Core Model

Core is the original Arts Impact program. The basis of the Core model is to help the classroom teacher develop autonomy in teaching arts foundations and infusing the arts into their core curriculum and day-to-day teaching. The Core model is offered every year, supported by fees and grants.

Program Design

Core immerses participants in arts learning and teaching. Year One focuses on developing teacher content knowledge and skills in arts foundations. Year Two infuses the arts into other content areas. Each year, Artist Mentors work as partners with teachers to support them both in and out of the classroom. Over the two year program, teachers:

  • Experience the arts as students
  • Practice teaching and assessing the arts
  • Reflect on their own and others’ art
  • Lead their students in reflective practice in the arts
  • Engage in the artistic process as a learner and a teacher
  • Develop personal artistic capacity
  • Collaborate with Artist Mentors to create original lessons

Teachers identify authentic connections between concepts in the arts and other core disciplines, and then teach those concepts in and through the arts. Through a combination of experiential group learning and one-on-one coaching, teachers develop the confidence and independence to include the arts in their regular teaching practice.

Program Goals

  • Increase teacher knowledge in arts foundations and arts-infused concepts
  • Increase teacher autonomy to teach and infuse the arts
  • Increase student knowledge in standards-based arts and arts-infused concepts
  • Increase arts education in schools in the Puget Sound region and beyond

Program Components

  • Whole School or Teacher Teams (minimum of three teachers per school)
  • Two year course: 45-51 total hours of instruction per year includes:
    • Experiential Summer Institute: 30 hours per year
    • Classroom mentorship: 8-10 hours per year
    • Supplementary Workshops
    • Learning Communities for Whole School participants
    • Cultural study trip to museum exhibition, dance or theater performance
    • Up to 51 clock hours or 4 graduate credits from Seattle Pacific University per year

Curriculum

Core Scope and Sequence PDF (116KB)

  • Year One focus: Arts foundations in dance, theater and visual arts
  • Year Two focus: Dance, theater and visual arts infusion into math, science and literacy

Assessment and Evaluation

  • Performance-based assessment of teacher learning
  • Autonomy Rubric for Teachers: measurement of growth in teacher practice
  • Performance-based assessments of student learning in the arts and in arts-infused content
  • Program evaluation: teacher levels of engagement; pre and post teacher surveys; teacher focus groups

Resources

  • Two curriculum notebooks (one per year): Arts Foundations Lessons and Arts-Infused Lessons
  • Digital images of artworks from local museums as object-based references of concepts in each visual arts lesson, available in notebooks and on disc
  • Professional performances at partnering theaters and performing arts centers
  • Museum tours customized to complement Arts Impact and teacher-created lessons
  • Teacher-written lesson plans on disc
  • Web-based lesson plan database