Youth Exhibit Now Open!

The APS Metro Youth Art Exhibit opened with an awards presentation on Friday, March 6 at the Fine Arts Gallery at Expo NM (state fair). The gallery will open at 5:00 and the awards presentation will begin at 6:00.
The show will be up through Sunday, April 5. Gallery hours are Tues. thru Friday, from 3 - 6 pm; Sat. & Sun. from 1 - 5 pm. The gallery is closed on Mondays. There is no admission fee to the gallery but there may be a
charge for parking, especially on the weekends if there are other events  going on.

The Metro Exhibit is a professionally juried show with work in 17 visual arts categories. Place awards and merit awards of cash or gift certificates will be presented at the awards presentation. There are over 1,000 pieces of
art in this year's exhibit.

For additional information, please contact the APS Fine Arts office: 880-8249, ext. 340.

And while you are there, take a look at....

""Art is Elementary",  the annual display of art from APS elementary schools, which opened Friday, March 13 in the Indian Arts Gallery at the NM State Fair.
Sixty nine of the district's eighty seven elementary schools have work on display.
The exhibit has the same operating hours as the Metro Youth Art Exhibit: Tuesday - Friday from 3 - 6 pm and Saturday & Sunday from 1 - 5 pm. Sunday, April 5 will be the last day to see both shows.
Work from both exhibits is selected for display at the NM State Fair in the fall.

There is no gallery admission fee for "Art is Elementary" but there may be a parking fee if there are other events going on at the Fairgrounds.
For further information, call the APS Fine Arts office at 880-8249, et. 340.

Creative Drama and Reading Comprehension Integration!

Creative drama can be an effective tool for motivating children to read and for reinforcing their reading skills. It includes all four of the major language arts--listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Drama activities build such reading skills as vocabulary development, sentence and story comprehension, word meanings, visualization, and sentence recognition. The use of creative drama engages children as they improve such skills as visual and auditory discrimination, listening, oral expression, and articulation. 

Last year, a pilot group of 27 third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers from Sombra del Monte and Corrales spent part of their collaboration time in a study group exploring creative drama and reading comprehension.  Led by Erin K. Hulse, APS Drama Resource teacher and using the book A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension by Lenore Blank Kelner and Rosalind M. Flynn, teachers explored using drama as a means to differentiate reading instruction.  The book applies the frameworks from Keene and Zimmerman’s Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Reading Comprehension in a Reader’s Workshop.

Some of the comments from an end of the year survey were:

“Excellent information for drama/literacy integration.  The collaboration aspect of this study group was both rewarding and stimulating.”

“Learning comes alive using drama or integrating it with reading comprehension.”

 “Focus was as valuable as the reading comprehension.

 “Erin did a great job modeling and providing resources.  What was particularly awesome was her links to standards (she took LA standards and aligned drama activities).”

This year, some of the teachers from the pilot group will continue their investigation by implementing the drama techniques and assessing students’ progress.  It will be an exciting “Act 2”.

As for the continuation of “Act 1”, there will be a group of teachers who will begin their exploration of reading comprehension and creative drama for 2008-2009.  What an engaging way to differentiate instruction!

For more information about the book or the study  groups, contact Erin Hulse at the APS ARTS Center, 880-8249 ext 160!