The Immersed Teacher Program offers master teachers the unique opportunity to create their own professional development opportunities through an extensive and comprehensive immersion into performances and exhibitions of art.
Goals
To create a professional development opportunity for classroom teachers through a comprehensive study, attendance, and interpretation of multiple performances and exhibitions of art.
To help classroom teachers develop and publish lessons inspired by performances and exhibitions.
To establish and maintain through teacher submissions an Internet archive of lessons created by immersed teachers.
To nurture a collaborative community of teachers who practice the integration of arts into the traditional classroom curriculum.
To help teachers develop horizontally articulated lessons that address multiple learning modalities through the integration of visual art, music, dance, theater, and opera into the classroom curriculum.
To empower and engage teachers as architects of classroom curriculum.
Program Overview
Part One: Preparation
Dissemination meeting:
1. Introduction to the program (format for the teacher's portfolio, lesson template)
2. Overview of the festival performances
3. distribution of background materials (e.g. art cheat sheets, P.R. promotional materials for performers).
P.R. / Interview workshop: The basics of interviewing and the protocol for conducting interviews.
"Spark Notes Cheat Sheets" Short two page summaries of each type of art form presented at the festival. These would need to be created. (for an example see: http://sparkcharts.sparknotes.com/)
Media and academic criticism
P.R. materials sent out by the performer's promoting their work (Bios, Promo clips, etc.)
Listening/viewing notes in response to the teacher's review of the performer's work on CD, DVD, or YouTube.
Discussion with professors who teach the Spoleto class offered during the Maymester session at the College of Charleston.
Identify the performances that will be attended during the festival and brainstorm possible classroom connections
Part Two: The Spoleto Immersion Experience
The teacher and his or her "performance escort" attend 5 performances.
Write pre and post performance reflection notes for each performance attended
Conduct and collect interviews (see portfolio summary for details).
Collect and write reviews for each performance attended.
Participate in blogs for performances attended.
Attend or listen to podcasts of the "Conversations With" series.
Part Three: Collaboration with Peers
Presentations to teachers attending the Spoleto teacher's workshop. These presentations will share the teacher's impressions, interpretations, inspirations, and possible classroom connections with other educators attending the workshop.
Part Four: Creation and Publication of Lessons
Participation in a Socratic Seminar (a.k.a. round table discussion) focused on impressions, interpretations, and inspirations from the performances.
Lesson creation workshop (end of June)
Part Five: Publication of Lessons (July)
The teacher will use the following format to write, revise, and publish a Spoleto inspired lesson:
1. Teachers use the lesson template to format their lessons
2. Lessons are submitted electronically and are sent out for review by two educators
3. Teachers review peer feedback, make revisions, and electronically resubmit the revised lesson plan.
4. Lesson reviewed by Spoleto and posted on the Spoleto Festival web page.
The Immersed Spoleto Teacher Portfolio
The teacher's portfolio will be created, maintained, and continuously updated before, during, and after the festival. The primary purpose of the portfolio is to help the immersed teacher to document his or her immersion experiences so they can be used as source material to develop classroom resources. The portfolio will contain, but not be limited to the following sections:
Research
"Spark Notes Cheat Sheets" Short two page summaries of each type of art form presented at the festival
Media and academic criticism
P.R. materials sent out by the performer's promoting their work (Bios, Promo clips, etc.)
Listening/viewing notes in response to the teacher's review of the performer's work on CD, DVD, or YouTube.
Performance Notes
The teacher will record his or her pre and post reflections for each performance attended during the festival. The teacher will be exposed to a variety of methods used to record one's reflections during a performance and will then use a method they selected to record their reflections during the performance.
Interviews
Teacher Conducted: The teacher will conduct and compile interviews with artists and producers of shows in the festival.
Teacher Conducted: The teacher will interview the "performance escort" that accompanied him or her to each performance.
Professionally conducted: The teacher will collect interviews conducted by professional interviewers.
The teacher will attend or listen to by podcast the "Conversations With" interviews conducted during the festival.
To see other interviews go to:
http://spoletoteacher.blogspot.com/2008/06/conversation-with-hotel-modern.html
Reviews
For each performance attended the teacher will
Collect one or more published reviews
Write an original review written by the teacher.
Participate in conversations about performances posted on blogs.
Classroom Connections and Lessons
In this section the teacher will attempt to capture the genesis of classroom connections to the performances and his or her overall Spoleto experience. The teacher will include personal reflections, drafts of lessons, and other materials needed to build lessons.
The Immersed Teacher Web Site
LESSONS
Posted in this area are fully developed lessons ready to be used in the classroom. Fully developed lessons that have been aligned with state standards. Each unit includes an abstract, list of materials, handouts, step-by-step descriptions of activities, student assessments, and grading rubrics.
DIY LESSON CENTER
Posted in this area are modules of information that visitors can use to build their own lessons custom designed for their classroom curriculum. Modules include artis bio handouts, video clips of performances, audio and video interviews, reviews of performances, and research.
IMMERSED TEACHER BLOGS
Links to blogs created by teachers participating in the immersed teacher project.
ART IMMERSION OPPORTUNITY CLEARINGHOUSE
Calender of scheduled visual and performing art events.
