Recent residency: Brattain Elementary

Summary: Oregon Integrative Arts Partnership, Spring 2007

Brattain Elementary, Springfield OR

Kathy Reed, 2nd/3rd grade teacher

Debi Noel, Teaching Artist, Music

Rachael Carnes, Teaching Artist, Dance

Rick Williams, Division Chair of the Arts, Lane Community College

In this inclusive arts-based residency pilot project, Debi Noel, Rachael Carnes and Kathy Reed worked towards integrating arts learning into the recognized regional curriculum: The Physics of Sound, in order to satisfy the Oregon Department of Education State Standards for performing arts appreciation, inquiry and performance, as well as the content areas of science, dance, music and creative writing for second and third grade.

Brattain is noted as the lowest socio-economic elementary school in our region, and we hope to have demonstrated that arts learning modalities can assist in making learning fun and exciting for any student, especially one with disadvantages.

Master classroom teacher Kathy Reed supplied the jumping off place with a curricular unit that she needed to cover in her classroom during this academic year. And more than that, she continually offered her valuable insights into the group learning styles, their successes, and areas where we as teaching artists could focus. Kathy acted as liaison with the school, creating invaluable connections between us, the Teaching Artists, and the school's students and staff.

We had a mission: To excite and engage students around academic topics through concept-based dance and music: making sound and moving sound, with curricular scope and daily lesson plans to be woven together with area content related to the standards in that teaching-area content:

Making Sound:

a) Length and pitch

b) Tension and pitch

c) Sounds in our natural world: Animals, natural places and events.

d) Exploring the variety of sounds in human communication: Writing, music, rhythmic games and song.

e) Discriminating and originating sounds through "found" objects and the creation of new instruments

Moving Sound:

f) Sound and vibration

g) How sound travels, through air, through water, through solids

h) How sound travels from person to person: Symbolic representations of sounds, motifs and codes

In 1999, The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (www.pcah.neh.gov) identified critical success factors for achieving district-wide arts education. These 13 factors are: Community, The School Board, The Superintendent, Continuity, The District Arts Coordinator, A Cadre of Principals, The Teacher as Artist, Parent/Public Relations, An Elementary Foundation, Opportunities for Higher Levels of Achievement, National, State and Outside forces, Planning and Continuous Improvement.

Although our pilot project at Brattain Elementary, with the terrific Room 5 kids and inimitable Kathy Reed touched on some possibilities, it's just the beginning: Where we succeeded, you see support, factors met and exceeded. Where the program has room to grow and expand, you see areas where factors are indicated but not yet in place.

Children have an inherent connection to the arts.

It's not true that children haven't had any exposure to the arts. Of course, children see images on television and in print. They listen to the radio, and may watch some dancing in the movies. Isn't that art?

Some, if they're lucky, have had the experience of doing some of the arts themselves: Maybe their school has a choir, or there's a piano in the basement of their recreation center. These early experiences can have a profound effect.

The famous song and dance man, Tommy Tune, once recalled how, as a young boy, the Ballet Russes had come through his Texas town to perform:

"Oh," he said. "I can do that."

The architect Frank Gehry remembers playing blocks with his grandmother, and this is not uncommon. Most artists can trace their memory to an early inspiration.

But do we have to become artists to learn through the arts?

As a teaching artist, we think of offerings by gradations of depth: Exposure, enrichment or education. All are great, and all have their place.

Exposure to an art for can be a novel, engaging way to relate to something foreign in an approachable way. School assemblies, busing children to performances: Brief encounters, but fun and exciting.

Enrichment activities, such as the traditional artist residency, provide and build on some of those same structures, deepening the experience for children, but floating somewhere above making a real curricular difference. Teachers are less engaged, usually, and students vary in their level of interest. Still, for many schools, reliance on artist residencies provides most of the arts enrichment for visual art, drama, dance or creative writing that the students will participate in. In our local district, these residencies are typically offered for two-weeks, every other year.

It used to be that Elementary Schools had art rooms, and art teachers. They had music rooms, many still do of course, but they sit empty half the week, as music teachers have been reduced to part time work in numerous schools. The School Play exists only in the schools with the parent or administrative base of support to facilitate it, and even reading programs are shifting away from the creative, literature based and writing work, to more worksheets and testing.

One solution: arts integrated learning

In order to make a positive impact on the core of every child's education, healthy partnerships between and among the teaching artists and classroom teacher, with the support of administrators and parents, and even of the community, can help learning and fun come together. Every piece strengthens the whole.

