Storytelling That Develops Change Makers

Social Problems through Artistic Expression

Creating Arts-Based Research and Educational Products

Jamett Garlick

Introduction

Each year as my first graders eagerly or shyly, excitedly or hesitantly, vocally or submissive enter my classroom on the first day of school, I wonder to myself, how am I going to effectively reach each one in a purposeful manner so to ignite their desire to learn? Children are all so different with different talents, interests and needs; yet our school curriculum and academic structure is not set-up to allow for the time required to address or meet all the individual needs of each unique child. First grade is a new and exciting time for my students, they feel as though they are big kids now and most anticipate that first grade will be a year of new experiences and challenges. They come in believing that they are ready and able to meet that challenge. I want my students’ experiences in the classroom to live up to their expectations. But I struggle with meeting all the standard requirements and curriculum demands, in the limited time available within each school day, in a way to really touch each unique personality.

Embarking in this seminar, I was excited to have an opportunity to consider using arts as a means to meet my desire to reach each unique student. I have never considered myself the “artsy type”. As a matter of fact, if you ask me “What is art”, my first response would be “Stick figures, paintings, drama, and poetry”. If you asked me what art related activities do you do with your students, I would say I draw stick figures or put on quiet music when I remember. I do not have a natural tendency to think artistically and that is indicative of the lessons and activities I develop for my students.

As a classroom teacher and educated adult, I am aware of the overall problems and issues that face our nation. As a thirty year plus member of Delta Sigma Theta, a public service sorority, I have spent time working within my community to address needs of the local citizens. However, I have not reflectively or actively bridge the two concepts within my classroom. Although I teach rules and responsibilities in my classroom so that we operate in an effective learning environment, the learning I have taken away from this seminar is that I have not cultivated my students with an awareness of society that will perpetuate them to potentially be change agents of the future.

Demographics

West Park Place Elementary School, where I teach, is one of 18 elementary schools in Christina School District which is the largest school district in Delaware. The district services over 16,000 students in both the suburbs and urban settings. West Park is located in the suburbs situated near the University of Delaware and is designated a Title I School.

West Park services approximately 300 students from kindergarten through fifth grade in their academic journey. For the past several years, the school has been designated an ESL school and received the majority of non-Spanish speaking English learners from the district. However, the district has subsequently provide parents with home school options for ESL students, and although our number of ESL students has decreased, their needs have not diminished. I teach in a self-contained first grade classroom of 18 students comprising of 10 girls and 7 boys. My students come from a variety of cultures including, Hispanic, Asian and Middle Eastern, as well as the US, from all socio-economic backgrounds. Students in my class receive various services including pull out services for ESL support, reading and math intervention, speech services and reading assistance. I have one student with an IEP.

My instructional day, broken down by minutes, consists of: 135 for Reading and Intervention; 30 for Writing; 90 for Math and Intervention; and 45 Science or Social Studies. I provide instruction of the content areas listed in my classroom. I am responsible for ensuring Common Core State Standards are implemented in my daily instruction. I am provided with standard district curriculum materials for reading, writing, science, and social studies; however I am not specifically required to use those resources and am free to supplement with alternative materials when I need appropriate however, if I make variations I must supply my own resources.

My students have some exposure to” the arts” during Music and Art, which are two of 5 expressive arts classes, which occurs in daily 45 minute block classes each week. Students experience an array of music concepts in Music class and focus on visual arts (drawing and coloring) in Art class. Currently, there are no connections between classroom content instruction and expressive arts instruction. Both operate in insolation. The districted has clearly established that Common Core State Standards are the guiding instructional standards students are expected to achieve, providing in-depth professional development to all teachers; however, there has been no information regarding National Core Art Standards and how they are to be addressed.

Rational

First graders come with varying levels of thinking, language, learning approaches, emotional competencies and social capacities that are shaped by their home culture and prior language interactions. These young learners are strengthening and development their individual modalities of learning. I want to ensure that during this process they are awaking and recognizing their artistic interests as a way to express themselves. “ Six year olds in the classroom experience an artistic explosion and need to feel their attempt at experimenting with various art forms is valued.”1 I want to provide opportunities for students to extend themselves through various formats of artistic expression as they gain confidence in themselves and a better understanding of the world and their place in it.

