courtesy of judy klima
Kim Desjardins and kindergarten class at IAA
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and level of teaching artists together instead of separately. We’re responding to a need that schools across the state have … we know that the kids learn.” Vermont artists try out a teaching paradigm based on brain science artsTohelpconnect artists B y X i an C hi an g -Wa ren with Arts Connect, all the organizations with rosters of teaching artists sent out announcements to them. The hat’s this made of?” model called Universal Design for VAC’s education programs manager, Ben teaching artist Kim Learning (UDL). Desjardins asked a class The Arts Connect initiative was named Doyle, compiled the resulting applicaof wide-eyed kindergart- almost as an afterthought for the John tions; so far, 10 artists have completed the ners one recent morning at Burlington’s F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Connect training. Schools can apply Integrated Arts Academy. She held up a Arts grant called Arts Connect All, which for funding through the council to bring in clay relief tile, a two-dimensional square funded a successful pilot year in 2012 to any of those artists for residencies. “We viewed [Arts Connect] as profescontaining three-dimensional figures of a 2013. In Vermont, the program is now tree and the sun. driven by an impressive coalition of more sional development for teaching artists,” “Play-Doh,” one boy declared than 10 arts, education, government and says Doyle. He adds that, in an ideal world, confidently. nonprofit organizations. They include all 111 of the artists on the VAC’s roster “It’s like Play-Doh,” Desjardins said. VSA Vermont, the Flynn Center for would go through the training. “We’re “What’s Play-Doh made of?” the Performing Arts, the Vermont Arts trying to be very strategic in using the arts “Rock?” the boy asked. Beside him, Council, Champlain College Emergent to transform education,” Doyle says. And what exactly is Universal Design a little girl fidgeted, thrusting her hand Media Center and Burlington City Arts. upward insistently. Judy Chalmer, executive director of VSA for Learning? “It’s a framework that helps you build “It comes from the ground like rocks Vermont, is spearheading the collaborado, so in that way it’s similar to a rock,” tion, while each participating organization the most inclusive possible learning Desjardins encouraged. The girl rocked contributes outreach, networking, train- environment for kids,” explains Charlie forward on her knees, waving her hand ing and so on. A $20,000 grant from the Rathbone, a retired University of Vermont around. Vermont Community Foundation helped professor and UDL researcher. Arts Connect melds UDL with arts integration “I think Rosa can help,” suggested the fund this year’s programming. class’ kindergarten teacher, Emily Stewart. Why are so many organizations with practices, but the concept of UDL itself “Clay!” Rosa exclaimed, and some of arts-based programming and missions originated in architecture. It used to refer her classmates burst out in “oohs” and investing new resources and funding in to structural accommodations such as “ahhs.” education? In short, because they already wheelchair ramps that created accessible learning environments for students with The blustery mid-March morning invest there, and they want to do it better. marked Desjardins’ first day of a semester“All of us have a long history of put- physical handicaps. Then teachers started expanding that long residency at IAA. This was also the ting teaching artists in schools,” Chalmer first class taught by a Vermont artist who notes. “Each of us has come to it with our definition of “accessibility.” “At some point, had completed a new training course own perspectives; in many ways, one of educators began to take off from the notion with Arts Connect, an initiative to train the most exciting things about this part- of universal education in the designing of local teaching artists in an educational nership is that we want to build the skill rooms, to [instructional] solutions that
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would work for educating the largest number of people,” says Rathbone. The long-standing theory of multiple intelligences, rooted in cognitive psychology, dovetailed with UDL’s concept of giving students multiple access points to a central point of learning and understanding. The paradigm worked as a way to approach students with cognitive as well as physical disabilities. By the 1980s, UDL was gaining traction in the field of neuroscience. Now, Rathbone says, the UDL paradigm has developed to the point where its distinct principles can be matched to distinct brain networks. In his estimation, it’s “pretty current in terms of what we know about how the brain works.” Last fall, Rathbone conducted Arts Connect’s initial teaching-artist trainings — held at Saint Michael’s College — along with IAA arts integration specialist Angela Chaffee. Together they drilled the history, research and principles of UDL into the 10 artists in the course. The two educators express confidence that an identical or improved course will be held next fall. “UDL put words and a structure, a framework and guidelines to what I already knew to be great teaching,” says Desjardins. While learning theory in the classroom, the teaching artists observed classes at IAA, wrote lesson plans and got hands-on experience. The practical component, Desjardins points out, was a “UDL moment” in and of itself for her. The principles Rathbone taught in class didn’t entirely click for Desjardins, a selfproclaimed “visual learner,” until she had an opportunity to tackle them personally. In fact, Desjardins wasn’t new to the group of students she was teaching on the first day of her residency; she’d spent time in IAA’s kindergarten classrooms doing research and training during the UDL class. The six-session curriculum she designed using her skills from Arts Connect employed clay as a tactile medium to connect students to a range of academic subjects, concepts and lines of inquiry. Though the kindergartners were doing an activity with clay that included art-class-appropriate discussions about textures and consistency, the focus of Desjardins’ lesson plan was actually science. Specifically, the students were boosting their understanding of the overarching life-sciences concept for their grade level: the difference between living and nonliving things. An added bonus of the lesson? Geometry. The class also learned the names of unusual shapes such as sphere, coil and slab. In the class, Desjardins gave the kids verbal and kinesthetic cues to help them remember instructions — one of UDL’s guidelines is to provide multiple ways for students to grasp information. “Roll it,