Hi All!
Got around to reading all of your love notes last night in between studying for finals. I really appreciated your kind words. Most of you capitalized on my favourite word; passion! Nice intuition gang!
Just wanted to let you all know how much I enjoyed this class this semester! You are all such talented & unique writers-I hope you continue to write forever!
Also a few of you mentioned how much you loved the video I ended with so I thought I would post it again here for you!
Listening to it for the 29th time....still getting chills! Best of luck to all of you!
“Writing is a performance, like singing an aria or
dancing a jig”
-Stephen
Greenblatt
I’ve
been thinking a lot about the healing power of writing. I realized that I
constantly make the excuse that my school works takes up so much of my time
that I have none for creative writing. I spend money on books full of prompts,
story cube dice, and picture cards and have spent time perusing the internet for
free prompts with the intension of waking up each morning and writing non-stop
for thirty minutes. But I never do. Instead opting instead to stay up late and “de-bunny”
the long work or school day by watching TV and then sleeping in to prevent a
sleep hangover.
However,
each week in our class, we have no excuse. We are given a prompt and we get an
opportunity to write about what’s going on in our lives in relation to the
framework given to us. I look forward to this because it’s pure therapy. Not
only do I approach it with fear and come out with something I am often
surprized and proud of but I feel as though the light bulb has been lit and some
emotional purging has taken place. My shoulders always feel less heavy after
class, after I’ve been able to search my soul and write it down.
I
know that writing heals not only because of how it makes me feel but also
because I talk about my experiences in class with all of my friends and
co-workers. I received a text message the other day from my friend Karen that
contained one of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received that said this; “Today
was the first time I wanted to write my thoughts down in a journal. This comes
from you. It was a day things came together and I want to make a record of it.
I am happy. Thank you.” I often talk about my classes and what I am learning in
them but what made my encouraging writing stick with Karen? I believe this is
because of my delivery. When I speak passionately about something, it’s a
performance, an authentic one where I am playing me, but a performance all the
same. This is because my words come alive in my soul firing me up to give
speeches of advocacy.
I
learned to be a passionate speaker through the art classes I took in growing up
and later in high school. Dance, Theatre and Music showed me how words can have
movement. How they can breathe life into the world and into beings. I was a shy
teen because I was told that being different made me weird and so when I
started to grow into my own I thought the best way to survive was to become a
wallflower. The arts were always there to look forward too and it was through
them where I saw that the imagination I had that made me different was what
created art and writing that I was most proud of. My performances and writing were
where I could truly to be me and I was always moved by what I was creating. The
arts and creative writing guided me away from the wall and showed me what it
felt like to be myself. It still does that for me to this day.
I
learned differently than other students. I needed a hands on, options given,
creative way to do projects. I needed to express myself. I could only show that
I understand something through creations. I always did better on an essay
question, a monologue or a collage poster that I did on multiple choice or
true/false questions. There are many other students out there that are the same
way. The education system was changing as I was departing its confining halls
so I was able to escape relatively well-rounded but students of today aren’t as
lucky.
Educational
theorist too have noted that the system has tended to focus on only the logical
and language facets of learning leaving other ways of learning, ways that can
reach students like me, off their chart on how to grade intelligence. “Each
schema the child holds is actually the sum total of all the impressions,
associations, experiences and emotions that that child has about the topic.
Therefore any visualization or imaging activity that a teacher guides children
through will necessarily result in a wide variety of images about any topic
because the responses totally depend upon the schema of each individual child
and just how fully each child’s schema has been activated or brought to the conscious
mind but the stimulus” (Cecil, 38)
“Howard Gardner has made it that much harder
for segregationists of education to support their logic of banishment when a
child struggles in a rigid curriculum by discovering seven patterns for solving
problems and fashioning products, also known as learning.” He starts with the
two that traditional schools use; logical-mathematical thinking and linguistic
capacities. But his last five which deal with culturally valued ways of knowing
and acting in the world are banished from the curriculum.”
“These
included spatial-representation intelligence (representing time, space, objects
and spirit through symbols, drawings and other media), musical-intelligence
(communication through song and rhythm), kinaesthetic intelligence
(communication through one’s body to solve problems and make things,
interpersonal intelligence (understanding the communication of others) and
intrapersonal intelligence (understanding of one’s self so that choices can be
made and they can act on those choices) (Kweiler, pg. 81). So in other words,
when we are able to look at students from this much wider range of intelligence
capacities, we increase the rubric for what makes a student smart while showing
them that we understand the way they feel most comfortable communicating and
showing us what they know.
Another
problem is how separated all of the school subjects are from one another when
in reality, we rely on all of them working together every day. “The school day
is fragmented (you go to separate spaces reserved for science, math, etc.) but
the arts provide an opportunity for students to come together and connect the
various strands of their learning. This happened not only among the various
strands of their learning but also across all subjects. The school musical, for
example, obviously brings together learning and students in the visual arts for
set design, musical training for vocal and band performance and theatre mavens
contributing dramatic expertise. But students doing tech theatre are putting to
use physics and mathematical concepts and acumen, just as theatre students are
using the analytic skills they’ve acquired in their humanities and history classes
to make sense of the script” (Davis, 92).
