Peforming Arts Program
Since 2008, the Teachers College Performing Arts Series (PAS) has brought over 5,000 children and their teachers from 25 Harlem schools onto campus to see children's opera, theater and music.
The PAS reaches schools that serve high-poverty immigrant populations and children who are statistically likely to underachieve and drop out. It gives children who might otherwise never see live performing arts, the opportunity to attend regular productions given by high-quality performers. It also provides teachers with curriculum materials, lesson plans and resources to support the integration of music/theater education into the core subject areas.
The Series provides a repertoire of music and theater that reflects the diversity of the audience and builds creative educational connections for children outside of the traditional academic context. Productions address relevant academic and social topics, such as immigration, social justice, and history, among others. Supporting classroom materials, developed by a team of graduate students from across the academic departments, link the themes and concepts of the performances with the learning experience with New York State standards and help teachers prepare for and follow-up the performances.
Through collaboration with Columbia Global Centers, Teachers College is expanding and enriching components of the Performing Arts Series that speak to global and international learning. Specifically, two of the performances held in the spring semester of 2011 focused on themes that examine historical and social issues in different cultures around the world, and the classroom materials for all four contained lesson plans on topics related to global issues.
Published Friday, Jan. 27, 2012