Class/Course Descriptions 

Critical Links, a compendium of 62 outstanding arts education studies and interpretive essays, is published by the Arts Education Partnership (AEP), a coalition of more than 100 national education, arts, philanthropic, and government organizations.  Critical Links reveals the important relationships between learning in the arts and cognitive capacities (thinking skills) and motivations that underlie academic achievements and effective social behaviors.  The studies suggest that for students from economically disadvantaged circumstances, students needing remedial instruction, and young children, learning in the arts may be especially helpful in boosting learning and achievement.  There are critical links between learning in the arts and academic and social skills and motivations in six major areas: 

1.      Reading and Language Development

a.       Basic Reading Skills – Certain forms of arts instruction enhance and complement basic reading instruction aimed at help children “break the phonetic code” that unlocks written language by associating letter, words and phrases with sounds, sentences and meanings.

b.      Literacy – Young children who engage in dramatic enactment of stories and text improve their reading comprehension, story understanding and ability to read new materials that they have not seen before.

c.       Writing – Spatial reasoning skills inherent in learning music are needed for planning and producing writing.  Dramatic enactments by young children also are shown to produce more effective writing.  Other arts learning experience – in dance and drama for instance – develop expressive and reflective skills that enhance writing proficiency.

2.      Mathematics – Certain music instruction, including comprehensive instruction that includes training in keyboard skills, develops spatial reasoning and spatial-temporal reasoning skills which are fundamental to understanding and using mathematical ideas and concepts.

3.      Fundamental Cognitive Skills and Capacities – Learning in individual art forms as well as in multi-arts experiences engages and strengthens such fundamental cognitive capacities such as spatial reasoning (the capacity for organizing and sequencing ideas); conditional reasoning (theorizing about outcomes and consequences; problem solving; and the components of creative thinking (originality, elaboration, flexibility)

4.      Motivations to Learn – Motivation and the attitudes and dispositions to pursue and sustain learning are essential to achievement.  Learning in the arts nurtures these capacities, including active engagement, self-confidence and self-efficacy, and increases in attendance, education aspirations and ownership of learning.

5.      Effective Social Behavior – Studies of student learning experiences in drama, music, dance and multi-arts activities show student growth in self-control, conflict resolution, collaboration, empathy and social tolerance.

6.      School Environment – It is critical that a school provide a positive context for learning.  Studies in the Compendium show that the arts help to create the kind of learning environment that is conducive to teacher and student success by fostering teacher innovation, a positive professional culture, community engagement, increased student attendance and retention, effective instructional practice and school identity.

The chart below from James Catterall’s essay, “The Arts and the Transfer of Learning” in the research compendium Critical Links, separates out the outcomes for each art form (drama, multi-arts, music, dance and visual arts) into two areas:  1) outcomes related to cognitive capacities; and 2) outcomes related to student motivation. 

Foluké Cultural Arts Centers’ implementation of its ArtsLinc program has adopted the Wiggins-McTighe concept of ‘Backwards Design’ curriculum.  The Backwards Design model centers on the idea that the design process should begin with identifying the desired results and then “work backwards” to develop instruction rather than the traditional approach which is to define what topics need to be covered. The framework of the design model identifies three stages:

Stage One: Identify the desired result – What should the students know, understand, and be able to do?;

Stage Two: Determine Acceptable Evidence – How will we know if the students have achieved the desired result?  Foluké Cultural Arts Centers’ current three arts disciplines (Dance, Theater, Visual Arts), utilize benchmarks from five Ohio Department of Education (ODE) Fine Arts Standards which are interrelated, each contributing to a comprehensive arts education:

1. Historical, Cultural and Social Contexts – Students understand the impact of art forms on the history, culture and society from which it emanates.  They understand the cultural, social and political forces that, in turn, shape art communication and expression.  Students identify the significant contributions of artists to cultural heritage.  They analyze the historical, cultural, social and political contexts that influence the function and role of art in the lives of people
2. Creative Expression and Communication – Students create artworks that demonstrate the understanding of materials, processes, tools, media, techniques and available technology.  They understand how to use art elements, principles and images to communicate their ideas in a variety of forms.
3. Analyzing and Responding – Students identify and discriminate themes, media, subject matter and formal technical and expressive aspects in works of art.  They understand and use the vocabulary of art criticism to describe visual features, analyze relationships and interpret meaning in works of art.  Students make judgments about the quality of works of art using the appropriate criteria.
4. Valuing the Arts/Aesthetic Reflection – Students understand why people value the arts.  They present their beliefs about the nature and significance of selected artworks and the reasons for holding these beliefs.  Students reflect on and respect diverse points of view about the arts.
5. Connections, Relationships, and Applications – Students connect and apply learning in each arts discipline to other academic disciplines and to relevant careers.  They recognize the importance of lifelong learning and experiences in the arts. 

Stage 3: Plan Learning Experience and Instruction - In this stage it is determined what sequence of teaching and learning experiences will equip students to develop and demonstrate the desired understanding. 

 It is the specific goal of the ArtsLinc program to help children to:

And, Value the arts.
Switch roles as a performer and a viewer; articulate how this affects the performance and viewing of the work

The arts prepare students for school, work and life: As this country works to strengthen its foothold in the global economy, the arts equip student with a creative, competitive edge. To be successful in today’s economy of ideas, students must masterfully use words, images, sounds, and motion to communicate. The arts provide the skills and knowledge students need to develop the creativity and determination necessary for success.

Of the 3 grade schools (George Washington Carver, Stokes Academy, and Marion-Sterling) in the Central Promise Area, all are reported to be in Academic Watch or Academic Emergency Status, and Foluké Cultural Arts goal is to be a catalyst to help raise Academic achievements of Central students.   Foluké theater or drama classes start with games such as: ‘simon sez’ to hone in on listening and observation skills, and following directions: ‘This is a what’ is a game that hones in on focus and concentration skills: Students also participate in interactive story telling depicting an African cultural or historical event, where they are assigned a character in the story, and a task to complete each time that character’s name is mentioned.   Utilizing their listening skills, students are becoming familiar with story sequence and comprehension, and timing techniques on the delivery of their response.  Theater classes also teach our students how to work together as a team, when they practice call and response recitations.  Our dance classes allow expression through movement.  Students not only learn the basic ballet positions that are the foundation for all dance, they are being exposed to the French language, and terminology. Students also learn of different cultures and historical contexts by being introduced to different forms of dance, such as African Dance, Modern Dance, and Tap Dance.   In Foluké visual arts classes students learn to draw objects using basic shapes – Circle, Square, Rectangle, Triangle, etc.; they learn how to draw a dog using a triangles, Squares, and Rectangles.  They also learn to recognize those shapes in common objects they see everyday.  In addition, students learn shading techniques, as well as painting techniques.  

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John W. Walker, Jr.
Post-Secondary Scholarship

The John W. Walker, Jr. Post-Secondary Scholarship is a fund established to help
Foluké Cultural Arts Students to obtain an education beyond high school. It is limited to students who have participated in the Foluké programs at least one school year (9 months), and has successfully completed 12 grade coursework resulting in graduation. The funds are to be applied to tuition for College or Trade School. This scholarship program is named after Rev. John Wesley Walker, Jr., the former Pastor of Lane Metropolitan CME Church. This organization was founded under is tutelage, and was fiercely supported by him during his tenure in Cleveland, OH. He is now the pastor at Central Metropolitan CME Church in Jacksonville FL, and remains as a member of the Foluké Board of Directors.

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