Classrooms Take Time Out for Courses Beyond the Tests (PA)

December 23, 2010

Osceola Mills Elementary School librarian Kylie Minarchick is taking part in a new approach to teaching the arts.

During a recent lesson, she spent the first four minutes and 30 seconds leading fourth-grade students as they recited four poems — as a group and as individuals.

And then during a version of “Jack Be Nimble,” Minarchick looked down at the stopwatch hanging around her neck. Two poems and 25 seconds later, she was ready to move onto the next class.

“Good for you guys. And,” she said to the students, as she looked down at the stopwatch for the second and last time, “my time is up. I’ll see you Thursday.”

The students took out their scissors and paper, ready for the next five-minute lesson.

This year, Osceola Mills Elementary School expanded the amount of time elementary students spend studying music, art and poetry, now devoting more time to arts instruction than any other public school in Centre County.

In all, during the five-day school schedule, Osceola Mills Elementary students receive 120 minutes of art, music and library instruction — with Minarc hick’s lessons doubling as poetry and public speaking class. They also have 45 minutes of physical education a week.

That’s a significant increase from last year, when Osceola Mills students had 40 minutes for those subjects every six days. It’s made possible, in part, by having 15-minute integrated arts sessions four out of five days, where students study music, art and poetry in five-minute blocks.

The move comes as districts nationally have increased time for literacy and math, which has meant cuts for everything else. Many Centre County schools have struggled with the time question, as well.

And Philipsburg-Osceola educators are making the change in the face of high-stakes standardized tests — what’s considered a passing grade for a school on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment exams increases this year.

“The impact of arts education on other kinds of learning is definitely there,” said Osceola Mills Principal Linda Smutz, adding that the lessons on the arts increase student engagement and improve their performance in all areas. “It’s not just giving up one thing for another. It’s enhancing our core subjects.”

But time is still crucial. Hence the stopwatches.

“We can’t waste a minute,” said Smutz, who like Minarchick has also taken to wearing a stopwatch around her neck.

Balancing curriculum

The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 judges schools based on how their students perform in two main subjects: math and language arts.

Five years after that law took effect, a study from the independent Center on Ed ucation Policy found that 44 percent of school districts had increased time for elementary language arts and math instruction, while cutting time for science, social studies, art and music, physical education, lunch or recess.

On average, the districts that did cut back left 100 minutes for art and music combined and 75 minutes for physical education in a week, according to the study that took place in the 2006-07 school year.

Centre County educators have grappled with the issue, as well.

“The thing that’s a challenge is the fact that for as long as we’ve had No Child Left Behind the emphasis has moved toward the academics, more so than anything else,” Bellefonte Elementary School Principal Elaine Cutler said in September, when school officials announced plans to build 30 minutes of physical activity into each day as part of a state-grant program. “There’s a whole lot of research that says physical activity also increases test scores.”

One of Bellefonte’s plans was to add some directed exercise during recess, while still giving kids time for free play.

This year, State College Area School District eliminated swimming from its physical education curriculum, because principals said having to transport students to the high school pool for lessons — in the middle of the day — was too much of an interruption. The switch came despite objections from some board members.

“We all should be willing to set aside the time it takes to make sure students in our district don’t become a drowning statistic,” State College Area board member Dorothea Stahl said in August, shortly after administrators announced the decision. “There is no PSSA, no national standard score, that is more important than a life-saving skill, and as long as we have a district pool, that we support with taxpayer money, our students should be using it to learn to swim — all of our students.”

Educators at Penns Valley Area Elementary and Intermediate School have made two changes this year to their schedule.

In the fall, they introduced special voluntary education sessions during the lunch period. Students have signed up for French, Civil War and digital storytelling lessons, plus ones where an educator showed science magic tricks and another where Principal Kurt Nyquist showed students how to create comic strips on a computer.

The sessions only took place twice in the first half of the semester, but Nyquist said they’re planning to offer the sessions once every six days after winter break.

“I’m hoping to get some parents that will come in and will offer up some things that they’re experts on,” said Nyquist.

The district’s also revamped the way it teaches special subjects — such as art, music and physical education — so that fifth-and sixth-grade students have two special subjects twice a week for three weeks. Then the students switch to two other special subjects for three weeks.

“That has been a real positive from the teachers’ standpoint. … They don’t have to spend as much time reviewing,” Nyquist said.

At Bald Eagle Area, the district last year added an hour and 15 minutes to the instructional week by starting school at 8:15 a.m. instead of 8:30 a.m.

This year, about once every two weeks, third-, fourth-, fifth-and sixth-grade students have 30 minutes of Spanish lessons.

“Staffing and time are an issue for this program,” Wingate Elementary P rincipal Jim Orichosky said in an e-mail, “but the way we solved it was the teacher videotapes herself doing the lessons with the same class each time. … (T)hen she puts the video on the school server and then all of the teachers have access to this for use throughout the week.”

Philipsburg-Osceola educators are considering adding a foreign language class to their integrated arts program. Earlier this month, Philipsburg-Osceola Area board members set a goal of expanding the integrated arts program to include the other two elementary schools, North Lincoln Hill and Philipsburg. They also set a goal of having no tax increase.

To create the integrated arts program at Osceola Mills, administrators reshuffled teachers but did not increase the total number of employees.

Smutz, the principal at Osceola Mills, said the goal is to provide a well-rounded education. But she said the integrated arts approach has also cut down on disciplinary issues.

“Kids are engaged. They have to be. They’re really enjoying what they’re doing,” she said. “They’re also developing confidence in their skills.”

Learning by doing

During the 15-minute blocks, the Osceola Mills art, music and poetry teachers kept their introductions short.

Minarchick walked into the classroom with her hands raised and started reciting. She frequently reminded the students to keep their posture straight.

Art teacher Karen King started with a question: “OK, boys and girls, take a look at the line, tell me what kind it is.”

Said a student: “Jagged.” “OK. Jagged or zig-zag?” replied the art teacher. “Remember I was telling you about both those words.”

Students wound up explaining the difference: for zig-zag, the lines are equal. Not so with jagged ones.

Music teacher Don Henry entered each room singing and the students followed.

“What’s hard about it is singing for an hour and half. It’s the constant fact that you’re always using your voice,” Henry said afterward. “So that becomes a strain on some days.”

Still, he considers the successes he sees worth stretching his vocal chords. The students are exceeding his expectations daily — and his own voice has improved, he said.

“For major and minor (keys), I can switch back and forth more comfortably than I would have nine years ago,” said Henry, who’s taught in the district for 19 years,

All three teachers said they build on what they teach in the integrated arts lessons for their regular classes.

King, for instance, was preparing her students to make collages in the style of French artist Henri Matisse.

“Everything has a meaning, as opposed to doing, you know, a random project here, a random project there,” she said. “It now all kind of is synchronized and tied together, which is really great.”

Fourth-grader Tristan Beauseigneur considers music his favorite subject, but he likes the art and poetry lessons, too.

“You get more time,” he said. “You learn more.”