Daniel Kelly and Sarah Hendrickson
Each student in Mrs. McRae's 4th grade class went through the process of writing personal narratives, focusing on a small moment in their life. They wrote drafts, made revisions and added sensory details. Then, with Mr. Rupp in music class, the class created unique rhythms and melodies to set these ideas to music. New York City-based jazz pianist Daniel Kelly and singer/actress Sarah Hendrickson visited our school for an artist residency arranged through the Wharton Center, to work with our class. They asked students to think of emotions evoked by music and how a story might sound if it were set to music. They then highlighted three students' writing, having the class brainstorm lyrics and rhythms to express the main idea of their piece. The culmination of this project allowed two students to feature their writing set to music at the annual Wharton Center's Arts Advocacy Breakfast. Most students were highly engaged throughout the entire process from writing to musical expression. Several stated that they liked being able to think about an idea in more than one way. Now, one of the class's favorite writing exercises involves listening to a piece of music while writing the "story" that unfolds in their imaginations. This project inspired more music to writing connections that will continue throughout the rest of the school year and beyond for these students.
McRae Practice Video 1
McRae Practice Video 2
Arts Advocacy Breakfast Video 1
Arts Advocacy Breakfast Video 2
Wharton Center Residency Experience with McRae's Class (password to view: arts16)
McRae Practice Video 2
Arts Advocacy Breakfast Video 1
Arts Advocacy Breakfast Video 2
Wharton Center Residency Experience with McRae's Class (password to view: arts16)
Randy Barron
Randy Baron came to G.I.S. on November 19th to work with Ms. Brown’s fourth grade class and Mrs. Clarke’s, Mrs. Darrow’s, Mrs. Martell’s and Mrs. Meisterheim’s fifth grade classes. Mr. Baron is a dancer/choreographer and works with the Kennedy Center as a Workshop Leader and a Teaching Artist.
During his time with us, he taught a lesson on Meaningful Movement: integrating creative dance and literacy. Students began the lesson by moving their bodies to different parts of speech: verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs. They had to walk, plow, trudge, walk hungrily, move exhausted etc. Mr. Baron then read them a poem by Langston Hughes that included the vocabulary they had just heard and moved to. He then put the students into groups and handed out stanzas of this same poem to each group. Groups had to work collaboratively to create a dance to interpret their stanza. As the culmination, Mr. Baron read the poem and each group danced their stanza. Afterwards, during a discussion, students commented how moving their bodies helped them to understand the poem better. It also made them think more about the poet’s meaning and purpose for writing. Also, it was much more fun than just reading the poem!Students learned Common Core State Standards in both English Language Arts and National Core Arts Standards. |
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Mrs. Martells’ class practicing using our bodies to mirror each other, use different levels of space, and work together to make shapes in preparation for integrating movement into content areas.
Mayhem Poets
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All of the 5th grade classes as well as Mrs. McRae and Ms. Brown's 4th grade classes had the chance to see Mayhem Poets, a trio of New York slam poet artists, perform live at the Wharton Center. This performance changed students perspective of the definition of poetry as they heard the poets express stories from their childhood, their views on current events and even racial differences through their writing. The powerful impact of the poetry in this performance inspired many students to try writing in slam poems themselves upon returning to the classroom.
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Mrs. Martell’s class at the Wharton Center watching the Mayhem Poets perform their slam poetry! Students had a great time watching the show . They were inspired to write their own slam poems by following the guidelines and using the graphic organizers provided to us by the Mayhem Poets.