Just as we learn through experience, multi-year projects learn from previous years implementations. The Best of Buena Vista is a multi-year project that continues to build momentum each year it is repeated. Project leaders built on their success, addressed past challenges, and incorporated new opportunities and ideas.
Located in Buena Vista, VA, the project team at Parry McCluer High School sought to collaborate with their community to create optimism by celebrating the The Best of Buena Vista.
The goals of “The Best of BV” were to expand the current program of weekly video announcements made by and for the PMHS student body. In the second year of the project, the team built on the excitement and eagerness of new and returning students in their Blue Library and Film/TV classes. At the request of the their students, they sought to provide additional inter-generational opportunities and experiences utilizing film and written media.
The project aspired to disrupt the negative small-town mindset as their students engaged in interviewing adults about their positive contributions to the community.
The team also wanted to allow their students to benefit economically as they increased their communication, writing, and storytelling skills, while practicing responsibility and accountability.
What progress did they make towards their goals?
The project continued to make progress towards all of their goals. They Best of Buena Vista established and produced a regular pattern of publication which included promoting student achievement.
The negative small-town mindset continued to be disrupted as students connected with community members and created platforms of growth for both students and elders. PMHS students have a stronger connection to their school and community though the deep and meaningful relationships they have created with the community elders. Project lead, Rishi Richardson, reports that every experience has been richly rewarding as each interview and interaction is met with surprise and delight by all the participants.
Academic opportunities for their students have expanded while the students and community members are empowered was a new, positive perspective. Students are becoming progressive story tellers of their communities’ rich and complex history. Furthermore, the elders in the community also learn as they are excited to access their interview on social media and share with others.
What did students learn while participating in and producing The Best of Buena Vista?
PMHS students learned how to use camera equipment and practiced being in front of the camera. They increased their communication skills, writing skills and confidence through mentoring, interviewing, filming, creating content, and successfully producing film and writing products for “the Best of BV”. One student who needed help to write a paragraph when she first started the program is now completing rough drafts on her own! Another student with developmental challenges has gained confidence and improved his ability to share his ideas in front of the camera.
What challenges did they face and how did addressing these challenges shape future plans for the project?
From slowing down the project to a snail’s pace to stopping the project in its tracks, COVID and COVID related restrictions continued to be a major challenge for the project team Addressing these challenges head on, the project leaders rethought and reorganized how the project moved forward. They consulted closed with the communities’ elders and created contracts with students to complete the unfinished work from this year’s project.
After meeting with the communities’ elders, the project team revised their methods and took two directions towards completing their project goals. After all, “the Best of BV” was contributing to an optimistic mindset for the community, they could not let COVID hinder the momentum. The first direction was to continue interviewing elders as they have done in the past. The second direction was to create teams of students who would study one aspect of the community more deeply and for a longer period of time. Aspects of the community that have been studied thus far include the Buena Vista Colored School (a place where African-Americans attended school under segregation) and the Paxton House (a home built in the 1800’s which has been restored).
Both directions have been successful. In the first direction, community elders stepped forward to share their experiences with the students. In the second direction, student commitment to the project increased. So much so, project leaders have decided to expand the project into the summer months and the students are excited to participate!
Plans for the future
As students take on more responsibility, become more courageous, and find their inner voice, they are beginning to look for ways to shape the town’s future. With COVID restrictions starting to relax, community elders have once again come to the school to have conversations with the students.
The program is looking forward to the next school year and anticipate that the students will continue to grow and succeed in their participation. We at McCarthy Dressman Education Foundation are excited to see how “the Best of BV” continues to positively impact the students and community!
The project team is thrilled to share this video describing their accomplishments.
At many schools with a large bilingual population, student’s cultural and linguistic resources must guide instruction in order for children of color to find success in the current educational system. Caroline Sweet and her colleagues at Perez Elementary School in Austin, TX hoped to develop on site a model of writers’ workshop that embraces bilingualism and incorporates students’ cultural backgrounds. They believed that what is developed at Perez can guide other campuses desiring a high-quality bilingual writers’ workshop as a model for developing students’ written expression while simultaneously giving students agency in their learning.
