A Fourteen Week Art Residency at PS62Q

PS62Q

I am for the next fourteen weeks the teaching artist-in-residence from Studio in a School at PS62Q in Queens, NY. This school has a population of students, K-5, who do not speak English as a first language and receive ENL ( English as a New Language) services from a specialized team of teachers who provide this instruction.

Recently PS62Q was given a grant to partner with Studio in a School. This non-profit arts organization has over 40 years experience working with NYC public schools and has been instrumental in helping the NYC DOE to create the first comprehensive NYC Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Visual Arts. Among other programs, it has provided English Language Learners attending Title 1 public schools with a sensory-rich expression and skill building experiences that scaffold language development. Studio's three-part lessons engage students in deep looking, making and responding to art. Student visual and language literacy is developed in tandem, ideas are expressed through visual imagery and with the artist's and teacher's help, ELL's learn to describe what they have expressed visually. Sequential lessons and multi-step procedures help to develop higher thinking skills and utilize literacy beyond vocabulary development; such as audience and the meaning of communication. This grant will provide professional development workshops for the entire school, parent engagements and a culminating student art exhibition, to share learning with the entire school community.