ADE launches fourth year of initiative
LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Department of Education recently announced the launch of the fourth year of the Arkansas Declaration of Learning initiative.
Arkansas was the first state to participate in the national program with the United States Department of State’s Diplomatic Reception Rooms in Washington, D.C., as well as the Central Arkansas Library System’s Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, the Clinton Foundation, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the William J. Clinton Presidential Library. Anne Menotti, a graduate of Bergman High School and Hendrix College, spearheaded the initiative as senior adviser for education and outreach for the Diplomatic Reception Rooms.
The state was chosen as the first in the nation to pilot the program and develop the model for the first Declaration of Learning, which was signed by 12 national organizations in January 2013. Nevada committed in 2016 to be the second state to participate this year.
The Declaration of Learning pledged five premiere museums located in Washington, D.C., and seven national educational organizations would work with teachers and school librarians to create innovative units, lesson plans and civic engagement projects to connect students with their history, art and English language arts lessons
using historic objects and art.
Arkansas school librarians and teachers of English language arts, fine arts and social studies must complete the application by 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 16. Travel stipends will be provided to the selected participants, as well as professional development credit. To apply, visit http://bit.
ly/2AopCBK.
Lakeside High School library media specialist Stony Evans was among 26 teachers and librarians selected for the first year of the program. A major component of the program is civic engagement and students voted to create and donate their own pieces of art.
One piece was presented to the Arkansas Army National Guard on Veterans Day 2016 to be displayed in the Hot Springs armory. Eighthgrade students in Darrell Davis’ art class donated another piece to Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
Educators from two local schools were among
27 selected to participate in the second year of the program. Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts head librarian Liz Miller developed lessons with art, coding and history for an interdisciplinary project through the program.
Lake Hamilton High School library media specialist Jil’Lana Heard and Rachael Walston, Lake Hamilton School District content literacy facilitator for grades 4-12, delivered a presentation about their project, “America: Land of the Free. Home of the Equal?” in June for the Arkansas Declaration of Learning Year Two Celebration at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater in the River Market District of Downtown Little Rock. Heard and Walston partnered last year with Seth Reeves at Lake Hamilton Junior High to lead units in his eighth-grade United States history classes.
Two more area educators were selected this year for the third year of the initiative. Pamela Wallace, a social studies teacher at Hot Springs Intermediate School, and Claudine James, an English language arts teacher at Malvern Middle School, are among 27 educators in the program for the 2017-18 school year.
Over the last three years, the partners collaborated with more than 80 Arkansas school librarians and English language arts, fine arts and social studies teachers in grades 7-12. Educators developed, taught, and revised innovative units and lesson plans using historic art and objects from the collections of the national and state partners and developed civic engagement projects.
“When you give students the chance to address real issues in history and in their community today, and you give them the historical art and artifacts to analyze and the skills to think their way to their own conclusions, your students will rise to the challenge,” said Bryant High School librarian Marcia Lanier, a past ADOL participant. “They want to think about things that matter and say what matters to them.”
To date, more than 6,000 Arkansas students have benefited from the program.