Kennedy Center Partnership
Abingdon Elementary School is a proud partner in education with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. This unique program allows our principal to meet other administrators working in arts integration schools. The principals meet three or four times a year and learn about best practices and strategies for arts integration. Not only do the administrators participate, but staff members are provided professional development opportunities to learn new and interesting ways to integrate the arts into the curriculum thus impacting student learning as well.
The Partners in Education program of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is designed to assist arts organizations throughout the nation to develop or expand educational partnerships with their local school systems.
Changing Education Through The Arts (CETA)
Instruction in the performing and visual arts is an important part of Abingdon's curriculum. Changing Education Through The Arts (CETA) is a core program at Abingdon Elementary School that focuses on one approach -- teaching other subject areas through the arts. CETA is designed to improve student's learning across the curriculum through arts integration, instruction that makes natural and significant connections between a subject area(s) and an art form (s). Arts-integrated instruction complements discipline-based instruction. Abingdon is very proud to apply CETA initiatives within the curriculum.
A common tool used in daily classroom activities is the use of tableau. A tableau is a technique used in professional theater as a staging device that translates well for use in the classroom. Students use their bodies to create a picture of a character or event frozen in time. These activities actively involve students in analyzing and comprehending various areas of study. Tableau challenges students to identify a character's objective or an object's purpose and/or relevance in a specific situation.
Characteristics of effective arts-integrated instruction:
Our staff regularly attends the Kennedy Center's Changing Education Through the Arts workshops and events. From the training, our staff continuously develops curriculum that inspires learning through arts integration.
- Connections between the subject area(s) and the arts are natural, significant, and developmentally appropriate
- Each subject area and art form included in the integrated unit/lesson(s) has clearly defined and developmentally appropriate instructional objectives
- Instruction involves students in active learning by drawing on students' multiple intelligences and various learning styles
- Teachers use inquiry methods for instruction. Teachers pose open-ended questions to guide student learning
- Classroom management strategies support intensive, creative work
The Partners in Education program is based on the belief that the professional development of teachers is an essential component of any effort designed to increase the artistic literacy of young people. The Kennedy Center's extensive experience with its local professional development program, established in 1976, provides the basis for this national program.