Running Head: FINAL APPLICATION PROJECT

Final Application Project

Caitlin Leffingwell
Eastern University

Caitlin Leffingwell
ARTS 565: Arts in Healing
5/13/2015
Final Application Project

Page |1

Art-Making Experience Description (Lesson Plan)

Curriculum Project Title: I Matter, We Matter
Lesson Title: Violin Sculpture
Lesson No. 1
Teacher Name: Caitlin Leffingwell
Lesson Overview: As they learn how each part of the violin contributes to overall sound production, students will
begin exploring their unique, individual value as it relates to group unity and community health.
Goals: Use therapeutic movement, large-scale sculpting, and singing to help students develop an increased
understanding of their personal value and how they can contribute to community value. Students will also develop
class rules, as well as learning the parts of a violin, how it makes sound, and how to take care of it.
Primary Goal Areas: Safe spaces and self-efficacy through behavioral responses
Art Metaphor: Just as each part of the violin is uniquely needed for producing beautiful sound, so each of us has
unique personal value that can contribute to our whole group living the Good Life.
Way-Power Elements: Activity and ability to generate workable routes to goals.
Willpower Elements: Positive expectations and future orientation.
Other Hope Element: Connectedness
Protective Factors: Safe spaces, opportunity for positive social involvement, and caring adults.
Resilience Factors: I have, I am, and I can.
Lesson Objectives
1. Guide students toward understanding their own personal value (I have, I can, and I am).
2. Increase students knowledge of various violin parts and how the instrument makes sound.
3. Instill in students both the desire and ability to care for their instruments, themselves, and each other.
4. Collaboratively develop class rules through a class contract.
Measurable Outcomes:
By the end of this lesson,
1. 90% of students will be able to identify at least two personal strengths in the form of I have, I can, or I
am statements, as shown through the final sculpture project.
2. 90% of students will know at least 10 parts of the violin and the order in which these parts contribute to
sound production, as evidenced by authentic assessment (living violin sculpture).
3. 80% of students will display increased desire for or ability to take care of their instruments, themselves,
and their classmates, as evidenced during the post-activity discussion.
4. 100% of students will help design and agree to follow the class rules.
Lesson Breakdown:
1. Opening Ritual (15 min.)
Begun immediately after greeting students as the enter class (the threshold), this Hey Virtuosos song acts
as an official starting point, engages the students mentally and emotionally, creates individual and group
awareness, binds tension, and allows the teacher to assess current moods with minimal intrusion.

Caitlin Leffingwell
ARTS 565: Arts in Healing
5/13/2015
Final Application Project

Page |2

Hey Virtuosos Yeah!

Hey Virtuosos Yeah!
My name is ________ Yeah!
And I feel ________ (verbal word, then facial expression, then movement in each successive class) Yeah!
My friend is __________
And he/she feels ___________ (group copies individuals answer)
Were glad he/shes here! Yeah!
2.

Mini-Lecture, including introductory pre-assessment (15 min.)

Does anyone know what this is? (Hold up a violin)

The violin is made of many different parts. Does anyone know what any of those parts are?

One by one, explain major parts involved with sound production while passing around the largerthan-life prop for each part (bow, strings, bridge, soundpost, body, and f-holes). The bow can be
divided into the frog, tip, horse hair, and stick if more parts are needed to accommodate each
student later on. Props do not need to be a literal representation, but should be accurate enough to
avoid confusion when referring to the actual violin, as well as being sized proportionately to other
parts.
If retention or verbalization seems to be a struggle, utilize repetition through a call and response
activity for each part to reinforce the names in the safety of a loud, fun group response. Also use
this strategy to build energy and momentum for the art-making process.

3. Art-making project description & detailed instructions (30 min.)

After placing violin props randomly around the room, assign each student to a violin partavoiding
conflict in the early stages by using name-popsicle sticks or another fun randomizing method. Ask each
student to find and shout out the name of his or her violin piece. If a student is hesitant to participate, allow
him or her to partner with a friend. Instruct students to work together in creating a larger-than-life violin
sculpture in the classroom by placing each part where it would be in relation to other pieces. Allow them to
use an actual violin for guidance only if the lack thereof is causing unreasonable tensionotherwise
encourage them to use each other as resources.
Once students have created their living violin sculpture, ask each to create either a movement or a sound
for their partasking them to help remind each other of its function if necessary, although
movements/sounds can also be downright goofy as well. Once each has had a chance to showcase this partspecific movement or sound, explain that our group goal is to play a song on this violin using all of the
parts involved. Explain that sound is created by each part passing vibrations along to the next, until the air
molecules vibrate enough to escape the violin and travel to our ears. Toss a soft foam ball to whoever is
currently representing the bow (or the frog, if it is divided); this will represent the vibrations traveling
through the instrument.

