Silk RoadConnect
Inspiring Connections
through the Arts in Middle School
A Program Guide
“Our collective work in the arts is not just relevant
but essential to strengthening our culture
and positively influencing society.”
Yo-Yo Ma, Silkroad founder and artistic director
“When you come from a reality that everything around you is not easy,
the arts give you a chance to imagine another kind of life.”
Cristina Pato, Silk Road Connect teaching artist
What is Silkroad,
and what is Silk Road Connect?
Silkroad is a cultural and performing arts
organization committed to exploring the
power of arts through cross-cultural collaboration. Founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1998,
the best-known work of the organization is the
Silk Road Ensemble, which draws together
musicians from around the world to create
and perform innovative music, both
traditional and contemporary.
Years ago, Yo-Yo Ma, concerned about the high
drop-out rates in urban school systems, asked:
“How can we help?” In conversation with
educators and researchers, we identified three
key elements to our approach:
• Using hands-on arts experiences to
inspire passion-driven learning for students
• Focusing on middle school, a time
when student engagement in school drops
precipitously
• Developing collaborative
relationships with teachers and students
in schools
Building on these core elements, Silk Road
Connect is a year-long arts experience
program. Students and teachers work with
Silk Road Ensemble members and other guest
artists in the context of their social studies,
English, and arts classes. They collaborate
with artists and their peers to create a public
performance inspired by a Silk Road theme
such as “journeys” or “traditions.” The skits are
written by the young people, who compose music,
design sets, and make costumes and props.
Silk Road Connect brings together artists,
teachers, and students in a dynamic
exploration of other cultures through the arts.
It takes many forms, depending on the
contexts of the schools and organizations
that we work with.
“I think an art program like Silk Road
Connect — even though it’s not just
art, it’s also social studies and ELA —
helps you think deeper into some
things, like a legend of something.
Well, I know that this person did this
because he felt a certain way …
and it just enriches your mind.”
Sixth-grade Silk Road Connect student
1
How did Silk Road Connect come about?
To develop the Silk Road Connect program,
we worked with education experts and with
sixth-grade teachers and students across
New York City. Then we joined forces with
J.H.S. 185 Edward Bleeker in Queens, New
York. Collaborating closely with teachers
there, we set out to explore two questions:
• Can engaging students in art-making
inspire them to make deep and
meaningful connections between
school, their own lives, and the world
of diverse cultures in which we all live?
• What kind of collaboration creates the
conditions needed for students, teachers,
and Silkroad staff, musicians, and guest
artists to learn from one another?
This program guide outlines the approach
that Silkroad and J.H.S. 185 developed, its
implementation, and the important learning
that emerged along the way.
We quickly discovered what teachers and
administrators already knew: supporting
learning in a school context is a complex
endeavor. In grappling with that complexity,
we found guidance and inspiration in the
stories of others engaged in this work. In that
same spirit, we hope that the Silk Road
Connect story described in this program
guide is helpful, especially if:
“If we can spark passion and curiosity in students,
the learning almost takes care of itself.”
Tina Blythe, Silkroad education advisor, author of The Teaching
for Understanding Guide and adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Graduate
School of Education
• you are a teacher or administrator
in a school that partners with a
cultural organization
• you are a teaching artist or guest artist
• you are an administrator in a
cultural organization
• you are a parent or advocate of the arts
who is committed to the power of arts
to transform learning
The challenges, insights, successes,
and questions generated through Silkroad’s
work with J.H.S. 185 are reflected in
these pages.
“The great thing about the Silk Road Connect program
is that I get to go back regularly and develop ongoing relationships
with the kids. I can see longer-term connections
throughout each of the visits. That has been really effective,
because by revisiting the same points from different perspectives
with each guest artist, the kids are able to remember better
and make their own connections.”
Shane Shanahan (right), Lead Teaching Artist,
with fellow Silk Road Ensemble member Sandeep Das, Guest Artist
3
What are Silk Road Connect’s
goals and principles?
A primary goal of Silk Road Connect
is to help students understand and develop
an empathy for the perspectives that shape
cultures and how they are similar to and
different from the students’ own cultures.
