POPS: Resources for Professional Development and Remote Learning in the Arts

Recently, the quick shift to remote learning presented a unique challenge to many educators. Though school may be out for the summer, we know teachers are continuing to work hard, preparing for the unknowns of next year through summer team collaborations, individual development, or lesson planning. POPS (Professional Outreach Program in the Schools) has resources to help prepare for the upcoming school year. There are also great resources available to share with your students during the summer months. 

POPS is a resource managed by the Utah State Board of Education and sponsored by the Utah State Legislature. POPS is designed to connect schools, teachers, students, and administrators with arts education. POPS empowers educators to expand their confidence and capacity in arts education by providing free or subsidized access to high-quality professional development and performance programs, including professional artist visits to schools. Learn more about pops at POPSUTAH.org.

Plan-B Theatre

Due to the recent transition to remote learning, Plan-B Theatre provided a unique, fun, and engaging curriculum that is easily accessible (and free!) on Plan-B Theatre’s remote learning page. These materials apply to a wide range of core standards and easily translate from the classroom to the living room, and back again. Videos of past tour performances (with accompanying study guides) include three plays each for grades K-3 and 4-6. Additionally, a free, downloadable picture book of Plan-B Theatre’s most recent tour, Flora Meets a Bee by Morag Shepherd (K-3), includes a read-aloud video featuring the cast and the playwright.

Ideal for use at home and in classrooms, Playwriting with Young People is a 13-page booklet available online, written by Julie Jensen and illustrated by Andrew Livingston. This resource explores the essentials of playwriting for students in grades K-6, accompanied by video tutorials in both English and Spanish languages.  

You and your children or students can try your hand at radio making at home through Plan-B Theatre’s RADIO SLAM, designed for grades 4-6. An inspiring project teaching participants how to create their own radio play at home, RADIO SLAM pops boredom bubbles and sparks innovation in a socially-distanced living room environment. Kids or adults can listen to four recently premiered episodes to guide them through the process outlined in the study guides that accompany each episode, exploring multiple elements of core curriculum including mental and emotional health, reading, writing, nutrition, and social studies. 

Look for Plan-B Theatre’s 2020-2021 FEST (Free Elementary School Tour) of Presenting: Super Cat and Reptile Robot by Rachel Bublitz, coming to serve and excite students in grades 2-4 at an elementary school near you!

Downloading Plan-B Theatre’s free app enables all users to access tickets, updates, and information about free elementary school tours. 

Spy Hop Art Shop

Explore the Spy Hop and discover a digital media arts center offering in-school and after-school programs, summer camps, youth-in-care and satellite programming for all students who carry aspirations in filmmaking, music, audio production, and design. The Spy Hop Art Shop is an extension of Spy Hop’s POPS curriculum and is available to everyone, providing on-demand video tutorials for hands-on, STEAM-based art projects. Professional artist mentors produce step-by-step videos that show how to make cool stuff! Kids or parents can create just once, or tune in weekly to catch new videos that enable you to make projects with a Sky Hop mentor as your guide. Share your creations with the Spy Hop team via email (artshop@spyhop.org) or tag #spyhopartshop on social media to receive feedback and digital “high-fives.”

Teachers or community members can even schedule a two-day online Zoom and video tutorial intensive workshop sessions for groups of up to ten students in a variety of subject matter. Please email adam@spyhop.org  to schedule a customized online lesson and learn more about ways Spy Hop can serve your classroom. 

For more information about the Spy Hop Art Shop, summer classes for your children or students, and to learn more about Spy Hop’s “Voices of the West,” an online summer program for kids aged 13-19, go to www.spyhop.org.

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company

If you’re a classroom teacher or dance educator from any public or charter school in Utah, you can enjoy the many benefits of Ririe-Woodbury’s live-stream sessions. The specific date, time and content can be tailored to each classroom’s particular needs: the company can schedule a convenient time to conduct a creative movement class, have a dance party, or set up a shared movement practice with students–these dance professionals will help create a unique and memorable dance experience for your students. These free classes are available on either Zoom or WebEx. Please contact the Ririe-Woodbury Education Director, Ai Fujii Nelson, at education@ririewoodbury.com. 

While planning for the upcoming school year, teachers can access many other online lessons and remote learning-related resources here. Some Spanish versions and audio versions of lessons are also available. 

We believe that all teachers are artists: we hope these ideas inspire you to explore and use the many and varied resources offered by POPS as you bring art making to your classroom. Art will add depth to your teaching and create fun, new, and engaging learning experiences for your students. Check out the POPS website, and watch for our next blog post to learn about more amazing POPS resources and opportunities. 