As a non-artist artist, I want to expose my students to the possibilities to the arts during their formative early years so that they can develop habits of mind that will employ their sense of artistic imagination during life experiences. I want them to develop an artistic tool box with which they can subconsciously utilize.

Participation in this Seminar, Social Problems through Artistic Expression, discussions, research and readings, has helped me discover the artist within me and to recognize that I have not provided my students with adequate access to explore and develop their own talents as a meaning for deeper learning of themselves and the academic content that I teach. As I have learned in this seminar that Arts Based Inquiry promotes a deeper understanding and greater access to a topic by transforming the material into an artistic work or creative experience, now I need to make this a reality for my students. I also realize that the world is a big place but not too big to begin to expose

my students to the problems of the world and help them to discover that they can be part of the solution.

Social problems as defined by Ginsberg are” general patterns of human behavior or social conditions that are perceived to be threats to society by a significant number of the population and could be resolved or remedied.”2 This broad definition is universal but social problems arise in the elementary classroom regularly. There isn’t a day that goes by when at least one student has an issue with another whether it be in classroom, on the playground, at lunch, in the hallway or on the bus. Social issues are everywhere and how students learn to deal with themselves and each other in these situations will impact and influence their reactions later in life. Exploring the arts and awakening the artist in my students and providing them alternatives to express themselves is the overall goal I hope to accomplish in this unit.

Objectives

This goal of this unit is to provide lessons that transport students and teachers into the “Third Space” for learning. In seminar we were introduced to “Third Space” learning, which is defined by Compton-Lilly in Confronting Racism, Poverty and Power as “being a place where alternative and competing discourses and positioning transform conflict and difference in rich zones of collaboration and learning”. In their book, Lilly’s goal is to create a third space for home literacy and school literacy that foster strong learning experiences.3 My goal is to create “Third Space” learning activities that intertwine the content of reading and social studies standards that are reflected in a social problem, with the theatre standards in experiences that foster collaboration conversations and venues for risk free expression. In the article, The Third space: When learning matters, Stevenson states, “the arts help to transform the learning environment in the schools making it more student centered and more effective in supporting positive academic, social, and personal development for students.”4 This is exciting as I embark in integrating the arts. I do not want lessons that merely add an art activity, I want to utilize the arts as real tools for eliciting student learning.

As my research will show, there are a wide range of social problems facing Americans today. As a first grade teacher, I must narrow my focus to relevant concerns that are

within my students’ developmental understanding. As such, I have selected the social issue of social responsibility as the overarching framework for the unit. The issue of social responsibility can be filtered down more specifically to taking responsibility for one actions. I will then move the unit to examine the more specific social problem of poverty. Using literature to address the concept of poverty. The culminating activity is aimed at provide students consciously use their skills to combine their learning to become agents of awareness and change for themselves and others.

Background/Research

In seminar, we immediately dove into a discussion of social issues and problems and experienced a variety of ways to express our varied understanding of issues then explored ways to express them with the arts.

Social Problems

Social problems or issues are an everyday occurrence in our country and in human existence. Social problems are defined as “An undesirable condition that people believe should be corrected”5 or as Ginsberg states, “Conditions between people leading to social responses that violate some people’s values and norms and cause emotional or economic suffering”.6 In either case, when I think of the definition and think about my first graders, I believe that is a lot for them to comprehend. The University of Maryland Libraries Guide lists more than 100 contemporary social issues. From that list, I believe the following have implications that directly relate to or impact the classroom include: Bullying, Child Abuse , Homelessness, Hunger, Single parenting, Same-sex marriage, Obesity, Poverty, Racism, Pollution.7 However, again as I look at this list of specific problem and think of my students I wonder, how can they make sense of them? But that’s where the arts come in as a tool for exploring and gaining an understanding of the social issues. Children in the classroom may face some issues personally or in context of the curriculum being taught. It is imperative to have an awareness of the issues and develop strategies that promote action.

Social Responsibility

With such a broad social issues I had difficulty finding a focal point however, Wassermann provides an extensive list of moral/ethical dilemmas that arise in the classroom.8 From her list the following areas resonated directly to me and my students: Getting along, addressing who can join a group, how members are treated within the group and how problems are resolved. My students experience this issue regularly when they have opportunities to select their own partner, on the playground and at lunch. Accepting other’s points of view, addressing what happens when other ideas differ from mine. My students experience this situation during partner and small group discussion or work opportunities during the school day.

From this list, I recognized that social responsibility was a thread that ran through all of these issues and if I wanted my students to be able to tackle a broader social issue, I would first need to have them explore and grapple with the idea of social responsibility.

Poverty

We engaged in many lively discussions of various social issues and problems during our seminars and from those discussions, I realized that social responsibility was a very board topic. With the help from my professor, I determined a more dynamic social issue, to funnel social responsibility that would enable my students to have more impactful social connections and that we the issue of poverty.

According to the US Census Bureau the official poverty rate in the United States, in 2015 was 13.5 % which meant that 43.1 million people were in poverty.9 But what does poverty really mean? Defining and explaining poverty is difficult. In the US, being in poverty is officially defined, by the USDA “as having an income below a federally determined poverty threshold, which represent the Federal Government’s estimate of the point below which a family of a given size has cash income insufficient to meet basic needs. Any family/individual with total income less than an amount deemed to be sufficient to purchase food, shelter, clothing, and other essential goods and services is classified as poor.”10

Ruby K Payne, defined poverty as “to the extent in which one does without resources including: financial, emotional, mental, physical, knowledge of hidden rules, support systems and role models.”11 The technical determinations of poverty are complicated and beyond the scope of this unit or the grasp of my students. However, there are some economic terms that are addressed in our current social studies curriculum including needs, food, shelter, clothing, goods and services that are directly related to the concept of poverty and will be connected within the unit.

The Arts

Art is an essential form of expression and communication, an expansive and diverse language fundamentally connected to experiencing and engaging in the world around us making art can provide even the youngest students with multiple entry points into understanding complex social issues.12 This means that teacher can intentionally expose student to complex issues and provide students access to understanding the issues around them in various ways.

In seminar I was made aware of The National Coalition of Core Arts Standards which created voluntary standards for the arts. The National Core Arts Standards were designed to guide the delivery of arts education in the classroom in new ways of thinking, learning and creating to build Artistic Literacy for the 20th century learner.13 Who knew? This is not something that is distributed or discussed in district or school level curriculum professional development.

The National Core Arts Standards list and describe each aspect of the arts: as art forms to shape learning and achievement. The specific art forms are: Dance (the language of movement as expressed by the human body for communication, aesthetic purposes and the release of energy or emotions); Media Arts (art work that has a technological component to function); Music (art form whose media is sound); Theatre (moving art such as acting or drama, it is too been seen or experienced, typically with no tangible product);Visual Arts (art forms that can be seen such as drawing, painting, ceramics, photography, architecture, sculpture, and conceptual art).

All of these arts form are important and no doubt my students will have varying degrees of comfort in each one. However for the purpose of the instructional time within this unit, I had to narrow my focus and have my students begin to explore ways to utilize only one art form of which I selected Theatre Art.

Artistic Processing Model

Within the Core Art Standards are overarching processing standards called, Artistic Process Models. The Artistic processes are the cognitive and physical actions by which arts learning and making are realized.14 The categories are listed below. Creating, addresses convincing and developing works of art or the making of the art, examples would include: director, choreographer, designer, producer, conductor, and composer. Performing/Presenting/Producing, addresses the realization, sharing or presenting of the art or the doing of the art, examples would include: actor, dancer, painter, musician, and technician. Responding, addresses reflection of external information usually through comparison or critical analysis to understand how the arts convey meaning. Connecting, addresses the synthesis of various bodies of knowledge in an internal process to provide personal meaning to the work.

As I build my unit, I will use these process models when incorporating the art forms with the social curriculum content.

Child Development Theories

As I reflected on my discoveries of art based inquiry and the idea of exposing my students to social problems head on, I realized I needed to look more closely at how children learn, how their brains take in information, and most importantly is how to engage students in active learning if I were to create an effective “Third Space” environment. There are many theories on child development but “No one theory has proved adequate to describe and explain learning or development.15

I researched many theories including Constructivist by Piaget, Hierarchy of Needs by Maslow, Social Development by Vygotsky, and Multiple Intelligences by Gardner. In

seminar we considered theories that related to social justice including the Feminist Standpoint theory and Postcolonial Theory.

This research has lead me to realize that my students are cogitatively connected to all of these different theories and that exposure to the arts and being able to access them in their daily learning experiences will greatly enhance their development.

Constructionist Theory by Jean Piaget is the theory I am using to base my unit. Based on observation, Piaget’s theory of child development was influenced by most heavily by children’s interactions with environment. He reasoned the interaction with environment through the use of their senses to make discoveries caused children to alter their perceptions. “He believed that children mentally organize reality into psychological structures used to understand and called these cognitive structures schema.”16 Piaget developed 4 stages of cognitive development broken down into sequentially, building on each other in progression. Stage1: Sensorimotor Intelligence (birth to age 2), knowledge is acquired through sensory experiences and manipulation objects. Stage 2: Preoperational (age 2 to 7), knowledge developed through play but learners struggle with logic and points of view of others due to egocentric nature of the child. Stage 3: Concrete Operation (7 to 11,) thinking becomes more logical but rigid. Developing ability to reverse and categorizing concepts and ideas. Understand thoughts are unique and other have different thoughts then their own. Stage 4: Formal Operation (11 to 15), increase in logical, deductive reasoning and abstract thinking.

Components of Theatre Art

We explored many aspect of theatre art in our seminar and it was through those experiences that I decided to focus on theatre art for my unit. In Teaching Integrated Arts in the Primary School, Anne Bloomfield states that “Drama is accessible to all children – it is their birth right.17 But need in order to elicit this right, students must be given purposeful opportunities to build on their ability to effectively communicate through the art of drama. Before students can effectively engage in active drama theatre activities, they need to understand and practice basic procedures including identification of personal space, start and stop signals, participation and audience expectations, as well as consequences.

Theatre art provide excellent opportunities for students to develop active collaboration and team building skills, communication skills as well as concentration and focus skills. The following are examples of creative drama forms:

Tableau

Meaning living picture in French, is silent motionless depiction or re-enactment of a scene. It is like a snapshot of expression. Tableaus can build a series of scenes but in tableau movement is smooth and fluid with full body movements controlled and deliberate. Facial expressions communicate feelings in tableau. Participants will build on concentration skills when working with tableau.

Pantomime

The drama art form or technique of conveying emotions, actions, feelings by using gestures not speech. Stories are developed with body motions and gestures and facial expressions. Pantomime typically deals with tangible action or idea. This is a safe, easy art form for my students to begin to utilize. They can free use their bodies to express themselves and not encumbered by lack of words or vocabulary. Pantomime of objects requires participants to think and consider weight, size, shape, feel, and emotional reactions. Pantomime of characters requires consideration of physical features, emotions, sensory responses and objectives.18

Improvisation

The drama form where the components of the story are made up as the actors carry the story out. Improvisation has no scripts, sets and limited props. According to R. Berk and R. Trieber, there are seven principals of improvisation: trust, acceptance, attentive listening, spontaneity, storytelling, nonverbal communication, and warmups.19

Puppetry

One of the oldest art forms practiced universally. It is a form of artistic expression where puppets (specialized representational objects) are manipulate to act out a drama. There are numerous types of puppets including solid, sock, stick and paper bag. A unique feature of puppetry is that it is perhaps the only art form where the performer usually creates his own instrument.20 Mask and marionettes are included in the world of puppetry. Puppets allow the actor to express themselves through the persona of the puppet bring it to life. Effective puppetry incorporate movement, voice, convincing actions and effective dialogue.

Teaching Strategy

The Storytelling Project Model from the Culturally Relevant Arts Education for Social Justice is a framework that uses literature to examine social issues and part of the teaching strategies implemented in this unit.21 The framework looks at a set literary pieces which focuses on a common social issues and identifies how the issue is addressed then uses these pieces to help students explore the issue. My unit will cover all the aspects and parts of the Storytelling Project Model, but I will address how literary pieces fit into the framework. When addressing a social issue, the framework separates literary text into 4 categories. Stock Stories, demonstrate acceptance of the social issue by rationalizing mainstream ideas, acceptance of the status quo. Concealing Stories, bring the social issue to light and can be used to analyze the stock story. Resistance Stories, identify or demonstrate examples of situations where the social issue is challenged and can be used as guidance for change. Emerging/Transforming stories, encompass the changes to the social problem as a result of what was learned from the concealing and resistance stories and provide for imagination and hope to transform change. This story model can be used to address a variety of concepts and a framework for arts integration. The activities in this unit incorporate the Storytelling Project model framework.

Third Space learning, connecting multiple content areas in a fluid way where both are integrated with combined learning goals is another teaching strategy for the activities in the unit.

Activity 1 Building Social Responsibility

This activity is an early lesson in the unit that uses a concealing story to focuses and build an understanding of the concept of social responsibility and the effects and implications of personal decisions on others, in a Third space learning environment. Students are provided an opportunity to use creative dramas to express their understanding of the concept of responsibility and social responsibility. The lesson is a stepping stone into for students to develop an awareness of their responsibilities in being socially responsible. It is assumed that students have had experience with basic theater arts concepts such as types of body movements: locomotor (walk, run, hop, skip, leap, gallop), non-locomotor (personal space, rotate, bend, stretch); space: directions (forward, backward, up, down, right, left), general, positive and negative space, pathways (straight, curved, zigzag); time: rhythm and tempo; force: energy (smooth, sharp), flow (bound, free), weight (strong, light).

Objectives/Goals

Students will work in collaborative teams utilizing the theatre concepts of tableau and pantomime to express their understanding of civics concepts including responsibility, respect, cooperation and group. Teams will use the concealing story, Teamwork Isn’t My Thing and I Don’t Like to Share by Julia Cook to create a collaborative creative movement story of the characters that re-tells or displays the positive and negative experiences of members of a team when they don’t work together and when they do as well as the effect they have on each other. Student will reflect on their performance and experience to develop an empathic team acronym for the word TEAM that will be used in the future for personal reflection and evaluation.

Arts Integrated Essential Question

What happens when the theatre artists use their imagination and/or learned theatre skills while engaging creative exploration and inquiry considering the concepts of respect and the benefits of working together as a group?

Vocabulary

The content vocabulary addressed in this lesson is from the district first grade social studies citizenship unit and include: respect, participate, group, cooperate, and responsibility. Vocabulary from the arts include: tableau, pantomime, movement story, body (movement, locomotor shape), space and time (direction, levels), force (flow, energy), time (speed). Social Justice vocabulary includes: responsibility and empathy.

Activities

Provide multiple reading experiences of the story, Teamwork Isn’t My Thing and I Don’t Like to Share by Julia Cook. In this story, the main character, RJ, prefers to work alone and does not see the value in working with his classmates as team. With the help of influential adults, he reflects on a positive, personal experience working with others and learns to transfer the qualities of that experience to his classroom and with his classmates.

This text provides key content vocabulary responsibility, strength, share, team, teamwork, which are essential components of being socially responsible. As students are initially introduced to the text, they will build an understanding of the vocabulary words, by performing tableaus to express their understanding of these words. The tableaus will utilize non-locomotive body movements and facial expressions as drama mechanism. Student teams will collaborate to create tableau for give a vocabulary word. As teams perform, the audience can guessing the word being displayed and copy the tableau representation. An extension is to have audience members enhance or modify the expression being delivered.

Working in collaborative teams, students will be delve into the text and be challenged to create a movement story through pantomime to re-tell story events that address when the main character is acting socially responsible and not acting socially responsible and the effects of his actions in both experiences on the other characters in the story. Students will not only consider the actions of the main character but the resulting feeling on the other characters. The chart in appendix x is a sample of components that might be reflected in the pantomime movement stories. Teams will serve as the audience for each other as they improve and sharpen their listening and focusing skills.

Reflection

Team members will describe the benefits of working together by creating a chart that displays how or what each team member contributed to the team during this lesson experience. Teams or class will discuss the need to consider how your actions affect others by analyzing the facial expressions and body movements presented in each performance, then as a class create an acronym chart for the word TEAM. Student will design their own copy of the acronym to keep as reference chart to be used in the future for students to reflect on when they work as socially responsible team members.