The name “Silk Road Connect” captures
the essential spirit of the program: to help
students connect to their own interests and
curiosity; to other cultures; to their own
learning; to their peers via collaborative work
in the arts; and to the community beyond
school as they share their work publicly.
These goals are based on foundational
principles about the arts, culture,
and learning:
• The arts, when encountered in a crosscultural context, provide powerful
windows into our own and other cultures.
• Such thoughtful encounters
with the arts can help us understand
those cultures more deeply.
• The process of making art and sharing
it publicly gives students a unique
opportunity to create, collaborate, and
problem-solve while sharing their ideas with
others, building confidence and skills that
will serve them both in and out of school.
• Connection-making is one of the most
powerful forms of learning and is a habit
that students can build through practice.
“You can express yourself — you can let go of all the stress,
just put it aside. And then you can just feel what you want to feel.
It’s just you, the actual you. It’s ... free.”
Sixth-grade Silk Road Connect student
4
“We’re trying to help students develop the tools
that will make them eager, rather than fearful,
to meet the world they don’t know.”
Yo-Yo Ma, Silkroad founder and artistic director
What resources are needed?
The necessary resources for Silk Road
Connect include staffing, time, and money.
After considerable trial and error, we found
a combination of people that makes our
particular model work effectively:
A Silkroad Education Specialist
on the staff at Silkroad oversees our
partnership with the school and helps
connect our education work with other
aspects of Silkroad’s mission.
A Lead Silk Road Connect Teacher
at J.H.S. 185 oversees the school’s partnership with Silkroad, organizes the culminating
event, coordinates the scheduling of teaching
artists, facilitates teacher planning meetings,
and helps everyone identify connections
between the Silk Road Connect program, the
school curriculum, and other initiatives in
the school. At J.H.S. 185, the Lead Silk Road
Connect Teacher has a reduced course
load (one class period freed up) and receives
a stipend.
A Lead Teaching Artist, a Silk Road
Ensemble member, identifies and schedules
all the Guest Artists; works with the Lead
Silk Road Connect Teacher and the Guest
Artists to plan the Guest Artists’ sessions;
co-leads all Guest Artist visits at the school;
and reflects with Guest Artists, teachers,
and the Silkroad Education Specialist to
capture lessons from the experience.
This position is paid through Silkroad.
“I’ll most remember dancing with the kids, more than
instructing them or showing them. When I
move with them, the space seems to move, you know.
Suddenly we’re in a magical world, because
there is this burst of energy, and I think that’s really
my favorite moment.”
6
Preeti Vasudevan, Silk Road Connect Guest Artist
Each year, several Guest Artists, at least
three but sometimes up to five, visit the school.
Most hail from the countries of the ancient
Silk Road. Each is expert in at least one art
form of their culture. Guest Artists return at
the end of the year to support students
in refining their final performances and to
participate in the culminating event.
A Silk Road Connect Fellow visits the
school during artist visits to support the
artists and to document student learning.
The Fellow also joins teacher meetings as
Silkroad’s on-site liaison and to help address
emerging challenges. The Fellow receives
a stipend from Silkroad.
School Administrators who support
the goals and logistics of the program
are essential, especially given the need for
flexible scheduling.
Silk Road Connect also requires time,
and this is sometimes the most challenging
resource to capture. We’ve found the
following scheduling to be the minimum
time commitment needed to ensure
a successful program:
• Common planning time for
teachers: one hour, twice a month. Yes,
we realize these shared blocks of time are
not at all easy to come by. However, real
improvements in the program came only
when this scheduling puzzle was solved and
the full group of teachers could meet together
regularly to plan and reflect on the work.
• Extended blocks of time for
teaching artists: 90-minute sessions
(double the 45-minute blocks of the school’s
typical schedule) generate the most meaningful engagement and student learning.
Finally, of course, there are material
resources needed for all this. Our work
is supported by a combination of grants
received by Silkroad, grants received by J.H.S.
185, and careful budgeting within the context
of the school’s standard budget.
“A child can smile the entire day just because the visiting
artists came to her classroom. Children really look
forward to it, and they’re happy after artists are here.
