Woo hoo! You express this brilliantly Renee. I'll add this to the pieces I'm sharing with my students this week. I always work to help them see the thinking skills that parallel across all areas of the curriculum so that all support growth in thinking and doing that transfers! And the transmediation - crossing the various symbolic areas - adds even more cognitive strength as does multilingualism!!!
Thanks so much for this piece. I sooooo wish you could still be teaching art. Makes me so angry as I know so many of us are angry at what is happening in schools now. Sally On 7/17/11 10:31 AM, "Renee" <[email protected]> wrote: > Sally, > > When I was teaching art, students came to me for one hour > approximately once every three weeks or so. I wish, wish, wish I > could have had them more often. With a few exceptions, most teachers > just brought the students to me, dropped them off, and returned in an > hour to pick them up. For the most part this worked fine for me > because *some* of the teachers who stayed would sometimes interject > their own strategies and thoughts and opinions and directions into my > lesson, which drove me nuts. But overall, I really wish that the > teachers had stayed to listen to the introductions, participate in > the activities themselves, listened more closely to the questions I > asked during discussions, and gave more thought to what was actually > happening in my classroom, because there was tons of problem-solving, > small motor development, eye-hand coordination, development of > observation skills, juxtapositioning of overall composition and > internal details, talking about great art works (you'd be surprised > what a 1st grader can find in and extrapolate from closely observing > the Mona Lisa!), writing about their art work, critiquing other's art > work, comparing student works, etc etc etc. There is a ton of > language arts and math work in there. Tons. > > Off my soapbox now.... > Renee > > > On Jul 17, 2011, at 9:57 AM, Sally Thomas wrote: > >> You have me thinking as I am going to bring the two emails to my >> class on >> Thursday for discussion. >> >> Maybe there should be a "push in" with knowledgeable support teachers >> co-planning with the regular teacher to help create better reading >> workshop >> type classrooms. And two informed teachers have to be better than >> one in >> terms of giving differentiated support to children???? >> >> Sally >> >> >> On 7/17/11 7:54 AM, "Renee" <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Oh my..... I SOOOOO disagree with this! No child should be excluded >>> from equal access to the curriculum, and that includes Art, Music, >>> P.E., or whatever else, no matter where they are performing. In >>> fact, I >>> would say that low-performing children might need these parts of >>> curriculum most of all.... to help them see and experience the grand >>> intertwining of all parts of learning. Children who are >>> "underperforming" according to some standardized assessment shouldn't >>> be punished and have their curriculum narrowed down. Children don't >>> need *more* reading instruction, they need *better* reading >>> instruction >>> (and in my opinion, that means more actual reading and less actual >>> drilling). >>> >>> I understand too well the frustration of having students pulled >>> out of >>> class for small group instruction and in fact I am not particularly >>> supportive of trading students around among teachers that people >>> do so >>> much of these days. But narrow the curriculum because a child is >>> reading below grade level? Sorry..... can't support that one. >>> >>> Some food for thought: >>> >>> 10 Lessons the Arts Teach >>> >>> 1. The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative >>> relationships. >>> Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules >>> prevail, in the arts, it >>> is judgment rather than rules that prevail. >>> 2. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one >>> solution >>> and that questions can have more than one answer. >>> 3. The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. >>> One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and >>> interpret the world. >>> 4. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving >>> purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and >>> opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and a >>> willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the >>> work >>> as it unfolds. >>> 5. The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal >>> form nor numbers exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language >>> do not define the limits of our cognition. >>> 6. The arts teach students that small differences can have large >>> effects. >>> The arts traffic in subtleties. >>> 7. The arts teach students to think through and within a material. >>> All art forms employ some means through which images become real. >>> 8. The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said. >>> When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them >>> feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words >>> that will do the job. >>> 9. The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other >>> source >>> and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what >>> we are capable of feeling. >>> 10. The arts' position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the >>> young >>> what adults believe is important. >>> >>> SOURCE: Eisner, E. (2002). The Arts and the Creation of Mind, In >>> Chapter 4, What the Arts Teach and How It Shows. (pp. 70-92). Yale >>> University Press. Available from NAEA Publications. NAEA grants >>> reprint >>> permission for this excerpt from Ten Lessons with proper >>> acknowledgment >>> of its source and NAEA. >>> >>> >>> Renee >>> >>> >>> On Jul 16, 2011, at 3:13 PM, Amy Lesemann wrote: >>> >>>> We had arguments about this, and I lost until a new teacher came >>>> in and >>>> supported me. Frankly, if a student is 2 or more years- even less, >>>> frankly - >>>> then they really do need to sacrifice music, or art, or another >>>> special for >>>> extra reading instruction, and stay in the regular class for regular >>>> reading >>>> instruction. Before I got that extra vote in the faculty >>>> meetings, the >>>> remedial kids were getting pulled out of their regular classes to >>>> meet >>>> with >>>> me...so they were getting exactly the same amount of instruction as >>>> everyone >>>> else. That's not the idea. They should be participating in >>>> reading and >>>> writing workshop, and then going to the specialist to target >>>> their weak >>>> areas - in phonics, using context clues, and so on. >>>> >>>> Good luck! >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Amy Lesemann, Reading Specialist and Director, Independent Learning >>>> Center >>>> St. Thomas the Apostle Elementary School >>> >>> >>> " What was once educationally significant, but difficult to measure, >>> has been replaced by what is insignificant and easy to measure. So >>> now >>> we test how well we have taught what we do not value." >>> Art Costa, emeritus professor, California State University >>> >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Mosaic mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to >>> http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/ >>> mosaic_literacyworkshop.org >>> >>> Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive >>> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Mosaic mailing list >> [email protected] >> To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to >> http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/ >> mosaic_literacyworkshop.org >> >> Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive >> > > "The conductor of an orchestra doesn't make a sound... He depends for > his power on his ability to make other people powerful." > ~ Benjamin Zander > > > _______________________________________________ > Mosaic mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive > _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive
