at county college of morris we believe all citizens need to be informed about the important issues that effect their daily lives. that's why we're proud to support programming produced by the caucus educational corporation and their partners in public television creative development and early education next on caucus new jersey funding for this edition of caucus new jersey has been provided by the pnc foundation which supports early childhood education through grow up great a multi year initiative to help prepare children from birth to age five for success in school and life njit new jersey institute of technology the new jersey education association working for great public schools for every child the robert wood johnson foundation robert wood johnson university hospital the heart of academic medicine health republic insurance of new jersey and by johnson and johnson

promotional support provided by the star ledger powering nj.com and by njbiz all business all new jersey [music playing] [music playing] welcome to caucus new jersey i'm steve adubato the evidence is clear that a strong foundation in early education is absolutely critical for success later in life now this is a second of a two part series and here to discuss creative approaches to early childhood education we have michelle marigliano who is a special projects and assessment coordinator for young audiences arts for learning we also have doctor shannon ayers is an assistant research professor at the national institute for early education research at the great rutgers university we have ty stephens with us last time is a

teaching artist at the sharon miller academy for the performing arts and finally ronnie ragen is the community partnership director at the trenton community music school i want to thank all of you for joining us now the last time part one we had linda bowden with us from pnc and it was a great discussion i want to pick up that discussion talking about creative development in early childhood education but doctor i just want to bring you into this let's set the context for this what does the research show in terms of how important it is to establish this strong foundation we could talk about math and we could talk about science and we talked in the last show about there's a strong connection between the arts and science and math et cetera but how important is a strong foundation in these early years for children? well we know from the research that their experiences in early childhood is heavily related to later learning we also know that intervention in those early years is a window of opportunity that they call it that we can have an impact

on how children will grow and learn in their later years so for us and thinking about the whole child not necessarily just what's deemed cognitive math and science but also thinking about approaches to learning persistence problem solving the arts and all of that is included in really the effective and high quality preschool classroom yeah the other issue that did not come up in the first program and i'm gonna give everyone an opportunity to describe their organizations cause i don't want to assume everyone saw part one and it's important that you describe your organization is the issue of curiosity i know it's really important that we develop a sense of being curious you know and i mentioned that we do have this little girl olivia who's turning four as we do this show and she doens't stop asking questions and it can be irritating at times but i also realize how great it is yeah that level of curiousity is essential is it not? is. i'm so glad you're bringing this up because in our work at young audiences

describe yourr organization for those who missed the first show? young audiences is the not for profit organization that's dedicated to bringing the arts to every child in new jersey eastern pennsylvania we do that most effectively by training teachers to help us out in the classroom and so in our work across all arts disciplines we really give children an opportunity to experience the art form to create in the art form to make connections to other subjects in school as well as their life and to think deeply about observation and so when children are looking at art or creating art we're asking them open ended questions like how would you describe what you see? and then we're looking for language. we're helping them to develop their capacity to increase the amount of words that they use throughout the day what about the questions the curiosity thing how do we develop cause teaching dance you've been at it for a long time plus you dance yourself? yes what is the connection between and again describe sharon

miller and i said last time i'll say it again we love sharon miller's dance studio in our place the school for performing arts but what is the connection between that and promoting curiosity in kids? well first the sharon miller performing arts academy is an in the community organization a not for profit again and we're really about the hands on the being the artist not so much even thinking the artist but being the artist and learning the craft and getting out there and performing or taking it to another level you know sometimes it just ends up being public speaking and that's great because then you have another level of confidence that you can work with but um... promoting curiosity how do you do it? promoting curiosity um... you know what i'm saying like gettings kids cause that is that not a skill? well i think when children are engaged when they're deeply engaged in something that's

self intuitive and intrinsic to them they become curious naturally mm hmm that right? that it's a natural thing? for kids to be curious? well part of being curious is building your background knowledge and we as parents for example? and teachers need to do that so a child who lives in an apartment complex and may be far from the beach we need to understand and have experiences about the beach so we can do that through the arts we can do that through literature a really great way to build their background understanding and really thinking about all those components both cognitive and non cognitive at the same time i get a sense ronnie wants to get into this... you're mouthing something well i said we can take them to the beach too [laughter] [laughter] so take them to the [laughter] beach right [laughter] because... and i think i agree 100 percent i'm so glad you're talking about having the experience because we... michelle said before... describe your place the trenton community music school has been in trenton for fifteen years

we offer private lessons in instruments but our program the partnership programs in the community the largest one is our early childhood program music for the very young which we're talking about today and that is a partnership with the public school pre-k classrooms sure in the city. michelle mentioned before that it's through play that children are really learning everything they need to know play? playing fantasy using their imaginations but they need to have material to do that so that for example in music by giving them a rich variety of musical experiences which we try to do in music for the very young they're doing small motor fingerplay they're doing you know they're jumping and you know all over the place they have scarves to play with they have different kinds of instruments to play they're working together everybody's got the same shaker eggs and but we're

also having two groups so that someone the kids who are playing shaker eggs over here and over there they're dancing and we're actually accompanying them or we're doing two different levels so they learn they get all these different pieces and they're hearing music in different meters different tonalities so when they get to their music center now they have material just as you're saying they have content so they have something to work with they have something to work with and teachers report to us over and over all of a sudden the most favorite center in the classroom is the music center cause they have their books they have their cd's they have their music cards and they play at being in class and they it's remarkable one second in the first program we actually took a look ronnie had some video from your place and the kids were singing that morning song? right the hello song? right right

and that was great but i want to set up this video. michelle this is set up this video for us so we're gonna take a look at a snippet of a residency in a school in trenton it was a movement residency based on thinking moving and creating dance is it a choreography class? hmm i would say it's an emergent choreography class [laughter] [laughter] children are for... yeah so we're asking children what they know about dance i love it we're asking them to show us what they know about dance in a very broad context so that might even be the basketball player jumping up with a foul shot um or it could be the classic ballet dancer and so we're looking at dance in time space and energy and most importantly we're asking children to describe what they see and then use a cocreative process where they work with their peers collaboratively and agree on how to set up a piece of choreography here we go emerging choreography in action [laughter]

[music playing] [music playing] you can choreograph with your body parts you can choreograph with levels like high and low are you thinking of new ideas? here we go the reason why this work is important for young children is because it gives them an opportunity to have choice their lives. it also gives them an opportunity to think creatively. to think back to other experiences that they're having in their classrooms and make connections. [music playing] [music playing] that's good stuff that's great what's going on for those kids? i think they're feeling empowered while they're having fun? yeah you know i think that fun allows them to feel empowered about their ideas they're making meaning based upon a set of previous experiences that shannon talked about and they're making a translation i love this idea about translation translating our physical experiences in life into movement into music and

there's a i think a beautiful couplet there because children start to have multiple inroads of expression ty let me ask you what is the thing called that you do it's called informant...? informances informances? yeah informances what's an informance? well simply it's at the end of s at the... it's the culmination of our eight week program it's like a performance but it's an informal performance so we allow other classrooms to come and view what we've been doing if there are parents that are available during the day they can come and watch and we don't do anything differently than we do during the course. we just allow them to watch the process and then when the kids are aware that their peers and their parents and guardians are watching hey have a certain... a slightly different take on how they're gonna do things you know they're not quite so... they think more. they think more. they're more responsible they're more present accountable accountable exactly yeah let's talk about that because when we went to see our daughter olivia at i don't know if it was called that for the three and a half year olds at the sharon miller academy

in montclair yes we were there and i have it on you know the ipad and i will tell you she was... half the time while she was doing it she was looking out of the corner of her eye at us. to what degree for... not just for olivia but more importantly for all of the children there and all the children that sharon miller and other places that try to teach dance in such a powerful way to what degree is a child's sense of self being developed when they are performing in front of others frankly i hate to say under pressure mm hmm am i making too much of that? no not at all it's a very... cause she can't just... i guess she could... i'm sorry for interrupting... she could just crawl into the corner and not do it but we're not gonna keep signing her up if she keeps right quitting right you don't have to do it mm hmm but you got up and did it right what goes on then for them? well there's that transtion that happens. i mean they start to understand that this is okay to do for one that they enjoy what they're doing and that they want to share

that enjoyment with the people that they love so for mom and dad to come and see this is like the biggest thing in the world it's the best. and they want from us just this recognition? absolutely and we don't care if they're the best mm hmm we just want them to have fun and be the best they can be right and what is it doing for them when they're doing it that? self regulation. it's huge. self regulation? so we're learning how to control our bodies which in turn will help us learn how to control our learning and be regulated in terms of being able to filter out what is not necessary and focus on what is important and critical there is also a huge research base in play and the importance of play and how that's related both to their later learning and their ability to express what they know through play so if you are looking at a child playing with things like the shaker eggs that ronnie had mentioned

you can hear the beat oftentimes and what that translates to is the phonological awareness so the syllables... the what? phono... phonological awareness the understanding of how our language works really so we're talking about rhyming alliteration syllable segmenting which goes down lower into sound segmentation which is related to reading skills so all of these important skills that they're developing through their play will help them later on and some of us are sitting there just saying oh they're playing. [laughter] but so much more is going on that's why a show like this is so important is to make conscious what seems so simple is there's so many layers of things happening under what seems obvious but just like i said in the show when the kids are doing their little hello song by the way i know our folks in the studio in our control room are gonna get angry with me for this if i wanted... if we wanted to see the hello song

again could we do it? could you cue it up again? run it... ronnie keep talking about the hello... i want to see just to... just i... um... it's the hello song again go ahead more about unpacking what's happening in there unpacking? unpacking knowing all the layers of experience the children are having just to sing that simple little song just to sing hello in the morning? just to sing hello in the morning they are learning [laughter] [laughter] shannon you wanted to make a list? is it... really? they're learning to pay attention to the teacher they're learning to listen to what they're doing they hear themselves in connection to other people they're what you were talking about earlier the whole business of relationships... ronnie stay right there our crack terriffic team does not need praise from me because they're not in preschool [laughter] but it never works i want to thank you for doing this cause we showed it in the last show we said we weren't going to do it two shows in a row but we need to see it yeah this is again ronnie the hello song from the this from music for the very young class music for the very young class

at the...? trenton community music school music for fun i'm giving you a chance to plug here play [laughter] this is the hello song check it out hello everybody so glad to see you hello everybody so glad to see you hello i'm lydia so glad to see you let's tap now hello i'm brineagia so glad to see you hello i'm jasper when my son jasper came home with the music together he came home with a book and a cd and when he came home he was really really excited it was like you know mom look you know we're doing this at school and i get to bring it home with me doc i gotta ask you i mean that's jasper's mom i mean she's proud what could that pr... i mean we don't know what it means for jasper what do you think it could mean for jasper that he's doing that hello song

so well? well i think it's about participation having a place in the classroom really building that confidence. i'm important. i'm saying my name. my classmates are welcoming me and then all of the other cognitive parts where we're learning each other's needs where we can talk about similarities between our needs we are again clapping out the beat prerequisite to some literacy learning while we learn social piece too right? yeah how many people can even talk to other people at like 45 50 they can't even be in a conversation can't look other people in the eye i'm serious don't know how to greet people in the morning it's not a bad way to learn not at all it's important social skills but there's another one i want to ask you for kids who grew up without this happens everywhere but disproportionately clearly in certain areas and situations disproportionately without dads in the home clearly more challenging

oh yes do you feel a special responsibility with these children? i do i do talk about it as a male and... and one of the few in the field? yeah i guess you could say that go ahead yeah as a male in the field of dance you know and being comortable with my body and being comfortable interacting with people and being i'd say a positive role model i think that's one of the things that .. that it's another layer thing that has to happen in the classroom i'm in the east orange schools and i've been done eight week programs and we're in every other week i'm in five different schools and we have huge amounts of kids to interact with over a short period of time and in that amount of time you give them as much of those layers as possible including the integration about dance and all the math and science that goes with it and then there's still that level of humanity that level of a family and interaction that they need that's gonna take them to that next level... there's a balance there that their missing

often enough can you see what they're looking for sometimes in you? i mean... yeah can you actually see some of them looking at you mm hmm in a certain way? yeah yeah get... i get clung to and i get hugs and... [laughter] yeah hugs are amazing d i love it i absolutely love it and do you think some of that i mean i'm sure everyone here get's it to some extent but do you think to some extent it is because there is not a strong male figure in their life? i do. i do. especially with some of the boys. that's what i mean the girls... i should say it could be for anyone but it happens... both male and female but especially with the boys you can kind of see there's a permission that they're giving because i'm there permission? a permission to do what they're doing to have fun to join in cause you're doing it? yeah cause i'm doing it yeah boy being a role model is important yeah i'm sorry shannon you wanted to jump back in i think it's critical to the students who partipate in these extra programs are so fortunate i know michelle works closely with teachers and we need to make

sure that every classroom has these additions of the arts into the classroom where we're looking at the whole child and thinking about problem solving and persistence and integrating the curriculum so when i'm doing science i'm incorporating the arts hmm and i'd like to add the aspect of family relationships and how arts experiences where parents and children are engaged with each other increase attachment and bonding and so when children's attachment and bonding to their primary caregiver is strong then they're more capable to take risks in life you know right now in the video that we saw we see children in a very safe circle there's a predictable structure in place and once they feel comfortable in that predictable structure then they can start to experiment with new ideas at do parents... and i'm sitting there i was thinking the terriffic work that each one of you and your organizations do in terms of helping kids to grow up great and just these

creative beginnings we talk about... how important is it to engage the parents who are there? and involved in the lives of these children and how do you do that? how do you do that? our program is different than the others in that it's not as short as some of these programs are so our goal initially was when preschool was new in the inner cities and in the state we saw that it's an opportunity to try to ensure as best we could that the arts and particularly music would be included at a foundational level in the classrooms so our program actually stays in the classroom for the whole year and we work on a weekly basis with the teachers we bring them the materials that you hear the hello song it's part of the curriculum we use right so that we have something that we can leave in the classroom and family home we trade... we do professional

development with the teachers and are there as mentors... well what about the parents? and the parents though the cd in the songbook that they're using every week in class goes home with every child but to what degree is there any quality control meaning to what degree can you have any sense as to whether that kid is singing the hello song at home w... we know because they come back and they know the song we haven't done yet and they're saying can we have number 22? you know because the cd's on at home and then parents come one parent n particular said can i speak to you please we have parties for the families to come and we do it all together so it's not about performing it's about sharing that you know as you were saying before what one teacher one parent asked can we look at this songbook? said i know my child can't read but at night when we listen to this cd she follows and this is what she's experiencing in the class she knows that that's telling the story of her song

i have to ask you we have a couple minutes left i'm curious about this you know the field of early childhood education the people who go into it fascinate me you do this kind of work you meet interesting people fascinating people we're you born to do this? i think in a way as far back as i can remember i wanted to teach and that was before i got my own education it was a very interesting thing it's something that i always wanted to do and so once i got to a certain point in my career and i felt you know the community was losing some of what i learned music was a part of my curriculum athletics and the creative arts i was in an arts program in school i was an art magnet you know so for that to be not existent for the generations that followed really disturbed me and i was like... you felt a responsibility? yeah i felt like i've gotta jump in and do something michelle you supposed to do this? definitely there's no doubt in my mind as a child i was given the permission to explore free

play in my neighborhood and in my home i was always dancing and making music i was the person in the house that would take the every day object and turn it into something symbolic [laughter] [laughter] that no one else would have done so this is no accident? definitely not that you're here today with us definitely not and you're doing the work you're doing? definitely not you born to do this? it seems so it seems so? [laughter] [laughter] [laughter] i have so many chapters along the way and they've all come back to synthesize it seems in this. i've taught at every level f education and i'm finding that the early childhood is maybe the most fascinating and interesting because it's the... but we're music movement and literacy and i have done music movement and i have a degree in english and what's so fascinating is doctor ayers you were a kindergarten teacher a reading specialist you're a mom and you're looking at this from a scholarly point of view right now. you're supposed to do this work right? absolutely and when i work with preservice teachers i

talk about well you know the love of children is necessary but not sufficient. there is a science behind this. you know behind working with young children we know from the research what we need to do to have an impact on their lives well i want to thank all of you for being part of this very special two part series talking about our children and talking about what they need and talking about how we all have a responsibility to help them grow up become the great men and women we expect them to be and you're helping create a powerful foundation thank you all very much the preceding program has been a production of the caucus educational corporation celebrating over 25 years of broadcast excellence and thirteen for wnet njtv and whyy funding for this edition of caucus new jersey has been provided by the pnc foundation njit the new jersey education association

the robert wood johnson foundation robert wood johnson university hospital health republic insurance of new jersey and by johnson and johnson transportation provided by air brook limousine serving the metropolitan new york new jersey area caucus new jersey has been produced in partnership with tristar studios this program has been made possible in part by the kessler foundation [music playing] [music playing] closed captioning g g

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: honoring those who served on this veterans day. we talk to the c.e.o. of starbucks who says the best way to pay tribute is to hire returning soldiers. good evening, i'm judy woodruffç >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. also ahead this tuesday: ebola runs rampant in sierra leone, as victims of the virus grow desperate for more medical help.ç >> woodruff: then, comedian bill cosby and his wife camille put their art collection on display in washington. >> ifill: plus, a photographer recreates veterans' experiences in iraq and afghanistan. >> it is a challenge to relate th