In
the Common Core Standards emphasis on writing across all disciplines and for
real purpose in order “to build a foundation for college and career readiness,
students need to learn to use writing as a way of offering and supporting opinions,
demonstrating understanding of the subjects they are studying, and conveying
real and imagined experiences and events. They learn to appreciate that a key
purpose of writing is to communicate clearly to an external, sometimes
unfamiliar audience, and they begin to adapt the form and content of their
writing to accomplish a particular task and purpose” (Calkins, 110).
“The arts provide a nexus for a range of
disciplinary understandings. A musical composition, like a play, demonstrates
psychological considerations in its expressive potential, historical considerations
such as relevant styles and events, mathematical considerations in the
relationship between notes and stanzas and narrative elements in the unfolding
of the story it tells” (Davis, 93). In fact, narrative writing, along with persuasive/opinion/argument
and informational/functional/procedural writing make up the three types of
writing in the Common Core Standards.
Narrative
writing can often become creative writing because it contains a part of you,
the writer, in it no matter how small. We are talking about personal
narratives, fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, narrative memoir, biography
or narrative non-fiction (Calkins, 104). Often this kind of writing becomes
plays or one-man/woman shows. The personal messages that are written out
sometimes turn into pieces that need to be performed.
Narrative
writing also lends its hands to the other two forms of writing; “narratives are
important not only because they are, as Barbara Hardy says, the primary mode of
knowing but also because they are an essential component in almost every other
kind of writing. Listen to TED talks which are models of persuasive and
informative speaking and you will find that mostly, those speeches are mosaics
of stories. Read a terrific informational text and you’ll find that you are
reading stories” (Calkins, 113).
When
reading stories, emotions are brought to the surface as you journey along with
the hero. The same experience can be had with music. When listening, students
can “begin to write their reactions in a different way, using a vehicle of the
contrast frame. This device provides a literary scaffold or temporary structure
for the children to use so that they may begin to record their observations in
an expository mode. While such a device is useful in helping all students to
organize their ideas, it is especially helpful for those for whom English is a
second language” (Cecil, 133).
The
performing arts matter in the classroom because it helps to unify all of the
other subjects. It matters because it shows students how to connect and
understand the world they live in. It matters because it teaches students compassion
and empathy for one another. It matters because it instils self-expression and confidence.
It matters because it can be used as a way to reach students who can show us
what they know by being creative instead of by choosing a, b, c or d with a
number two pencil. It matters because it moves, literally, our body, heart and
mind.
Through
the arts, students can learn to see with fresh eyes the world around them and
how to forge their way through it. Through creations, students are able to
harness the power of their imagination and agency. Imagination teaches them how
to answer the “what if” questions of life. Agency shows them to see that they
matter as they put that imagination into motion. Through emotion expression teaches
students to recognize and talk about how they feel and in turn empathy in order
to understand how others feel. Through interpretation students can show what
they think matters. They can show respect for what others think matters as
well.
In
the act of creating, a process must take place. This process includes inquiry
as the students question the right and wrong of the informational text they are
given as well as the motivation for why the character does what they do.
Inquiry leads to personal reflection on how the student’s approach to the
material is working and what else they need to do. Once they have all this down
they can then perform for an audience showing that they care through engagement
and responsibility by showing up and doing the best they can do.
The
performing arts matters because it allows the student to learn, think, explore,
feel and express others and their own stories out into the community. This allows
for voices to breathe life into the air and rise up, encouraging others to stand
up for individuality. As one student has said “arts are most the important
thing if not because they are so wonderful and rich but because they impact
everything” (Davis, 93). Imagine what kind of world we could live in with the
ability to impact for the better?
Calkins,
Lucy, Mary Ehrenworth, and Christopher Lehman. Pathways to the Common Core:
Accelerating Achievement. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2012. Print.
Cecil, Nancy Lee., and Phyllis Lauritzen. Literacy and
the Arts for the Integrated Classroom: Alternative Ways of Knowing. New
York: Longman, 1994. Print.
Davis,
Jessica Hoffmann. Why Our High Schools Need the Arts. New York: Teachers
College, 2012. Print.
Kohl,
Herbert R., and Tom Oppenheim. The Muses Go to School: Inspiring Stories
about the Importance of Arts in Education. New York: New, 2012. Print.
Shayne
is a teacher who runs a constructivist classroom. She has a student in her
class with Down syndrome named Isaac. She immediately noticed in him a
different way of communicating and connecting with his fellow classmates and
the world around him. She understood that when he was fidgety or had outbursts
that he was simply communicating, not misbehaving. When Shayne reads a book in
class Isaac dances to it because that is how he feels it, that is how he
understands it. “Isaac literally danced to books and his dance did change as
books were discussed, acted out, reread and discarded for new books. His dances
also changed how his peers and teachers saw the stories. Before Isaac, few of
us knew you could dance to a book at all. Isaac’s literary waltzes established
a new sense of communication that connected children, teachers and materials in
a manner that was previously non-existent” (Kliewer, pg. 90). Shayne was able
to acknowledge that his idiosyncratic performances were his way to connect to
the class community which helped him to be understood.
Sir
Ken Robinson tells of a similar tale about Gillian Lynne in his book The Element (in this TED talk he refers to the book as “epiphany”,
indeed!) and during his world famous TED talk. Gillian Lynne was born in Bromley, England (yes,
that’s where my name comes from) in the 1920’s. Her teachers noticed that she
was always moving about during lessons and that it was a serious learning disability.
