Getting Ready (10 minutes)

The following information will help you focus and organize your professional development session.

Learning Objectives

• Examine how different schools expand the role of the arts, based on their culture, priorities, and personnel.
• Discover different ways that teachers collaborate to use the arts in their classrooms.

Guiding Questions
These are questions for your group to consider as you work through the session:

• How can meaningful arts education change teaching practice?
• What are various ways educators can collaborate to increase the presence of the arts in their classrooms?

Materials and Resources

• Videotape or broadcast of Program 7 — Three Schools, Three Approaches
• Handout: Ridgeway Elementary School (PDF)
• Handout: Drew Model School (PDF)
• Handout: Kingsbury Elementary School (PDF)
• Reading: Roles of Arts Specialists and Classroom Teachers (PDF)
• Reading: Comprehensive Arts Education (PDF)
  

Opening Steps
Facilitator: Ask participants to review their understanding of the arts by discussing these questions:

• What are the arts?
• What do different art forms have in common with one another?
• What is arts education?
• How are the arts different from and similar to non-arts subjects?