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Arts program on schedule
Education plan will focus on giving instruction in visual, performing arts to elementary students.
By Ani Amirkhanian
BURBANK — The Burbank Unified School District is continuing work on the first phase of an arts curriculum for all students with the addition of standards-based visual and performing-arts instruction at elementary schools, district officials said.
The curriculum, Arts for All, is a long-range arts-education plan for teachers that was adopted more than a year ago after the district received a $35,000 grant from the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
The district received funding from the Los Angeles County Arts Commission to hire an arts coordinator to develop an arts-education curriculum for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
The arts coordinator was assigned to train teachers to integrate the visual and performing arts into the district's core curriculum.
"Our teachers need to have the tools for [art] lessons to teach students," Deputy Supt. Joel Shapiro said. "Teachers who go through teacher training, they get a very broad overview and understanding of the arts standards, but it's not an area where they get hands-on methods development. The arts is the least well-developed part of pre-service training."
The arts coordinator created a professional development plan for elementary and secondary teachers, Shapiro said.
Elementary school teachers received training in visual-arts instruction in August, he added.
"We organized it in such a way where they got introduced to the curriculum with artists and lessons," said Barbara Eisner, a retired teacher and the district's arts consultant. After receiving visual-arts training, teachers applied art concepts and methods in the classroom, Shapiro said.
Students study fine art, which includes lessons about artists, art movements, style and composition.
They apply their study of an artist's work to their own drawings and paintings, Shapiro said. "It's not just understanding what is unique about the artists but its application of their style of work," Shapiro said.
The Arts for All plan also includes a performing-arts component, which entails music, dance and theater. District are still working on developing a music curriculum for students in second, third, fourth and fifth grades, Shapiro said.
The Board of Education recently hired two elementary-school music teachers with the grant money and plans on hiring two more teachers to give music instruction to students in all the district's elementary schools, he said.
"Instruction in music is not a skill that every teacher has," Shapiro said. "The ability to play an instrument or even the ability to read music is not something we currently train every teacher to do."
The music teachers, who act as consultants, will give students 45 minutes of instruction every other week, he said.
"We want every child to be music-literate," Shapiro said. "They will learn music theory, history and develop an aesthetic understanding."
Dance is also a discipline in the Arts for All plan.
Fourth- and fifth-graders are learning dance in their physical-education classes, Shapiro said, adding that dance standards are also going to be incorporated into the kindergarten-through- third-grade curriculum.
"Existing programs have to be aligned with standards," he said.
Funding for arts education comes from collaborative sources including the district, the Burbank Arts Education Foundation, private donors and businesses, said Peggy Burt, an arts coach from the California Alliance for Arts Education.
"I would say, we are part of the Los Angeles county-wide effort, the Los Angeles Country Arts Commission, the California Alliance for Arts Education — various entities have put out this initiative," Burt said. "Burbank has been a leader in embracing Arts for All."
Unlike other arts programs that are optional to students, Arts for All is designed to meet the arts education needs of all students in the district.
Work on the first phase was begun in 2005 and is scheduled for completion by 2008, Shapiro said.
The curriculum, Arts for All, is a long-range arts-education plan for teachers that was adopted more than a year ago after the district received a $35,000 grant from the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
The district received funding from the Los Angeles County Arts Commission to hire an arts coordinator to develop an arts-education curriculum for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
The arts coordinator was assigned to train teachers to integrate the visual and performing arts into the district's core curriculum.
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The arts coordinator created a professional development plan for elementary and secondary teachers, Shapiro said.
Elementary school teachers received training in visual-arts instruction in August, he added.
"We organized it in such a way where they got introduced to the curriculum with artists and lessons," said Barbara Eisner, a retired teacher and the district's arts consultant. After receiving visual-arts training, teachers applied art concepts and methods in the classroom, Shapiro said.
Students study fine art, which includes lessons about artists, art movements, style and composition.
They apply their study of an artist's work to their own drawings and paintings, Shapiro said. "It's not just understanding what is unique about the artists but its application of their style of work," Shapiro said.
The Arts for All plan also includes a performing-arts component, which entails music, dance and theater. District are still working on developing a music curriculum for students in second, third, fourth and fifth grades, Shapiro said.
The Board of Education recently hired two elementary-school music teachers with the grant money and plans on hiring two more teachers to give music instruction to students in all the district's elementary schools, he said.
"Instruction in music is not a skill that every teacher has," Shapiro said. "The ability to play an instrument or even the ability to read music is not something we currently train every teacher to do."
The music teachers, who act as consultants, will give students 45 minutes of instruction every other week, he said.
"We want every child to be music-literate," Shapiro said. "They will learn music theory, history and develop an aesthetic understanding."
Dance is also a discipline in the Arts for All plan.
Fourth- and fifth-graders are learning dance in their physical-education classes, Shapiro said, adding that dance standards are also going to be incorporated into the kindergarten-through- third-grade curriculum.
"Existing programs have to be aligned with standards," he said.
Funding for arts education comes from collaborative sources including the district, the Burbank Arts Education Foundation, private donors and businesses, said Peggy Burt, an arts coach from the California Alliance for Arts Education.
"I would say, we are part of the Los Angeles county-wide effort, the Los Angeles Country Arts Commission, the California Alliance for Arts Education — various entities have put out this initiative," Burt said. "Burbank has been a leader in embracing Arts for All."
Unlike other arts programs that are optional to students, Arts for All is designed to meet the arts education needs of all students in the district.
Work on the first phase was begun in 2005 and is scheduled for completion by 2008, Shapiro said.
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