Cultural Arts for Education (CAFÉ XIII) Conference
Keeping the Arts Essential in the 21 st Century
Arts and the Common Core
May 31, 2012
AGENDA
8:00 a.m.
Breakfast and Registration, Main Lobby, Center for the Arts
8:30 a.m.
Welcome and Remarks – Lyn Frankel, Chair, AEMS Alliance Board of Trustee and
John Ceschini, Executive Director, AEMS Alliance
8:40 a.m.
Remarks – Maravene Loeschke, President, Towson University
9:00 a.m.
Community-Based Arts Programs: Kwame Kwei-Armah, Artistic Director, CENTERSTAGE
9:20 a.m.
The Arts and the Common Core: Mary Cary, Assistant Superintendent of Instruction, MSDE
9:40 a.m.
Coffee Break
10:00 a.m.
Breakout Session I: Small-group discussions led by experts on how the Common Core relates to the
arts and education
10:50 a.m.
Move to Breakout Session II
11:05 a.m.
Breakout Session II
12:15 p.m.
Lunch & Networking: A casual lunch will be served in the Main Lobby, Center for the Arts
1:00 p.m.
Move to the Mainstage Theater for Afternoon Presentations
1:05 p.m.
Awards Ceremony Honoring:
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Graduates of the 2012 Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Arts Integration Program
Graduates of the 2012 Teaching Artist Institute Program
AEMS Alliance Arts Advocate of the Year Award
Winners of the Maryland AEMS Alliance School of Excellence Award
Student Performances Featuring:
 Bates Middle School
 Elk Neck Elementary School
 Crofton Woods Elementary
Breakout Sessions:
Facilitated discussions led by panelist on how the Common Core relates to the interest of
individual subgroups invested in educating in and through the arts.
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 Breakout Sessions
Room 3060*
Arts Assessment in the 21st Century
Facilitator: Mary Ann Mears
This session will discuss what we believe to be important in the arts and how we should measure student
growth, given the changes that are emerging with the new national arts standards. Electronic portfolio
assessment is being used as a tool for instruction, assessment, educator effectiveness evaluation, program
accountability, collaboration among educators, and research. The session will also explore the potential of
technology to support high quality arts instruction.
*Note – This is a two hour session.
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 Breakout Sessions
Room 3044
The Arts Book
Facilitator: Drs. Linda Whitesitt and Bennett Lentczner
The ARTS Book: Designing Quality Arts Integration with Alignment, Rigor, Teamwork and Sustainability written
by Drs. Linda Whitesitt and Elda Franklin is an in-depth narrative that guides the reader through a logical and
achievable process that is based upon extensive evaluation of art integration projects and programs that include
more than 1000 classroom observations. The book addresses ‘how to’ establish and/or evaluate a quality arts
integration program or project.
Room 3055
Common Core + Arts Integration = Students prepared for the 21st Century
Facilitator: Maria Barbosa, Teaching Artist
In June 2010, Maryland adopted the Common Core Standards, the foundation for the new state curriculum. In
the 2013-2014 school year, the complete curriculum will be implemented in the schools. Since the Common
Core Standards do not explicitly address creativity and innovation, Arts Integration approaches offer unique
opportunities for students to connect content to resourcefulness and vision. Now is the time to start aligning
arts integrated approaches to the new standards. In this session, we will use the Maryland Common Core
Standards to explore ways to align its content to the Maryland Fine Arts standards.
Room 3056
Arts, Science and the Common Core
Facilitator: Ron McCandless
Room 3057
The Common Core and Arts Organizations
Facilitator: Amanda Kodek, Manager of School Programs, The Walters Art Museum
Janet Gonski , Language Arts Department Chair, Bates Middle School
This working session for cultural organizations and teaching artists is designed to enhance and build your
capacity to support and strengthen common core standards. We will explore the programs already in place
and discuss an overview of the common core standards. Then we will work in expert groups to refine and align
what you currently offer with this new curriculum.
12:00
Breakout Sessions
Room 3054
Moving Along the Spectrum towards Becoming a Great Arts Integration School
Facilitator: Dr. Diane Bragdon, Principal, Bates Middle School
Now that Arts Integration (AI) schools have been developing for years, this session will discuss what lessons
these developed schools learned which can guide other schools as they move along the spectrum from a
beginning AI school, to one where the culture of AI is fully embedded. Participants will also discuss that the
most important indicators of effectiveness i n AI schools are and what tools can help AI schools in their selfreflection and development. Arts Education in Maryland Schools Alliance (AEMA) has worked in partnership
with MSDE, Institutions of Higher Education, school systems and individual schools to support the development
of AI through extensive professional development programs for teachers, hosting networking events, building
capacity for AI trainers, and sharing research and publications. Participants will discuss these possibilities and
try to figure out other ways to reach out to even more schools spreading Arts Integration.
Room 3054
Arts and Literacy in the Common Core
Facilitator: Cecilia Roe, Specialist in Reading/English Language Arts, MSDE
Participant will become familiar with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and their organization in English
Language Arts and in Literacy for social studies/history, science, and technical subjects. Participants will review
the Maryland implementation of the CCSS and have the opportunity to d9iscuss instructional implications for
the arts.
Room 3056
Literacy and the Common Core: Weaving Together – Common Core Curriculum, Arts, and Literacy
Facilitator: Shelly Johnson, Arts Integration Specialists, and
Lenore Blank Kelner, Educational Consultant
In this session, the presents will share how they worked with a Maryland school system to make connections
between art forms, state curriculum and the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in
history/social studies and science. The process of making the correlations will be discussed as well as the
collaboration between arts specialists, central office and local school staff will be shared. Participants will have
first-hand experience in making the connections and see how the three elements: curriculum, arts, and
common core standards can interface with each other for greater student understanding.
Room 3057
Teaching Teachers: Quality and Innovation
Facilitator: Dr. Kathy O’Dell, Associate Dean of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, UMBC
This session on higher education will focus on finding ways to enable teachers to be creative and build the
capacity for innovation in their students. Given the intense change and focus on teacher effectiveness,
participants will discuss the implications for training art teachers and general classroom teachers. As we learn
more about the ways the brain works in the realm of the arts, what does that mean for teacher training?