Implement a writers’ workshop model in language arts instruction across the campus in Kindergarten through 5th grade.
As Caroline’s school has a strong dual language program, they needed to merge their dual language program model with the tenets of writers’ workshop to reflect the biliteracy development of their students as readers and writers.
Caroline also wanted to ensure their students develop a positive self-identity throughout their school experience. To accomplish this goal, they used culturally-relevant literature as mentor texts throughout writers’ workshop.
What was their process to accomplish their goals?
They consulted with the Heart of Texas Writing Project (HTWP) at the University of Texas to train K-2 teachers on the foundational concepts of writers workshop.
They partnered with the Austin Independent School District to provide, two full-day professional development sessions to where their consultant from the HTWP and a language arts curriculum specialist from the district trained K-2nd grade teachers on writers’ workshop as this method of teaching was new to most of the teachers in the sessions.
The trainers of the professional development sessions modeled lesson ands and teachers watched writers’ workshop mini-lessons conducted by their colleagues.
Caroline co-taught with a first grade teacher for a week long unit.
Their consultant from the HTWP co-taught with a first grade teacher once a week for 6 weeks.
Their first grade team members provided peer observations frequently.
What did they accomplish?
They have helped teachers change their mindset about what is writingWriting helps students discover their voicesthrough lengthy conversations among colleagues about how letter formation and handwriting is an element of instruction outside of the writers’ workshop. They are working on valuing the production of our emergent writers.
They celebrated the writing products of their youngest writers with writing displays and held celebratory publishing parties in K-2 in which parents and community members were invited to read students published work
The built a community that continually supports teachers
Next steps:
Caroline has planned a full day planning session with their constant from the HTWP.
Caroline and their consultant from the HTWP have invited all K-5th grade teachers to attend two trainings in which the goal of the trainings is for teachers to create at least a two week unit based on a genre study framework.
Some of the teachers at Perez Elementary school submitted proposals to present at professional conferences regarding the writers’ workshop methods they are using their classroom. They hoped they will grow many teacher leaders.
Several of the teachers have been accepted to the Heart of Texas Writers Project Summer Training Program, which is part of the National Writing Project to further their knowledge and training in the teaching of writers.
Culturally-relevant literature supports students in developing a positive self-identity
What are their ideas for improvement?
Peer Observation: continue more focused peer observations in K-2nd grades that include debriefs to allow for support especially in content focused coaching and utilize explicit protocols that involve pre-conferences, observation, and post conferences
Evaluation of Student Products: Allow for planning time to continue to create and improve the rubric for K-2nd grades and then create the differentiated rubric for 3rd-5th graders. Further discussion and planning should occur regarding language of choice and building opportunities to create variety in audience choice.
Buy-in: some teachers were ready and willing to try new ways of teaching based on the training they received. Some teachers had more difficulty understanding the need for writers workshop in their classroom. They would like to create a shared mission to allow students to guide learning and implement responsive teaching practices.
Planning: More planning time was needed to create units with culturally relevant texts to give students experience in a variety of genres. They are thinking the planning component with culturally-relevant texts might need to occur as part of their professional development days.
Collaboration with Biliteracy Committee: They will work with the biliteracy committee to add writers’ workshop into the biliteracy framework as an essential pedagogical element in each classroom whether the classroom is a dual language classroom or not. They would like to define how they use language in the writers’ workshop that promotes biliteracy.
