost 100 original poems written by the award winning poet Naomi Shihab Nye in honor of the artists, writers, poets, historical figures, ordinary people, and diverse luminaries from past and present who have inspired her. This book celebrate the inspirational people who strengthen and motivate us to create, to open our hearts, and to live rewarding and graceful lives.
From world renowned autism spokesperson, scientist, and inventor Temple Grandin – a book of personal stories, invention, facts that will blow young inventors’ minds and make them soar. She creates a blueprint for different ways to look at the world. She gives a call to action, a call to imagination, and shows readers that there is truly no single way to approach any given problem – but that an open and inquisitive mind is always key.
Mass and Stead, two masterminds of classic middle grade fiction come together to craft this magical story about the enduring power of friendship. Clue by clue, Livy and Bob – a short greenish creature dressed in a chicken suit – will unravel the mystery of where Bob comes from and discover the kind of magic that lasts forever.
In this unforgettable, multicultural coming-of-age narrative, based on the author’s childhood in the 1960s, a young Cuban/Jewish immigrant girl is adjusting to her new life in New York City when her American dream is suddenly derailed. Ruthie’s plight will intrigue readers and her powerful story of strength and resilience, full of color, light and poignancy, will stay with them for a long time. As Ruthie’s world shrinks because of her inability to move, her powers of observation and her heart grow larger and she comes to understand how fragile life is, how vulnerable we all are as human beings and how friends, neighbors and the power of the arts can sweeten even the worst of times.
This is an astonishing New York Times bestselling novel-in-verse by an award winning slam poet about an Afro-Latina heroine who tells her story with blazing words and powerful truth.
On September 13th and 14th, members of the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program, from all over the state gathered at the Utah State Capitol to connect, learn and create. Specialists, principals, university partners all working together to create artful learning in our schools.
Sydnee Dickson, Utah State Superintendent of Public Education was the keynote speaker, Art and the Whole Child, and kicked the conference off on a positive note. Success stories of specialists making a difference with a class, school, or individual students were shared.
Over the two days of the conference, breakout sessions were conducted in all 4 art forms centered around the book, Locomotive by Brian Floca – an historical picture book about the Transcontinental Railroad. Presenters (Endowed chairs and Professional Development Partners who specialize in the various art forms) modeled high-quality standards-based lessons to use as a basis for later discussion. Participants were encouraged to create 4 strand lessons: Create, Present/Perform, Respond, Connect.
Dance
Dancers also used pages from Locomotive to choreograph movement. Click on the link below to see BTSALP dance specialists “lay down the track.”
Drama
Drama specialists were up and moving – Building Informances, Creating Still Life Museums, and discussing and acting out drama teaching strategies.
Visual Art
Visual artists used text from the pages of Locomotive, as inspiration for their own artistic interpretations.
Music
Music specialists work with beat, musical instruments and song. A picture is worth a thousand words so watch the BTSALP music specialists in action below!
It wasn’t all work . . . fun, games, food and song kept us all “On The Right Track!”