Caitlin Leffingwell
ARTS 565: Arts in Healing
5/13/2015
Final Application Project

Page |3

As you describe what order the vibrations will travel, have students toss the ball to the person representing
that part. This process will proceed in this order: bow (frog, stick, horsehair, and tip), strings, bridge,
soundpost, AIR, violin body, f-holes, and our EARS. Air and ears do not necessarily need to be represented
by students, but including their role in the process does provide an opportunity to delve deeper into the
concept of air molecules, sound waves, and how our ears work if the occasion is suitable. As soon as the
vibrations leave the f-holes, have the students begin singing in unison I like music! This is the first song
they will play on the violin (4 short bows on an open string), and it symbolizes creating sound with their
violin sculpture! For more advanced groups, another pre-agreed upon song can be used as long as all
students know it. The song I Am Me by Willow Smith is especially appropriate for the theme of this
lesson, and many young students will know it or learn it quite easily. After singing, students can then go
through the process again while sharing their movement or sound when the vibration gets to them
adding creative levels of novelty or difficulty each time. Variations can include speeding up or slowing
down the process, exaggerating or minimizing sounds/movements, attempting the process with multiple
foam balls, and anything that the students come up with. Make sure to include at least one attempt with
various parts removed or malfunctioning.
4. Reflection (15 min)
What did you think of that game? How did it make you feel? What did it make you think about?

When creating your violin sculpture as a group, what helped the process? What made it difficult?
What could have made it easier?

5. Applicationsetting rules through a class contract (20 min)

Next to the whole violin used previously to depict parts, show students a broken violinperhaps missing
some parts or in various pieces.
Compared to this healthy violin, what kind of sounds or music do you think this broken violin
would make? Do you think you would like those sounds?
What happened when we tried to make music with our violin sculpture without some of the pieces
working well?
Explain that each part of the violin is different and special, but it is not enough by itself to make
beautiful music. In this way, we are each unique and valuable, but must work together to help our
group do well.
How do you think we can keep our instruments safe and healthy, so that that they can keep making
beautiful music?
How do you think we can keep ourselves safe and healthy, so that we can do well as a class?
(Relate this back to previous discussions on what doing well and living the Good Life means.)
Write these ideas down collectively on the board or on a big piece of paper in the middle of the
group, where everyone can see. Make sure that everyone has a turn to be heard by speaking,
writing, or drawing their ideas, and work through the ideas to find major themes that everyone

Caitlin Leffingwell
ARTS 565: Arts in Healing
5/13/2015
Final Application Project

Page |4

agrees to. Discuss and emphasize concrete ways of achieving these goals, so that each rule has
examples of how to follow it. If there is time, model these ideas through role play and continue to
discuss any resulting topics.
6. Conclusion/Summary (10 min):
Just like each part of the violin has a unique way of helping the whole instrument make sound, so each of
you have a unique way of helping our group live the Good Life. Lets sign this contract as a class to show
that we are each deciding to do our part in helping our group succeed.
7. Closing Ritual (15 min):
The Hey Virtuosos song again, with the teacher noting any changes in mood, expressiveness,
connectedness, confidence, and other related information.
Materials & Supplies
Violins one normal and one broken.

Proportional, larger-than-life props representing the bow (comprised of the frog, stick, horsehair, and tip if
needed), strings, bridge, soundpost, violin body, and f-holes. Air molecules and an ear can be represented as
well.
Large foam ball (more than one can be useful as well).

Large poster board and markers.

Assessment methods(s) selected: authentic assessment (sculpture creation) and oral assessment (discussion and
closing ritual).

