Common Core: What it Means for Arts Education

1. Common Core: What it Means for Arts Education Joyce Huser, presenter Kansas State Department of Education

2. College and Career Ready Standards: (KCCRS) the facts The Common Core State Standards are designed to prepare students for readiness and success in college and career. Kansas College and Career Ready Standards (KCCRS) Common Core Standards movement is part of a larger movement focussing on deep academic knowledge and the application to real work conditions. English/Language Arts (ELA) Math Common Core provides consistency

3. 48 1/2 states have adopted Common Core - Minnesota has only adopted the ELA portion of Common Core. Common Core will continue but the concerns will be about aspects of their implementation.

4. Kansas Updates • Much has happened since October 2010 when Kansas adopted the Common Core Standards, known today as the Kansas College and Career Ready Standards in Mathematics and English Language Arts.  Implementation of the standards is well underway in our schools and we’ve already seen a difference in teaching and learning.  As Kansas educators are in their third and final year of transitioning to the new mathematics and English language arts standards, it is important that we continue to communicate the importance and rigor of these standards for our students. 

5. We as a field (arts education) need to be familiar with the Common Core Standards.

6. College Board Research Identify how the arts fit, College Board conducted an examination of the overlaps between Common Core State Standards and arts-based instruction. ( Banks, Charleroy, Lynch, Paulson 11-30-12)

7. The ELA Standards are divided into four strands. Sub-categories apply across all grade levels. literacy

8. College Board findings The research was carried out in two phases: Phase I - First, they identified direct references to arts-based study that are already present in the Common Core State Standards. Phase II - Then they searched for connections between the goals and creative practices of arts education and the language employed in the Common Core State Standards.

9. Phase I:CB highlights where the arts are and are not present in the Common Core State Standards.Identifies patterns and trends in theseconnections. eg. which types of arts learning appear to be most heavily emphasized and which arts disciplines and process are emphasized at particular grade levels.

10. 220 grade-level CCSS for Readingincluding both reading literature and informational texts.A total of 50 contain at least one direct reference to arts-based learning. Reading a work of drama: most common Example: standard RL.5.3: students compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text. Analyzing and interpreting images and illustrations: 17 reading standards include having students consider relationships between the illustrations and the text of a story. illustrators’ roles in telling stories, and using information from both images and the words in a text.

11. Comparing the same work in different media: 12 standards recommend comparing the same or similar works in different media. Example: comparing and contrasting a written story or drama with its performance-based counterpart. Standard RI.7.7 students compare and contrast a text to an audio, video, or multimedia version of the text, analyzing each medium’s portrayal of the subject.Using songs: one direct reference to using songs in reading instruction featured in the second grade standards.

12. Definition: to include non-print text every standard contains references to text If accepted, then all the standards in Reading, at every grade level, have direct references to arts-based content. Fact: Text

13. Standards for Writing110 grade-level standards for writing, eight contain arts references, most involve visual arts and media arts. Links to visual arts (primarily drawing) were found mostly in lower grades. eg. W.K.2: Use a combination of drawing, writing, and dictating to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.Advanced grades = fewer arts references in writing, more multimedia references; Reading references greater = focus analysis of and response to works of art. Writing standards endorse the creation of new works as a tool for communication.

14. More complex and richer alignment Phase 2: Alignment between Common Core and Philosophical Foundations, Lifelong Goals, Creative Practices associated with Arts Learning

