|
Education, Audiences & Community Services
|
M!W!O! — Overview of Course Materials
OPERA America has crafted materials designed to demonstrate that the processes of creating and producing a work of art are fundamental components of real learning.
Each level includes a teaching notebook of four units, three that introduce a masterpiece of operatic literature (Listen and Discover) and one that guides the creation of an original opera composed, produced and performed by students (Create and Produce). Each unit includes lesson plans conforming to state assessment standards, while also providing for ample flexibility for individual teachers. Materials encourage a team-teaching approach that may involve teachers of music, drama, literature, foreign languages, studio art, art history, dance, history, mathematics, economics, science, psychology, sociology and business. At the same time, these materials may be used independently and effectively by specialists in music, drama or literature.
Levels I and II — Grades K-6
These levels provide teachers with materials focused on the art and craft of story telling. In lessons that proceed logically and sequentially, students acquire a basic understanding of character, setting and plot. As language skills are sharpened and exercised, students come to understand opera as a uniquely powerful form of story telling, one they can comprehend and enjoy. Teachers who are not musicians may partner with artist mentors from the local opera community, other local musicians and artists, and/or university faculties.
Level III — Grades 7-12
Level III strategies involve older students in building skills intrinsic to a collaborative operatic work. Students learn to work in teams to accomplish mutual goals, to lead, delegate, and follow, to synthesize, analyze, to acknowledge the creative energies and skills of others, and to step beyond their personal comfort zones as inventors and performers. Purposeful research hones skills and catalyzes motivation. Level III students confront and overcome obstacles, solve artistic and logistical problems, and learn to “read” the world from multiple perspectives. They become self-consciously aware of the space between the text and the self and learn to negotiate this distance as executives, directors, performers and consumers of art and ideas.
For more detailed information about the materials, visit our publications page.
|