Meaningful Inclusion: Engaging With Distinct and Focus Pathway Students in Visual Arts Classrooms

On Saturday March 8, The Creative Advantage hosted the 2nd annual Seattle Visual Arts Education Coalition Professional Development Day at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Our lead partner, the Seattle Art Museum worked with The Creative Advantage team to craft a day of learning for more than 50 visual arts educators that specifically delved into the topics SPS teachers and teaching artists from the Seattle community asked to explore. The event included access to the museum, lunch, and four workshops co-facilitated by visual arts partners and SPS educators: 

• Building Belonging, Agency, and Cultural Identity for Multilingual Learners in the Visual Arts Classroom: In this session, elementary visual arts teacher Julie Trout and multilingual specialist Nicole Shimizu, with a combined experience of over 50 years, collaborated to demonstrate how the Visual Arts Classroom is the perfect place for multilingual students at any stage of English language proficiency. This was an opportunity for attendees to experience Speech Emergence, step into the experience of multilingual students, and explore visual ways to share culture and identity.  

• Explore together art therapy modalities and the intersection of process-based classroom practices: This session led by Joanna Warren, art therapist, and Lauren Appel, Art/Maker Space Specialist with Seattle Public Schools, allowed participants to take inspiration from artwork on display in the museum and create their own process-based sculptures using materials that utilize the theme of transformation and embodiment.

• Implementing Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB) Across Classroom and Informal Learning Settings: This workshop, led by West Seattle High School art teacher Mary Howard Logel and teaching artist Alicia Betty, explored strategies for integrating the TAB approach. TAB is a student-centered pedagogy that promotes choice-based learning, empowering students to think and work like artists. The workshop provided educators with approaches to foster creativity, independence, and problem-solving skills in their students.

• Meaningful Inclusion: Engaging With Distinct and Focus Pathway Students in Visual Arts Classrooms: Led by Alison Spencer, Michelle Bammert, and Melissa Baron, Seattle Public Schools Special Education Specialists from the Northwest, Northeast, and Southeast regions, this workshop was designed to be a space to learn, share ideas, and problem-solve with colleagues. The special education team gave an overview of special education, shared attributes for students in the intensive special education pathways (distinct and focus), and shared strategies specific to visual arts that support student learning and inclusion.

Photos by Tina LaPadula.