Model
Programs
Arts education programs
use a variety of models. Some of the models used include:
- Providing professional development
to teachers to help them integrate more arts into
their lessons
- Bringing artists to the classroom
through residencies
- Funding arts curricula and
creating arts requirements for students
- Offering after-school arts
programs
- Building arts networks in the
community with student involvement
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The Performing Arts
Workshop Methodology
The Workshop’s
mission is supported by a teaching methodology that has
been developed in schools and community centers for
over four decades. Specifically, the Workshop’s
methodology:
- Breaks down the creative process
into perception, conception, expression, reflection,
and re-vision
- Uses improvisation as a way
to develop young people’s problem-solving and
communication skills
- Stimulates critical dialogue
among young people
- Integrates culturally relevant
content to inspire active learning in a variety of
subjects
Performing Arts Workshop
publishes several texts and manuals with detailed lesson
plans for use in the classroom. All texts explain the
Workshop methodology and can be used by anyone with an
interest in arts education. To order resources, call
us at (415)673-2634. The resources include:
On
Stage in the Classroom: Performance Art from K through
8
The Workshop's primary text provides ideas to stimulate children's imagination,
problem-solving, and critical thinking skills. Includes five concise chapters
on classroom theory and practice for performing arts, as well as a resource
bank of imaginative problems. ($25.00)
Lessons from the Workshop:
A Guide to Best Practices in Performing Arts Education
New!! Developed by the Workshop's Associate Artistic Director, Anne-E Wood, the Best Practices Guide is a hands-on tool for school administrators, teachers, artists, parents or arts organizations facilitating an artist residency program. The guide explains arts education within the framework of educational policy and practice in California, but the model can be adapted for many communities. In this guide, you will learn about the residency model, the history of Performing Arts Workshop's residency model and what 40 years of experience has shown to be the best practices for artists and teachers. ($7.50)
Moving
Beyond the Desk
Developed by artists and educators, this innovative teacher's resource manual
links classroom curriculum to critical thinking and the creative processs.
Includes model lesson plans covering five subject areas and a glossary of terms.
($7.50)
English
Learners and the Creative Process
Provides theatre-based language development tool for teachers to use with English
Learner students. Outlines a specific approach to teaching English that incorporates
improvisational and problem-solving exercises into lesson plans. Demonstrates
how to encourage literacy and communication skills. ($7.50)
World Dance
and Cultural Studies
Emphasizes dances from Brazil, China, and Japan, but can be used as a guide
for teaching dances of any culture. The manual includes lesson plans, a bibliography
of cultural resources, and ethnic songs with lyrics. A collaborative effort
by our staff and San Francisco Unified School District consultants. ($7.50)
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Links to Other Program
Models
There are several model
programs with active websites, including:
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Program Evaluation
There are many reasons
to evaluate arts education programs.
- First, you want to know what
kind of impact you are having on program participants.
Are they learning about the arts? Do the arts help
students learn other subjects?
- Second, you want to be able
to adjust your program to best meet the needs of
your participants. Do the participants like the program?
What aspects of the program can be improved upon?
- Third, you want to be able
to build support for the arts, and that often requires
telling people your story. Evaluation helps you to
tell your story and answer other people's questions.
What does your program do?
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Planning for Evaluation
As you prepare to evaluate
your program, pull together a group of people that will
have a lot of different perspectives and ideas about
what you offer. Host a meeting that offers everyone a
chance to be reflective, and ask the following questions:
- When someone participates in
our program, what changes do we hope they experience?
- When our program partners with
another organization, what impact do we hope to have
on the overall environment or how we do business?
- How will we know we are successful?
- Who can tell us we are successful?
What information do those people already have? What
can they easily tell us if asked through a survey,
interview, or some other format?
- What sort of measurement tools
will work best with our participants and to tell
us if we are successful?
- What resources do we have for
evaluation?
- What do we want to learn from
our evaluation?
The answers to these
questions can be used to create a logic model and data
collection instruments.
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Preparing a Logic Model
A logic model is simply
a way of presenting the program, its theories, processes,
goals and measures in an easy to read table format. The
logic model answers key questions about the program.
- Goals: What
do you want to achieve?
- Activities: What
services do you provide? What else do you do to meet
your goals?
- Theory of change: Why
do you do those particular activities?
- Target population: Who
is receiving services? Who will experience or show
a change as a result of activities?
- Indicators of success: How
will you know your theory is correct (process indicator)?
How will you know you have achieved your goal (outcome
indicator)?
- Measures: What
will you use to show success?
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Artists-in-Schools Logic
Model
Download: Artists-in-Schools
Logic Model
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Strategies for Collecting Data
There are some general
guidelines you should keep in mind when you are collecting
data from participants, staff, and other interested people:
- Only ask people things that
they legitimately could know. Avoid asking people
to judge what another person thinks or feels or about
something that they would have no way of knowing.
- Make instruments age-appropriate.
Even very young children can provide you with ideas
and feedback, but may do better in a group discussion
than with a survey.
- Bring the instruments to the
person taking it rather than force someone to leave
their environment. Except for focus groups, which
work well by having people reflect outside of their
normal routine, instruments should be administered
in a comfortable and familiar setting.
- Use pictures and examples to
demonstrate concepts.
- Build support for the evaluation
ahead of time by including participants in determining
what you are going to research and why.
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Instruments and Assessments
You will need to have
some sort of instrument or assessment to evaluate your
program. You can use things already being administered
(i.e., school-wide tests) if appropriate, but you will
often need to design your own or customize something
to make sure the questions you have are being answered.
The table below shows the strengths and weaknesses of
various types of instruments.
Download: Types
of Measurement Tools
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Tips for Preparing Instruments
Download: Tip
Sheet for Preparing Instruments
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Performing Arts Workshop
Instruments
The Performing Arts
Workshop uses a variety of instruments to assess its
programs, including:
- Student surveys
- Teacher surveys
- Artist focus groups
- Artist surveys
Download: Student
K-5 Survey
Download: Student
6-8 Survey
Download: Teacher
Post-Test Survey
Download: Artist
Post-Test Survey
Download: Artist
Focus Group Materials
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Links to Other Instruments
The following sites
also have arts education instruments available:
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Reporting
and Presenting
Once you've begun
collecting data, people will want to know what you've
learned. You can use a variety of ways to let people
know what you've learned, including evaluation reports,
annual reports, newspaper and newsletter articles, email
listservs, and others.
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Performing Arts Workshop Evaluation Reports
Download: Artists-in-Schools
Second-Year Annual Evaluation Report for the U.S. Dept.
of Education (2004-05)
Download: Second-Year
Executive Summary for the U.S. Dept. of Education (2004-05)
Download: Artists-in-Schools
First-Year Annual Evaluation Report for the U.S. Dept.
of Education (2003-04)
Download: First-Year
Executive Summary for the U.S. Dept. of Education (2003-04)
Download: First-Year
Demonstration Project Report for the CAC (2001-02)
Download: Second-Year
Demonstration Project Report for the CAC (2002-03)
Download: Artists-in-Schools
Program Evaluation (2001-02)
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Links to Other Evaluation Reports
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