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New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for Visual and Performing Arts INTRODUCTION The Vision Experience with and knowledge of the arts is a vital part of a complete education. The arts are rich disciplines that include a vibrant history, an exemplary body of work to study, and compelling cultural traditions. An education in the arts is an essential part of the academic curriculum for the achievement of human, social, and economic growth. The education of our students in the disciplines of dance, music, theater, and visual art is critical to their personal success and to the success of New Jersey as we move into the twenty-first century. The arts offer tools for development. They enable personal, intellectual, and social development for each individual. Teaching in and through the arts within the context of the total school curriculum, especially during the formative years of an elementary K-6 education, is key to maximizing the benefits of the arts in education. For students, an education in the arts provides: · The ability to be creative and inventive decision-makers; · Varied and powerful ways of communicating ideas, thoughts, and feelings; · An enhanced sense of poise and self-esteem; · The confidence to undertake new tasks; · An increased ability to achieve across the curriculum; · A framework that encourages teamwork and fosters leadership skills; · Knowledge of the less recognized experiences of aesthetic engagement and intuition; · Increased potential for life success; and · An enriched quality of life. Recent studies such as Critical Links and Champions of Change provide evidence of the positive correlations between regular, sequential instruction in the arts and improved cognitive capacities and motivations to learn. These often result in improved academic achievement through near and far transfer of learning (i.e., music and spatial reasoning, visual art and reading readiness, dance and non-verbal reasoning and expressive skills, theater and reading comprehension, writing proficiency, and increased peer interaction). Additionally, the arts are uniquely qualified to cultivate a variety of multiple intelligences. For our society, an education in the arts fosters a population that: · Is equipped with essential technical skills and abilities significant to many aspects of life and work; · Understands and can impact the increasingly complex technological environment around us; · Has a humanities focus that allows social, cultural, and intellectual interplay, among men and women of different ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds; and · Is critically empowered to create, reshape, and fully participate in the enhancement of the quality of life for all.
It is the intent of the standards to ensure that all students have regular sequential arts instruction and that specialization takes into account student choice. This is in keeping with the National Standards for Arts Education (1994), which states:
“All basic subjects, including the arts, require more than mere exposure or access. While valuable, a once-a-month visit from an arts specialist, visits to or from professional artists, or arts courses for the specially motivated do not qualify as basic or adequate arts instruction. They certainly cannot prepare all students to meet the standards presented here. These standards assume that students in all grades will be actively involved in comprehensive, sequential programs that include creating, performing, and producing on the one hand, and study, analysis, and reflection on the other. Both kinds of activities are indispensable elements of a well-rounded education in the arts.”
In New Jersey, equitable access to arts instruction can only be achieved if the four arts disciplines are offered throughout the K-12 spectrum. At the K-6 level, it is the expectation that students are given broad-based exposure through instruction as well as opportunities for participation in each of the four arts forms. In grades 7-8, they should gain greater depth of understanding in at least one of those disciplines. In grades 9-12, it is the expectation that students demonstrate competency in at least one arts discipline. The state arts standards also reflect the same expectations as those stated in the National Standards for Arts Education (1994). The goal is that by graduation all students will be able to communicate at a basic level in the arts, and that they: · Communicate proficiently, demonstrating competency in at least one art form, including the ability to define and solve artistic problems with insight, reason, and technical proficiency; · Be able to develop and present basic analysis of works of art from structural, historical, and cultural perspectives; · Have an informed acquaintance with exemplary works of art from a variety of cultures and historical periods; and · Relate various types of arts knowledge and skills within and across the arts disciplines. The revised arts standards assist educators in delineating the required knowledge and expected behaviors in all four of the arts disciplines. This format reflects the critical importance of locating the separate arts disciplines as one common body of knowledge and skills. Revision of the Standards By establishing visual and performing arts standards in 1996, New Jersey conveyed its strong commitment to arts education for all students. In its first periodic review and