Gillian’s mother took her to see a doctor who asked a bunch of questions and
then decided to leave Gillian alone in the room with the radio on as he and her
mother watched form outside.
Soon
she got up out of her chair and started dancing about the room. The doctor
turned to her mother and said “Gillian is not sick, she’s a dancer.” He said
that she didn’t need medication (at the time ADHD hadn’t been “invented” yet as
Robinson points out) and instead just needed to be enrolled into a dance class,
which her mother did. Gillian felt understood in her dance classes because it
was full of people just like her, “people who had to move to think.” She said “I
get days where I feel very low for no particular reason. I’ve never had
therapy. I believe you have to deal with it yourself. My answer is going to
dance class.” As you see in the video below, this recognition led her to nurture her
talent and make a living through dancing and choreography.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman notices that “a very important
part of being in school is not just sitting and listening but having a group of
kids who begin to move and play in space with their bodies together and who
know how to learn together. This is very important for the quality of learning”
(Kohl, 110). Lisa Delpit puts the movement into motion showing how because the
students movement is supressed at school that when they are in the classroom,
they can’t help but move about. When the students do this, the teachers are
failing to notice what their movements represent, instead subscribing to the
idea that they are just acting out. “Suddenly the little boy who can’t sit
still, jumping and tumbling around the room, can, with a new set of lens, becomes
a dancer. The girl whose school papers are covered in scribbles becomes an
artist. The boys who annoy their teachers by constantly tapping on their desks
become drummers. Those whose notebooks are filled with raps become lyricists.
The little girl who cries at the least affront becomes a thespian. The arts
give us new eyes to see the potential for the expression of divinity, for
perfection, in our children” (Kohl, 38).
Shayne noticed Isaac’s need to dance out what he learning
in order to understand and Gillian’s doctor recognized her need to dance in
order to think instead of simply labelling them both with a learning disability.
Through movement, they could understand what they were learning about and
feeling. Through dance, they were both able to connect with the lessons they
were being taught. “The ability to symbolize through dance, as in language,
extends the child’s knowledge of the world and its ways. Whatever else dance
may be, its strong interface between motor and cognitive activities makes it a
unique way of receiving and expressing knowledge.” “Dance could be a natural
part of any literacy program for long before words are used, aren’t children
already competent at communicating meanings through movement” (Cecil, 109, 108)?
Another way to communicate through movement is through
playing music. Moving notes around, composing melody, creating harmony is
another way to move in order to feel. Deborah Meier “suspects that if we were
wiser and more competent, we could see the most abstract of arts as the
essential ingredient that makes us human-out search for ways to communicate
what is deeply felt and what inspires out imaginative free play. After all,
when we hear good music it creates feelings that wasn’t there a moment before”
(Kohl, 114-115). Music can connect you to something that understands where you
are and what you are going through. Music is one of those things that can build
a community because together, you make the entire sound complete. “These
students’ experience of immediate connection with a world of others with whom
they work to create the best performance of music that they can resonates
throughout the natural community-building connections that arts learning affords”
(Davis, 81).
Through the arts, not just dance and music but theatre,
film and performance art too, understanding takes place and connections are
made both within the students own selves and out into their community and
world. “The intense engagement in the co-construction of an artistic production
awakens students to a sense of responsibility that can extend beyond the word
to the world of human issues represented in and through art”. To take
co-construction a step further is to point out that the teacher must discover
and understand alongside the student. They must not come to the table with all
of the answers, they must instead be receptive to the ideas the students come
up with as well. “A creative relationship in which you can formulate ideas
together and take guidance from the teacher in the direction you have
personally chosen helps the students view their teacher as a co-constructor of
idea’s rather than the holder and conveyor of knowledge. This fosters sense of
self-respect and the ability to find multiple meanings that students will need
to find their way in the complex (gray, not black and white) adult world”
(Davis, 101, 100)!
Works
Cited:
Cecil, Nancy Lee., and Phyllis Lauritzen. Literacy and
the Arts for the Integrated Classroom: Alternative Ways of Knowing. New
York: Longman, 1994. Print.
Davis,
Jessica Hoffmann. Why Our High Schools Need the Arts. New York: Teachers
College, 2012. Print.
Kliewer, Christopher. "Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing
Down Syndrome." Schooling Children with Down Syndrome: Toward an
Understanding of Possibility. New York: Teachers College, 1998. 71-96.
Print.
Kohl,
Herbert R., and Tom Oppenheim. The Muses Go to School: Inspiring Stories
about the Importance of Arts in Education. New York: New, 2012. Print.
Date:
11/14/2013 ~ Start Time: 6:57 pm ~ Captured Dad’s hand in the shot to mark the
start!
Whenever
I meet a person, their hands are the first thing I check out-I just love them
because they are used to hold and to create. Leave it to my Dad to find the
world clock on his phone just in case we need the time in Vancouver! My Dad
suggested taking a multi-use photo by getting his hand and the start time in
one shot. We had just come back from a dinner date. We took this shot, hugged
goodbye and he left as I set my alarm for 19 minutes. My Dad has worked in
Quality Control since before I was born so he who lives on the use of his hands
with small parts looking for small details. He is also a drummer so hands are
his bread and butter. I fondly remember as a little girl going to
Father-Daughter dances with him when he would give me his index finger and I
would twirl around as I held onto to it. His hands are strong, worn, hard-working
and loving to me. I hadn’t seen him in two months. It was a special serendipitous
moment that he was around to help me out here.