Everyday life is affected, and that's a positive."
Theresa Mshar, Principal, J.H.S. 185
7
A Silk Road Connect year at a glance
People often ask us where to begin and how to
stay on course. In our experience, once a Lead
Teaching Artist (from the Silk Road Ensemble)
and a Lead Silk Road Connect Teacher
(from the school) are on board, the work falls
into four phases over the course of the school
year: 1) planning a kick-off assembly;
2) teaching artist visits; 3) the culminating
event; and 4) teacher and student reflections.
More specifically, a Silk Road Connect
calendar of events at J.H.S. 185 typically looks
something like this:
Late August or early September:
Teachers and Lead Teaching Artist meet to map
out the year. Usually 10-14 sixth-grade history,
English, and arts teachers participate. Some
of the main topics to discuss and decide are:
• The theme for the year, e.g., “journeys,”
“traditions,” “story-telling,” etc. — a theme
that resonates with the required curriculum
and that the teaching artists can connect
their work to. This is a thread that will
connect the whole year’s activities, including
the culminating performance.
• The Silk Road culture or region that each
teacher will focus on — one that can be well
supported by the artists who will visit
the school.
• The windows of time for the teaching artists
to visit.
• The date for the culminating event, typically
in early June.
• A kick-off assembly for all the participating
sixth graders. The Lead Teaching Artist and
one or more Guest Artists perform for the
students and introduce the program and the
theme. Students watch a slide show from the
previous year’s culminating event, and
“alumni” — seventh graders who participated
the year before — offer words of advice.
8
From October to April, teaching artists
visit the school three times, engaging students
in an art form of their culture in 90-minute
sessions with each of the Silk Road Connect
classes (typically 6 to 8 classes or ~180 students
each year; each visit is spread over two
consecutive days). By the second visit, students
start thinking about the scripts they will
produce for the culminating event, reflecting
on, researching, and developing ideas for the
June performance.
Note that at J.H.S. 185, most Silk Road Connect
activities are suspended from mid-March
to mid-April to accommodate New York City
Public School standardized testing.
In May and early June, the students,
in collaboration with their teaching artists,
prepare for and deliver a culminating performance. This includes intensive rehearsals,
logistical preparations, creation of a printed
program, displays of student work and finally,
on the big day, one or more public performance
for the community, family, and friends.
“It helped that I came from a different culture—I understand this part of the
whole experience. Going into schools is like going into a different culture.
But I had already been through a huge transition like that. And that was really,
really difficult. So going to the school was a new culture [for me], and that
was something I had already gone through in a hard way. That could be one
of the strengths I have as a teaching artist, this experience of knowing how
to deal with a really unfamiliar situation.”
Hadi Eldebek, Silk Road Connect teaching artist, who is from Lebanon
In June, after the event, teachers and
students reflect on the year in collaboration
with Silkroad staff. What worked? What
didn’t? What could change next year?
The Silk Road Connect Fellow and Silkroad
staff help document these conversations
and reflections.
Please visit silkroadproject.org for
additional details.
9
“As an educator you’re always a learner, so you always look at your environment,
and who’s bringing what to the table. There are different ways of doing it. And Silkroad
has shown me that children can learn, LEARN, yet can learn in different ways.”
Theresa Mshar, J.H.S. 185 Principal
What does a Silk Road Connect
teaching artist visit look like at J.H.S. 185?
The phases of a teaching artist visit include
planning, preparing the students, the visit
itself, and follow-up by the teacher and
students after the visit.
In advance of each visit, the teachers prepare
their students by sharing background information about the artists and their countries
of origin; new vocabulary words that will likely
be introduced; and images or other resources
exploring the culture, art form, or theme
of the visit.
For illustrated descriptions of Silk Road
Connect activities, you can view our
“Portraits of Teaching Artist Visits.” These
two-page, image-rich descriptions of the
kick-off assembly, teaching artist visits, and
the culminating event aim to capture not only
what happened but also what connections
and questions the students discovered in
the process. We also invite you to view our
“Teaching Artist Workshops: A Quick
Teaching Guide for the Silk Road Ensemble.”
