As the culmination of last year’s project, students created books documenting their Troy neighborhoods which they shared with Troy Mayor Lou Rosamillia during a June 2014 ceremony at Carroll Hill Elementary School.
Questar III’s Arts and Enrichment program helps schools integrate the arts into classroom learning through its facilitation of visiting artists and arts and cultural partnerships.
Since 2006, Questar III BOCES has supported a partnership between the Albany Institute of History and Art and the Troy City School District.
This partnership helps students and their teachers use the book arts as a forum for student creativity, guiding them through the artistic process, developing critical thinking and problem solving skills, and supporting learning in English language arts (ELA), social studies, science and math.
Initially working with fourth grade classes at Troy’s Carroll Hill Elementary School, the Book Arts program has grown to encompass all fourth and five grade classes in the district’s five elementary buildings. It is funded in part by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.
During past visits to the Albany Institute, students made decorative papers and learned about historic and contemporary book forms.
The Albany Institute program embraces differentiated learning and sustains student engagement across sequential lessons including instruction in observational drawing and assemblage. Each classroom receives 10 contact hours of arts integrated learning and all teachers participate in a one day professional development at the Albany Institute focusing on integrating arts and object-based learning into the Common Core.
The arts-in-education program includes five in-class lessons and two museum visits.
During their first visit to the Albany Institute, students see exhibitions and make a blank portfolio book with a decorative paper-covered board. During their second visit they see an additional exhibition and look at rare books in the Albany Institute’s library.
Troy elementary students learn drawing skills as a documentary process from three different perspectives: naturalists, architects, and archaeologists. Teachers then lead two ELA lessons in which students create captions for their drawings.
During the final classroom lesson students share their artwork with their classmates. They will also select one page for digitization that will be shared on the Albany Institute’s and the school websites.
Questar III’s Arts in Education and Exploratory Enrichment programs offer local school districts a wide variety of resources that support student achievement, including an online Arts in Education Resource Directory.
Both programs manage consultant payment/BOCES aid for workshops, performances and residencies in addition to providing program planning and development assistance upon request.