Assessment

Student will be assessed on a rubric that evaluations participation in the group, ability to express understanding of vocabulary through their dramatic representations, understanding of components of tableau and movement story

Activity 2 Understanding Poverty

This Third space lesson integrates puppetry utilizing the resistance story, to introduce students to an aspect of the concept of poverty while making connections to the first grade economic standards. The lesson continues to build on student’s ability to work collaboratively and build their ability to empathize. The resistance story, The Last Stop on Market Street by Matt De La Pena reveals different perceptions of the concept of needs and wants from the different perspectives of the two main characters, one being an adult and the other a child. It also provides an excellent introduction the concept of community service. The lesson can be repeated with other trade books that address various aspect of poverty.

Objectives

Students will use their personal experience to reflect upon the feelings of the main characters. Students will design puppets to represent the characters and then perform a show where they take on the identity of the characters, through the puppet representations to compares and contrasts the characters in the story.

Arts Integrated Essential Question

Why are strong choices essential to interpreting a drama when demonstrating explanations to the idea of why can’t I have everything I want?

Vocabulary

The content vocabulary addressed in this lesson from the district first grade social studies economics unit include: needs, wants, resources, scarcity, services. Vocabulary from the arts include: puppetry, puppet, puppet movement, puppet theatre, voice and dialogue and puppet movement. Social justice vocabulary is responsibility and empathy.

Activity

After multiple exposures to the story, The Last Stop on Market Street by Matt De La Pena, students will work in collaborate pairs to construct puppets that represent the two main characters of the story. Student will be given a variety of craft resources to construct either sock stick or paper bag puppets. Each pair will develop a re-tell that compares and contrasts the two main characters experiences as they consider the needs and wants during the story. The presentations will include puppet movement and dialogue that exhibits conversations reflecting how the characters feel and why. Pairs will perform for the class audience.

After each performance, the class will reflect on the performance and discuss what was learned. A class compare and contrast chart will be completed with information from each performance including key words expressed or body actions of the characters. At the conclusion, students will synthesize the compare and contrast information and determine the most relevant difference between the characters.

Assessment

Student pairs will be assessed on their convincing characterization of their puppet including responses that reflect feeling of character, use of effective dialogue including key economic vocabulary, voice audibility and clarity, cooperation and respect of partner.

Reflection

Students will write journal entries to reflect on experience using the TEAM acronym as prompt.

Lesson 3 – Culminating Activity

This lesson serves as a culminating activity for the unit as students continue to learn and grow in the Third space connecting social studies, English language arts and the arts. Various groups in my school community sponsor service projects or relief activities that support the local community, US troops, or world citizens in need, in which students are asked to participate. Communication about the projects or events are shared with families and many of my students participate in the events, but I am not certain that my students have a true understanding purpose and their participation in the service project. Using the story, The Last Stop on Market Street from lesson two, now as a transforming story and spring board to discuss the concept of community service. This lesson is aimed at having students explore and research a community service project being sponsored at the school level and sharing their understanding with the school community.

Arts Integrated Essential Question

How do theatre artists comprehend the essence of drama processes and the theatre experience when using a drama techniques to demonstrate the question, what is the difference between a right, a responsibility, and a privilege as aspects of a community service project?

How can students dramatize the process and impact of a service learning project using pantomime or puppetry?

Objective

Students will select a creative drama platform to demonstrate and share their understanding of the community service project being sponsored at the school.

Activities

Using the story, The Last Stop on Market Street, to discuss the components of community services, students will identify the service project being sponsored at school. With teacher guidance, students will research the project including contacting the community member involved, to identify the purpose, needs of the recipients, good or service required, benefits of participants and negative impact of non-participation.

Students will work in collaborative teams to develop a creative drama story that expresses the key aspect of the school’s community service project. Teams will make collaborative decisions to determine the type of creative drama experience they want to perform and the key information regarding the service project they wish to represent. Teams will be responsible for creating the necessary props and determining the dialogue, gestures and movements that will be displayed by the characters. Team will practice their performances within the classroom to gain feedback which they will use to make modification. Teams will perform their revised presentations to the school community, which could include other grade levels, parents, or community leaders.

