School & project description
Arizona Commission on the Arts
Agua Fria High School
Avondale, Arizona
How would you describe your school?
Agua Fria High School, with a student body of 1,300, is located
in Avondale, Arizona, a small town 15 miles west of Phoenix.
Each high school in the district offers distinct career pathways.
Students select their campus and courses based on their career
interests. Courses offered are directly related to the pathways
located at each school.
The ethnically diverse student body consists of both college-
and non-college bound students. Although most are on the lower
end of the economic ladder, a considerable number come from the
upper middle class as well. There are only a few special education
and ESL students in the classes included in the project.
What grade levels and disciplines are involved?
The project comprises Theatre II, Theatre III, Tech Theatre,
Advanced Global Studies, and Advanced English II.
Careers explored include historian, museum curator, dramaturg,
artisan/crafter, performer, artist, photographer, media specialist,
set designer, display technician, costume designer, museum worker,
critic, dramatist, librarian, conservationist, and advertiser.
The theatre classes are electives chosen by students who are
following the fine arts pathway. The Global Studies and English
classes are requirements for graduation; advanced students have
the option of selecting this advanced class. Many of them are
also theatre students.
What is the composition of your teacher team?
There are two teachers currently involved in this project. Ms.
Linda Phillips teaches the theatre classes and Ms. Peggy Wrhel
teaches the Integrated Global Studies/English class.
Ms. Phillips is working on her second Master's degree in Interdisciplinary
Studies with a Theatre emphasis. She has taught at Agua Fria for
twelve years and is a native Arizonan. Ms. Wrhel is very interested
in cultural anthropology; she has lived on two Native American
reservations and in Africa. In addition, she has traveled extensively
and has visited museums throughout the world.
What State Standards are addressed?
Media Studies addresses the following standards listed at this
site:
http//:www.nwrel.org/ecc/new_humanities/arizona/standards.html
What kind of credit does the project carry?
All the classes meet college-entry requirements.
Global Studies and English are core courses. The theatre classes
are electives that meet the fine arts requirement for graduation
and college entrance. What are the roles, if any, of community
partners?
The project's community partners include a number of guest
speakers both at the school and at the museums we plan to tour.
All will be asked to address job opportunities, training, benefits,
and compensation, as well as criteria used for selecting artifacts,
display techniques, care ofartifacts, etc.
How do students spend their time on this project?
In this project, students will study a period of history and
read relevant literary selections from and about the period
in their Global Studies/English class. In the theatre classes,
students will explore theatre history.
Then, they will identify artifacts that typify the period for
inclusion in the classroom museum.
They will create replicas of these artifacts and decide on
an appropriate way to display them. An artifact may be a concrete
object or a live (videotaped) performance. For instance, one
student may construct a model of a "Hooverville," while another
may sing "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime" to typify the Great
Depression. One group may paint a picture of the tearing down
of the Berlin Wall to represent the reunification of Germany;
another may reenact the event.
After creating their artifact, students will defend their choice
orally and/or in writing and write an appropriate exposition
to be placed with the artifact.
Working in collaboration with others, they will decide how
best to display the project that allows the viewer to understand
and appreciate its significance within the era.
Students will also determine how to care for the items on display.
Historical periods may include the Enlightenment, the Industrial
Revolution, the Age of Imperialism, World War I and its Aftermath,
the Cold War, and Current Events. The actual number of eras
will be monitored and adjusted during the pilot year.
In the future, photography classes and technology classes may
become involved in posting the classroom museum on the Agua
Fria Web page.
How did you evaluate your curriculum?
Prior to beginning the unit, we will administer a pretest to
determine skill levels in the identified State Standards. At the
conclusion of the unit, there will be posttest measuring the same
skills. We expect 100 percent of the students to show growth.
What resources would other teachers need to accomplish this
project?
It would be possible to implement this unit without ever leaving
the classroom using virtual museums, magazine articles, textbooks,
etc.
Field trips to a number of museums and cultural events will
be an integral part of our unit. While Agua Fria High School
will provide buses and classroom release time, we will need
to search for sources offending for entrance fees and other
project-related expenses. Although we have found several inexpensive
and free field trip sites, the amount of funding we can secure
will determine the actual number of cultural experiences we
can provide.
For some students to participate fully, materials may needed
to be provided.
What other information would you pass along to teachers?
Be creative. Encourage your students to explore new techniques
and consider options.
Three things important to our success would include:
1. Apply for monetary grants and alternative sources of funding
such as discounts and /or matching firnds from museums and
cultural centers
2. Look for dynamic speakers who can bring history and culture
to life for your students.
3. Become acquainted with your community and its resources.
For example, a local hotel in our community is home to a free
Bible museum whose curator will serve as a guest speaker for
our project.
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