AVAILABLE NOW:

The ARTS Book: Designing Quality Arts Integration
with Alignment, Rigor, Teamwork and Sustainability
by Linda Whitesitt, Ph.D. and Elda Franklin, Ed.D.

The ARTS Book describes four factors that are essential in quality arts integration programs: alignment, rigor, teamwork and sustainability. Based on the authors' evaluations of eight arts integration projects over the past seven years in which they conducted over 1000 structured classroom observations of arts-integrated lessons. Read more about it!

ALSO AVAILABLE NOW:

Arts Integration Classroom Observation Instrument
Training Package for Teachers and Administrators

Our new valid and reliable field-tested instrument:

• Documents and tracks the progress of your arts-integrated programs
• Is easy to implement
• Provides meaningful data to all stakeholders

Little attention has been paid to measuring the opportunities to learn that teachers and teaching artists create in arts-integrated classrooms. Despite evidence that teachers' instructional practices and relationships with students account for a substantial portion of the 'added value' derived from attending school, observations of classroom experiences for large samples of students and teachers are limited. Clearly, there is a need for an instrument and process by which these factors can be examined if we are to understand how arts integration works and how we can improve the content and delivery of these programs.

During the years 2000 through 2005 as a contracted arts assessment and evaluation consultant for various organizations in Charlotte, N.C., Elda Franklin worked on the design of a classroom observation instrument that would be an effective assessment tool for teachers and artists delivering arts-integrated lessons in public and private schools in the area. The instrument was needed to document the effectiveness of arts-integrated lessons and units, and to provide qualitative and quantitative data that would help inform professional development program for teachers and artists. The design of the instrument began with the following questions:

• What are the observable indicators of student engagement in an arts-integrated classroom?
• What instructional practices appear to facilitate student engagement?
• How can we assess the implemented arts-integrated lesson plan as an authentic experience for student learning in and through the arts?
• How can we best record and quantify observable student engagement indicators?

While researching the first question—What are the observable indicators of student engagement in an arts-integrated classroom?— Franklin drew from an earlier study by Harlan Brownlee and his associates at Kansas City Young Audiences, extracting seven student engagement indicators that appear to be most crucial to assessment of arts-integrated programs, and which reflect the essential nature of teaching and learning in and through the arts—a pedagogy that encourages student engagement in making, attending, problem solving, taking responsibility, and experiencing.

In researching the second question—What instructional practices appear to facilitate student engagement?—Franklin again referred to the Brownlee study, and arrived at seven instructional indicators considered essential to effective arts-integrated teaching.

To answer the third question—How can we assess the implemented arts-integrated lesson plan as an authentic experience for student learning in and through the arts?—criteria adopted by the Consortium of National Arts Education Associations (2002) for interdisciplinary work in the arts became the basis for the third section of the observation tool.

The fourth and final question was the most difficult to solve. How can the observation data be recorded in a way that would provide valid and reliable information of a quantitative and qualitative nature that all concerned parties could comprehend? An observation time-line was found to be effective for closely estimating the amount of time students are engaged in the arts-integrated lesson and the amount of time artists/teachers employ specific arts-integrated teaching strategies. For assessing the implemented lesson plan a simple 4-point rating scale was adopted.

Since the completion of the classroom observation instrument in early 2004, it has been field-tested by Franklin and her colleague Linda Whitesitt in over 200 K-5 and middle school classrooms in North Carolina, South Carolina and Maryland. Results show a correlation of .66 between student engagement indicators and instructional indicators, which supports Brownlee's findings that student engagement can be facilitated by a range of key instructional strategies. Inter-observer reliability for combined student engagement and instruction is .69.

The instrument has proven to be effective in helping teachers, artists and arts administrators in planning more effective arts-integrated lessons for students and for informing professional development programs for teachers. Through the use of simple line graphs, we have been able to communicate to teachers, artists, and school administrators how the two sets of indicators—student engagement and instruction—tend to rise and fall together in a positive relationship. Also, program changes in student engagement and teaching strategies over time can be shown effectively through simple bar graphs. Equally important, the results of the field testing have been useful for communicating a message that how a lesson is taught is just as important as what is taught.

For more information, contact info@realvisions.net

Creating the Context for Changing Teacher Practice

Linda Whitesitt and Elda Franklin illustrate how professional learning communities can transform teaching practices using strategies such as collaborative planning, shared leadership, and celebration in "Creating the Context for Changing Teacher Practice." Here is the the complete article.