Choice
Picture # 1 ~ CD Rack for converging lines
Music
is my life and still this is a hard picture to share because I know people make
assumptions about others based on their taste in music, it’s just another way
we try to box people into survey marker boxes they are asked to check. Still,
all of the music I have found, whether I still give it a spin today or not, has
shaped who I am today and so I guess it makes sense to paint a picture from a
list of artist and band names in order to get an idea for how someone is. I
liked this use of converging lines because they don’t actually overlap one
another. I also like the smoothness of the angles and the fact that the CD
jewel cases have the same shape and sharpness as the rack that houses them. It’s
almost symmetrical, it’s almost informal but not quite, after all you can’t
box me in!
Choice
Picture # 2 ~ Light Bug Mustache Mirror for making an ordinary object look
interesting, almost supernatural
This
picture makes me so happy. Last year I bought this light bug on clearance as a
treat for myself after Christmas. You press a button on the top and it lights
up your entire room with stars and a quarter moon in red, green or blue lights.
It’s a personal planetarium. So I saw him on my bed and immediately went to the
bathroom where I have window cling mustaches up on my mirror from a mustache
game night I had months ago. I put him up to one mid-air and took a picture. He’s
a flying bug with super cool style. I love how this came out because there’s no
reflection from my back mirror and my hand is nowhere in the shot! I love how pensive
he looks. I love that he’s reflective as he glances at his reflection. I should
probably give him a name since I’m getting so attached!
Choice
Picture # 3 ~ Vintage NYC Poster & Mercy
Street Wall Quote for an idea of “Openness”
This
was a battle between two NYC photos. The other was a postcard of two people
kissing on top of a taxi under a bridge, which stands on my bookcase, next to
NYC guide books (I never noticed that before). I was going to use it to
represent both human emotion (love) and openness because they are not afraid to
jump up on a taxi in gala garb and kiss passionately out in the open. However,
I continued to be drawn to this photo instead as a representation of openness,
I think mostly because of the quote from Peter Gabriel’s Mercy Street above but more on that later. NYC is my favourite
place to be and what is so cool about it is that when you are walking around,
you are surrounded by shadow because the skyscrapers are so massive and in such
multitudes and yet it feels like the most open place in the world. A place
where you can be as wild as you want and it’s just accepted as a typical day in
the city. A place where people’s dreams come true and where anything can be
achieved. A place that was once flat, and part of it (the Battery) was non-existent
and open to possibilities. Yet someone dreamed of building and cars, once only
ideas in their head, and made them real. This is the most open place I have
ever been to, both in body and soul!
Choice
Picture # 4 ~ Pussywillows in a Vase for an interesting shadow
This
one was an accident shot and those are always my favourite. I love pussywillows
because they make absolutely no sense to me. They are furry buds that grow from
the earth. They feel like bunny paws. How is that possible? So perplexing and
yet so very fascinating! I also am a big fan of soft cuddly feeling fabrics and
textures so naturally, I scooped these up at Trader Joes when I saw them. The best
part is that I can’t kill them if I forget to water them for months! Again-I
don’t get it! Anyway, these sit at the door, where the light isn’t that great
but it worked to my favour. Look at stalk that’s to the right of the middle and
focus on the bud that’s lower, on the right. Doesn’t it look radioactive and
moving, spiky and alive? The shadow here is so ominous, so dark and mysterious.
I can’t get over how un-menacing the scene is though because the buds look so
similar to deer hoofs, which I guess is not frightening to me. It must be its cuddly,
furry exterior that’s throwing me off!
Choice
Picture # 5 ~ Teal Throw Pillow for dominated by a single colour
I
think this could have worked easily for abstract as well. I just realized that
it says dominant, not completely. If only I paid attention to the details of
words. So here is my completely same colour photo. I’ve already made mention to
my addiction to lovely, cuddly divine feeling fabrics and textures and my couch
is the place where my friends take advantage of my ultimate comfort apartment theme.
I can’t even describe the feeling of this pillow but I’ll try. It’s like fresh
mowed grass that feels as soft as a baby’s bottom. Yes, I think I’ve done it
justice. Simply put, it feels fabulous. I love how this pillow has all
different kind of angles and directions, like nose hair and yet it’s still one
colour. No different shades, just plan teal. This pillow is calling to me right
now as I type this…it’s getting late: 10:30. Come rest your head, you’ve had a
long day!
End
Time ~ 7:16, 7:17 or 7:18 Um….Can you trust different devices?
So I’ll refer you to the beginning where I talk
about saying goodbye to my Dad to warrant the extra minute I apparently took. I
think it’s a trick though because according to my watch I was ahead of time. I’d
trust the Mockingjay over a digital device anytime! I know, I know. Hey, I just realized that I started with a hand and ended with a hand-one that created the other. Wow, the life cycle is so astounding!
A
Reflection on PhotoBlitzing
Is that a word;
photoblitzing? Ah, who knows, it is now. I am really tired so I apologize for
the loopy commentary but I had fun and I’m sure you’ll all have fun reading
them, especially if you are a bit tired too. I already gave explanations to why
I chose the photos I did and what I saw in them but I wanted to touch upon the
questions they impose too.
