Through a partnership team comprised of Chautauqua Institution, Jamestown Public Schools and the Chautauqua Lake Central School District, visiting artists recognized by John F. Kennedy Partners in Education Institute organize professional development workshops for district teachers. Following the most recent workshop on Tuesday, Deborah Sunya Moore, Kennedy artist and vice president of Performing and Visual Arts at Chautauqua Institution, demonstrated a lesson plan in classrooms at Love Elementary on Wednesday. Moore said the focus of the lesson plans is on arts integration. P-J photos by Jordan W. Patterson

Deborah Sunya Moore, vice president of Performing Visual Arts at Chautauqua Institution, sang along with Pre-Kindergarten students inside Love Elementary School who is a visiting artist from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Partners in Education Program. While following along to the book being read, students participated in the interactive experience by singing along, answering questions and physically mimicking certain actions occurring in the story.

The partnership team comprised of Chautauqua Institution, Jamestown Public Schools and the Chautauqua Lake Central School District allows for visiting artists from the Kennedy Center to orchestrate professional development workshops for area teachers and then use the lesson plans in classrooms within the districts. Throughout the week, Moore instructed various classes ranging from Pre-K to third grade.

“Through this project we provide five professional development workshops throughout the year for teachers,” Moore said. “(The workshops) are all (conducted by) Kennedy Center teaching artists.”

Moore managed a workshop on Tuesday at Ring Elementary where teachers from Chautauqua Lake and Jamestown were invited to attend. Additionally, Moore was present at Ring throughout the day giving various lessons plans as she did on Wednesday at Love.

Moore said the primary goal is to instruct local teachers on how to integrate the arts into lesson plans.

“(With) arts integration you take one subject area and an arts area and you explore those connections,” Moore said.

The workshop and lesson plan Moore instructed was titled “Sing Me A Story.” In a classroom on Wednesday, Moore read “Way Down Deep In The Deep Blue Sea” out loud to students while singing. Moore said the exercise implemented music arts and English Language Arts. The singing aspect introduced basic elements of pitch, echo, call and response and steady beat, she said.

Teachers who attended the workshop the night before were able to learn the lesson plan Moore taught and then observe her use the plan firsthand the following day in the classroom. Teachers who attend the workshops are given professional development credits as well. The workshop on Tuesday saw 30 local teachers attend. Moore presented three lesson plans that incorporated a blend of traditional curriculum and arts integration. She also allows the teachers to brainstorm their own ideas for incorporating the different style of instruction into lesson plans of their own creation.

“Our hope is that (the teachers) are learning about arts integration as a new strategy for teaching in the classroom,” Moore said.