Laura Giles is a lover of all things art, a first-grade teacher in Alpine School District, a writer for The Daily Herald newspaper, an Arts Leadership Academy graduate and has earned the Arts Integration Endorsement from Brigham Young University. She can be reached at LauraCGiles@gmail.com. 

Read More »

Non-tech Arts Activities at Home: Drama

Tired of tech? Sick of screens?
Try these non-tech DRAMA activities!
Non-tech arts activities provided by professional educators in dance, drama, music, and visual arts on the BYU ARTS Partnership Leadership Team 

Drama encourages playing with others. Even when the audience is only those with whom you are sheltering in place, using drama in ordinary moments will refresh, rejuvenate and remind children that daily living can be filled with wonderment and joy. The drama activities listed below provide much needed centering, and will help family groups deepen relationships. The following are easy, non-tech ideas and only require materials already around the house.

READ ALOUD TO ONE ANOTHER

• Use character voices. (Gandalf is distinct from Bilbo, right?) 
• Build tension by speaking faster or slower. (Remember when Hermione is trapped in the ladies room with a troll?)  
• Speak in a high or low voice. (How does Miss Honey sound, compared to The Trunchbull?), 
• Laugh together at the rhymes ("...I will not eat them in a box/I will not eat them with a fox...") or silliness in a story. ("[Pippi] could lift a whole horse if she wanted to. And she did.") 
• Focus deeply on the emotional meaning of a story. (Remember when Charlotte stays up all night to weave "Some pig!" to save Wilbur? ) 
• Let imaginary worlds take over. (Remember Lucy's first glimpse of Mr. Tumnus the faun, in snowy Narnia?) 

During times of steep uncertainty (like right now!), familiar stories become friends of comfort, and new stories become joyous distractions. Most homes have books on the shelves just waiting to be revisited. Anne (...of Green Gables), or Percy Jackson (The Lightning Thief), or Meg Murray (A Wrinkle in Time) or Klaus (A Series of Unfortunate Events), or Stanley Yelnats (Holes) are hearty characters that can be discovered and re-discovered at all developmental stages (adults too!).

Don't hesitate to include tweens, teens and adults in read alouds! Remember that even little ones can comprehend the spoken word far beyond their reading level. Take turns, having one person read two pages and then passing the book to the next reader. Make reading aloud part of a comforting routine: just after lunch or dinner, right before breakfast or bedtime, whenever. Don't worry that you don't sound like a voice-over artist or movie actor. Reading with commitment and energy will engage listeners of all ages.

PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR DRAMATIC PLAY

Inspire children to play dress up with grandma's old things or clothes you saved from high school. Let each child choose a style decade and create fashion shows. Hand out scarves, wigs, old jewelry, hats, or the old Halloween costumes you've tucked away. Create weekly theme days like Pajama Day, Old Folks Day, Artist Day, Book Character Day, or Superhero day.

Encourage children to make zoos, create puppet shows, or have tea parties with stuffed animals. Challenge them to create new and different worlds with Legos: what if Batman visited Middle Earth? Children learn through play and choices: imaginary and creative play situations do not need to be formal performances. Dramatic developmental benefits result from pretending alone or collaboratively.

Doubtless it is tempting to maintain a focus on order, calm, and cleanliness in living spaces especially while sheltering in place. However, creative play often results in disarray and mess. Set a few reasonable clean up rules, but avoid creating shameful feelings. Embrace the process. To you it may look a mess, but to them it looks like a vast jungle, a broad desert, a wizard in a magical castle, or an impenetrable ancient fortress. Engage and celebrate with your children as they create.

PRACTICE STORYTELLING

Storytelling is different from reading aloud. A story can be a family tale, story song, a fairy tale, a fable, or a funny family incident. Storytelling is always done from memory, and includes anything without a written text between the teller and the listener. Telling stories is easy, engaging, and creates generational belonging in children. Requiring zero physical materials, storytelling can be done anywhere and anytime: while eating dessert as a family, riding in the car, at bedtime, over weekend breakfasts, or during family devotionals. Story prompts are limitless. Here are a few:

• Did you ever get into trouble and not tell your parents what happened?
• Tell us about your favorite pet.
• What is the most exciting place you ever visited?
• Did you ever save up for a special toy or activity?
• What is your favorite story your mom or dad used to tell you?
• What is the most surprised you've ever been?
• Who is the funniest of the older generation in your family?
• Did you ever get a Dear Jane/John letter?
• What is a fairy tale your grandma told you?