Both of these resources are available at
silkroadproject.org, or contact Silkroad
to request a copy.
“[Silk Road Connect activities] let us be … more creative to …
think on our own and to really show others.”
Sixth-grade Silk Road Connect student
The Lead Teaching Artist and one or more
Guest Artist lead each visit. The 90-minute
sessions focus on the year-long theme, such
as “journeys,” with an articulation of the
learning goals, a short performance by the
artists, active arts participation for the
students, discussions that encourage students
to make connections to previous artist visits,
and a closing reflection.
11
What lessons have we learned?
There is no question that our Silk Road Connect
experience has included — and continues
to include — a giant learning curve. One of
the most important outcomes of the endeavor
has been learning how to support student
learning through arts experiences. Below
are some of the key take-aways so far.
Short, infrequent teaching artist
visits can support student learning —
but only under certain conditions:
We had initially assumed that the more
exposure to teaching artists the better. But
Silk Road Ensemble members have busy
performing schedules that necessarily limit
their availability. A single session with a
teaching artist can still support student
learning, as long as students are able to revisit
the ideas and work from that artist session
over time. The continuity provided by the
teachers and the Lead Teaching Artist
is critical to achieving sustained learning.
Reflection is essential: It’s always
tempting, once an event has concluded, to
rush on to the next one without fully debriefing.
However, the opportunity for students,
teachers, teaching artists, and staff to reflect
on and identify their learning regularly
has proven essential to the development
of the work.
“It’s just natural to have an idea and to really want to stick with your idea.
But to be able to … listen to other people’s ideas and use that and bounce off it ...
it’s a different form of art … to say, OK, my idea is not the best idea,
and it doesn’t have to be, and to just really listen to what other people
have to say. It’s great because it’s what I teach my kids to do.”
Kristy Tong, Lead Silk Road Connect Teacher at J.H.S. 185, 2014-16
12
Document and share both the work
and the reflections: The work and thinking of teachers, students, and teaching artists
need to be captured and shared in order for
both partner organizations to fully benefit
from the learning. We found “portraits”
of events, created by the Silk Road Fellow, to
be an effective way to share the work of Silk
Road Connect with community members,
board members, and others not directly
connected to the work. (See page 11 for a link
to our portraits.)
A few deep connections are better
than many shallow ones: When we
launched Silk Road Connect, we attempted
to connect themes and topics to every subject
in the curriculum. We eventually found
that we were stretching in order to incorporate
a single theme into math, science, English,
history, and the arts — so much so that the
connections were becoming tenuous and, given
the demands of a standardized curriculum,
a distraction to teachers and students.
We eventually focused on humanities and
the arts, a narrowing that offered a greater
range of themes as well as the opportunity
to explore them in depth.
Relationships matter: Learning with and
through the arts is deeply relational. Although
supporting thoughtful collaboration among
students was not one of the explicit goals of the
program when we began, it has become clear
that the connection to their peers via artmaking is one of the most important outcomes
of this work. So we have shifted over time
to support student collaboration by involving
students more directly in every aspect of
planning and carrying out the culminating
event, and by encouraging them to reflect
on their collaborative process in order to
improve it.
“I see an engagement in the kids’ eyes when they are really immersed
in something, when they are deeply involved. In a way it’s like
performing music, in that you get to this place where everything
else drops away and you’re just totally focused on what
you’re doing.”
Shane Shanahan, Lead Teaching Artist
13
What did we learn about
organizational collaboration?
Collaboration between a school
and an arts organization is, in fact,
a cross-cultural collaboration.
Schools and organizations of all sorts, from
non-profits to corporations, have distinct
cultures. Recognizing and working with differences in organizational culture was not easy for
us. We sometimes struggled with matching
resources to activities. The timing and flexibility
of planning and executing programs is not
the same in a small organization like Silkroad
as in a larger organization such as J.H.S. 185,
which is embedded in an even larger bureaucracy
with all the attendant policies and processes.
Until we understood the different institutional
dynamics in this and other areas, both
organizations experienced frustration.