Before we ever arrived, the students at Brattain Elementary had some strong opinions about what they wanted to learn from their teaching residency. Before Rachael or Debi ever arrived, under Mrs. Reed's guidance, they wrote us letters. These notes, in the children's neat penmanship, and in pencil, on cheerful stationery, express their knowledge and pride in their own dancing and musicianship, a curiosity about what the residency will entail, and also a palpable sense of welcoming to their classroom environment:

"I would like to learn about music and dancing." -- Naomi

"Dear Mrs. Noel and Mrs. Carnes, I'm looking forward to you coming. I want to learn t play the cello. Do you play an instrument?" -- Harrison

"I like to dance. And I want to know about sound." -- Your friend, Peter

"You sound nice. I'm looking forward to you teaching us about music and dance." -- Brenna

"I wonder what kind of dance and music I will learn about." -- Elana

"Come to Brattain. We'll have a great time!" -- Aurora

"Dear Mrs. Noel and Mrs. Carnes, I want to learn more about rock and roll and different kinds of music. My favorite instrument is the electric guitar and other guitars, and I only do wacky dances." -- From, Nick.

And

"Even though I know a lot about music, I'm excited to learn more." -- Erin

How do you quantify music and dance learning? You compare before and after samples:

As a simple tool to assess the efficacy and enduring lessons in the Brattain residency, we asked the children the same questions before and after the residency began. Before Debi or Rachael set foot in Room 5, Mrs. Reed led a discussion with the children, and wrote down their responses. Note the children's inherent interest in the art forms, their apriori knowledge, which Mrs. Reed encourages and acknowledges.

Prior to residency:

What is music?

What is dance?

What do you learn from dancing?

How can you use music to learn other subjects?

And after the residency, and the culminating experience, in fact, after several weeks had passed, Debi Noel and I returned to Room Five to see the children, to share our pride in their work, and hear their excitement about what they had accomplished.

But had they learned anything about the Physics of Sound? Would they connect to the district's curriculum, or demonstrate that they had mastered any part of the standards through doing this work?

Sure, we could rest assured that they had had fun singing and dancing, but were those learning moments there? Did they last, over these spring weeks? Would the children retain any of their learning?

After their brain dance, some group singing and explorations, Debi and I asked the group the same questions:

What is music?

What can we learn from doing music?

What is dance?

What can we learn from dancing?

In the above statements, the students demonstrate a range of new vocabulary, but it's not just rote understanding: They eagerly reiterated common ideas in the physics of sound, three full weeks after studying the concepts. Note, too, how they venture into some of the social and emotional territories that the arts provide for the individual and the group, creating a platform for a discussion of social, emotional and physical health. Note how after the residency, the shape of what the art forms are have transformed, from a perspective of audience, to one of arts maker. We're down on the floor playing with blocks, we're engaging. We're dancers, musicians. We're scientists, making inquiries.

Community Support for Arts Education

The Thursday, May 3rd Informance at Brattain Elementary culminated this pilot project for Lane Community College's Oregon Integrative Arts Initiative.

We began our evening by meeting in the school cafeteria, where a Sparkplug Dance volunteer chef, Artie Leider, prepared a healthy and yummy meal for 100 members of the Brattain Community, using donations from many area businesses. And we couldn't have made the evening possible without the dedication of the school custodial and kitchen staff, who volunteered their time to ready the school for the performance, and helped with all the preparations in the kitchen.

Children and their families enjoyed their delicious dinners, sitting and mingling with teachers, administrators, Sparkplug board members and visiting guests. And to make the meal even more special, enter The Grassburners, a Five-piece bluegrass band, Sparkplug Mom and Dad Maggie and Alan Cline on Bass and Guitar, with banjo, mandolin and guitar to send toes tapping and make a joyful mood for celebration. The Physics of Sound was bouncing all around!

In Putting the Arts in the Picture: Reframing Education in the 21st Century, authors Nick Rabkin and Robin Redmond detail the insights of Dan Weissmann, an educational journalist who studied arts integrated curriculum. He states, "lessons that integrate the arts and science, ...operate on multiple levels, promote student engagement, greater mastery of reading, writing, and math, and higher order thinking."

Is it possible to weave district and state standards into science education with dance and music so that students explore in a variety of modalities the concepts of the science curriculum in a highly engaging format?

As audience members, parents, siblings and visiting grown-ups were energized as students demonstrate their knowledge of science,music, and movement. Witness: A whole body welcoming song from Africa, the Brain Dance, The Amplitude Rap, Rhythm Explorations, The Human Oscilloscope, the Tone Quality Orchestra and the Speed of Sound Testing Speedway.

Question: Does the Speed of Sound change at higher or lower frequencies, or does it remain the same? The kids at Brattain know the answer!

We learned about the physics of sound in a way we had never imagined. Stomping, clapping, laughing, learning, celebrating!

To support work like this, please make your gift to Sparkplug Dance today.

Thank you!

© 2003-2008 Rachael Carnes