Karen Eller

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy for Urban Youth:

Using Arts Education to Elevate Student Voice and Student Agency

This curriculum unit design creates the space and opportunities for students to use the arts such as music, theatre, play, poetry, and the visual arts (photography) to elevate their voices in their classrooms, their schools, and in their community. This unit addresses both the Common Core State Standards and the National Core Standards Anchor Standards. This unit also gives other educators culturally relevant pedagogy to help bridge he cultural gap between home and school for students. Students and adults in the school community will learn strategies to make cultural connections and help students make connections to the content they are learning.

Key Learning Questions/Enduring Understanding: What are the characteristics of a learning environment that best promotes social justice through the arts and how do urban, often diverse, youth believe are the purpose of school engagement and success? How can a school community engage parents, students, and the community using arts integration to address ideas social justice issues that affect the community both in personal and historical context? How can I use arts integration to elevate student voice and student agency? How can my students use the arts to elevate their voice and build their student agency and engagement? How can I build a classroom of engaged learners?

How can I use the arts to elevate my voice and find purpose and meaning (student agency) in the work that I am doing and producing?

How can I read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textural evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text?

How can I use synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art?

How can I relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural and historical context to deepen my understanding of an event or experience others have faced?

How can I use music to summarize a story or event? How can understanding characters and events in depth, help the reader, to better comprehend a story or an event. How do characters change over the course of a text?

How can expression through the arts using puppetry, and theater help convey a message or a story? How can I dramatize a story using play, puppetry and theatre?

How can I use photography to illustrate my ideas about my community and my understanding of justice? How can photography tell my story? How can I use my work to elevate my voice within the school and in the community?

Using Photography to Elevate My Voice beyond the Classroom

Integrating Play, Puppetry, and Theatre

Using Music and Poetry to Identify Central Idea and Theme of a Story

How can expression through the arts using puppetry, play, and theater help convey a message or a story? How can I dramatize a story using play, puppetry and theatre?

How can I use photography to illustrate my ideas about my community and my understanding of justice? How can photography tell my story? How can I use my produced work to elevate my voice within the school and the community?

How can I use music to summarize a story or event? How can understanding characters and events in depth, help the reader, to better comprehend a story or an event. How do characters change over the course of a text?

Academic Vocabulary:

Aperture, Focus, ISO, Manual, RAW, Shutter Speed, Shutter Release, White Balance, Histogram, Continuous Focus, Depth of Field, Exposure, Digital Media, Elevate, Personal Narrative

Academic Vocabulary:

Social Injustice, Main Idea, Theme, Inference, Illustrations, Poetry, Rhythm, Lyrical Presentation, Rhyme, Alliteration, Repetition, Onomatopoeia, Central Message, Inference, Generalization, Inequality, Lyrical Poetry, Main Idea

Academic Vocabulary:

Image Theater, Shadows, Performer, Antagonist, Protagonist, Scene, Stage Positions, Tableau, Dramatization, Movement Story, Smooth Movements (Mirrors), Sharp Movements (Echoes), Locomotor Movements, Non Locomotor Movements, ABA Dance, Shapes, Body, Space and Time (Positive and Negative), Force (Dynamics), Choreography, Creating, Script, Improvisations, Pantomime, Script, Dialogue

National Core Arts Standards Anchor Standards: http://www.nationalartsstandards.org/content/national-core-arts-standards-anchor-standards

Drum Dream Girl Mentor Text: http://www.rafaellopez-books.com/drum-dream-girl Gwendolyn Brooks: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/gwendolyn-brooks

Protocols for collaborative discussions: https://www.engageny.org/sites/default/files/resource/attachments/appendix_protocols_and_resources.pdf

Create a Storyboard Interactive Tool: http://whyy.pbslearningmedia.org/tools/storyboard/

The Echoing Green- 4th Grade Close Reading Lesson with Poetry and Analyzing Text Structure: https://learnzillion.com/resources/72317-the-echoing-green

Puppet Show Rubric: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bC0jGedmdQRWbgOMdQsqFSVDZjR2XKXrxEoqH0MZ7R0/edit

Creating Shadow Puppets and Engaging Students through Arts Integration: http://www.artsintegration.net/shadow-puppets.html

Culturally Relevant Teaching: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4474

Creating Classrooms for Equity and Social Justice: http://www.rethinkingschools.org/static/publication/roc1/intro.pdf

Restorative Justice Circles: http://www.iirp.edu/what-we-do/what-is-restorative-practices/defining-restorative/21-5-2-circles