The drama stories will need to include characters which may be from the perspective of the beneficiary of the project or the benefactor and express their feeling about the situation. The story should relay a sequence of events that demonstrate or tells the issue, examples of possible solutions, and a conclusion.

Reflections

Teams will share their experiences in creating their performance with each other discussing the pro and cons of each performance identifying how they worked as a team, how their theatre choice enabled them to express their ideas and their own assessment of their performance.

Assessments

Student teams will be assessed on their choice of theatre art and their effectiveness in using components of theatre to clearly express the needs of the recipients, and effects when others act responsibly. Students’ personal reflections will serve as an assessment of student abilities to incorporate the art skills and social studies content into the learning experience reflection.

Appendix – Standards

This unit incorporates the Arts, Social Studies and Common Core standards in integrated lessons aimed to creating a Third space learning environment.

Delaware State Standards for Social Studies

The content curriculum basis for this unit are the first grade civics and economic standards. Typically these units are taught a during different marking periods of the school year, which will allow for continuous use of integrating the arts in other content areas through the school year.

Civics Standard Two K-3a: Students will understand that respect for others, their opinions, and their property is a foundation of civil society in the United States. It is through this standard that social responsibility is being addressed.

Civics Standard Four K-3a: Students will acquire the skills necessary for participating in a group, including defining an objective, dividing responsibilities, and working cooperatively. This standard is the springboard to effective arts integration.

Economics Standard One K-3a Students will understand that individuals and families with limited resources undertake a wide variety of activities to satisfy their wants.

Economics Standard One K-3b Students will apply the concept that economic choices require the balancing of costs incurred with benefits received. These standards takes the concept of social responsibility deeper into the concept of poverty.

National Core Art Standards

The standards below are intertwined with the Social Studies standards in the unit.

TH:Cr1.1.1a: Propose potential choices characters could make in a guided drama experiences

TH:Cr1.1.1c: Identify ways in which gestures and movement may be used to create or retell a story in guided drama experiences

TH:Cr2-1b: With prompting and support, participate in groups decision making in a drama experience

TH:Pr4.1.1b Use body, face, gestures, and voice to communicate character traits and emotions in a guided drama experience

TH:Re7.1.1: Recall choices made in a guided drama experience

Common Core State Standards

First Grade Listening and Speaking Common Core Standards are also addressed in the unit. SL.1.1. Participating in collaborative conversations with diverse partners, is a key standard for students to adequately engage in the integrated arts and content standards. SL.1.2. Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media, is a standard that has many applications in the unit. While working on with students on presentation of information, standard, SL.1.5. Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings, can be expressed with many areas using theatre arts, including tableau, pantomime, and puppetry. Reading Standard for Literature RL1.8 Compare and Contrast the adventures and experience of characters in stories, a focal standard in lesson 2 of the unit.

Bibliography

Armstrong, Thomas. Multiple intelligences in the classroom. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1994.

Information on child development theory, Each intelligence fully explained

Bernadette D. Proctor, Jessica L. Semega, Melissa A. Kollar. "Income and Poverty in the United States: 2015." US Census Bureau. 2016. Accessed December 18, 2016. http://www.census.gov/library/publications/2016/demo/p60-256.html.

Searched to gain information on poverty

Bloomfield, Anne, and John Childs. Teaching integrated arts in the primary school: dance, drama, music, and the visual arts. London: David Fulton, 2000.

Helpful research with strategies for arts integration with school curriculum

Byrnes, James P. Cognitive development and learning in instructional contexts. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1996. Aided in research on child development

Compton-Lilly, Catherine, and Todd K. Lilly. Confronting racism, poverty, and power: classroom strategies to change the world. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2004. Used in research on poverty

Cook, Julia, and Kelsey De Weerd. The worst day of my life ever! Boys Town, NE: Boys Town Press, 2011.

Used as a read aloud to further introduce character RJ from series

Cook, Julia, and Kelsey De Weerd. Teamwork isn't my thing, and I don't like to share! Boys Town, NE: Boys Town Press, 2012.

Book for lesson activity to introduce social responsibility

Cornett, Claudia E. The arts as meaning makers: integrating literature and the arts throughout the curriculum. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill, 1999.

