Laura
Kranzel’s Fast Facts Blog Archive
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Our Magnet Coordinator Laura Kranzel
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From:
Kranzel Laura
Posted On: Thursday, January 08, 2009
Conversation: Fast Facts Friday 1/9
The writing
quality of elementary students was
consistently and significantly improved by
using drawing and drama techniques, compared
to the control group, which used only the
discussion approach. Drama and drawing
techniques allowed the student writer to
test-out, evaluate, revise and integrate
ideas before writing begins, thus
significantly improving the results.
Drama and
Drawing for Narrative Writing in Primary
Grades, by Blaine H. Moore and Helen
Caldwell, 1993
"The happiness
of your life depends on the quality of your
thoughts."
From: Kranzel
Laura
Posted On: Friday, December 12, 2008
Conversation: Fast Facts Friday 12/13
(The Center for
Arts in the Basic Curriculum)
1) The arts
integrate basic neurological functions and aid
student learning
2) The arts access multiple human intelligences
and develop higher-order thinking skills.
3) The arts increase multi-cultural
understanding
4) The arts enhance the learning environment
5) The arts generate self-esteem and positive
emotional responses to learning.
6) The arts engage a variety of learning styles.
www.newhorizons.org
From: Kranzel Laura
Posted On: Friday, December 05, 2008
Conversation: Fast Facts Friday 12/5
A few compiled
fast facts:
“Middle school and
high school students who participated in
instrumental music scored
significantly higher than their non-band peers
in standardized tests…” (University of
Sarasota Study, Jeffrey Lynn Kluball; East Texas
State University Study, Daryl Erick Trent)
“Students who were
exposed to the music-based lessons scored a full
100 percent higher on
fraction tests than those who learned in the
conventional manner…” (Neurological Research,
March
15, 1999)
“Music majors are the most likely group of
college grads to be admitted to medical
school...” (“The Comparative Academic Abilities
of Students in Education and in Other Areas of a
Multifocus University,” Peter H. Wood, ERIC
Document No. ED327480 “The Case for Music in the
Schools,” Phi Delta Kappan, Feb. 1994)
“High school music students score higher on SATs
in both verbal and math than their
peers…” (Profile of SAT and Achievement Test
Takers, The College Board, compiled by Music
Educators
National Conference, 2001)
“A ten year study,
tracking more than 25,000 students, shows that
music-making improves
test scores. Regardless of socioeconomic
background, music-making students get higher
marks in standardized tests than those who had
no music involvement. The test scores
studied were not only standardized tests, such
as SAT, but also in reading proficiency
exams.” (Dr. James Catterall, UCLA, 1997)
“Music training
helps underachievers.” (Nature, May 23, 1996)
From: Kranzel Laura
Posted On: Saturday, November 29, 2008
Conversation: Fast Facts Friday 11/28
Sorry, this is a
little late...the turkey must have made me a bit
sluggish! :) Hope you all are enjoying the last
bit of our break...Winter holiday break will be here
before we know it.
Super fast today:
“Research shows that
piano students are better equipped to comprehend
mathematical and scientific concepts…” (Neurological
Research, February, 1997)
From: Kranzel Laura
Posted On: Thursday, November 20, 2008
Conversation: Fast Facts Friday 11/21
Numbers of studies attest
to the value of integrating drama in the curriculum:
-
Sherry DuPont's
study "The Effectiveness of Creative Drama as an
Instructional Strategy to Enhance the Reading
Comprehension Skills of Fifth-grade Remedial
Readers" demonstrated that the subjects in the
control group scored consistently higher on the
Metropolitan Reading Comprehension test.
-
Lawrence
Farrell's study of drama education found that
drama techniques were an effective method for
promoting facility in English as a second
language among young children. The drama group
exhibited significantly greater improvement than
the control group in total verbal output.
-
"Creative Drama
and Young Children," a report by Patricia
Pinciotti, states that "The creative drama
process integrates mental and physical activity,
engaging the whole child in improvisational and
process-oriented experiences. These dramatic
learning activities nurture and develop both
individual and group skills and enhance the
participants' abilities to communicate their
ideas, images, and feelings in concert with
others through dramatic action.
Happy Thanksgiving!!
