Snow in the Forecast!

Happy Friday, Bloggers!

   This week, we have been busy preparing for lots of performances, and preparing work for Scholastic Art submissions...  The work is coming to an end for the calendar year, but you wouldn't know that walking through our classrooms.  Here are some pictures from this week:

Durfee AP 2D Work..

Durfee Ceramics Work

Henry Lord 2nd Graders Preparing For Winter Concert!

The Revamping of the Art Studio Space at RPA

The Maker Bot 3D Printer in RPA's Arts Studio

In the News This Week...

• Hope to see you at the Durfee Musical!  The event starts tonight and runs through Sunday..  Check out the flyer below for more info!

• Next week, we have the Durfee Winter Concert- I know I say this all the time, but THIS YEAR IS GOING TO BE AMAZING...  What an evening we have in store for you!  Here is the flyer for the concert- hope to see you all there!

Middle School Concerts:

• Kuss- 12/19
• Talbot- 12/5- This was a success!
• Morton- 12/12
• HLCS- 12/13
• Doran- 12/6
• All City:
• Band- 3/26
• Orchestra- 4/5
• Chorus- 5/16
• All City Rehearsals will be starting (chorus has already started) after break!  If you know of any middle schoolers who would be interested in All City Chorus, please give them this information from Michela Gardner at Morton:  Do you LOVE to sing? 
• Are you looking for more  opportunities to share your voice?  
  Join the Fall River All City Chorus!
  
  Who: Fall River students grades 6-8
  Where: Rehearsals are held at Morton Middle School
  When: Every other Wednesday, 4:15-5:30 PM
  Directed by: Michela Gardner, Morton Chorus Director
  Performance: Wednesday, May 16th at 6:00 PM
  
  
  First rehearsal on November 29th!
  
  
  Contact your music teacher or mgardner@fallriverschools.org
  if you have any questions!

Additional Nuts and Bolts:

• Durfee Department Meetings are Wednesday, December 20th after school.  We will be having a little fun with this one..  Durfee staff, stay tuned...
• Friday, December 23rd is a release time day for staff and students, so have yourself a wonderful holiday break!
• The next set of learning walks in buildings will be focused on Close Reading strategies and Collaboration during group work.  Here is an interesting look at what a Close Read looks like in the art classroom when analyzing a painting...
• How to Interpret Art (or music if you replace arts elements with elements of musicianship..) through the “Close Read” 
•  FORMAL ANALYSIS: Describe aesthetics (color, space, composition, and other elements) and subject matter.
• Sample Questions: Encourage students to give looking time. Spend some time looking closely at this work of art then talk about what you see. Take a minute to study this image then list in writing the details you notice. Invite students to share their observations. 
• So what did you see? 
• What’s going on in the painting?
• Help student direct their attention to things you want them to notice. What objects are included in this painting? 
• What is something you notice about ____? 
• Help students analyze the artist’s visual strategies. What did you notice first and why? 
• How does the artist show us what’s important? 
• How does your eye travel through the picture? 
• Notice the artist’s use of line (or color, shapes, etc.). 
• What adjectives describe the lines (colors, shapes, etc.)?
•  What’s the overall mood of the painting? 
• How do the lines (colors, shapes, etc.) help to create that mood? Invite students to interpret or speculate about the meaning of the artwork. 
• What do you think the artist wanted to communicate? 
• What’s the main idea? 
• What would be a good title for this work and why? 
• Guide students to support their responses with evidence. 
• What do you see that makes you say that? 
• Encourage students to ask questions of their own. 
• What would you like to know about the artwork? What would you like to ask the artist?
• In terms of collaboration, reflect on the specific roles you assign when planning for group work...  does each student have a particular task?  Is their collaborative part essential for the successful outcome of the project or the work?  Think about the accountability to the learning community, the knowledge and to rigorous thinking...  Consider this Accountable Talk Framework when planning these collaborative tasks:

Students should be able to be accountable to the group (top tier), then to the knowledge, and finally to rigorous thinking as we plan these challenging collaborative tasks.

And a Little Shout Out..

To Mary Zema, who shared with me the most precious video (I am sharing a picture here) of her students at HLCS performing the notes projected on the board with the appropriate Boomwhacker.  Yes, these students are reading music, and playing a percussion instrument!  Kudos to you, Mary, for holding the bar high for all students, and planning musical lessons that engage and push our kids to do more than they ever thought they could... Mucho love heading your way from your team!

And to Jayson Newell, who shared with me the video of his students working with technology and the Compose Yourself tech/music game..  These kids were playing their compositions they created with such excitement!  It's that kind of magic love for music we all love to see in our classrooms...  Thanks Jayson, for teaching Doran Scholars to LOVE MUSIC.

Planning Ahead:

• You have a release time day on the last day of school before break!  See your school's dismissal time on the website!
• You have a full day PD day on Friday, February 2nd.  I will be planning a 90 min PD for art and music from 10:30 to Noon.  The memo with the agenda will be sent to all teachers and principals on Monday.
• Groups will be Art K-12, and Music K-8, 9-12 and Itinerant Music.  Art will have a demo on the use of a few new media with the help of Carolyn Jane from Dick Blick, and Music will have specific grade leveled groupings with specific tasks...  K-8- Lesson structures for engagement in the older grades (4-8), 9-12 and Itinerants- Sight reading, close reading in music and program work for All City.

Have a wonderful weekend, Arts Fam!

Jackie