Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program

Tag: Arts Integration

  • Arts Education Research Symposium 2020 focuses on inclusion through the arts

    Arts inclusion research project at Mill Creek Elementary incorporates mural textures for visually impaired students

    Photo by Master of Fine Arts Teaching Candidate Robert Plumb

    How do we effectively create inclusive arts integrated learning spaces for all students?

    On Tuesday, January 14th at the Arts Education Research Symposium, the College of Fine Arts alongside principals, district leaders, and community arts colleagues, will tackle this very question. The goal? To network, share research, prompt discussion, and forge partnerships in an effort to continually create environments in school where all learners are included and can thrive. 

    As Kelby McIntyre-Martinez, Assistant Dean for Arts Education & Community Engagement, explained: “The inclusive arts landscape has drastically changed over the last decade, and so has our K-12 student body. As we work towards creating educational spaces that truly include all learners, it is vital that our educational systems and teacher preparation programs implement relevant methodologies that are innovative, mutually beneficial, and celebrate each child’s abilities and unique contributions.”

    The Arts Education Research Symposium will include a short, interactive STEAM performance and movement workshop led by the Deaf Children’s Theatre Touring Company, Sunshine 2.0, from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf.

    Following, local administrators and Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program specialists will share best inclusive practices.  Speakers will include: principal Lori Reynolds and specialist Jonathan Hale from Sprucewood Elementary in Canyons School District, principal Ann Kane and specialist Rachel Lankford from Mill Creek Elementary in Granite School District, and elementary teaching and learning director Melissa Hamilton of Murray School District. These leaders will present arts inclusion research projects that have seen incredible results within their own schools and districts.  

    Research has shown participation in educational inclusive arts programs contributes to individuals’ skill development, which in turn can lead to confidence building as well as increased social and academic participation (Hillier, Greher, Poto, & Dougherty, 2012). Knowing this, how might we better prepare arts educators to adapt, differentiate and modify instruction across the arts more effectively?

    “This past academic year, school administrators, in partnership with the College of Fine Arts, identified that inclusive art making and the sharing of best practices across the region was a top priority,” McIntrye-Martinez explained. “The Arts Education Research Symposium is specifically designed to address the interests and needs of our partner school districts.”  

    Join us in this inspiring opportunity to connect and create. 

    Arts Education Research Symposium: Inclusion Through the Arts
    Tuesday, January 14th at 8:45 am – 12:45 pm (light breakfast & lunch provided)
    Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts and Education Complex at 1721 Campus Center Drive  

  • Utah State: Arts Are Core Conference

    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!

  • Mandala Magic Lesson Plan

  • Infuse Art – Change Our World

    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!

  • Strolling Through Draper Elementary

    Welcome to Draper Elementary’s Art Night 2016. Enjoy the visual arts projects created by the students and their BTSALP specialist, Kylie Welling. Arts and academic integration at it’s finest. Click here to learn how visual art can support and enhance content area learning.

  • Dixie State University Makes 7!

    Jeri CrosbyJeri Crosby

    Dixie State University
    Endowed Chair for Elementary Arts Education
    Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program

     

    Dixie State University is the most recent higher education institution to receive an endowment from the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Foundation. With this gift, DSU has been able to hire Jeri Crosby as the Endowed Chair for Elementary Arts Education. Jeri comes to this position with experience in teaching Kindergarten through college, administration, teacher training, and curriculum design. She has worked under the BTSALP as both a music teacher and a district curriculum specialist. Jeri is delighted to have opportunities to teach elementary arts integration and music courses at DSU, and to provide professional development for in-service classroom and arts teachers.  Jeri also serves on the BTSALP Advisory Board.

    Since transitioning to DSU in July, Jeri has been very busy designing courses and workshops and getting to know the principals and teachers in her region. The DSU BTSALP Region includes Washington, Kane and San Juan Counties, with a total of 34 elementary schools (spread over 400 miles of roads). Washington County School District currently has BTSALP arts teachers in 19 schools, and Jeri enjoys working with them immensely. She looks forward to working with all schools in the region to provide faculty training in arts and arts-rich instruction, as well as administrator guidance in applying to participate in the the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program.