Each organization needs to be willing
to learn the other’s culture. This doesn’t
mean that everyone in each organization
needs to fully understand the other. It does
mean that at least one person in each organization has to be willing to take the time to
explain to those in the other organization
things that might seem obvious to the insider.
The Silkroad Education Specialist and the
Lead Silk Road Connect Teacher at J.H.S. 185
take on these roles.
Relationships matter. Developing
relationships proved just as important to the
adult collaborators as to the students in their
work. Learning together means being willing to
experiment together, make mistakes together,
and regroup and try again together. This
requires trust and understanding that is built
only over time. As we all — Silkroad staff,
teachers, and teaching artists — got to know one
another, the work became more manageable.
Not easy, to be sure: the work to support deep
learning for students in schools is never
easy. But we have been able to name and
address problems more quickly as we have
come to know and trust each other.
Context matters. One size doesn’t fit all.
For Silk Road Connect, the particular needs
and strengths of the school community inform
the choice of teaching artists, what those artists
do, and how they engage the students
in the classroom.
Time is essential. It takes time to get to
know each other. It takes time to get to know the
context. It takes time to learn complex things.
We came to understand that almost every
aspect of the project would take longer than we
thought it would, and we have (slowly) learned
to accept and work with this fact.
15
What do the students say
about the culminating performance?
It was the virtually unanimous view of
students and teachers that the culminating
event was the star feature of the Silk Road
Connect year. Post-event reflections highlight
the passion, memorability, confidence,
learning, and sheer fun that were hallmarks
of the experience. The following are
comments made by sixth-grade students
after participating in the performance.
So many people have talents they don’t
even want to show because they may be
embarrassed. But then Silk Road Connect
was a good experience, and a good time for
everybody to express themselves and shine,
do what they want. I think it’s a really good
opportunity that everybody should try.
I think that reading and writing are important
for your education, but Silkroad helps the
actual kid express who they are, because
in the end performance, if that kid was shy
in the beginning they most likely overcame it
and they learned more about themselves
and became more confident and learned
other stuff.
We had to make a script. It was hard because
we had never really written [that] before. It
was absolutely interesting, too.
I think the hardest part about Silk Road
Connect was working together because
everybody wants their own things. They want
their stuff in it [the performance that students
develop collaboratively]. But sometimes you
might not get your work in it, so you might feel
aggravated or you might not want to work.
But then you have to be patient and try to
work harder with the rest of your teammates.
16
I learned about journeys from Hadi because
when he played his oud, he told us his oud
was like a journey from Lebanon to other
places. So I learned people say “journey,”
and you think you have to physically move,
but I know that memories or music can be
a journey, too.
Just by noticing and seeing everyone else’s
ways of drawing to the music, [I learned that]
everyone is different in their own way.
They’re all unique.
I learned that teamwork and patience can
really help you, because sometimes in
[writing] the script, one person might want
this, but then the other person wants that.
So we have to wait and see what comes
out better.
[Silk Road Connect is different from regular
school projects because] there was a lot
more communication from the teacher, from
the visiting artists, and from the teacher
with students. It wasn’t just writing it on the
board and the students looking at the board.
It was more like direct talking. And it
was more interesting because we caught
on really quickly.
In school, everything has something you have
to do. Like math, there’s only one answer.
But in these performances, it’s like they gave
us a chance to choose our own methods or
make our own music.
In school, we usually learn things and then
tomorrow you forget. Here in Silk Road
Connect, we usually remember because it’s
interesting and it’s somebody teaching us
in a visual way, too.
Getting up on that stage with all the practice
and dedication we did, it really did pay off
because you feel confident about yourself
when you get on stage and, just, you feel
proud. It’s a good feeling.
17
“For me Silk Road Connect is really, really important
because it teaches kids about culture, and that there is
a world out there, bigger than their classroom, than their
school, than their neighborhood…“
Kristy Tong, Lead Silk Road Connect Teacher at J.H.S. 185, 2014-16
“Music has meaning. It has a story that’s inside it.”
Sixth-grade Silk Road Connect student
For further information, please contact Silkroad Education Specialist
Lori Taylor at [email protected].
Silkroad, 175 North Harvard Street, Boston, MA 02134
silkroadproject.org
February 2016