KIM KROETCH:  What tools do musicians use to create music?

Who and what will I see?
Kim Kroetsch, music specialist at Linwood A+ School, a Saint Paul public school, explores melody, rhythm, dynamics, articulation and tone color with a fifth grade class taking general music.

What will I learn about teaching and learning?
Kim uses multiple entry points to engage her students in active listening.  As listeners they are asked to demonstrate their understanding of five elements of music composition.  The students and teacher analyze the March from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite to find examples of melody, rhythm, dynamics, articulation and tone color.   (The students will hear the work performed in their upcoming field trip to the Minnesota Orchestra.)  The class is working toward a unit on composition; by the end of the school year, the fifth graders will become the composers who use the five tools that are examined in this lesson.

MARY JO THOMPSON: What tools do writers use to write poetry?

Who and what will I see?
Visiting poet Mary Jo Thompson collaborates with third grade classroom teacher Josh Bliss at Sheridan Global Arts and Communications, a Minneapolis Public School. This is the fourth lesson in a seven-lesson unit on poetry writing.  There are 27 students in the class. About one-third of the students in the classroom are learning English as a second language.

What will I learn about teaching and learning?
Mary Jo and Josh begin the class by referring to the writing process.  They then conduct a writer’s workshop focused on describing strong points in the students’ writing.  The students practice giving specific feedback to their peers referring to the tools that have been practiced thus far in the unit: writing from the senses, using color words, and using close-up details.  Later in the class the poet introduces a new tool to the students, the simile.  The students enter the new concept through multiple entry points (physically and orally) and then move into making similes in writing.

ROBERTA CARVALHO-PUZON: What are the habits of good dance performers?  

Who and what will I see?
Dance specialist Roberta Carlvalho-Puzon teaches K-8th grade dance at Sheridan Global Arts and Communications, a Minneapolis Public School. Her sixth grade students have dance throughout the year.

What will I learn about teaching and learning?
Roberta’s class has been exploring the healthy habits of the dancer/performer; as part of their investigation the class has been considering the elements of a dancer’s warm-up and the elements of a good rehearsal.  They have also been choreographing in small groups.  In this lesson, Roberta uses the context of their imminent field trip to watch the movie version of the novel, Holes, to begin a discussion of healthy food habits.  The class then practices their warm-up sequence.  Finally, the students rehearse their original group-choreographed sequences.

CHICO PEREZ: What habits of mind can be learned through drumming?

Who and what will I see?
Chico Perez, percussionist and teaching artist, collaborates with first grade teacher Felicia Marr at Pratt Elementary, a Minneapolis Public School.  The first grade students are participating in a six-lesson unit to learn the clave rhythm and to explore the concept of polyrhythm.  Clave provides the foundation for Afro Cuban music.

What will I learn about teaching and learning?
Chico demonstrates a culturally derived, traditional, call and response method of teaching and learning that asks learners to carefully observe and then mimic the master drummer.  He surfaces and demonstrates the habits of mind of the art form throughout the process; the students are taught the habits of focus and respect as they learn the course content.  They are asked to demonstrate the clave rhythm as a performance of understanding.  They are also asked to describe how clave provides the heartbeat for African influenced music and to explore the concept of polyrhythm.

JOSH BLISS: How do fiction writers create characters?

Who and what will I see?
Josh Bliss, third grade teacher at Sheridan Global Arts, a Minneapolis Public School, teaches his class several strategies that writers use to flesh out a character in fiction. There are 27 students in the class. About one-third of the students in the classroom are learning English as a second language.

What will I learn about teaching and learning?
Josh demonstrates collaborative learning as part of the creative writing process.  Small groups of students work through the brainstorming and the selection of traits for a character they will write about. The focusing question for the activity is What does this character want? Students work in all of their languages (Hmong and English.)  The class builds on a poetry unit done in the fall of that