Arts Integration with the Kennedy Center

Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA)

Lafayette is an official CETA partner school with the Kennedy Center. Arts integration is the natural, meaningful connection between various art forms and other subject areas typically studied during the school year. It encourages students to see the inter-connectedness among disciplines while motivating further learning. In addition, arts integration recognizes that children learn in many different ways and allows students to experience a subject through an array of different media.

Many teachers at Lafayettehave undergone ayearlong course focusing on the integration of the arts into the elementary school curriculum. A program of teacher workshops, followed by artist visits to individual classrooms, allows teachers to learn arts integration strategies using their own classroom activities as the foundation. Several nationally recognized artist educators meet with the teachers one-on-one to discuss teaching strategies and modeling lessons. Each teacher participates in all of the general overview workshops and then has the opportunity to select one of the artists for more in-depth work in the classroom.

Many opportunities are scheduled for students to have close contact with artists and authors. These include:

• In-school performances by members of the National Symphony Orchestra, the StepAfrica dance troupe, and many other performing arts groups and individuals
  
  
• Politics & Prose Bookstore author talks
  
  
• Imagination Stage theater performances
  
  
• Visits by a variety of authors and artists throughout the school year.