15. Philosophical Foundations • The Arts as Communication • The Arts as Creative Personal Realization • The Arts as Culture, History, and Connectors • The Arts as a Means to Wellbeing • The Arts as Community Engagement Lifelong GoalsArtistically literate citizens use a variety of artistic media, symbols, and metaphors to independently create and perform work that expresses/conveys/communicates their own ideas, and are able to respond by analyzing and interpreting the artistic communications of others.Artistically literate citizens find at least one art form in which they develop sufficient competence to continue active involvement in that art form as an adult.Artistically literate citizens know and understand artworks from varied historical periods and cultures, and actively seek and appreciate diverse forms and genres of artworks of enduring quality/significance. They also understand relationships among the arts, and cultivate habits of searching for and identifying patterns and relationships between the arts and other knowledge.Artistically literate citizens find joy, inspiration, peace, intellectual stimulation, meaning, and other life-enhancing qualities through participation in all of the arts.Artistically literate citizens seek artistic experiences and support the arts in their local community. Creative Practices Imagine:To form a mental image of conceptInvestigate:To observe or study through exploration or examinationConstruct:To make or form by combining or arranging parts or elementsReflect:To think deeply or carefully about

16. The fundamental creative practices of imagination, investigation, construction, and reflection, equally prominent in science and mathematics learning, are the cognitive processes by which students not only learn in the individual discipline but transfer their knowledge, skill, and habits to other contexts and settings. In the National Core Arts Standards, the creative practices are a springboard and bridge for the application of the artistic processes across all five arts disciplines and disciplines outside the arts. National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) The role of creative practices:

17. Exceptionally high level of alignment between the KCCRS and the four Creative Practices.

18. Connections:Philosophical Foundation and Lifelong Goal #1: The Arts as Communication strongly connects to almost every segment of the CCSS. Communication has natural connections to the acts of reading, writing, speaking and listening.Standards for Mathematical Practice as well.To a much lesser extent, connections exist between the standards and Lifelong Goal #3: The Arts as Culture, History, and Connectors.Remaining three Philosophical Foundations and Lifelong Goals have only minor connections.

19. 8th Grade EXAMPLE: Student work in small groups to select an existing graphic novel and create alternative endings to the story using animation or text-to-movie software that Incorporates different points of view Identify the incremental steps involved in depicting action, changes, cause and effect, or transformation to reach the new endings.

21. Alignment of Common Core Standards with Visual Arts A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format. work in small groups Collaboration (SL) create alternative endings Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas (SL) depicting action, changes, cause and effect, or transformation Key Ideas and Details (L,I)

22. High School EXAMPLE: Students view and critique multiple works of art, created by themselves and their peers, which deal with a specified artistic problem such as proportion. Students use mutually agreed upon criteria (elements and principles of art and design, subject matter, technique, style, etc.) to describe, analyze, interpret, and make informed judgments about the art works. Using electronic journals, students reflect on the points in their critical thinking that led to their solution to the problem. Students then compare and contrast how the other students addressed the same problem, and use their electronic journals to form a foundation for their participation in a group discussion convened through the use of a class blog or wiki.

23. Key Points In Mathematics The high school standards emphasize mathematical modeling, the use of mathematics and statistics to analyze empirical situations, understand them better, and improve decisions. For example, the draft standards state: “Modeling links classroom mathematics and statistics to everyday life, work, and decision-making. It is the process of choosing and using appropriate mathematics and statistics to analyze empirical situations, to understand them better, and to improve decisions. Quantities and their relationships in physical, economic, public policy, social and everyday situations can be modeled using mathematical and statistical methods. When making mathematical models, technology is valuable for varying assumptions, exploring consequences, and comparing predictions with data.”

24. Grade 8 EXAMPLE: Students develop a digital or web-based process portfolio of personal work, organized to show the application of creative problem solving processes (fact finding, idea finding, problem finding, solution finding, and acceptance), media, and personal voice.

25. Key Points In Mathematics • The high school standards call on students to practice applying mathematical ways of thinking to real world issues and challenges; they prepare students to think and reason mathematically. • The high school standards set a rigorous definition of college and career readiness, by helping students develop a depth of understanding and ability to apply mathematics to novel situations, as college students and employees regularly do.

26. Resources: Go to http://www.thinkfinity.org/community/thinkfinity-resources Select a state, grade, and subject. Bingo! You can find many resources through Thinkfinity, including lesson plans. Also: http://educationcloset.com/category/lesson-plans/ http://www.edutopia.org/stw-arts-integration-resources-lesson-plans