As you plan for your residency, consider how the varied goals of the Classroom Professionals with whom you are working can support and inform strategies for achieving your own goals.

Including a conversation about different goals in your planning meeting will foster more investment in the residency from all parties. To initiate a productive dialogue about goals with your Classroom Professionals, prepare questions to initiate the conversation. These questions can be about specific students and the class as a whole, or the Classroom Professionals themselves. For example, what is their relationship to this art form? To creativity? To art-making?

We can frame these questions around four types of classroom goals: Academic, Artistic, Social/Emotional, and Physical. Setting these goals will help inform your process for planning inclusive lessons.

Here are a few example questions to help you get started. For more ideas, we recommend exploring the Planning Meeting Preparations by Role document.

Academic

• What Common Core skills is your class working on that I can incorporate into my lesson plans?
• Will there be a Core theme explored in connection to the art form, or a specific theme introduced outside of the residency in connection to the art form?

Artistic

• What excites you about this art form?
• What do you hope your students will learn about this art form?
• How do you currently incorporate art (this form or others) into your classroom?
• Do you consider yourself an artist? Why or why not?

Social/Emotional Goals

• Can you tell me about the strengths of individual students, and what sort of support they benefit from the most?
• What might I consider in planning my lessons that would benefit all students in the class?
• In what ways does this class collaborate? Are there collaborative skills you’d like me to focus on?

Physical Goals

• Do the students often leave their desks?
• Do they understand personal space boundaries? Do they know how to move safely within the space?
• Are your students working on any gross or fine motor skills?