I explained this
project to my Dad and he took a list of the ten choices. I told him I figured my
apartment was the best place because everything I love is here, it’s a clear
reflection of the chaos that make up my many interests. I’ve tried to make it
the most comfortable place on earth so that my loved ones can come hang out and
fully relax their bones. It’s also been compared to a museum because there are
a lot of quotes, pictures, books and other things to observe and read. Dad agreed
I would be able to easily find everything on this list “you have plenty here
that represents human emotion, that’s for sure” he lovingly snickered. He was
correct.
I thought I would go in
order, taking one shot of each choice but it didn’t happen like that. I took
three different shots for a few, single shots of others and multiple shots of
the same thing over and over again to get it just right. I was definitely trigger
happy. Flash, no flash in my dim apartment was hard to gauge. I took at least
ten shots of a fiber-optic peacock in my bedroom. Speaking of that, I was shocked
at how many different shots I took that I didn’t use. I was surprized at how
differently I looked at those things completely differently, like the
pussywillows or my teal pillow. I didn’t feel as rushed as I thought I would
feel. I took many more pictures than I thought I would be able to. Twenty
minutes turned out to be a very long time through the lens of the camera as a
digital tool, which I cannot say for this laptop.
The photos that worked
the best where the ones that crept up on me by surprize. My apartment is my sanctuary
so I know what is around here and I had ideas in mind for some of these choices
before I took the first time shot. Still, I was most pleased and proud of the
shots that came in the spur of the moment like the vintage NYC poster and a
shot I took of a clapboard and film strip hung at an angle in my bathroom (I
don’t think I understood that one; “something at an unusual angle”). I
obviously enjoyed this project, just like I thought I would. I may have enjoyed
the commentary bit most of all! All in all, it was an experiment in honing our observation
skills. It did just that! It's now 11:00, nighty-night!
Today I watched a TED Talk by Asa Beckham about coming
out of the closet. She talks about coming out of the closet as not strictly
something that gay people do but that we all need to do as human beings whether
we are straight, gay or otherwise. She equates coming out of the closet with
having hard conversations. By having these conversations, we let go of the stress
we keep bottled up. This is important because our body can hold so much of that
kind of stressed pressure. We all experience hard situations, no matter what
level they are in comparison to others because it’s all we know, our
experiences are all different. Someone’s house burning down may cause them as
much pain and stress as someone else who has just lost their dog and it is our
job to empathize with them, to try to understand, which we can do by relating. When
our friend’s house burns down we can feel what they are going through not
because we have experienced our house burning down but because we have lost our
beloved dog and that level of loss is relatable.
With the performing arts, we do just that. We are able to
feel empathy for characters and situations that extend out into the world.
Students are taught techniques that get to that place where they can understand
what the other person is going through and that makes the experience so much
more authentic. A theatre teacher has said that “studying and participating in
drama gives high school students opportunities to recognize emotions and
practice different ways of interacting with each other, which are important
parts of building empathy. For teenagers who are trying to fit in and negotiate
relationships with one another, the ability to recognize emotions in oneself
and others is vital for working in society” (Davis, 34).
A fifteen year old student named Ryan felt useless to his
friend, who had just lost his father when his friend pushed him away saying
that he didn’t understand. During theatre class one day, Ryan really threw
himself into the role of someone who had just lost a parent. He felt enabled
and helpless. The pain brought him to depths of despair in a way that allowed
him to “feel from the inside out.” It was during this exercise that Ryan was
truly able to have an idea of what his friend was going through. Another student
named Tina says that she liked theatre because it gives her “the time and
opportunity to problem-solve in the fascinating arena of human feelings-to
investigate a role and consider the sorts of situations that evoke one emotion
or another. It’s hard work but I feel it is important to my development as a
human being (Davis, 38).
“Students
are deeply interested and attached to the process of giving form to their own
emotions. They also welcome the chance to recognize and learn about the
emotions of others. Adolescence is known as a period of intense feeling, deep sensitivity,
stress, passion, egotism, self-sacrifice and devotion. On this account,
students value the arts classroom as a safe haven for encounters with learning
that is immediately relevant to their own personal development and growth”
(Davis, 99). “When curriculum seriously included opportunities to find mutual
respect in their various self-presentations and understandings, the dominance
of black/white, right/wrong or in/out can be overturned with an expectation for
gray; the discovery that a good question is more important than any answer and
the realization that we are all together in figuring it out” (Davis, 58). Maxine
Green sees the “arts as a counter to indifference and disappointment. The arts
create a dialogue that opens the questions for you and in the interchange with
someone else. And the recognition that there are multiple perspectives, many
ways of looking at the world is an accomplishment to honest dialogue” (Kohl,
181).
Frances Lucerna, who founded the Arts and Cultural
Council for Youth and co-founded the El Punte Academy for Peace and Justice in
Brooklyn encourages her students compassion by using the arts a way to make
social change. “For us, everything starts with the creative process. It’s the
way we bring people together to engage in dialogue. We talk about this process
of ‘see, judge, act’ where we look at the world around us and look at the
situation in our community or a certain issue that’s impacting us and then we
have this dialogue around it and research it and then we create these action
plans to make changes. As we open possibilities of thinking about these issues
dynamically, we develop ways to express them and teach about them through the
arts, whether it be through a mural, a drama, a one-act play, a piece of
choreographed dance. We try to develop works that will translate the impact of
this issue on our lives and suggest creative strategies for coming together to
make change. (Kohl, 53-54)
Lecerna’s
students really have taken action. They became toxic avengers as they did
scientific research on a nuclear storage dump in their community and then took
that information in order to create a form of guerrilla theatre that they
performed in order to get the word out to the community so that more people
could be informed and encouraged to take a stand. And then again when they led
a 1,700 person peaceful march in protest of a fifty-five story high incinerator
they wanted to put in their community. Through artistic ways, the students were
able to fight for social justices in order to protect their own backyard. These
were kids who were struggling with school and so dropped out and came to the El
Pentue academy where they experienced a sense of meaning as part of their
community and eventually graduated.
