Registration | Log In

Search Grants | Fulfilled Grants | More About Find It, Fund It, Florida

Share

Please share this page to help in fulfilling this grant.

Goal

Through this grant, thirty of our freshman students will be able to experience the live arts through a structured play performance of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by the Florida Repertory Theatre in Fort Myers. What a wonderful way to expose our students to theatre within their own communities! Students need to be thinkers, problem-solvers, demonstrate creativity, and work as a member of a team as they engage in the reading alongside deep discussions and analysis of text and other textual and non-textual media.

The fine arts provide learners with non-academic benefits such as promoting self-esteem, motivation, aesthetic awareness, cultural exposure, creativity, improved emotional expression, as well as social harmony and appreciation of diversity.

We need to offer more in-depth learning about the things that matter the most: order, integrity, thinking skills, a sense of wonder, truth, flexibility, fairness, dignity, contribution, justice, creativity and cooperation. The arts provide all of these. Through this grant my students will be able to explore themselves, their world, and offer solutions to make our world, THEIR WORLD, a better place.


 

What will be done with my students

Through funding of this grant, our students would be able to engage in our Florida standards (LAFS) for language arts, writing, and performance standards and skills. One month before the performance, student will engage in research and analysis of the various topics, themes (education, tolerance, prejudice, ignorance, etc.), character analysis, and plot components that will be presented through the live production. They will engage in the reading and deep analysis of the text, melding their current beliefs and life experiences to modern day writings: novel excerpts, speeches, poems, visual representations, etc. These practice skills will be intertwined with general CCPS-adopted curricular materials and other outside reading materials I feel are appropriate to utilize and strengthen the students’ understanding of standards and skills so that there is a fluid and natural application and synthesis of learned skills from the lessons and performance and our regular curricular materials. For example, we will read excerpts of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, synthesize these excerpts through discussions and cross-textual examination of art such as Norman Rockwell’s “Do Unto Others,” listen to, discuss, and synthesize First Lady Michelle Obama’s 2016 DNC speech from the convention, and Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise,” and examine our own experiences, goals, and hopes for growth of self, family, nation, and world. After experiencing the live performance, students will reflect on and synthesize their experiences to create an end product (for example: an iMovie synopsis using connotative/denotative vocabulary, strong images, textual evidence to be shared and analyzed by other students; a performance scene of their own; poetry, visual art example; etc.). These response representations can be shared on the school news and website and will other classrooms and parents/community members during special events.  

Benefits to my students

Perhaps the most essential element to education is the manner in which we perceive and make sense of the world in which we live. An education in the melding of arts, and particular in the theatre and theatre exposure helps students to see what they look at, hear what they listen to, and live within. Engagement in the fine arts helps students to stretch their minds beyond the boundaries of the printed text or the rules of what is provable or “black and white.” There are so many growth opportunities to seeking, finding, and developing multiple solutions to the many societal issues facing our children today. These processes, taught through the study of the arts, help to develop the tolerance for coping with the uncertainties present in the everyday world in which we live. There is a universal need for words, music, dance, and visual art to give expression to the stirrings, yearnings, and beauty of the human spirit (Bryant, 2014).

Sufficient data exists to overwhelmingly support the belief that study and participation in the fine arts is a key component in improving learning throughout all academic areas. Evidence of its effectiveness in reducing student dropout, raising student attendance, developing better team players, fostering a love for learning, improving greater student dignity, and enhancing student creativity can be found documented in studies held in many varied settings, from school campuses, to corporate America.

Evidence from brain research is only one of many reasons education and engagement in fine arts is beneficial to the educational process. The arts produce a broad spectrum of benefits ranging from fine motor skills to creativity and improved emotional balance. “The arts enhance the process of learning. The systems they nourish, which include our integrated sensory, cognitive, emotional, and motor capacities, are, in fact, the driving forces behind all other learning” (Jensen, 2001).

Bryant, J. (2014). The importance of fine arts education. Retrieved from http://www.katyisd.org/dept/finearts/Pages/default.aspx on April 22, 2016.

Jensen, E. (2001). Arts with the brain in mind. Alexandria, Va., Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Faison, H. (2000). Is anyone out there listening? Foundation for Academic Excellence Symposium, Haskell, Ok.

Lehman, P. (2001). What students should learn in the arts. Content of the curriculum. Alexandria, Va. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. (1-22)
 

Budget Narrative

Tickets are $52 each. The school will provide transportation and snacks. 

Items