See what other prompts come to mind, and make a list to put on the fridge for easy reference during witching hour.

Collaborative stories are often fun. One person starts a tale, and at a certain point of their choosing (e.g. “When suddenly...") the story is passed to the next person. Group sizes can range from two to ten people. Creating different rules as the story develops adds depth: "You always have to include a color in your part of the story before you pass it along." Or, "You can't deny what someone else has built into the story." Or, "Nobody can include dogs, zombies, dinosaurs or guns in their part of the story.” Or, "Each person gets five words per turn.”

CREATE AND PERFORM PLAYS

Often a natural outgrowth of previous drama activities, plays can be improvised, developed from a written script, or memorized to create a more formal performance feeling. Costumes can be created or puppets can be made to take on all or some of the parts. Furniture can be rearranged to accommodate a performing space, and/or sets can be constructed from cardboard boxes or other bits and pieces found in garages and sheds. Music and dance can add to the performance. Plays can also use pantomime, creating dialogue and expression without words. Or, plays can be pantomimed with sounds. Like silent movies, plays can also be pantomimed to music.

Plays can be performed by those sheltering in place to family members. Because plays are meant to be shared, safe performance ideas include following social distancing guidelines, sharing behind picture windows, or outdoors on patios or sidewalks with people watching from yards or balconies. Using a tiny bit of tech, plays can be recorded at home and sent to grandparents, teachers, extended family and friends, or broadcast on a social platform. Regardless of how the play is shared, experiencing the creative moments of the play’s development and performance offers the greatest level of excitement and connection.

Written by Teresa Love, drama educator and member of the BYU ARTS Partnership Leadership Team. Find more resources for drama activities and more at Drama/Home | BYU ARTS Partnership

Read More »

Relax, Refresh, and Rejuvenate through the Arts!

Relax, Refresh, and Rejuvenate through the Arts! 

Ideas for home-based arts instruction provided by Elementary Arts Educators in Dance, Drama, Music, and Visual Arts. More resources at AdvancingArtsLeadership.com 

During these unsettling times, parents can take charge of their time with their children. Remember
how fun pre-school was? Singing, drawing, dancing, playing pretend, and reading aloud? High level learning happens during those hours of play, and these activities continue to be beneficial for people of all ages.

Arts activities relax the body, refresh the mind, and help us connect to others. Arts activities are multi-sensory, minds-on, hands-on experiences that invite conversations and build relationships. Parents can invite their children to make art with them in a playful way and optimize the experience by breathing deeply, relaxing, and being fully present as their children engage.

When playing with children, listen to the children’s ideas, then reward their efforts with smiles and kindness. Working along-side them encourages their focus and concentration. Inspire them to improve their ability by enjoying quality works of art together. Listen to music, sing, talk about works of art, discuss movies, and books. Most of all, have fun and celebrate successes. Set the stage, turn up the music and dance! Here are some ideas for home-based arts instruction to get you started.

VISUAL ART 

DRAW!
Draw something from the 100 Sketchbook Prompts or 100 Silly Drawing Prompts every day. Add details such as texture, value/shading, and color. Feel free to use the back of your classwork to draw on, if you do not have other paper available.

LAND ART SCULPTURE
Take inspiration from Land Artists such as Andy Goldworthy, Robert Smithson, and Richard Long. Have your child look at images from these artists as inspiration for their own Land Art sculpture. If you do not have access to outdoor space such as a yard or wilderness area, you can have students use Legos, toys from their playroom, cardboard, or other materials to assemble their sculpture. Even food and veggies on their lunch plate!

MAKE SALT DOUGH
2 Cups all purpose Flour
1 Cup Salt
1 Cup cold Water

Mix flour and salt together in a bowl. Slowly mix water, a few tablespoons at a time, into flour mixture until dough is smooth and easy to handle. Knead dough for 10 minutes and let rest for 20 minutes. Help your student do the measuring and mixing/kneading, talking about the texture and how it feels before and after adding the water.

After the ten minutes of kneading you can divide up the mixture into three portions and add a few drops of food coloring to be mixed into the clay. The primary colors of red, yellow, and blue are recommended.

Let it rest for 20 minutes. When the clay is ready, have children sculpt a creature or character from a story they are currently reading. Talk about the shapes that make up that creature, and the different parts/details. If you added color, they can mix parts of the clay together to create secondary colors.

After they are done the clay can be put into an airtight container for several days then disposed of. You can also leave the sculptures out to dry in the air or bake them in a 250 degree oven for about two hours (until hard and dry).

