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2009 Professional Development Institutes

Arts

Improving Content Knowledge and Music Pedagogy through the Kodaly Approach:
Kodaly Music Institute Levels I, II, and III

For K-12 music specialists or classroom teachers with a strong background in music.
Prerequisites: None

This intensive 3-week institute will focus on improving the content and pedagogical knowledge of music teachers through content-rich areas of study based on the principles and philosophy of Zoltán Kodály. Participants improve their own musicianship by singing in moveable "do" solfège, conducting, and performing choral repertoire. They expand their pedagogical skills through singing/dancing multi-cultural folksongs, dances, singing games, jazz, and classical art music; through researching, analyzing, and codifying musical materials; and through writing lesson plans and curriculum projects. Technology is integrated for scoring and notating songs and arrangements and for creating a database of musical elements. Children attend on-site music classes/rehearsals that participants observe as live applications of Kodály's principles are demonstrated. Music teacher participants who successfully complete this institute will deepen their knowledge of the Massachusetts Arts Curriculum Framework learning standards as well as MTEL music test content knowledge.

Creating an Active Musical Classroom
Orff-Schulwerk Teacher Training Program Levels I and II

For K-12 music specialists and any other teachers with solid music backgrounds interested in integrating music in their classrooms
Prerequisites: None

The Orff-Schulwerk training program focuses on the music standards in the Massachusetts Arts Curriculum Framework. Singing, playing instruments, reading and writing notation, improvisation and composition and critical response are integrated foci in an Orff-Schulwerk classroom. Students actively engage in the creation, editing, fine tuning and performance of original works. The Orff-Schulwerk is an approach to music education that engages students in musical literacy, formal and critical analysis, improvisation, and composition. Students in an Orff-Schulwerk classroom compose music, play instruments, sing alone and with others, dance, write poetry and other lyrics, experiment with form and actively engage in the creative process. This institute will deepen participants' understanding of this nationally recognized approach and provide them with the content knowledge to implement it in their classrooms. Teachers will participate in classes in melody, rhythm, soprano and alto recorder, orchestration and arrangement, improvisation using children's literature, composition using instructional technology, and dance and movement.

Thinking Through Art

For K-12 classroom teachers, teachers of visual arts and other subjects, special education teachers, and ESL teachers
Prerequisites: None

Participants in this institute will learn how to help students “learn how to look” through the use of an inquiry-based pedagogy called Visual Thinking Strategies or VTS, a program used in museums and schools across the country to integrate art into classroom curriculum.

The VTS approach has been used successfully with students at all levels, from pre-school on. By slowing down and carefully looking at and discussing works of art, students have unique opportunities to apply previous experiences and knowledge as they puzzle over meaning in artworks and listen to and share ideas with their peers. Over the course of the school year, students develop confidence in their own abilities to decode art, and develop critical thinking skills including providing evidence to back up interpretations, generating inferences based on observations, considering multiple viewpoints, and revising and elaborating on initial ideas.

In addition to learning how to facilitate VTS strategies in their classrooms, participants will learn about the research conducted on VTS and its impact on student achievement in Boston and across the country. Participants will also be introduced to ways to adapt and apply VTS methods to non-art sources (such as text) and will learn how to assess student progress in discussion and writing. This institute links the standards for discussion, oral presentation, and writing in the Massachusetts English Language Arts Curriculum Framework and standards for critical response in the Massachusetts Arts Curriculum Framework.