revision of the standards, two independent consultants were contracted by the state through the Arts Education Partnership, a national consortium of arts, education, business, philanthropic, and government organizations. Since New Jersey’s original approach to creating arts standards was to convey the significant kinds of abilities common to all four arts disciplines – dance, music, theater, and visual art, the reviewers examined the standards though a wide lens for overall strengths and improvement needs. The review team’s findings informed the process of the arts revision committee. The committee also studied the National Standards for Arts Education: What Every Young American Should Know and Be Able to Do in the Arts; McRel’s Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education; and arts content standards from all states. The independent reviewers found the original 1996 arts standards effective in defining the scope of necessary arts content knowledge, and in identifying key concepts that influence the most current approaches to arts education, namely aesthetics, production/performance, criticism/evaluation, and history. However, they fell short in addressing the depth or focus for learning. It was recommended that strengthening the focus of the standards, and specifying what was to be learned in each standard would create more concrete images of the activities students would engage in to demonstrate their understanding. The revision committee retained the structure of the original 1996 standards document with respect to standards 1, 4 and 5. These standards pertain to all the arts disciplines. Those standards having to do with creating and performing works of art, and the elements of art are divided into content-specific subsets of expectations for each of the four arts disciplines. The design standard (formerly standard 6) has been subsumed by the other standards and realigned with each of the arts disciplines. Smaller grade level bands, increased specificity, and content strands have been outlined to allow teachers to focus on developmentally appropriate content and skills in ways that will boost student achievement in the arts. Standards and Strands The visual and performing arts standards provide both the foundation for creating local curricula decisions and the opportunity for meaningful assessments in all four art forms. There are five standards for visual and performing arts, each of which has a number of lettered strands. These standards, and their associated strands, include:
1.1 Aesthetics A. Knowledge B. Skills
1.2 Creation and Performance A. Dance B. Music C. Theater D. Visual Art
1.3 Elements and Principles of the Arts A. Dance B. Music C. Theater D. Visual Art
1.4 Critique A. Knowledge B. Skills
1.5 World Cultures, History, and Society
A. Knowledge B. Skills
Cumulative Progress Indicators (CPIs) further define each content standard. These CPIs delineate expected student progress in grades 2, 4, 6, 8, and 12. The CPIs may be used as a basis for the development of curriculum at all grade levels as well as for developing local assessments to ensure that the desired level of understanding or skill has been achieved. Throughout this document, the term “works of art” refers to selections of works from each of the four disciplines.
Resources
Consortium of National Arts Education Associations: American Alliance for Theatre & Education, Music Educators National Conference, National Arts Education Association, National Dance Association (1994). National standards for arts education: What every young American should know and be able to do in the arts. Reston, VA: Music Educators National Conference.
Deasy, R. J. (Ed.). (2002). Critical links: Learning in the arts and student academic and social development. Washington, DC: Arts Education Partnership.
Fisk, E. B. (Ed.). (1999). Champions of change: The impact of the arts on learning. Alexandria, VA: The President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities and Arts Education Partnership.
Kendall, J. S. & Marzano, R. J. (2000). Content knowledge: A compendium of standards and benchmarks for K-12 education (3rd ed). Aurora, CO: McRel (Mid-Continental Research for Education and Learning) and Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Learning and the arts: Crossing boundaries. Proceeding from an invitational meeting for education, art, and youth funders. (2000, January 12-14). Los Angeles, CA: The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, J. Paul Getty Trust, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundations.
Literacy in the arts: An imperative for New Jersey schools. (1989, October). Literacy in the Arts Task Force.
Longley, L. (Ed.). (1999). Gaining the arts advantage: Lessons learned from school districts that value arts education. Alexandria, VA.: The President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities and Arts Education Partnership.
New Jersey State Department of Education, (1996). New Jersey core curriculum content standards. Trenton, NJ: Author.
New Jersey State Department of Education. (1999). New Jersey visual and performing arts curriculum framework. Trenton, NJ: Author.
Seidel, S., Eppel, M., & Martinello, M. (2001). Arts survive: A study of sustainability in arts education partnerships. The Arts Survive Research Study, a research study conducted at Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. |
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