MUSIC

MUSICAL SCAVENGER HUNT
Look around your house and find the following sounds. An object you find may fit more than one of the items below. For example, a metal pot lid tapped with a wooden spoon is something you tap, it is metal, it can be loud, and it may be quiet.

Something you rattle or shake
Something you tap
Something you scrape
Something you blow in or across
Something metal
Something plastic
Something wood
Something that can make a loud sound
Something that can make a quiet sound
Something that makes a low sound
Something that makes a high sound
Something that makes a short sound
Something that makes a long sound

Arrange the items into three categories: metal, plastic, wood. Start over and arrange the items into four categories based on how you make each sound: shake, tap, scrape, blow. Can you change the sound of the object? Can you make it louder, quieter, higher, or lower? Arrange from low sounds to high sounds.

BIM BUM
Body percussion is making percussive musical sounds using only your body -- such as clapping your hands, patting your lap, or stamping your feet. Try this body percussion game song. It is first sung as an echo song, so you may want to watch and listen as each phrase is sung, then try the body percussion on the echo. The song might be easy to sing, but the body percussion gets tricky! Clap your hands on the word bim, snap your fingers on the word bum, and pat your lap on biddy.

Once you have mastered the body percussion, find household objects that will make three distinct sounds. Decide which “instrument” or object you want to play, then choose the one word on which you will play your instrument each time it is sung: bim, bum, or biddy. Have two other friends or family members play the other two instruments on the other words. Challenge: Can you sing the entire song but play your instrument only on the specific word? This might take some practice!

FAMILY FOLK SONGS
What country or part of the world does your family come from? Find it on a map or globe. Have a family member sing a song they know from that country or region, or find a folk song from that country or region. What is the history of the song? Why did people sing the song?If there is more than one song, which is your favorite? Why? Create actions or movements to go along with the song and perform them as you sing.

DRAMA

CHIN PUPPETS
Make a chin puppet! Sure, have some giggles making funny faces or lip syncing to a song, then go beyond. Create a character: give your chin puppet a name, a unique voice, a personality with likes and dislikes. Hold a conversation. Tell a story. Keep your chin up!



PLAY IT. . .BACKWARDS!
Make a list of events (or draw scenes) from a favorite story. The story could be the plot from a book, movie or event. Now. . . act it out: backwards! It’s harder than it sounds – and is a fun challenge. Good luck!

ZOO-DO!
Create a zoo of your own with stuffed animals, lego animals, toy animals or YOU as an animal! Make sure you give your critters a healthy habitat with plenty to do. What is your favorite exhibit? What might the animals be thinking when you look at them? What kinds of adventures might happen in a zoo? Make your own zoo today, do!

DANCE

FAMILY DANCE
Listen to different genres of music and think about what movements they inspire. Have fun dancing free style to any selection. Allow each child to choose their favorite and explain why. Try learning some of the movement of each family member. You could choose one movement from each family member and create a family dance. Begin and end with a family connecting shape using levels and all kinds of line and design to make your shapes interesting. See what creative things you can come up with and enjoy the experience of dancing together.

HAPPY DANCE
Watch “Happy Dance” on YouTube. Follow the dance moves in the video and make up moves of your own. Talk about what makes you happy, and reasons why you are happy right now. Read Do Your Happy Dance! Celebrate Wonderful You and have a discussion. Some points of discussion could be: The Peanuts characters persisting at school, in sports or other extracurricular activities, or at any life experience. Make connections to your own unique experiences and find reasons to celebrate and do a “Happy Dance!” Turn the music video back on and have a dance of celebrating wonderful YOU!

Other Resources for the Happy Dance

• Meghan Trainor - Better When I’m Dancin’ 
• Peanuts - Happy Dance 
• Snoopy Happy Dance 

GIRAFFES CAN’T DANCE
Read the book Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae (or watch the animated video or watch the Giraffes Can’t Dance (Silly Song). Have a discussion about feelings/emotions that Gerald and the other animals might be having. You can talk about how we feel when we fall and make mistakes, and how it feels when others make fun of us at those times. This can lead to a conversation about a growth mindset: a belief that our most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work.

Create a dance together! Using the action words in the story provide an opportunity for your children to try leaping, prancing, skipping, swaying, swishing and twirling. Give them time to make their own dance. Sit together in a circle and have a “Jungle Dance” giving any who would wish to share the dance they created. After this you can take turns learning each other’s dances. (Jungle Dance Music)

Find more ideas for arts at home here.

Written by members of the BYU ARTS Partnership Leadership Team: Melissa Deletant (Visual Arts Educator), Cally Flox (Director of the BYU ARTS Partnership). Miriam Bowen (Dance Educator), Lisa Bean (Drama Educator), and Jennifer Purdy (Music Educator).

