Professional Development & IES Grant Information Session
For Teaching Artists

LIMITED SPACE AVAILABLE!

This is one of two sessions for teaching artists interested in learning more about the Creative Arts Team’s Early Learning Program’s signature strategy, Interactive Storytelling, as well as their teacher-mentoring work through the New York City Community Trust’s Astor Grant. Information will be provided about the upcoming US/Institute of Education Sciences Grant. Attendees should only attend one session. To sign up for the January 27th Session instead, click here.

When:
Saturday, January 20, 2017
9:30am - 1:30pm
PLEASE BRING WITH YOU: Updated teaching artist resume, headshot, proof of being finger-printed by the DOE, 3 references (names, emails, phone numbers), and, if you have an advanced degree, proof of that degree. 

Where:
101* W 31st Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10001
(*Please note that while it does say 101 on the glass doors of our building, 875 Avenue of the Americas is displayed more prominantly.)

ABOUT: Currently, the Astor Grant employs six teaching artists who are contracted to 25 hours of work per week (as Part-time A employees, our teaching artists receive health insurance). Monday afternoons are devoted to professional developments at six DOE schools, Tuesday-Thursday mornings are in-school days working with K-2nd Grade students, and Fridays are in-office planning and rehearsal days. The Early Learning Program (ELP) will be submitting for the IES Grant for the 2018-2019 school year, and will seek to expand its teaching artist cohort to adminster similar services to that of the Astor Grant. To support this work, we hope to invite 8-10 teaching artists from these two sessions to participate in a 30-hour paid training from February - June. This can include further training in interactive storytelling, in-school observation, research in early childhood literacy, and participation in professional developments.

  

 

 

 

 

Interactive storytelling is more creating a story than it is reading a story. While typically based on pre-existing picture books, interactive storytelling allows young people an opportunity to shape and influence a story by giving them an active, participatory role in the storytelling process. As the storyteller tells the story, s/he provides engaging and specific opportunities for the young people to become co-creators of the story as it unfolds. The storyteller invites the young people to offer their ideas, thoughts, and opinions to the story, which are then incorporated into the tale. Strategies for this include call and repeat phrases, chants, repeated physical gestures, and open-ended questions. These strategies are also used to engage active listening and active participation throughout the course of the story. By inviting the young people to collaborate in the storytelling process, the storyteller is providing an exciting and participant-centered learning experience in which skills such as verbalization, language acquisition, rhythm visualization, imagination, and problem-solving are developed.

CAT develops most of our interactive stories from published children's storybooks, which are then adapted by our teaching artists for use in early learning classrooms. In many cases, after the story is shared, the young people are introduced to the book that the story was adapted from. The young people are then encouraged to compare and contrast the story and the text, allowing them to further develop the relationships between imagination, stories, and books.

Led by Helen Wheelock, Director of the Early Learning Program

 

 CAT (CUNY - Creative Arts Team) uses the power of drama to inspire lives. 
Click here to learn more.