Members of Tucson’s Mariachi Casabel Youth Organization take pride in new costumes and higher grades
Photo courtesy of Mariachi Cascabel Youth Organization
Last year the McCarthey Dressman Education Foundation funded the Mariachi Cascabel Youth Organization (MCYO), an innovative program attempting to combine academics with community engagement using music, specifically Mariachi music, as the binding agent. With Tucson’s Sunnyside Unified School District’s diminished music budgets there didn’t seem to be much hope for the group, especially since they needed new costumes. For mariachi, image is just as important as musical ability. Their costumes, called Trajes de Charro, don’t come cheap, especially if you want quality and authenticity. Organizer Daniel Dong proposed a unique project for improving not only the image of the musicians but also their success in math and science. Funded in 2013 by the McCarthey Dressman Education Foundation, this unique and special music education program has already made an exceptional impact.
Photo courtesy of Mariachi Cascabel Youth Organization
Setting the tone for academic success
Research has indicated that students that who receive music education tend to do better, across the board, academically. This program takes it a step further by including a cultural component that has true community value. Daniel Dong’s idea was to help the Mariachi Cascabal Youth Organization Program, serving a primarily Hispanic district, be available to play in the community for all the most important celebrations. Even before funding they were able to play at a number of events including the Annual Latina Breast Cancer Conference and Mexican Mother’s Day festivals. He also coordinated within the school district to help MCYO get regular gigs at school carnivals and other related events.
Because within the district there is no other program like this, demand to get in is high. Here’s where the alignment with academics found a harmonious fit. The program instituted a requirement where students must retain passing grades or seek tutoring for those subjects. Now, not only were the students getting the benefits of a musical education, they were also more motivated to perform well in their other courses.
Costumes and instruments build pride, Tutors nurture brains
Because looking authentic was important for their success as legitimate mariachis within the community, the Foundation’s investment also went toward new costumes for the organization. They have currently received sixteen out of seventeen Trajes and are just waiting for the final jacket to come in to make their ensemble complete. The funding also provided new instruments for the group including two Prelude Violins, two Michoacána Vihuelas and four Yamaha Guitars from a local music company. Furthermore, students received three digital video cameras from Walmart to help document their experiments with the MCYO.
While a couple of students have fallen behind in their other academic courses, the tutors in math and science that have been provided are helping them reach their academic goals. In September, they held a large parent meeting to inform students and parents of all the benefits students receive by being involved in the MCYO. The prospects laid out got many parents excited which in turn helps the students realize the value of such a program.
Photo courtesy of Mariachi Cascabel Youth Organization
There were, as always, some unexpected but not insurmountable costs. Trajes wear out quickly and they found they needed to bring their tailor up from Mexico City to do the measurements to make sure they got the highest quality Trajes. The Trajes were completed and shipped back to America in late April.
Culturally relevant music education and tutoring add up to better grades
From the beginning, the educators responsible for this project saw the value of a tutor. While the students were less than happy, initially, about being required to attend tutoring and a few stopped coming due to the requirements, many of those students returned and participated in the tutoring and watched their grades improve – a win for everyone involved.
Project educators also reported on how they could improve on this project for the next school year. Though they noted how enthusiastic parents were about tutoring, they couldn’t help but acknowledge how adverse the students were to it. They discussed ways to better sell that idea to students, so that this program and others patterned after it would find a lot more success. There were also important considerations that could be fine tuned in the future, such as streamlining the auditions, assessment of initial abilities and tutoring placement procedures.
Anecdotally, Daniel Dong reported, one of the biggest challenges was procuring the Trajes, which took about six months to obtain. Because they were authentically handmade in Mexico, however, the time was worth the wait.
All in all, the MCYO has been successful with their approach to using music education and tutoring to improve student success and creativity. They are on track to meet and exceed their proposed goal “to acquire mariachi outfits and musical instruments to help motivate students to be more engaged in their academics and to be positive role models in their community.”
What did the students have to say about their work?
MCYO members wrote about their experiences in the program and about attending the Tucson International Mariachi Conference.
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Similar programs could be proposed in your other schools; take advantage of your local musical genres that impact your community the way that Mariachi music does in Tucson, Arizona, will be your real challenge.
For more information on the magic of music in academic enrichment, read on:
McCarthey Dressman Education Foundation 