Sponsored by the following

Read More »

Utah Women’s History to Be Celebrated in 2020

February 7, 2020

Better Days 2020, a nonprofit organization dedicated to popularizing Utah women’s history through art, education, and legislation, has reason to celebrate this year—as do all of us. This year, Better Days 2020 will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Utah women casting their first ballots, the first American women to vote under an equal suffrage law. It is also the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave equal voting rights to women; and the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, which protected voting rights of racial minorities.

Arts-Based Initiatives 

There will be numerous arts event to celebrate these landmarks happening throughout the state during 2020. These events, both educational and uplifting, integrate the arts with history and will be engaging to educators and students alike.

The Utah Division of Arts and Museum’s Traveling Exhibit Program will feature Utah artist Brooke Smart’s 50 original illustrations of Utah women’s rights advocates. Check out the full schedule. The exhibit’s last destination will be the Springville Museum of Art and will be on display there from May to August.

The “Utah Women Working for the Vote and Beyond” exhibit features reproductions of Smart’s 50 illustrations paired with historic artifacts. This will be on display on the fourth floor of the Utah State Capitol Building from January¬ to December 2020.

Better Days 2020 has also released “Utah Women Making History Trading Cards” and a book titled Champions of Change: 25 Women Who Made History, both of which feature Smart’s illustrations.

Women’s Rights Memorials

A statue of Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon—Utah’s first female state senator—is to be installed in National Statuary Hall in August 2020. Check out this website to learn more about the statue and Hughes Cannon herself.

There will be a new Women’s History Memorial installed at Council Hall in Salt Lake City. The sculpture was designed by Utah artists Kelsey Harrison and Jason Manley and will memorialize the first woman to vote and honor the millions of women who have voted in Utah and across the nation since that important day.

Resources for Educators 

There are other ways to get involved during 2020. Schools can become Utah HERitage Schools and receive free swag and a toolkit of materials to learn and celebrate.

Better Days 2020 would love to hear from schools where teachers and students develop their own arts projects to commemorate and celebrate this special year. Students can attend the 150th Anniversary “First to Vote” Celebration at the Utah State Capitol on February 12, which coincides with another Utah State Capital event, Arts Day on the Hill.

Educators can find free downloadable resources at www.utahwomenshistory.org to help educate students and participate in the celebration. These resources include

• - Utah women’s advocates’ biographies written by scholars and family descendants, paired with Smart’s illustrations
• - Interactive timeline
• - Learning activities
• - Children’s books with Utah History connections and discussion questions
• - Short videos including a video about illustrator Brooke Smart showcasing her studio and process
• - Informational articles
• - Lesson plans that include arts connections
• - Local histories
• - Primary sources sets, which include suffrage memorabilia and political cartoons 

For updated information and more ideas, follow the organization on social media @betterdays2020.

Laura Giles is a lover of all things art, a first grade teacher in Alpine School District, a writer for The Daily Herald newspaper, and an Arts Leadership Academy graduate. She has earned the Arts Integration Endorsement from Brigham Young University. She can be reached at LauraCGiles@gmail.com.

Read More »

The 150th Anniversary of the Golden Spike Unites History and the Arts in Elementary Classrooms

On May 10, 2019 Utahans will celebrate the 150-year anniversary of the Golden Spike Ceremony.

The first transcontinental railroad connected the West Coast, rich in gold and other precious metals, to the industrial Northeast and spurred western expansion by cutting the travel time between the West and East Coasts from six months to six days.

The Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met at Utah’s Promontory Summit in 1869, uniting the two main tracks into a single railroad line—the Transcontinental Railroad. To mark the meeting, Leland Stanford, cofounder of the Central Pacific Railroad, added a 17.6-karat gold spike as the last piece of the railroad.

To celebrate the 150-year anniversary of the golden spike, BYU ARTS Partnership created six lessons for third to sixth graders which use art, music, dance, and theater to teach students about the Transcontinental Railroad.

The Railroad Rhythms  by Jennifer Purdy

(click here to view the lesson plan)

Students explore sound layering by performing railroad sounds to a steady beat and creating a railroad soundscape. Teachers read Iron Horses by Verla Kay while students use simple classroom instruments, found sounds, body percussion, tapping, or vocalizations to follow the book’s rhythm. Dividing the class into groups, students practice layering rhythms as the class become an orchestral chorus of whistles, wheels, steam, and motors. Using musical terms such as accelerando, piano, and forte, teachers guide their students in their transcontinental railroad orchestra. Students also find the rhythm in language by using words related to the railroad to count syllables.

