Arts in Education Definitions
[An ad hoc committee of the New York statewide Local Capacity Building Coordinators drafted this list and it was agreed upon at the Spring 2005 meeting of the LCB Coordinators.]
Arts Education: Skill based instruction in various art disciplines.
Arts in Education Cooperative Service Agreement: The Board of Cooperative Educational Services operates a shared service (school districts receive aid on services that are shared among districts) designed to integrate the arts into education. Individual activities may include music, drama, dance, writing, and the visual and media arts.
Arts Instruction: Sequential instruction in arts disciplines taught by certified specialists.
Assessment: The process of using comprehensive evaluation tools to determine the value, significance, and level of skill or achievement reached as a result of an arts in education program.
BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services): A regional public education service organization providing quality, cost-effective educational services (including Arts in Education) to school districts in New York State.
Certified Arts Specialist: A visual arts, music, dance or theatre educator certified by the State of New York to teach.
Core Subject: The body of knowledge that all students are expected to learn, as opposed to an elective.
Curriculum Areas: Math, Science, Social Studies, English Language Arts, Visual Arts, Music, Dance, Theatre, Physical Education, Technology, Health, etc.
Field Trip: Students visit arts organizations and cultural institutions to see professional examples of the arts.
Goal: Long term results; describe long-term intentions, often based on shared values
Interdisciplinary Curriculum: Webster’s definition: “Pertaining to or involving two or more branches of knowledge”
Learner Outcome: The actual result of an activity designed to achieve a specific intended future result (objective) in a student, teacher, and artist partnership experience.
Multi-disciplinary: Consisting of many disciplines. When one subject is studied from the viewpoint of more than one discipline.
Multiple Intelligences: A set of theories about how people learn in a variety of ways. Howard Gardner, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, developed and introduced the theory that there is not a single "intelligence" but rather that there are eight intelligences: visual, musical, verbal, logical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and bodily,
No Child Left Behind: The NCLB Act reauthorizes the Elementary Secondary Education Act and incorporates the following principles; increased accountability for States, school districts, and schools; greater choice for parents and students, particularly those attending low-performing schools; more flexibility for States and local educational agencies (LEAs) in the use of Federal education dollars; and a stronger emphasis on reading, especially for our youngest children. The NCLB Act strengthens Title I accountability by requiring States to implement statewide accountability systems covering all public schools and students. (Source: No Child Left Behind Website)
Objectives: Short-term results associated with each long-term goal – anticipated outcomes linked to the general goals.
Performance Indicator: Evidence or a performance measure, often indirect, which shows if the intended outcome has been achieved.
Reflection Practice: Looking Closely at Student Work; Teachers, Teaching Artists, Administrators take time to develop methods of collective inquiry; the kinds of conversations and processes that create collective responsibility for assessing and improving instructional practice and learning opportunities. Reflective Practice Protocol – agreed upon guidelines for a conversation; vehicles for building the skills—and culture—necessary for collaborative work. A “safe” structure to ask challenging questions of each other and ensures there is some equity and parity in terms of how each person’s issues are attended to.
Title 1 Funds: Federal Title 1 Funds are given to enable all children to meet high academic standards and to provide extra resources to improve instruction in high-poverty schools to ensure that poor and minority children have the same opportunities as other children to meet the challenging academic standards. These funds often surface for special teacher education programs, technology improvements, program-linked materials, research-based curricular changes, etc.
2) ARTS IN EDUCATION TERMS
Arts in education: Students and teachers partner with artists and/or arts and cultural institutions to integrate the arts.
Assessment: The process of using comprehensive evaluation tools to determine the value, significance, and level of skill or achievement reached as a result of an arts in education program.
Contact sessions: Each time an artist and teacher together connect with a small group of students (separated by time) can be considered one contact session separated by time.
Core Group: A core group is the same group of students who interact with the same artist for a minimum of 3 class sessions. This is not a select group of students “pulled out” but an existing class.
Co-Teaching Model: Involves teacher-artist pairs integrating concepts from the arts and non-arts disciplines that reinforce each other. At different points, students’ experiences may focus more on the art form or on the non-arts subject, while at other times the arts and non-arts instruction appear seamless. The teacher and artist create lessons that guide the artist during sessions that focus on the arts, and clarify what the teacher will do when the artist is not present. (Minnesota Arts for Academic Achievement (AAA) Schools Models of Arts Integration Instruction)
Goal: Long term results; describe long-term intentions, often based on shared values.
Integration of Curriculum: When educators and artists collaboratively create a plan to advance educational objectives in the arts and other curricular areas. Webster’s definition of Integration: The act or operation of integration: the bringing or fitting together of parts into a whole.” Integrate: To bring together into a whole; fit together; unify.
Lecture/Demonstration: Professional artists lecture and demonstrate an art form with minimal hands on experiences for students and teachers.
Objectives: Short-term results associated with each long-term goal – anticipated outcomes linked to the general goals.
Partnership (Arts in Education): Educators, artists, and/arts and cultural institutions combine talents and resources in a spirit of mutual cooperation and responsibility to create programs for students that are interdisciplinary and/or integrated in the study of non-arts subjects and the arts or environmental sciences.
