Teacher Artist Collaborations

A Collaborative Partnership

Teacher Artist Collaborations (TACs) are a critical component of the HOT Schools Program. They are planned with a rigor that expands and deepens the traditional teaching artist residency, taking residencies to the next level. In HOT Schools, teaching artists with extraordinary skills in one particular arts discipline: dance; theater; visual arts; music or creative writing are partnered with teachers whose extraordinary skill resides in their content knowledge and understanding of certain strategies for transmitting that knowledge to students. Together, the team forges a collaborative partnership to design authentic arts-integrated learning opportunities for students through which students apply higher order thinking processes of imagining, decision-making, creating, performing, and responding.

Over the years, the Connecticut Office of the Arts has built a strong pool of teaching artists as part of their Directory of Teaching Artists. Teaching artists who work in HOT Schools are required to attend the HOT Schools Summer Institute and other HOT professional development, where they gain the skills to transfer the knowledge of their discipline, as well as their vision of the world, to others. They become experts in planning arts-integrated learning experiences that concentrate on specific content students are expected to master. In addition, partnering teachers come away with new skills in teaching in, about and through the arts.

Connecticut Teaching Artists may apply to join the Connecticut Office of the Arts Teaching Artist Directory

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The Teaching Artist Collaboration Provides:

Classroom teachers with arts-infused strategies for delivering core content during and beyond the TAC
Artists with deeper insight into the curriculum
Students with rich opportunities that encourage them to identify, connect, and synthesize ideas and concepts between and among disciplines.

Teacher-Artist Collaborations (TACs) motivate students to explore, discover, imagine, and create. TACs are 10 to 20 day sequential learning experiences for small groups of students that provide classroom teachers with arts-infused strategies for delivering core content.

Each TAC identifies goals and expected outcomes for students, artists, and teachers alike. TACs leave teachers with new skill sets and pathways to student achievement; artists with new insights into curriculum development and instruction; and students with a deeper knowledge and ability in the arts and other core content.

Collaboration, planning and reflection processes are built into TACs, allowing teacher and artist teams time to learn about and from each other, design an integrated unit of study, work together, and assess progress.

Strong Arts: TACs provide an opportunity for students and teachers to focus in a particular art form.

Arts Integration: TACs allow teachers to view curriculum and standards through a different lens, and to reach students who learn in different ways.

Democratic Practice: TACs encourage teachers and artists to work together, respect each other’s ideas, and learn from one another. Adults model teamwork and respect for students.

Students at Pleasant Valley School begin a unit on community by studying the painting “A Happy Family” by Giovanni Battista Torriglia. Students are asked to think about a variety of topics, including what they see, who the people in the painting are, and what they are doing. Instructional activities in writing, math, visual arts, science, health and safety are organized to help students identify the characteristics of family in relation to their social studies unit. Students compare and contrast the modern-day family with the one in the painting, use their learning to make inferences about their own families, and compare their families to Native American and Oregon Trail families. As a culminating activity, students apply their learning by creating a mural depicting family life at Pleasant Valley School, which is permanently hung in the school foyer.

Aligning the HOT Approach

ALIGNING THE HOT APPROACH WITH THE NATIONAL CORE ARTS STANDARDS & COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS

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The HOT Approach	National Core Arts Standards: Anchor Standards	The Common Core State Standards
1. Encourages curiosity and discovery; inspires creative expression through all arts disciplines; values process equally with product.	1. Creating: conceiving and developing new artistic ideas & work; generating and conceptualizing artistic ideas and work.	1. The importance of student discovery and the process of learning in relation to research; focusing on process, not just content.
2. Provides deep understanding of Multiple Intelligences Theory, allowing students and teachers to hone and maximize individual learning styles to demonstrate and share knowledge.	2. Presenting: selecting, developing, and refining artistic work for presentation; conveying meaning through the presentation of artistic work.	2. Demonstrating deep understanding of content; communicating knowledge with audiences through high quality presentations in multiple arts disciplines, making strategic use of digital media and visual displays.
3. Stimulates Higher Order Thinking Skills; creating, evaluating, analysing, applying, as well as understanding and remembering.	3. Responding: analyzing, interpreting, and using criteria to evaluate artistic work.	3. Leading high-level, text-based discussions; increasing text complexity (“text” can be defined as written word, works of art, dance, theater, poetry, etc.); providing text- based evidence to support arguments.
4. Cultivates voice, choice, participation, authentic engagement and responsibility.	4. Connecting: relating artistic ideas and work with personal meaning and external context.	4. Seeking meaningful engagement; designing assignments for real audiences and real purposes; participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners, building on each other’s ideas and expressing their own.

The HOT Approach	1. Encourages curiosity and discovery; inspires creative expression through all arts disciplines; values process equally with product.
National Core Arts Standards: Anchor Standards	1. Creating: conceiving and developing new artistic ideas & work; generating and conceptualizing artistic ideas and work.
The Common Core State Standards	1. The importance of student discovery and the process of learning in relation to research; focusing on process, not just content.

The HOT Approach	2. Provides deep understanding of Multiple Intelligences Theory, allowing students and teachers to hone and maximize individual learning styles to demonstrate and share knowledge.
National Core Arts Standards: Anchor Standards	2. Presenting: selecting, developing, and refining artistic work for presentation; conveying meaning through the presentation of artistic work.
The Common Core State Standards	2. Demonstrating deep understanding of content; communicating knowledge with audiences through high quality presentations in multiple arts disciplines, making strategic use of digital media and visual displays.

The HOT Approach	3. Stimulates Higher Order Thinking Skills; creating, evaluating, analysing, applying, as well as understanding and remembering.
National Core Arts Standards: Anchor Standards	3. Responding: analyzing, interpreting, and using criteria to evaluate artistic work.
The Common Core State Standards	3. Leading high-level, text-based discussions; increasing text complexity (“text” can be defined as written word, works of art, dance, theater, poetry, etc.); providing text- based evidence to support arguments.

The HOT Approach	4. Cultivates voice, choice, participation, authentic engagement and responsibility.
National Core Arts Standards: Anchor Standards	4. Connecting: relating artistic ideas and work with personal meaning and external context.
The Common Core State Standards	4. Seeking meaningful engagement; designing assignments for real audiences and real purposes; participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners, building on each other’s ideas and expressing their own.

HOT Schools Quote

“The arts embody expression, risk taking, and learning at multiple levels. They allow us to see the world through our own unique lens and connect with those around us in more meaningful ways. HOT Schools provides that opportunity for students and teachers every day. I feel so fortunate to be a Teaching Artist in a HOT school.”