    Dixie State University, with a student body of approximately 8,000, is located in  St. George, Utah. This area is known for its mild winter climate, beautiful canyons, national parks, and great recreation areas. The campus is growing, and academic programs and enrollment are increasing. The DSU Teacher Education Program has a reputation for preparing exceptional teachers, and the faculty and administration are pleased and grateful to be partners and benefactors of the BTSALP.

     

     

  • Arts Fusion Reflections by Kirsten Anderson

    Southern Utah University

    The first day of the Arts Fusion camp was very informative and effective on getting us to stop, look, and listen to the world around us.  First, we went out in nature and looked for patterns found around the SUU cabin.  We noticed sound patterns and recorded them, as well as visual patterns found in trees and other natural objects.  We made a lot of really interesting observations that I never knew about. We found that nature had laws and patterns it was governed by and all of the patterns had a specific purpose.  18892531824_4bad84e69c_kI would love to take the students out on nature walks to find these patterns when they are studying their science core.   Then we came back and drew thumbnail sketches of some of our observations.  I would definitely love to do this with my art students.  They would love to draw from live things they discovered on their own.  It is a way to teach drawing skills intuitively while making a scientific record. I found that whenever we were doing scientific discovery in the camp we drew in conjunction with the activity.

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    In the action drawing, we were to listen to tribal drum rhythms and move our bodies to the beats and interpret through visual art what we hear.  This could be a good activity with my arts students, however, like some others mentioned, I would have the students move their bodies to the rhythms first as a primer, then allow them 3 colors to use to make their piece of free form art.  I found that I tried to represent the types of tones with colors as I drew.  Some other teachers also suggested tying in the work of Kandinsky and the book, The Noisy Paintbox.  It was a good lesson on trying to make a piece of art look good using the rules of design, while trying to be free and loose.  This is hard on the brain using both sides.

    18892440134_2f277c5690_kLater in the day we learned about rhythm awareness with Matthew Marsolek.  It was very informative, active, and fun.  I enjoyed how he taught that you should vocalize the sounds first before you use your hand to make the sound on the drum.  I enjoyed to rhythms that we played.  I would like to use this in my teaching in a few different ways. I thought that it would work well as an attention activity at the beginning or end of a lesson.  Focus is needed to perform this particular activity, and if we didn’t have drums we could use a pencil and desk or hands on knees or any other found object we had.  The students would love to make different rhythms in this way.

    The next day we talked a lot about biological organisms found around and in a pond.  We looked at them closely and drew them first as they are and then in a nonsensical way.  This was a very fun activity that I think my students would enjoy when learning about insects in the 2nd grade.  It is a good way to introduce cartooning.  I think the students would enjoy studying the live bugs before drawing them as well.

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    Then we went on a nature hike at the kids pond while making an event map.  I enjoyed this activity and think the students would enjoy it as well.  I thought this would be great when the 5th graders go to Bryce Canyon on a hike.  I love the idea of documenting what they see and drawing.  It is a great way to practice drawing skills while getting them used to see detail and value while in nature. I loved Hannah Hinchman’s examples and laid back approach to this.  I found that just about everyone had a visual artist inside of them.  I have also seen this approach used with remembering history facts for example or stories.  So while the students learn about a subject you want them to remember they should draw pictures to help them remember the event in question.  This was also a great activity to get us to slow down and notice all the billions of other things that are living and doing miraculous things while we lounge about the pond.

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    The last activity was more drumming by Matthew.  I loved the activity where we closed our eyes and do a drum wave.  This activity was very awesome and taught me that you are intuitive and our arms can just feel when the right time is to perform based on sound and physical vibrations around you.  I could see the motion even though my eyes were closed.  I think the students would love this activity and I may use it with the 5th graders when they talk about electricity and currents. You could have them make a circuit with their bodies and have parts where you have to cap it off and they have to take the electricity back through.  I think I would also use the current drumming and different water sounds when talking about the water cycle with the 4th graders.  I would love to make drums with my students since we will not have the use of the African drums.

