MIENC Music Learning Leadership Institute
2008-2009 Team Certificate Program

Overview

At a 2004 Chorus America meeting to discuss arts integration, John Ceschini met Larry Scripp, the director of the Music-in-Education National Consortium’s Learning Laboratory School Network, and discussed Kensington-Parkwood (KP) teachers’ interest in learning more about music and music integration. The research-based nature of the Consortium appealed to many at the school as a way of studying and documenting the impact of the arts integration program. In addition, the focus on music learning was important to increasing teachers’ comfort levels with music in the classroom.

Overview

With the support of Chicago Arts Partners in Education (CAPE), Walt Disney Magnet School was invited to be part of an inquiry based action research project, the Learning Laboratory School Network (LLSN) of the Music-in-Education National Consortium (MIENC). CAPE has worked with Disney Magnet School since 1999, when it became part of the network of schools working with teaching artists to integrate the arts across the curriculum.

The Disney Magnet School is part of the Fine and Performing Arts Magnet Cluster Program, a school improvement initiative led by the Chicago Public Schools’ Office of Academic Enhancement. In particular, the Fine and Performing Arts Magnet Cluster Program seeks to improve the quality of and access to arts education in 58 arts-focused schools across the city. Schools in this network work towards overall school improvement by systematically addressing eight areas of school operation: leadership, curriculum integration, professional development, instructional effectiveness, inter-and intra-school collaboration, parental involvement, community partnerships, and opportunities for accelerated student learning. In addition to an arts focus, Disney has also incorporated a focus on technology; there are over 13 technology labs in the school. One is a state of the art Digital Music Laboratory, funded in part by the Disney family, and the other is the Fast ForWord lab, which is used to support students who are struggling with literacy skills. The connection between these two programs became the basis for this investigation.

View the Disney School’s LLSN Digital Portfolio

Overview

Jessica’s portfolio gives an extensive narrative of the journey that led her to take on the position of Music Specialist at the Atrium school, and the triumphs and challenges she met when she got there. It his heavily narrative-based, the information unfolding in the manner of a story. This narrative is supported by many lesson plans, observations, and written and pictorial reflections by the students. Together, the narrative and artifacts expose the rich and expansive curriculum established at the Atrium School that includes singing/solfege, rhythmic activities, instrumental music, opera outreach, composition, and creating opera.

Note that the first fifteen pages of the portfolio chronicle Jessica’s experiences before even arriving at the Atrium School. This provides valuable insight into the elements of the teacher’s persona that are carried into her curriculum and teaching methods. Note also, starting on page 40, the attention given to multiple entry points, and on 47, the extent to which the children embraced lessons taught from this standpoint and the types of musical problems they were able to solve.

Read about Jessica’s Guided Internship Portfolio

View the Atrium School LLSN Project Portfolio for 2007-2008