New Newsies: Uncovering the Stories Buried beneath the Golden Spike  by David Dynak

(click here to view the lesson plan)

This lesson helps develop research skills as students inspect primary sources and perform a theatrical piece on newsies. The newsies strike of 1899 is a perfect example of how the railroad changed American society; New York City newsies united to strike after Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst raised newspaper prices. In this activity, students read primary and secondary sources to uncover the full story behind the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. After researching, students perform in a play which dramatizes the sometimes-unknown experiences of many groups affected by the Transcontinental Railroad. Diving into roles as newsies allows students to perform their new-found knowledge on the building of the railroad.

Real and Ideal: A Closer Look at Westward Expansion by Rachel Jackson Gonthier

(click here to view the lesson plan)

Students learn to identify the differences between romanticized ideals and reality by comparing romantic paintings to photographs. Nineteenth century paintings of the American West romanticize the landscape and the ideals tied to westward expansion. Photographs from the same time period provide a realistic portrayal of the landscape to contrast these romanticized ideals. This allows students to analyze how pictures tell stories and create certain perceptions. Students are invited to reflect on how they romanticize their own lives. Students also practice identifying misleading images by taking photographs of the same object from different angles. When finished, students present their pictures to the class and explain how a different perspective can change the viewer’s perception.

Iron Horses  by Miriam Bowen

(click here to view the lesson plan)

Students read the book Iron Horses by Verla Kay to explore the eight types of locomotor body movements: walking, running, hopping, skipping, jumping, galloping, leaping, and sliding. The class is divided into different groups to perform the locomotor movements. By practicing these movements, students bring the written word to life and make connections between people walking, horses galloping, and the Transcontinental Railroad chugging.

The Great American Bison  by Brenda Beyal

(click here to view the lesson plan)

This lesson utilizes acting and art to show students how history is a complex narrative with multiple perspectives. The lesson showcases the advantages and disadvantages of building a Transcontinental Railroad and how the railroad negatively impacted Native Americans and the great American bison. The railroad cut through Native American hunting grounds and diminished the bison population, their main source of food. Native Americans remained resourceful and used every part of the bison they killed. During the lesson, students follow their example by being resourceful. Students create an art piece with recyclable materials such as plastic bottles, old papers, and cereal boxes. In another activity, students learn there are many perspectives within one story and how to implement thought tracking through role playing exercises.

Railroad Meter  by Emily Soderborg

(click here to view the lesson plan)

This lesson connects the Transcontinental Railroad to music. When constructing the railroad, builders used musical beats to move the railroad tracks together. Listening to the song “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad,” students tap the beat to gain a sense for meter and identify two-meter, three-meter, four-meter, and mixed-meter rhythms within different songs. Students can play instruments alongside the musical recordings to understand meter. For the third activity, the teacher plays several songs sung by groups who worked on the railroad or who were impacted by the railroad. Students divide into groups to research and perform each song. The songs come from an array of peoples and cultures including African American, Irish, Chinese, Latter-day Saint, and Shoshone. At the end of the lesson, students prepare and present a brief presentation on the history of their song to the class.

BYU ARTS Partnership lessons unite historical events with the arts to give students a multilayered understanding of the past. These lessons encourage students to analyze history and uncover facts excluded in traditional historical texts.

Students learn to question history and become historical detectives. These lessons also explore history as a complex narrative; they cover how valuable resources benefitted American expansion while also teaching the high cost of this expansion for Native Americans as well as the detrimental impact on certain groups of immigrants. As students delve into history, they learn how the past shapes the present and their own identity as Americans.

Look for these lesson titles at https://education.byu.edu/arts/lessons/. Special thanks to Brenda Beyal, David Dynak, Jennifer Purdy, Emily Soderborg, Miriam Bowen, and Rachel Jackson Gonthier, who developed these lessons.

Writer: Emma Smith
Contact: Cindy Glad (801) 422-1922

Read More »

Abundance of Arts Resources Provided to Schools

More than 350 schools in Utah have a plethora of arts resources at their fingertips after being provided with binders full of materials, strategies, contacts, and resources that will contribute to the building up of arts-rich schools. This information was gathered through a process of researching, surveying, questioning, gathering, and writing.

In 2018, the presidents of Utah Art Education Association, Utah Music Educators Association, Utah Dance Education Organization, and Utah Advisory Council of Theatre Teachers formed a team. In each arts area, chapters were written for the secondary school edition of “Building an Arts-Rich School: Strategies and Resources for Administrators” binders. The first edition was presented to elementary principals last year and to secondary principals, with the additional chapters, this year. The materials are now combined and available online on the BYU ARTS Partnership website in addition to lesson plans for teachers and other resources.

