Mark Degarmo

AMALIA CASTRO SCHOOL

In Brief
Amalia Castro School serves 526 PreK-5 students on New York's Lower East Side. The neighborhood is rich in the heritage of many cultures & Spanish is a primary language. The school serves regular & special education children with special needs. Our partnership goal is to develop understanding in the whole school of dance, theater, music, visual arts, technology & creativity through an interdisciplinary approach.

Research-based Teaching & Learning
We conducted a 3-year quasi-experimental study (02-05). Our findings included that student math scores increased as those of our control group decreased on city-wide standardized tests. There were strong indications of the positive effects of our dance and theater program on student learning across the PreK-3 curriculum. We followed this study with a 2-year inquiry into the academic, kinesthetic, social & emotional effects of our program on teaching & learning (05-07). Our findings were that our sequential arts program provides strong support for the school's instructional goals.

Annual Achievements
2008-09: Teaching 11 classes of PreK-K (24 lessons), grades 1-2 (12 lessons) & grades 4-5 dance ensemble (34 lessons). Goals include:

Deepen differentiated dance instruction.

Continue an annual partnership retreat, as part of professional development.

Focus evaluation on longitudinal inquiry of the work of 4 students starting in K.

2007-08: Taught 11 classes of PreK-K (24 lessons) & grade 1 (21 lessons). Grades 4-5 dance ensemble students (50 lessons) presented 5 concerts, including:

Awards gala celebrating the music teacher and a parent leader.

District 1 PTA meeting.

Greater NY Chapter Fulbright Association event for a Peruvian arts education organization.

School-wide assemblies with music students.

2006-07: Taught 21 classes (29 teachers & 16 assistants) of PreK (24 lessons), K-3 (16 lessons), grades 4-5 dance ensemble (32 lessons) & grade 5 (25 lessons), including:

Focusing on Alvin Ailey's contributions to U.S. culture via research, creativity & performance.

Producing a writing chapbook & bilingual posters, fliers, programs & t-shirts.

Conducting 18 sharing events & 5 parent workshops.

2005-06: Taught 18 classes (22 teachers & 20 assistants) of PreK-K (24 lessons), grades K-3 & grade 4 dance ensemble (16 lessons), including:

Understanding elements of music-dance collaborations.

Creating a dance theater performance based on tango.

Studying tango through 5 parents' workshops & a performance.

2004-05: Taught 18 classes of PreK-K (28 lessons), grade 1 & grades 2-3 (28 lessons), including:

Understanding elements of dance & theater, responsible release of the imagination, problem solving & healthy community living.

Creating a dance theater performance, Orpheus on the Lower East Side.