From: Kranzel Laura
Posted On: Thursday, November 13, 2008
Conversation: FFF 11/14
Well, today's FF is a
bit different than others... Please click on both
links to learn about how utilizing movement, song,
and drama have the ability to excellerate and expand
learning and understanding. It also shows how those
"real world" connections are critical.
It is amazing how
much these 6th and 7th graders must have learned
about the real political issues and how their
understanding was deepened by using something that
they relate to and creating something that they
enjoy and value! Integrating curriculum at its'
best!
From: Laura Kranzel
Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2008
Conversation: 11/7 Fast Facts Friday!
From “A Conversation with Derek E. Gordon” (artsedge.kennedycenter.org/content/3270)
(Executive Director, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Former Senior
Vice President for the Kennedy Center)
“…The arts are a great equalizer in terms of economic and
social discrepancies. They have a way of leveling the
playing field, allowing individuals to progress in life more
effectively. perception of students – particularly young
students.”
“…The arts challenge students
of all ages, and engage them in a way that is often more
kinesthetic, and perhaps more emotionally satisfying , than
the “traditional” approach to teaching a text.”
“It’s always interesting to
look at schools that have the highest test scores on
standardized tests. Generally, you will find that the arts
are a part of the curriculum…”
Isn’t the
last quote on the money? No wonder Perkins is consistently
an A or B school!
From: Laura Kranzel
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2008
Conversation: Happy Halloween! Fast Facts Friday!! 10/31
Arts for Academic Achievement (AAA) was a study implemented
with the Minneapolis Public Schools in partnership with the
Perpich Center for Arts Education. The project was based on
the belief that students benefit from a curriculum that
includes both disciplinary-based instruction in the arts and
non-arts instruction that is enhanced by integrating the
arts.
This evaluation of the initiative revealed changes in three
areas:
1 Artists felt they deepened
their sense of mission, expanded their professional
networks, and learned valuable assessment skills.
2 Teachers, according to
participating artists, increased their ability to
collaborate, grew in their ability to integrate the arts,
and made changes in their practice;
3 Schools, according to
artist informants, improved in terms of school climate and
the sense of community as a result of the arts integration
work.
Werner, L. R. (2002). Artist,
teacher, and school change through Arts for Academic
Achievement: Artists reflect
on long-term partnering as a means of achieving change.
Minneapolis, MN: Center for Applied Research and Educational
Improvement.
From: Kranzel Laura
Posted On: Saturday, October 25, 2008 6:17 AM
Posted to: Perkins ES
Conversation: Stupendous Saturday!!
So, when Fast Facts Friday flies by...you
move on to Stupendous Saturday!! Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!
Published June 12th, 2008
“If every artist in the American
workforce banded together, their ranks would be double the size of the
U.S. Army. More Americans identify their primary occupation as artist
than as lawyer, doctor, police officer or farm worker.”(Source: NY
Times, 6/12/08, citing a new NEA report)
From: Laura
Kranzel
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2008
Conversation: Fast Facts Friday 10/17
Straight from the Florida Art Educator's Association Annual
Conference in Orlando:
93% of Americans say "the arts make learning in school more
exciting and interesting".
91% of Americans think the arts help children "learn to
communicate well in developing speaking and writing skills".
90% of Americans feel that by exposure to the arts in school
makes children "become more tolerant of other cultures".
80% of Americans say in learning about and participating in the
arts, children "learn skills that can be useful in a job".
Pretty interesting and definitely powerful!
Have a fantastic weekend!!
From: Kranzel Laura
Posted On: Friday, October 10, 2008
Posted to: Perkins ES
Conversation: I'll Bet You Thought I Forgot!!
Nope, I did not forget that it was FAST FACTS
FRIDAY!!! I am just a little behind schedule...so, here it is:
"...21 percent of students of low socioeconomic status who had been exposed
to music scored higher in math versus just 11 percent of those who had not.
By 12th grade, the figures grew to 33 percent and 16 percent, respectively,
suggesting a cumulative value to music education." Champions of Change
by, Catterall, Chapleau, and Iwanaga (1999)
Wow! Imagine the cumulative effect that the Perkins’ students benefit from
starting at this level!
From: Kranzel Laura
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2008
Subject: Guess what...
It's Fast Facts FRIDAY!!!