Resource with research into arts integration

Crawford, Linda. Lively learning: using the arts to teach the K-8 curriculum. Greenfield, MA: Northeast Foundation for Children, 2004.

Helpful resource for effective arts integration

Donahue, David M., and Jennifer Stuart. Artful teaching: integrating the arts for understanding across the curriculum, K-8. New York: Teachers College Press, 2010.

Helpful book to demonstrate arts integration

Dowdy, Joanne Kilgour., and Sarah Kaplan. Teaching drama in the classroom: a toolbox for teachers. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2011.

Aided in drama researchMost examples secondary application of drama usage

Engler, Larry, and Carol Fijan. Making puppets come alive: a method of learning and teaching hand puppetry. New York: Taplinger, 1973.

Used for research into puppetry

Hanley, Mary Stone, George W. Noblit, Gilda L. Sheppard, Tom Barone, and Lee Anne Bell. Culturally relevant arts education for social justice: a way out of no way.

New York: Routledge, 2013.

Recommended reading for seminar Provided examples of arts integration focus on social justice

"Pantomime." What is pantomime? Accessed December 18, 2016. http://pantomime-mime.com/pantomime-history.html.

Information about pantomime

Peña, Matt De la, Christian Robinson, and Ryan Thomann. Last stop on Market Street. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), 2015. Used for lesson activities on economics wants and needs in combination with puppetry

Pimpare, Stephen. A people's history of poverty in America. New York: New Press, 2008. Used in research on poverty

"Poverty Demographics." USDA ERS - Poverty Demographics. Accessed December 18, 2016. https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/rural-poverty-well-being/poverty-demographics/.

Used to gain information about poverty

"Poverty Demographics." USDA ERS - Poverty Demographics. Accessed December 18, 2016. https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/rural-poverty-well-being/poverty-demographics/.

Used to gain information about poverty

Stevenson, L. , and R. J. Deasy. "Third Space: When learning matters." ArtsEdSearch. Accessed December 11, 2016. http;//www.artsedsearch.org/summaries/third-space-when-learning-matters. Printed article provided as part of class. Provided explanation of Third Space

The joyful classroom: practical ways to engage & challenge students K-6. Turners Falls, MA: Center for Responsive Schools, Inc., 2016.

Resource full of student driven protocols that could be modified to include arts integration

"Understanding and Working with Students and Adults from ..." Accessed December 7, 2016. http://www.bing.com/cr?IG=C76A80F818A7476D9A408FA8EE9A10CD&CID=2D268CDD13FE6AC00591852D12CF6BC2&rd=1&h=i4_yMbT6UOAW51yOmQDRnSsCjhTVs55drw25kBDGeoA&v=1&r=http%3a%2f%2fwww.michigan.gov%2fdocuments%2fmde%2fUnderstanding_and_Working_with_Students_and_Adults_from_Poverty_360998_7.pdf&p=DevEx,5065.1.

Searched to gain information about poverty

Wassermann, Selma. Serious players in the primary classroom: empowering children through active learning experiences. New York: Teachers College Press, 1990. Resource on child development and the arts

Weiss, Susan Pick de, and Jenna Sirkin. Breaking the poverty cycle: the human basis for sustainable development. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Used in research on poverty

"Whose Classroom Is It, Anyway?: Improvisation as a ..." Accessed December 9, 2016.

http://www.bing.com/cr?IG=41029A846A1747DAB0E78BE43230B66D&CID=338882378D48636F0A3C8BC78C79625B&rd=1&h=MC16Dary-upkUG1T1EXtV-MC1Go5tZmg2lBNzuriiFQ&v=1&r=http%3a%2f%2fronberk.com%2farticles%2f2009_improv.pdf&p=DevEx,5085.1 .

Gained information for research on improve

Wilber, George L. Poverty: a new perspective. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1975.

Used in research to understand poverty

Winter, Jerry Alan, and Nathan Glazer. The Poor: a culture of poverty, or a poverty of culture? Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971.

Selected to gain information about the concept of poverty

Wood, Chip. Yardsticks: children in the classroom, ages 4-14: a resource for parents and teachers. Greenfield, MA: Northeast Foundation for Children, 1997.

Excellent information about child development Resource connected with Responsive Classrooms