    I had a very enjoyable time at the camp and feel like it was a great success full of great information and ideas.  I really appreciate all the time and energies that were put in to make it a success.  Thank you so much!

  • BYU Arts Express 2015: Keynote Speakers

     

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    Susan Antonelli

    Susan Antonelli is an educational consultant and author of the Wonder Teacher blog. Certified as an early childhood and elementary teacher, she also earned a Master’s Degree in Elementary School Administration from The Citadel. She began her career as a 3rd grade teacher at Ashley River Creative Arts Elementary School where she earned National Board Certification as a Middle Childhood Generalist. She has since served as a grant director, adjunct professor at the College of Charleston, music and art teacher, preschool teacher, curriculum designer, and professional development leader throughout South Carolina. For the past thirteen years she has been the co-instructor of The Creative Teaching Institute, an arts-focused, state-sponsored graduate course for classroom teachers. In 2003 Mrs. Antonelli was given an Exemplary Achievement Award by the City of Charleston for dedication, vision, and work in the area of arts in education. Currently, she serves as an Instructional Coach with Engaging Creative Minds, a non-profit organization dedicated to bridging the arts and education communities while providing rich arts-based learning experiences for children. She is passionate about empowering teachers and engaging students through creative inquiry and the arts.

     

     

     

    marcusMarcus Shelby

    Marcus Anthony Shelby is an accomplished teacher, composer, arranger, and bassist who currently lives in San Francisco, California.  Over the past 20 years, he has built a diverse biography. From 1990-1996, Shelby was bandleader of Columbia Records and GRP Impulse! Recording Artists Black/Note and is currently an artist in residence with the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival and the Artistic Director of the Marcus Shelby Orchestra. Shelby was awarded a 2009 Black Metropolis Research Consortium Fellowship in Chicago for summer 2009 to conduct research for his commission from the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival to compose“Soul of the Movement”—a 12 part musical suite on MLK and the Civil Rights Movement. Shelby was also a 2006 Fellow in the Resident Dialogues Program of the Committee for Black Performing Arts at Stanford University to conduct research for his commission to compose “Harriet Tubman”. Shelby has also worked extensively in Bay Area Theater and dance composing scores for Margo Hall’s “Bebop Baby” and “Sonny’s Blues”, Anna Deveare Smith’s new play “School to Prison Pipeline”, the Oakland Ballet, Robert Moses and most recently Joanna Haigood’s dance theater work “Dying While Black and Brown”, and many other productions. Shelby is an artist in residence with the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, who has commissioned new work, and who also support the community-based projects developed by Shelby and where his orchestra performs annually. Shelby also has arranged for and conducted the Count Basie Orchestra featuring Ledisi, performed and recorded with Tom Waits, and received the City Flight Magazine 2005 award as one of the “Top Ten Most Influential African Americans in the Bay Area”. As the 1991 winner of the Charles Mingus Scholarship, Shelby’s studies include work under the tutelage of composer James Newton and legendary bassist Charlie Haden. Shelby is also very active in music education and currently teaches at Rooftop Alternative School in San Francisco, The Community Music Center, and the Stanford Jazz Workshop. Shelby also has led many of the San Francisco Jazz Festival Family Matinee Concerts. In March 2013, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee appointed Shelby to the San Francisco Arts Commission.

     

  • Box City

    Congratulations Beacon Heights Elementary School, Salt Lake City School District

    They spent one year working on a pilot program to get some STEAM going for the Engineering/Design process. Arts specialist, Donna Pence, incorporated this work into the art space, integrating science, literacy, and social studies. This whole project falls under the “project based learning model” culminating in a city design that was displayed at the Salt Lake City Library’s main downtown branch.

     

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