The
students discovered who they were and what they stood for. They found their
purpose and place in the world they were helping to heal. They found their own
personal power. “Once you get people hooked into their passion and connect that
to a purpose, you get transformation that allows students to experience their
own power. We believe in the idea of students’ limitless capacity for
developing and becoming special, caring people. That is inherent in the
creative process and in the arts. It’s a way of thinking and being in the world
that allows us to connect that to ‘if we can change this, we can definitely
change this circumstance. We are not victims, we are powerful people who have limitless
possibility and potential; we just need to harness it and do it together and we
can make a change’” (Kohl, 54)
Works
Cited:
Davis,
Jessica Hoffmann. Why Our High Schools Need the Arts. New York: Teachers
College, 2012. Print.
Kohl,
Herbert R., and Tom Oppenheim. The Muses Go to School: Inspiring Stories
about the Importance of Arts in Education. New York: New, 2012. Print.
I am able to connect both Troy Hicks Crafting Digital Writing and Kelly Gallagher’s Write Like This to the performing arts in the classroom. First I
will explore the latter. Gallagher talks about real world writing purposes as a
way to help students see why their writing matters and how it connects to the
world. He breaks the purposes down into six categories; Express and Reflect,
Inform and Explain, Evaluate and Judge, Inquire and Explore, Analyze and
Interpret and Take a Stand/Propose a Solution (Gallagher, 10). These all relate
to the performing arts purposes as well. The student writes the piece and then
they can perform it but the process is the same in both aspects.
First
the student needs to get out on paper what they are experiencing and how they
feel about it (express and reflect). Then they need to think about what message
they are trying to convey through their writing-what are they trying to show
(inform and explain). By discovering how they feel about the subject, they are
able to take a stance on one side of the issue or maybe they feel on the fence.
Either way, they are uncovering how they feel about the subject matter
(evaluate and judge). They must take part in research and development in order
to back up the points they are attempting to make. Looking back at histories
and testimonies that serve as the backbone of their argument (inquire and
explore). Through their writing, the student can piece together what it all
means as they join their opinions with the information they have found. Finding
meaning leads to understanding (analyze and interpret). Once the student has
done all of this work, they then have a strong footing for what they believe
about the subject (take a stand/propose a solution).
In
the performing arts, students go through the same steps in order to create a
clear message to their audience. In writing the piece themselves, they are able
to relate personally to what they are saying but even if the words weren’t
theirs, this process would still get the students to the place where it would
become their own words because through these stages, they would get into the
mind of the character and the message they are giving. Navigating their way
through these hard questions strengthens their commitment to decoding the
meaning and finding respect in both perspectives. Maxine Greene, arts education
and social change advocate, said that “there’s a transformation element in
education and I think having the arts in education enhances that transformative
element; through the arts your experience is enlarged and enhanced-you see
more, feel more, understand more” (Kohl, 180) Through writing and performing
their writing, students feel like their voices matter because their audience
who watches them confirms that.
Gallagher’s
“so what?” also plays well along sing the performing arts because it shows
students why what they are writing, what they are saying and what they are
performing matters. It shows them why they should care. Moises Kaufman,
playwright of The Laramie Project, believes that it is writers and artist who
must lead the enlightened dialogue as “art is a higher domain than politics
because it addresses so many parts of the individual-the intellect, the
emotion, and the spirit, which is why the arts create a very powerful
discourse. We have this premise that we live in a democratic society where all
people are equal and yet daily we are confronted by the fact that we are not.
We live in a very stratified society, and we still have a great deal of poverty
and we all don’t have the same opportunities and civil rights violations happen
continuously. So at this particular moment in time we are failing miserably.
But I think art is a good medium to articulate our failure and to do so in a
way that reconnects us with our humanity” (Kohl, 142).
Gallagher
is also a big advocate for mentoring writing in a way that shows the students
that it’s not a magic process for them either. Troy Hicks gives a nod to this
technique too. By showing how the teacher struggles in finding the right words,
the student sees that it’s okay to fumble your way through in the beginning as
they make mistakes. As Maxine Greene points out “the teacher can’t
come into the room with the problem of Hamlet already solved. She has to come
in with the same open questions, with the same wonder that students will feel”
(Kohl, 180). “Where else do students learn that failure is not only constructive,
but is sometimes the only way to move forward. An artistic enterprise’s outcome
is always uncertain and that uncertainty has the power to let adolescents find
virtue in things they thought they disliked about others and perhaps disliked
about themselves. The strength of the ensemble built by an artistic endeavour
carries over in positive ways to other aspects of the student artist’s life
(Davis, 68-69).
