New strategies for effectively integrating the arts as a tool for learning in the classroom were introduced to area teachers during two workshops Tuesday at MSU Riley Center.
Part II of a series of arts integration workshops of the John F. Kennedy Center's Partners in Education program, the morning and afternoon sessions were not only informative, but also fun, according to participating teachers from the Meridian and Lauderdale County Public schools.
"It's awesome, really enlightening and engaging – it will definitely impact my students' learning," said Felisha Powell, who teaches fifth-grade language and reading at Southeast Middle School.
Karen L. Erickson, a Kennedy Center workshop presenter from Chicago, conducted both sessions, "Focusing on Arts Integration" and "DRAMA! The Missing Link to Teaching Literacy."
The first workshop provided a definition of the characteristics of arts integration – what it is and what it is not. Participants were given the opportunity to uncover the characteristics and how the information might impact their own arts integrated session designs.
In "DRAMA! The Mississippi Link to Teaching Literacy," teachers discovered how to build vocabulary skills, improve reading comprehension and expand writing techniques through drama integration.
"Literacy goes with more than just language arts, it also goes with science literacy, social studies literacy – whenever kids have to read and interpret material and read, be able to read and comprehend material," Erickson said.
"It's about using drama techniques and integrating those techniques with the teaching of literacy."
Participants worked in three areas during the session: word study – where children work with words and vocabulary; inferencing and predicting – reading comprehension skills; and working with a book.
In drama, the teachers created dialogue, characterization and scenes with a partner. They also did a detail writing activity, with one partner writing and the other person acting out what is written.
Johnny Hill, a special education inclusion teacher at Witherspoon Elementary School, said the workshop will help him to tap into the artistic talents of his students.
"I have students who are very artistic, but don't read well or don't do math well. But a student may find their niche in the arts," he said.
Hill, who has attended in several teaching workshops at the MSU Riley Center, said the sessions have been very enlightening.
"Dr. George Thomas (professor of education at MSU-Meridian Campus and city councilman) spoke at the morning session and he commented that 80 percent of students in the Meridian Public School District are in the poverty level and don't have access to the arts. I'll take the information I've learned today back and share with the other teachers at my school, and then we can incorporate that into the curriculum for our students to improve their learning."
The Kennedy Center workshop is part of a public/private partnership of Mississippi State University Riley Center for Education & Performing Arts, The John F. Kennedy Center Partners in Education Program and corporate sponsor, Structural Steel.
Local News
Teachers integrate the arts
- Local News
-
-
City cuts payment to Watkins
The Meridian City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to cut their monthly payment to David Watkins, project developer of Meridian's new police station, by $9,999 until work resumes on the project.
The order, made during the Meridian City Council meeting Tuesday morning, included a mutual agreement between the councilmen and Watkins to reduce the project developer's monthly consultant fee of $10,000 to $1, effective Tuesday. -
Crews work on gasoline pipeline
If you hear a loud, booming sound early today, between 4 a.m.-10 a.m., there is no cause for alarm.
Workers with Plantation Pipeline will be performing maintenance work on their 30-foot gasoline pipeline in the Meridian area to accommodate the widening of Highway 493. The location of the work activity will be at Highway 493 North and Oak Hill Baptist Church, just inside the city limits. -
Team Spirit
-
High Honor
The flowers and balloons Crestwood Elementary School Principal Kimberly Kendrick received at school Monday were not an early Valentines' Day gift.
Kendrick has been named Meridian Public School District's 2012 Administrator of the Year – an announcement that both surprised and wowed the 17-year veteran educator when made by MPSD Superintendent Dr. Alvin Taylor. -
Master Dance Class
-
Digital system promises better communication
Hopefully in the near future you won't hear someone in the emergency services ask over the radio, "Can you hear me now?"
A digital communications system, one which is being pushed by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), is a few months away and, in some cases, is already in the testing phase in Lauderdale County. -
Inmate escapes custody
Mississippi Department of Corrections officials said Monday afternoon an inmate escaped from custody Friday and is still being sought.
Officials said Johnny Hall Jr. escaped from two Wilkinson County Correctional Facility officers’ custody while being escorted from his father’s wake at the Picayune Funeral Home in Picayune. Preliminary information indicates Hall left the officers and jumped into a waiting black vehicle with a white female driver. -
Citizen’s Police Academy begins today
The work law enforcement conducts on a daily basis is often misunderstood by the general public.
Officials at the Meridian Police Department developed a program to inform and educate citizens on what police do in serving and protecting the population. The program, The Citizen's Police Academy, has been gaining speed for a couple of years since it was first offered. Officials said it shows residents are interested in police work and how it is conducted. - Woman: decongestant brought meth charge in Alabama
-
Star Of The Week: Dominique Goodwin-Jenkins
- More Local News Headlines
-
City cuts payment to Watkins





