The Arts Toolkits and the KDE Program Review
The KET Arts Toolkits in Visual Arts, Music, Dance, and Drama and the newly developed Social Studies Arts
Toolkit are excellent resources to help your school address the requirements of the Program Review in Arts and
Humanities. Key ways in which the Toolkits relate include:
 The Program Review emphasizes that all students have abundant opportunities to create and perform as
well as respond to the arts and that students are actively engaged in creating, performing, and
responding to the arts. The Toolkits include hundreds of ideas for hands-on arts activities.
 The Program Review specifically calls for the use of virtual models of exemplary artist performances
and products. The Arts Toolkits provide more than 500 video segments as well as hundreds of images and
other arts models.
 The Program Review calls for integration of the arts across the curriculum. The Arts Toolkit lesson plans
offer numerous ideas for integrating the arts. The Social Studies Arts Toolkit organizes arts resources by
social studies topics.
 The KET Toolkit lesson plans include models of both formative and summative assessment.
 The Arts Toolkits include comprehensive information about each art discipline and can help teachers build
their content knowledge in the arts as well as provide resources to use with students.
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More Information
The KET Arts Toolkits provide a wide array of high quality multimedia K-12 resources. The Toolkits include
video segments, lesson plans, glossaries, guides to other resources in Kentucky and beyond, special-topic CDROMs, and other informational materials. They were designed to provide resources for use in the classroom with
students and teaching ideas as well as to offer helpful background for teachers looking to increase their knowledge
of the arts. They are flexible sets of resources designed to be used by both arts specialists as well as generalists and
teachers of other subject areas—in other words, by any teacher interested in incorporating the arts into their
classrooms.
When the Arts Toolkits were developed, Kentucky’s Arts and Humanities assessment was based on a paper-andpencil test and the Kentucky Core Content for Assessment. However, the Toolkits’ content and goals always
looked far beyond “passing the test.” The goal of the Arts Toolkits was to help schools and teachers establish high
quality arts programs and to help provide students in Kentucky with engaging and abundant experiences in
creating, performing, and responding to the arts. Lesson plans include performance activities and assessments.
Hundreds of hands-on activities are included. And ideas are offered for applications across the curriculum.
Kentucky’s Program Review in arts and humanities, which has replaced the paper test for arts and humanities, sets
criteria for the establishment of a schoolwide approach to the arts that gives every student access to high quality
arts experiences. There is an increased emphasis on creating and performing, as well as on integrating arts across
the curriculum.
The KET Arts Toolkits offer comprehensive resources to help schools as they pursue proficiency and distinction
in the Program Review.
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Point by Point: How the Arts Toolkits Relate to Program Review Demonstrators
ARTS AND HUMANITIES: CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION
Demonstrator 1. Student Access
All students should have equitable access to high quality curriculum and instruction.
 The Toolkits include resources and lessons plans appropriate to each grade level, and each Toolkit includes a
section especially for primary teachers with ideas, lessons plans, and multimedia resources appropriate for
the K-3 classroom. The Visual Arts Toolkit also includes a section on the importance of (and strategies for)
using children’s art as a teaching tool.
 Each Toolkit also includes sections focused on responding to artwork as well as lessons for performing and
creating.
 The Toolkits also include advice on teaching for special populations. In some cases these are embedded in
lesson plans. The Music and Dance Toolkits include specific sections on inclusive instruction, focusing on
meeting the needs of students with special needs.
 Each Toolkit also includes sections on using the arts across multiple cultures and teaching cultural respect
and understanding through the arts.
 Lessons in the Toolkits include extensions for gifted/talented students.
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Demonstrator 2. Aligned and Rigorous Curriculum
An aligned and rigorous curriculum provides access to Kentucky Core Academic Standards (KCAS) for all
students as defined by state standards. This demonstrator specifically calls for the development of arts literacy,
meaningful opportunities for cross-curricular integration, and the study of representative and exemplary works of
art from a variety of cultures and periods.
 Toolkits focus on the arts as communication.
 The Music Toolkit includes a section on developing music literacy with recorded examples for developing
and assessing listening skills.
 Toolkits provide access to a plethora of exemplary artworks and performances representing diverse cultures
and time periods along with study guides to provide context and meaningful interactions with the work.
 Toolkits provide resources, strategies, and lessons that make meaningful connections among the art forms.
 The Dance, Drama, Visual Arts, and Music Toolkits include numerous ideas for cross-curricular integration.