Right from the start, in his introduction, Troy Hicks
says that crafting writing is an act of creativity. The performing arts are
where students can turn that act of creativity into something that can see
seen. By using digital formats like slideshows, videos and blogs, students can
make their writing come alive. “When we talk and teach thoughtfully about the
elements of digital writing-words, images, sounds, videos, links and other
media elements-we are helping them be purposeful and, in turn, helping them to
be creative” (Hicks, 19). They can film a scene, dance routine or music
performance and put it out into the world. This moves away from the constraints
of templates and lists that so limit the way in which students can show off
their writing skills and instead allows them to explore ways of getting their
message across using elements that free their mind. This open form communication
enables the student to “get a feel for the setting, voice, tension, inner story
or recurring detail that helps develop their writing with new lens” (Hicks,
12).
Hicks talks about Renee Hobbs five step process in engaging
students with digital learning. They are access, analyze, create, reflect and
act. This is very similar to Gallagher’s six purposes. All five are essential
in forming great writing and to performing a piece, any piece of art. First the
student must understand the piece, find their motivation, brainstorm, think and
then perform. I wrote that order of tasks from the perspective of a performance
artist but I could have easily done it from a writer’s perspective as well. In
a way to meet Hobbs process, Hicks has created MAPS which breaks down to Mode,
Media, Audience, Purpose and Situation (Hicks, 21). All of these stages guide
the writer to a place where they clearly know what their intention is and it also
lends a hand to the performer in the same way. It’s apparent that the same
processes and questions that a writer asks themselves are the same ones a
performer must use and ask too.
One way a writer and/or performer can really put this
process to the test is by adopting a social cause and representing a side that
advocates for a change. Common core
standards say that “students can adopt a variety of different perspectives to
analyze how spaces and systems shaping events are constructed through
historical and institutional/civic, cultural, psychological and economic forces”
(Hicks, 24). As “these students’ experience immediate connection with a world
of others with whom they work to create the best performance that they can
resonates throughout the natural community-building connections that arts
learning affords” (Davis, 81).
The
Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA), the National Council of
Teachers of English (NCTE) and the National Writing Project (NWP) all created a
framework which outline the eight “habits of mind” all students need in order
to be prepared for college. They are curiosity, openness, engagement,
creativity, persistence, responsibility, flexibility and metacognition (Hicks,
26). Amongst a list of previous standards that high school students have to
meet, Common Core also says 11th and 12th grade students
must set out problems and establish it’s significance, sequence events so that
they build on one another, create a particular tone, convey vivid pictures and
provide a conclusion that reflects on what is resolved (Calkins, 119). Where
else, aside from writing and the performing arts can a student use all of these
techniques while understanding and enjoying the learning process? Nowhere,
which is why the arts are so essential for students development. The arts are
where the student’s words can come alive and move around grabbing the attention
of anyone who is around!
Works Cited:
Calkins,
Lucy, Mary Ehrenworth, and Christopher Lehman. Pathways to the Common Core:
Accelerating Achievement. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2012. Print.
Davis,
Jessica Hoffmann. Why Our High Schools Need the Arts. New York: Teachers
College, 2012. Print.
Gallagher,
Kelly. Write like This: Teaching Real-world Writing through Modeling &
Mentor Texts. Portland, Me.: Stenhouse, 2011. Print.
Hicks,
Troy. Crafting Digital Writing: Composing Texts across Media and Genres.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2013. Print.
Kohl,
Herbert R., and Tom Oppenheim. The Muses Go to School: Inspiring Stories
about the Importance of Arts in Education. New York: New, 2012. Print.
I am struggling to find a balance with the number of texts
on my subject matter I have uncovered. What really interests me are the books I
found at the library that talk about this very subject that are dated between
1947 and 1974. Even then they were advocating for what the arts were
fundamental in developing perception through working with the arts and
encourage students to move away from what the watch on the TV and actually
perform similar things themselves. But in order to really to guide myself on a
steady and thesis based path, I have to limit myself to the number of books so
I can truly dig in. Hopefully I can go back to them and splice them into my
research. I will be focusing on what I discover in Why Our
High Schools Need The Arts by Jessica Hoffman Davis, Strong Arts, Strong Schools: The Promising Potential and Shortsighted
Disregard of the Arts in American Schooling by
Charles Fowler and Herbert Kohn’s The Muses
Go To School: Inspiring Stories About The Importance Of Arts In Education. I
will look up organizations in Rhode Island and in the country that implement
the arts and showcase the results. I will also sprinkle in some of Sir Ken
Robinson and Eric Booth’s expertise as well as share visual aids.
My thesis is how the performing
arts can help students with their self-expression/confidence,
compassion/empathy and connection/understanding. Through these boosters, the
students will be able to engage writing assignments more fluidly and
passionately. The arts not only create strong and capable human beings but also
emotional and perceptive writers. “The arts provide multiple ways to experience
understand and express the world and our relationship to it. They are one of
the fundamental repositories of human wisdom. They educate and the imagination
and develop originality. They represent significant ways for students to
discern, express, communicate, figure out and understand the human universe”
(Fowler, 4). In this memo I would like to explore how arts programs have helped
increase students’ academics while focusing on self-expression and confidence.