Performance Demonstrations: Professional artists visit schools and allow large groups of students (assemblies) to experience an art form or culture through performance, demonstrations, and audience participation. (YA National “Arts for Learning School Planning Guide”)
Reflection Practice: Looking Closely at Student Work; Teachers, Teaching Artists, Administrators take time to develop methods of collective inquiry; the kinds of conversations and processes that create collective responsibility for assessing and improving instructional practice and learning opportunities. Reflective Practice Protocol – agreed upon guidelines for a conversation--vehicles for building the skills—and culture—necessary for collaborative work. A “safe” structure to ask challenging questions of each other and ensures there is some equity and parity in terms of how each person’s issues are attended to.
Residency: A residency is an intensive series of classroom sessions with a qualified teaching artist. Residencies are designed to immerse students in a particular art form, and most are also designed to teach another subject area (or areas) through that art form. Through residencies, students meet applicable learning standards both in the arts and in other curriculum areas. This process of sustained, in-depth arts experiences actively engages students in creative learning, developing a broad range of cognitive, performance and social skills. Students cultivate an understanding and appreciation of the arts discipline, explore multiple learning styles and intelligences, and experience alternative approaches to traditional subject matter.
Teaching Artist: A professional artist with training and experience in an art form and with knowledge of teaching practice. Note: A collaborative draft definition from the ATA President, Dale Davis & members: A Teaching Artist is a professional visual, performing, or literary artist who works in schools and in the community. The Teaching Artist may perform for the students and teachers, may work in long term or short-term residencies in classrooms or in a community setting, or may lead in program development through involvement in curricular planning and residencies with school partners. The Teaching Artist is an educator who brings the creative process into the classroom and the community.
Workshop (contact session): Professional teaching artists work with students and teachers in a classroom setting incorporating hands-on experiences that allow students to gain skills in both arts and non-arts subject areas.
3) ARTISTIC TERMS
Artist – One who is skilled in or makes a profession of any of the fine, literary or performing arts.
Artistic Discipline - A branch of knowledge and instruction in the arts (e.g., visual art, performing arts, literary arts)
Performance Demonstrations: Professional artists visit schools and allow large groups of students (assemblies) to experience an art form or culture through performance, demonstrations, and audience participation. (YA National “Arts for Learning School Planning Guide”)
4) NEW YORK STATE AIE TERMS
Arts In Education/Empire State Partnerships Program – A NYSCA program that supports cultural institutions which form partnerships with schools to create interdisciplinary programs to use the arts that illuminate and enrich the study of the arts or environmental sciences and other curriculum areas.
Arts in Education Roundtables – A statewide consortium of NYSCA-supported regional Roundtables that are working together to strengthen education in and through the arts, promote, develop, and support the arts for children and adults in communities, and committed to the advancement and sustainability of the arts-in education field.
Contact sessions: Each time an artist and teacher together connect with a small group of students (separated by time) can be considered one contact session separated by time.
Core Group: A core group is the same group of students who interact with the same artist for a minimum of 3 class sessions. This is not a select group of students “pulled out” but an existing class.
Local Capacity Building Program: NYSCA funded regrant programs that support arts-in-education partnerships between schools and cultural organizations or individual artists. Regional organizations promote the regrant program; coordinate application and panel review processes, and provide ongoing technical assistance and professional development to support the growth of funded and potential partnerships. LCB programs generally support projects that are small and represent first-time or new forays into arts in education on the part of the applicants. Funded projects must also focus on the interdisciplinary or integrated study of non-arts subjects and the arts, and all activities must occur within the school day.
Performance Demonstrations: Professional artists visit schools and allow large groups of students (assemblies) to experience an art form or culture through performance, demonstrations, and audience participation. (YA National “Arts for Learning School Planning Guide”)
Professional Development: Professional development workshops provide constituents with tools to construct successful teacher/artist/student classroom partnerships. Quality offerings can help ensure continued support for arts in education programs and encourage school improvement in and through the arts.
Regional Leadership Initiative: Regional Networks of NYSCA-funded partnerships focused on improving teaching and learning in and through the arts.
Release Time: (For grant purposes) the district-approved time a teacher takes from the normal school day to attend workshops, planning sessions, etc.
5) NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL TERMS
Integration of Curriculum: When educators and artists collaboratively create a plan to advance educational objectives in the arts and other curricular areas. Webster’s definition of Integration: The act or operation of integration: the bringing or fitting together of parts into a whole.” Integrate: To bring together into a whole; fit together; unify.
6) NY STATE FUNDING TERMS
Contact sessions: Each time an artist and teacher together connect with a small group of students (separated by time) can be considered one contact session separated by time.
Local Capacity Building Program: NYSCA funded regrant programs that support arts-in-education partnerships between schools and cultural organizations or individual artists. Regional organizations promote the regrant program; coordinate application and panel review processes, and provide ongoing technical assistance and professional development to support the growth of funded and potential partnerships. LCB programs generally support projects that are small and represent first-time or new forays into arts in education on the part of the applicants. Funded projects must also focus on the interdisciplinary or integrated study of non-arts subjects and the arts, and all activities must occur within the school day.
Release time: (For grant purposes) the school district allows a teacher to take time from the normal school day to attend workshops, planning sessions, etc.
Title 1 Funds: (According to the NCLB website) Federal Title 1 Funds are given to enable all children to meet high academic standards and to provide extra resources to improve instruction in high-poverty schools to ensure that poor and minority children have the same opportunities as other children to meet the challenging academic standards. These funds often surface for special teacher education programs, technology improvements, program-linked materials, research-based curricular changes, etc.