At the beginning of the process, the members of the BYU ARTS Partnership leadership team and arts specialists within the BYU ARTS Partnership were asked what they want their principals to know. After this information was gathered, the writing team created the content for the elementary school edition. The first edition was presented in a session at the 2017 Learning Edge Conference.

The following year, one representative from each professional arts education organization contributed on a panel to introduce the additions included in the secondary school edition at the 2018 Learning Edge Conference. Key points and objectives of the materials were shared. Every principal in the BYU–Public School Partnership was given a binder.

While many administrators and educators understand the importance of an arts-infused education for their students, they may not always know what to do, how to do it, where to find help, and how to pay for materials. With these new resources in hand, principals now have a starting point and pathway to move toward their arts goals for their schools.

The hope is they will discuss the detailed information with teachers to find the best solutions and provide quality arts experiences for students at their schools. A self-assessment is included to reflect upon current practices. If areas fall short, the principals and other school personnel can use the resources included in the “Arts-Rich Schools Resources” to begin finding solutions.

Activities required to produce the project included interviewing local teaching artists; defining what constitutes an arts-rich school; surveying principals of schools that matched qualifications for arts-rich schools; personal correspondence with community arts organizations; and compiling infographics, white pages, and research articles.

The binders include the sections “For Schools,” “For Teachers,” “For Students,” “Funding and Advocacy,” and “Arts Standards.” Examples of resources include professional development information, strategies for hiring qualified arts specialists, partnership opportunities, descriptions of available grants, and lists of a variety of online resources. These and other materials that will increase the quality and quantity of arts education in local schools are available at education.byu.edu/arts.

Laura Giles is a lover of all things art, a first-grade teacher in Alpine School District, a writer for the Daily Herald newspaper, an Arts Leadership Academy graduate, and has earned the Arts Integration Endorsement from Brigham Young University. She can be reached at LauraCGiles@gmail.com.

Read More »

Filling a School With the Arts: Sage Hills Elementary

Students at Sage Hills Elementary in Saratoga Springs, Utah, are being immersed in the arts this year as they learn other subject matter. The teachers at the school are integrating the arts into the curriculum in a variety of ways, with a little help from some arts experts! 

Principal John Emett said that some very creative things are going on at the school with arts integration. “The BYU Partnership has helped us develop so well!” he said. Students and teachers are all benefitting from this collaboration.

For the past three years, the school benefitted from the expertise of a Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program (BTSALP) drama teacher, Melanie Skankey. Skankey is now a fifth grade teacher at the school. The influence of that expertise is still being felt.

Last month, the entire student body participated in a Specialty Celebration, which is something that the school began doing two years ago.

“We like to take a day at the end of rotations and celebrate our progress,” said Dana Moore, physical education teacher. This year, the students traveled the globe and started in the Pacific Islands and Australia.

While “visiting” these areas of the world, the students participated in a variety of arts-based activities. These included a Haka dance-off, Tinikling, creating strings of rhythm with chains of beats and a glow-in-the-dark dance party. The Haka is a ceremonial dance in Māori culture. Tinikling is a traditional Philippine folk dance.

This year, visual arts and literacy are being integrated in some of the classes. Scott Flox, artist-in-residence from the BYU Arts Partnership, has been collaborating with fifth grade teachers Teressa Paepke and Melanie Skankey to integrate the arts into their teaching.

According to Paepke, Flox has been helping the students with novel studies, mind-mapping and drawing. Recently, he has been studying “The BFG” by Roald Dahl with the kids. He has also taken them through the steps of drawing pumpkins and creating artworks, modeling the importance of basic drawing skills.

Since Flox has been working with the teachers, their instruction has changed in many ways, according to Paepke. “As teachers, we have started writing our own deep integrated lessons based on National Geographic articles, poems, speeches and other articles,” she said.

The teachers are not the only ones who are benefitting from this collaboration. “Students are learning in a new way that is more engaging to them and means more. The content is relevant to them and they make connections to it. They also remember it more and are able to recall things more often and quicker,” Paepke said.

First-graders at Sage Hills are dancing while learning. According to Emett, collaboration amongst teacher Summer Wanlass and a dance scholar, Emily Rowe, from Brigham Young University is bringing the art of dance to the students. Wanlass is participating in the Arts Bridge program. The program provides an opportunity for classroom teachers and students to have an in-depth experience in an art form.

