Elements of art instruction may be used in all subjects
BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer

JACKSON - Plans to design a comprehensive curriculum that provides cross-disciplinary instructional activities are in the making in the Jackson School District.

"Every year the district conducts a curriculum review and adoption process," Board of Education member Gus Acevedo said at a recent meeting. "This year we are doing something different in one of the areas under review."

For the first time, he said, teachers from multiple disciplines have been brought together to discuss art instruction in the district.

Teachers from K-12 art classrooms have joined with representatives from the literacy, math, science and special education departments. Together they have had the opportunity to discuss their particular content areas and identify those areas that could benefit from an infusion of art instruction.

"One area that is being addressed is called responding to a picture prompt, a section of standardized testing in literacy," Acevedo explained. "This is an area of weakness in every grade level."

Out of a possible 10 points in this section of the federal No Child Left Behind testing, the district averaged a score of 5.5, he said. Although that result is above the state average, the goal of district administrators is to increase the average by at least a point or more, he added.

Acevedo said literacy teachers are now working with art teachers to adopt a common language and to create activities that blend the two disciplines together.

"I applaud the teachers for broadening the horizons of the students in this innovative collaboration," Acevedo said.

During the next three months Jackson's technology teachers will be meeting to review the current course offerings and they will continue with the review and adoption process that began last year.

One topic under discussion is a pilot program for a distance learning classroom which will enable students and teachers to share classes between the Jackson Liberty High School campus and the Jackson Memorial High School campus. The distance learning lab will have cameras and microphones at both locations. Students and teachers will be able to see and hear each other.

"This is an exciting program and one which, if successful, can be duplicated in the middle schools and elementary schools in the future," Acevedo said. "As a member of the curriculum committee and the technology committee, I am particularly pleased with this proposal. This is an innovative method of promoting collaborative teaching and exposing our students to a mode of communication that will become commonplace in the work force within the next 10 years."

Acevedo said it is part of his job and the job of all board members to make certain they promote initiatives that prepare all students for employment and higher education.

"We're rewriting the art curriculum," said Trevor Bryan, art teacher at the Elms Elementary School. "We're trying to see where it ties into other parts of the general curriculum. We're specifically looking to see where art ties into literacy and math concepts like symmetry and patterns, and how we can use visuals that help teach some of the math concepts in multiplication and division.

"At Elms we're trying to help kids write picture prompt, which is part of the state testing," Bryan said, explaining that teachers are aiming to have the pupils approach the picture prompt through a visual arts process.

"We hope to give the kids a strategy on how to pull ideas out of the picture," said Bryan. "That will help their writing. We're also helping the teachers to talk more about the picture. The literacy teachers will feel more comfortable discussing the images.

"That's one area where most general education teachers don't have a lot of experience. So we're trying to use the visual arts to help them feel more comfortable talking about the picture. We [are] then [going to] help them guide the conversation so kids can pull out information from the picture that will spill over to the writing," he said.

Within the next few weeks board members will be meeting with technology supervisor Lincoln Mahabir and Assistant Superintendent LuAnn Meinders to review costs and the potential instructional effectiveness of this tool.

Acevedo said any recommendations and suggestions are welcomed.