Arts Integration at Wren Avenue Elementary

Something arts-y is happening at this elementary school in Concord! Thanks to the generous support of our donors, the Mt. Diablo Unified School District Education Fund and the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation, Young Audiences has launched a dynamic, year-long arts integration project at the Wren Avenue Elementary School in Concord.

The primary goal is to provide classroom teachers with strategies, coaching and hands-on professional development to embed arts integration into everyday classroom learning and lesson planning, thus strengthening student engagement and learning through the arts. All 13 teachers at Wren Ave. Elementary are participating in this program since November 2019, with monthly professional development courses provided by Arts Ed Matters, a partner of Young Audiences of Northern California.

We are excited to report back the wonderful progress we've witnessed since this program started: classroom teachers are actively using strategies and arts integration skills they've acquired through the professional development workshops, in their classrooms. Students are deeply engaged and excited to learn: hands-on activities and visualization techniques have helped classroom teachers manage student behavior and disruptions better, and has enabled students to think innovatively about problems. In one class, students learn about kinetic and potential energy by building an obstacle course that wraps around the entire classroom, identifying new ways to keep marbles rolling along the course, or to make them stop.

Later this spring, teaching artists will partner with teachers in the classroom to reinforce newly-acquired arts-integration skills, to help build confidence, and otherwise support classroom teachers. Stay tuned for more updates on this year-long project!