"At Columbia University, Judith Burton's study of more than
2,000 children found that those in an arts curriculum were far
superior in creative thinking, self-concepts, problem-solving,
self-expression, risk-taking, and cooperation than those who
were not."
Burton, J.M., Horowitz, R., and Abeles, H., (1999). Learning in
and Through the Arts: Curriculum Implications. In. Ted Fisk
(Edi.). Champions of Change. Washington, DC: Arts Education
Partnership.
From: Kranzel Laura
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2008
Subject: Fast Facts Friday 9/26
This is from
www.keepartsinschools.com
"The reality is that a quality education must include
exposure to the arts. Participation in the arts allows us to
discover and nurture strengths in students that would otherwise
lie dormant or be channeled into negative behaviors. The arts
open doors to self-discovery."
Nenna Freelon, recording artist and six-time Grammy
winner
Ebony Magazine, June 2008
From: Kranzel Laura
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2008
Subject: Fast Facts Friday
Disclaimer: This Fast Facts Friday post
is not as "fast" as originally intended...but it is FANTASTIC!
Elliott Eisner, a Professor of Education
at Stanford University has identified 10 lessons which are clarified through the
study of Art in the schools.
Ten Lessons the Arts Teach
1. The arts teach children to make
good judgments about qualitative relationships. Unlike much of the curriculum in
which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it is judgment rather than
rules that prevail.
2. The arts teach children that
problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than
one answer.
3. The arts celebrate multiple
perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and
interpret the world.
4. The arts teach children that in
complex forms of problem-solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with
circumstance and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and
willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it
unfolds.
5. The arts make vivid the fact that
words do not, in their literal form or number, exhaust what we can know. The
limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.
6. The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects.
The arts traffic in subtleties.
7. The arts teach students to think
through and within a material. All art forms employ some means through which
images become real.
8. The arts help children learn to
say what cannot be said. When children are invited to disclose what a work of
art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the
words that will do the job.
9. The arts enable us to have
experience we can have from no other source and through such experience to
discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.
10. The arts’ position in the school
curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important.
From: Kranzel Laura
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2008
Subject: Fast Facts Friday!
The Arts:
-
Improve kids' overall academic
performance.
-
Show that kids actively engaged in
arts education are likely to have higher test scores than those with little
to no involvement.
-
Develop skills needed by the 21st
century workforce: critical thinking, creative problem solving, effective
communication, teamwork and more.
-
Teach kids to be more tolerant and
open.
-
Allow kids to express themselves
creatively and bolster their self-confidence.
-
Keep students engaged in school and
less likely to drop out.
www.americansforthearts.org
From: Kranzel Laura
Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2008
Subject: Fast Facts Friday! - ENJOY and TGIF
ARTS EDUCATION...
Strongly impacts the
developmental growth of every child and has been proven to help level the
"learning field" across socio-economic boundaries. (Involvement in the
Arts and Success in Secondary School, James S.
Catterall, The UCLA Imagination Project, Graduate School of Education &
Information Studies, UCLA, Americans for the Arts Monograph, January 1998)
"The arts humanize the curriculum while affirming
the interconnectedness of all forms of knowing. They are a powerful means to
improve general education."
Charles Fowler
From: Kranzel Laura
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2008
Subject: Fast Facts Friday!
Good Morning All!! TGIF! After an amazing first
full week of school and two action packed nights of Open House...you are all
more than deserving of a 3 day weekend - I hope it is a fun but relaxing little
break!
Anyway, I was thinking about trying something new
- Fast Facts Friday. There are tons of research documents supporting the Arts
(especially the integration of the Arts) and how study in the Arts promotes
student achievement. Perkins - The Center for the Arts and International
Studies is that research in progress. Unfortunately, we are at times weighed
down by federal, state and district mandates...which can lead to a shift in
beliefs about integration and what is "critical" to teach.
Hopefully Fast Facts Friday will help bring some
of the research and beliefs systems to the forefront in a quick and easy way
(because doubtfully anyone has time to read research papers and statistics
frequently.) So, to kick off this Fast Facts Friday:
"Elementary school students made improvements in
reading when it was integrated with visual arts, specifically the elements of
art and design: line, shape, color, unity, space, emphasis (Richards, 2003)."
A little tidbit to keep in mind...have a fantastic
weekend!
Laura
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