North Carolina Wolf Trap
North Carolina Wolf Trap, a Program of ASC, is a regional site for the acclaimed Wolf Trap Early Learning Through the Arts Program. The program brings performing artists into Pre-Kindergarten classes for a seven-week residency. North Carolina Wolf Trap partners with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) to bring the program to Bright Beginnings classes within CMS and More-at-Four classes in Mecklenburg County.
Working in partnership with CMS and the Wolf Trap Institute, North Carolina Wolf Trap incorporates the arts into the Bright Beginnings Pre-K program, and connects with the OWL literacy-based curriculum used by CMS. Wolf Trap is also aligned with the Common Core State Standards for Pre-K as developed by the CMS Pre-K Department. Through active engagement and collaboration with teaching artists in music, drama, and creative movement, early childhood professionals gain a hands-on understanding of the connection between developmentally appropriate performing arts experiences and the acceleration of children’s learning.
During the residencies, teaching artists visit each classroom twice weekly and collaborate with the Pre-K teacher to guide children in arts experiences that support the learning of key academic and developmental concepts.
North Carolina Wolf Trap works with CMS to determine which sites will receive the program each year. Each Wolf Trap site stays with the program for three consecutive years, ensuring that each classroom teacher will work with three different artists and that each teacher will have gained the capacity to regularly plan more effective arts experiences to strengthen teaching and learning.
Goals of Wolf Trap
- To impact student learning through arts integration
- To provide professional development to teachers in their own classrooms with their own students
- To work with teachers and parents to develop methods of making the arts a part of their daily interaction with children
Wolf Trap Model
- Partnership between a professional Wolf Trap Teaching Artist and an Early Childhood teacher
- Preparation for residency includes planning meeting with teacher and teaching artist and classroom observation by teaching artist
- Teacher participation involves being actively involved in creating and leading arts-based activities
- Seven-week residency includes 14 sessions
Partnership Between Teacher and Teaching Artist
The Wolf Trap Institute Residency is a partnership between a Wolf Trap Teaching Artist and an Early Childhood teacher to provide professional development for teachers while helping children learn through active participation. Classroom experiences in a Wolf Trap Residency will focus on performing arts-based strategies that teachers can use to foster young children’s learning and development. Classroom experiences in the Residency will support early childhood curriculum goals and outcomes.
The Seven-Week Residency Structure
Pre-Residency Planning Session: This planning meeting between the Wolf Trap Teaching Artist and the classroom teacher provides an opportunity for the Teaching Artist and classroom teacher to meet one-on-one.
Classroom Observation: The Teaching Artist arranges with the teacher for a time when the artist can visit the residency classroom.
- Sessions 1 – 9: Teaching Artist teaches 30-minute classroom sessions with the teacher and teacher assistant participating in the performing arts strategies. A 15 minute collaborative planning and reflection meeting between the teacher and teaching artist follows each lesson. As the residency progresses, the artist will involved the teacher more and more in leading the arts experiences with the children.
- Session 10: Teachers and Teaching Artist plan together for the first teacher-led lesson.
- Session 11: Teaching Artist supports teacher in a teacher-led lesson.
- Session 12: Teacher and Teaching Artist plan together for a second teacher-led lesson.
- Session 13: Teaching Artist supports teacher in a teacher-led lesson.
- Session 14: Teaching Artist teaches “Good-bye” lesson to conclude the residency.
- Main Activity
- Review of Material Presented
- Follow-up for Teachers to Use Between Visits Important Lesson Characteristics
- Each lesson builds upon previous lesson to develop the children’s skills and creativity
- Each lesson should have a unifying theme, and each lesson part should address the theme — – the theme is chosen as a result of the teacher/artist partnership.
For more information about North Carolina Wolf Trap, contact Kathryn Bentley at email@example.com or call 704-335-3047.
Read With Love
Read With Love is a workshop that teaches adult caregivers how to be more eﬀective when reading with children. Learn more.
To schedule a Read With Love workshop, contact Kathryn Bentley at firstname.lastname@example.org or call 704-335-3047.