In addition KET has released the first edition of a Social Studies Arts Toolkit that combines resources from
all four arts disciplines around social studies topics (e.g. African-American Culture, Native American
Culture, Early America, Creating Drama Through Historical).
 Arts Toolkits are currently aligned to the Kentucky Program of Studies. Alignment to Common Core
Standards in Literacy is underway in 2012, and the Toolkits will be aligned to the new national standards in
the arts after the new standards are completed.
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Demonstrator 3. Instructional Strategies
Teachers implement instructional strategies that provide quality experiences, a variety of activities, and access for
all students.
This demonstrator specifically calls for the incorporation of all three components of arts study (creating,
performing, and responding); multimedia resources that serve as models of exemplary performances and products;
the incorporation of peer review; authentic activities for students with special needs; the development of
fundamental arts skills; and collaboration with guest artists.
 The Toolkits provide numerous virtual models of exemplary performances and products. Collectively, the
Toolkits include more than 500 video segments—including performances, demonstrations, and interviews.
 The Toolkits include strategies for working with visiting and resident artists and include numerous video
segments of visiting and resident artists working with students and teachers. They also include resource
guides to Kentucky arts organizations that have education/school programs.
 The Toolkits include strategies and models for peer review processes.
 The Toolkits include numerous resources and lesson plans that emphasize the elements, skills, and
techniques of each art form, at all grade levels.
Demonstrator 4. Student Performance
All students have access to an aligned and rigorous curriculum, where instructional strategies are of high quality
and inclusive, resulting in student performance at a consistently high level.
This demonstrator specifically calls for active engagement in creating, performing, and responding and the use of
written and verbal communication to reflect on exhibits and performances.
 The Arts Toolkit lesson plans include creating and performing activities as well as “open response” (now
“constructed response” questions.
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 Each Toolkit includes specific guides and worksheets to help students respond to performances and works of
art through a four-step process.
 The Toolkits include numerous performances on video that can be used for student reflection.
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ARTS AND HUMANITIES: FORMATIVE AND SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
Demonstrator 1. Variety of Assessment
Teachers should use multiple assessment processes to inform, guide, develop, and revise instructional strategies
and curriculum to enhance student learning and achievement.
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Toolkit lessons include suggestions for authentic assessment relevant to the art form.
Toolkits provide models of the peer review process in the arts.
The Music Toolkit includes a section devoted to listening assessment for each grade level.
The Social Studies Arts Toolkit includes a detailed explanation of summative and formative assessment with
ideas on how to plan and implement.
Demonstrator 2. Expectations for Student Learning
Teachers communicate consistently high expectations and use common standards for student learning in Arts &
Humanities.
 Toolkits include model rubrics for authentic, performance-based assessment.
Demonstrator 3. Assessment for Teaching
Multiple assessments are used to inform, guide, develop and revise instructional strategies and curriculum to
enhance student learning and achievement.
 The Toolkits include varied authentic assessment tasks that enable students to demonstrate learning through
creating, performing, or responding.
 The Toolkits include grade-level appropriate guides to help students reflect on, evaluate, and critique artistic
products.
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ARTS AND HUMANITIES: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Demonstrator 1. Opportunity
Professional development opportunities are planned with teacher learning needs in mind, and in response to data
available about teacher practice and student learning.
 The Arts Toolkits contain detailed and comprehensive information about the elements of each art discipline,
periods and styles, the arts of cultures around the world, glossaries, and other informational materials.
 Arts Toolkits lesson plans were developed by teachers and reviewed by the Kentucky Department of
Education.
Program Review Sample Evidence
Note: In addition to these instructional resources, KET can also help you obtain the sample evidence called for in
the Arts and Humanities Program Review. Digital and video documentation are specifically mentioned as ways to
provide sample evidence. KET offers free video production and editing workshops for both educators and students
at the KET Media Lab as well as onsite in schools.
For More Information
For more information about the KET Arts Toolkits, to order Toolkits, or to schedule an Arts Toolkit training
workshop, contact your KET Education Consultant or e-mail artstoolkit@ket.org.
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Some of the video from the Arts Toolkits is included in PBS LearningMedia, part of KET Encyclomedia,
www.ket.org/encyclomedia.
Additional lesson plans and resources can be found at the Arts Toolkit website www.ket.org/artstoolkit.
For more information about video production workshops, visit the KET Education website
http://www.ket.org/education/medialab/.
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