Music Scholar Kiersten Hopkins, from Brigham Young University, is working with Melanie Skankey’s class to help them integrate music into the curriculum. The arts are flowing through the halls and classrooms of Sage Hills Elementary!

Laura Giles is a lover of all things art, a first grade teacher in Alpine School District, a writer for The Daily Herald newspaper, an Arts Leadership Academy graduate and has earned the Arts Integration Endorsement from Brigham Young University. She can be reached at LauraCGiles@gmail.com.

Read More »

Timpanogos Storytelling Conference and Festival: A Featured Article by Teresa Love

Don't you LOVE it when you find a hidden gem? And don't you wonder, "why didn't I KNOW about this?" I'm here to tell you that the annual Timpanogos Storytelling Conference and Festival in Orem, Utah are brilliant hidden gems for elementary school classroom teachers and arts specialists.
In case you don't know, oral storytelling is enjoying a worldwide renaissance. Tellers from all ages tell old tales, new tales, hilarious narratives, personal stories, tall tales, healing stories, and more to enthusiastic listeners. Perhaps the oldest art form, and the basis of drama, theater, literature and film, storytelling connects deeply with children and adults. The Timpanogos Storytelling Institute, based in Orem, Utah will present world-class professional performers and instructors of storytelling the first week of September 2015.

You can find all the details at http://timpfest.org/. The website is extensive and sometimes you can get diverted by all the great information.

Here's a quick rundown:

Wednesday Sept. 2 - Thursday Sept. 3: The Conference
Held at the Orem Public Library, Orem, Utah. Keynotes, performances, and classes run all day. Classes are presented by many of the same world-class tellers who'll be at the Festival later in the week, as well as other experts. There are classes for beginning tellers to advanced tellers, and, from my experience, all the presenters love classroom teachers! You can learn to tell and learn how to teach storytelling.
Classroom teachers should note the irrepressible Bill Harley ("Charting the Emotional Lives of Children") and game master Anthony Burcher ("Recreation Re-Creation: Using Games to Discover Forgotten Personal Stories"). Storytellers and authors Donald Davis and Carmen Deedy are enlightening and entertaining keynotes, and I wouldn't miss either one of them. Teachers, you need to go look at the schedule of events to see all the richness regarding writing skills, voice, character, culture, etc. you can bring back to your classroom. All the presenters have been carefully vetted. I've seen most of them and they are well worth your time.
BONUS: If you buy a full Conference ticket you can attend "Look Who's Talking" on Thursday evening, Sept. 3, which is a wonderful performance cavalcade of all the tellers presenting at the Festival.

Thursday Sept. 3 (evening), Friday Sept. 5 (day to evening): The Festival
World class professional storytellers converge in our own Provo Canyon delighting audiences old and young. It is truly a festival atmosphere with large jovial crowds under huge sparkling white tents listening to tellers and musicians. Food vendors, puppeteers, jugglers, potters, a large gift shop with lots of material for teachers and a wide assortment of puppets complete the atmosphere in the gorgeous canyon.
If you have never seen a professional storyteller, your best bang for your buck at the festival is one of the evening performances, Thursday to Saturday, either at the canyon stages, or at the SCERA Shell in Orem.

DON'T be afraid to take your children or significant others. There will be plenty of laughs and activities for audiences of all tastes.
DO take the advice on the timpfest website regarding tickets, parking, weather, etc. This is a very well run event but you need to heed the information on the website for a fully enjoyable experience.

AND: BYU offers credit for attending these events. See the website for more information.

FREE! FREE! FREE!: Still not convinced? Go see something for free!

August 31, West Jordan, Utah: Storytelling Concert with professional tellers Antonio Sacre and Tim Lowry!  

For details visit http://timpfest.org/events/antonio-sacre-tim-lowry-present-at-night-of-stories-at-the-viridian-event-center/.

September 2, Riverwoods in Provo, Utah: Storytelling Concert with professional storytellers/musicians, GRAMMY Award Winner Bill Harley and Sam Payne
Sam is also host of BYU Radio's storytelling program, The Apple Seed.  

There's more!
Convinced and want to storyteller to come to your school, or take your class to the festival, possibly FOR FREE??????
Want to get your students/school involved in the National Youth Storytelling organization?
Go to http://timpfest.org/storytelling/ and find out how you can participate. Look all over this page. You even find storytelling lesson plans (by yours truly).

Hey! If you see me, be sure to say hello! I'll be there for everything!

Teresa Love is a professional development partner for the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program and an adjunct professor for BYU's Department of Theatre and Media Arts.

Read More »