ART WORKSHOP — Carol Ponder and her husband, Robert Kiefer, with the Tennessee Arts Commission recently held a three-day art workshop for third-grade students at Michigan Avenue Elementary School.
The workshop emphasized fluency in reading through the use of musical terms. The guest teaching artist, Carol Ponder, guided the children in dramatic exercises to help them “get into character” before reading. After the warm-up, the children used musical terms like tempo, dynamics, pitch, articulation, and texture to give them choices in voicing the characters in the stories they read.
The workshop concluded with a live reading performance for a group of 25 parents and friends.
When asked about the workshop, the children said it increased their enjoyment of reading and they could now hear and visualize the characters from the book in their heads.
The Tennessee Arts Commission, created in 1967, encourages the presentation of performing, visual and literary arts throughout the state and public interest in the cultural heritage of Tennessee through a variety of programs.