Through a
suggestion, I have found an arts charter school in Providence called Trinity
Academy for the Performing Arts (TAPA). As you go to the homepage you are
greeting with a ten-minute video of teachers and students who tell you what the
school has to offer. I couldn’t help the tears of joy or chills on the skin
when I witnessed what these students create and how they feel about learning. This
is a charter 7-12 school in Providence. What excited me the most about it is
that it is free and anyone is allowed to apply if they are a Providence
resident. Admission is through a lottery so it is not based on talent, only passion
and interest. The school has to hot all the academic standards of other schools
through Math, Science, History, Humanities, Languages and Reading & Writing
(English). However the arts are also considered an essential part of the
curriculum. Their goal is to “create classrooms where the arts
are, at very least, a catalyst for the other academic subjects, if not
fundamentally interconnected or indispensable.” They use connections within all
academic and arts subjects in order to cross learn the lessons. They show how
everything is influential and connected. I can’t think of anything better than
that.
In 7th
and 8th grade the students explore all four of the performing arts;
Film, Theatre, Dance, Music learning the basics of all of them as they feel
their way around in them. Then once they reach 9th grade, they
choose one to focus on and hone the skills in that disciple. One girl in the
video spoke about how she wants to be a part time dance teacher, part time
journalist when she grows up. She writes lots of poetry and creative writing
would like to incorporate that into her journalism. She shows here how she has
learned to connect creative ways of writing into journalism. Another student
speaks of how he wants to be a film star and a scientist and how cool it would
be if he could do both. This school makes me believe he can. The teachers say
that state testing has skyrocketed in Math and Reading because the students are
actually interested in what they are doing. He believes that they have given them
a reason to learn through the arts implementation. In the lessons, students are
hands on. They are doing, not memorizing. They are relating the content to real
world learning in order to see why these subjects matter. This pyramid below
shows how they base all of their classes. They attempt to use the top tier most
of the time but state that they only use the bottom tier 10-20% of the time.
Again, showing how everything the students learn is connected.
In Strong Arts
Strong Schools, Fowler shows how a SPECTRA (Schools, Parents, Educators,
Children, Teachers Rediscover the Arts) program in Ohio helps to improve the
students learning, just as TAPS does. SPECTRA have made sure that the
curriculum has dedicated an hour each day to the arts. Just like TAPS, reading
and math scores have gone up but so has attendance and good behaviour. In Why
Our High Schools Need the Arts, Davis shows us how the Craftsman’s Guild, a
professional training mentor after school program in Pittsburgh helps students
feel inspired and encouraged so well that 96% of the students that attend the
program graduates high school and 85% goes on to college while students who
only attend their regular high school classes have a 64% graduation rate,
making for an even lowered college route percentage. “The arts awakens
possibilities in student thinking that liberate heart and mind and most
importantly assert one’s personal potential, agency or power” (Davis, 22).
Rosie
Perez, an actress and chair of Urban Arts in New York City which reaches 12,000
students in over sixty schools through arts programing, was an angry child who
fought and never showed emotion. This is why she loved ceramics where she could
pound out her anger in the clay. She wanted to play the clarinet but couldn’t
afford one so the teacher encouraged her to play air clarinet until the
snickers from classmates bothered her enough to give it up entirely. She almost
missed a school trip to a Broadway show because she was too poor to buy a nice
outfit. It was an experience which brought her to tears and changed her life.
This strong, stubborn girl who never let her guard down didn’t care that she
was crying in public because she was so moved by what she saw that day. After
that day she wanted more out of school so she started to really enjoy her
English and Social Studies classes where she could read and hear stories out
loud like the one she saw that day on Broadway that so mesmerized her. She says
the arts “allow you to become a critical thinker and use the right side of your
brain. When that happens, you’re more inclined to be a reader because you want
to absorb the drama. Your imagination is stimulated and it works so much
better” (Kohl, 7). She started to become more comfortable in her skin by
accepting her corniness through these experiences.
A
music teacher in Why Our High Schools
Need the Arts says “Self-Esteem, a critical part of teenage development,
can be addressed through the study of music. Measurable and concrete goals are
achieved through hard work, audience reaction/approval, and personal/individual
achievements versus competing in the classroom” (Davis, 23). Another teacher
recalls a student he had who was a foster child of a violent home. He said he
always wanted to perform but that peers would taunt him about it. Encouraged by
this teacher to pursue it, the student blossomed. In making his fellow students
laugh, he build up confidence to make friends which built up an emotional
strength to push on in school.
“The
arts offer students the opportunity to create something new and in that act of
making not only to think beyond the boundaries and the lines but also to
acknowledge one’s power to do so” (Davis, 21). Students feel empowered through
the arts as they create and express who they are and what they believe. “Adolescents
and their powerful emotions and self-discoveries are in sync with the
anti-standardization of the arts” (Davis, 45). If they aren’t allowed to
communicate in a way they feel safe with, which often they feel can be hidden
in an art through words and/or movement and then they will feel silenced which
will diminish their confidence. The arts help many students give life to their
voice. This is why the arts are a key component to students’ self-expression
and confidence!
Works Cited:
Davis, Jessica
Hoffmann. Why Our High Schools Need the Arts. New York: Teachers
College, 2012. Print.
Fowler,
Charles. Strong Arts, Strong Schools: The Promising Potential and
Shortsighted Disregard of the Arts in American Schooling. New York: Oxford
UP, 2001. Print.
Kohl, Herbert
R., and Tom Oppenheim. The Muses Go to School: Inspiring Stories about the
Importance of Arts in Education. New York: New, 2012. Print.
