COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

Inclusive Arts
Teaching and Learning Examples

Program Overview
VoiceThread
Narrated Slideshow

Program Description

The Communities of Practice program provides ongoing professional development opportunities for teaching artists who work with students with disabilities. The core purpose of this VSA program is to cultivate meaningful professional discussion about student learning, universally designed curriculum, differentiated instruction, and assessment. This discussion is grounded in reviews of curriculum documents and student learning evidence in relation to content standards.

In the Communities of Practice, participants generate, evaluate, and share valuable curriculum knowledge with their colleagues. Expert instructional coaches and participants exchange feedback on their curriculum, assessment tools, and student work samples using a range of online and tele-conferencing tools.

The Communities of Practice is meant to be an enhancement of existing professional development for teaching artists in the VSA program and domestic affiliate networks. This year (Fall 2009-Spring 2010), teams from our Teaching Artist Fellowships and affiliates in Florida, Massachusetts, Mississippi, and Texas are participating.

Program Outcomes

The aim of the program is to support educators to design high quality, inclusive arts learning opportunities for students. The program supports participants to:

Design engaging, flexible, and meaningful standards-based arts curriculum.
Design valid assessment tools to inform differentiated instruction.
Collect and document student learning evidence.
Share insights about student learning and useful inclusive instructional strategies with the field of education.