Caitlin Leffingwell
ARTS 565: Arts in Healing
5/13/2015
Final Application Project

Page |5

Arts Experience Commentary

Launched into an economic tailspin after World War II, the North End of Hartford has generally
become known for high rates of crime, violence, drug-use, and poverty. Although arguably mixed with a
wide variety of assets as well, this stigma and the multifaceted reasons behind it certainly factor into the
environment at Milner Community School, where Prekindergarten through eighth grade students from
North End neighborhoods receive both a standard public school education and a wide variety of other
social services as well. Because most of these students have experienced some form of trauma, the school
partners with a lead agency called Catholic Charities to provide students and their families with as many
additional resources as possible. As part of these efforts, I will spend three weeks of the summer teaching
a total of six 2-hour classes specifically designed to reduce the impact of trauma through hope-infused
curriculumall of which will be advertised as an Intro to Violin class for 3 rd-4th grade students
interested in starting violin this fall. The description included in this project only details the pilot lesson in
this curriculum, but the following five lessons will continue to reinforce the same core themepersonal
value and group unityby adding layers to the initial arts experience.
Although most of these elementary students have faced forms of trauma that vary widely, the
resulting mentality almost always includes feeling disempowered and unsafe, such that most of my
students operate with not only a sense of loss of security, but also loss of the ability to have an influence
upon what is happening. There is an intense feeling of powerlessness that leaves one unable ever to feel
that the world is quite the same safe place it was before the [traumatic] event (Sutton, 2002, p.31). With
these elements of risk in mind, I designed this arts experience to meet therapeutic needs in the following
two intervention goal areas: safe spaces and self-efficacy through behavioral responses (Junkin, 2015). By
choosing an art metaphor that emphasizes our unique value as individuals and as active members of a
community, this curriculum aims to meet these goals by helping students develop hope, build resilience,
and utilize an increasing number of protective factors.

Caitlin Leffingwell
ARTS 565: Arts in Healing
5/13/2015
Final Application Project

Page |6

Hope: Although hope can be a dangerous state of mind if you have been exposed to repeated
disasters, this arts experience utilizes a variety of complementary art modalities (ranging from music and
movement to live visual art and sculpting) to help students gradually shape new dreams, hopes,
aspirations, and plans for the future through way-power, will-power, and connectedness (Carey, 2006, p.
35). Primary way-power elements include both activity and the ability to generate workable routes to
goals, which are targeted through the sculpture exercise and ensuing class contract discussion. By actively
working together to build a larger-than-life violin, students can practice using their individual strengths to
accomplish a group effortquickly learning that their unique role is important for achieving a larger goal.
Similarly, this concept plays out in their efforts to not only create class rules, but also map out concrete
ways of achieving them. Carey (2006) noted that such meaningful, physical action may be a prerequisite
for recovery, in that it helps to desomatize the traumatic memories and counteract the frozen
inaction that so often accompanies the disempowerment associated with trauma (p.33).
In conjunction with these elements of way-power, this arts experience also targets the future
orientation and positive expectation that contribute to will-power. Working toward an artistic goal with
each unique violin pieces allows students to consider the futureoften a fearful conceptwithin the
safety of a metaphor, and the non-traditional qualities of this learning exercise provide a sense of mastery
that is physically climaxed, solidified, and celebrated through a group song. Moreover, this metaphor
gives each student the chance to link his or her identity to a part of the violin during a set period of time,
which allows everyone to transfer the concept of personal value and positive possibilities to a healthy
classroom reality that the students then operationalize through the creation of a class contract.
Finally, this arts experience fosters hope largely by promoting a sense of connectedness. Sutton
(2002) wrote that we can see how children who have not experienced fluid, reciprocal, intersubjective
emotional relationships have a decreased capacity to develop a sense of valuing themselves or others.
They may be unable to develop or sustain fluid, intersubjective emotional relationships with other human

Caitlin Leffingwell
ARTS 565: Arts in Healing
5/13/2015
Final Application Project

Page |7

beings (p.108). As such, the core purpose of this arts experience is to counteract these relational barriers
by guiding students toward a deeper understanding of their own value as unique human beings and the
subsequent value that they can bring to their classroom community. The act of building the violin
sculpture, working together to play a song on it, and ultimately singing that song as a group emphasizes
the importance of each unique part, as well as the importance of each part working together. The violin
much like a classroom or any communitycan only create beautiful music if every part is connected and
playing its unique role, and this exercise helps students absorb and reconnect this reality visually,
physically, mentally, and socially. As Camilleri (2007) wrote, It takes courage to create art and it takes
art to recreate a community (p. 124).
Protective factors: In addition to fostering hope, this arts experience is also designed to
counteract risk factors with a variety of protective factors as well. The first of such factors involves
providing students with an opportunity for positive social involvement, which overlaps significantly with
the various strategies for emphasizing connectedness. Building and operating the violin sculpture requires
a great deal of interaction, yet the very nature of this seemingly goofy activity and the overall relaxed,
playful environment in which it occurs provides security for this social endeavor. If group members have
concrete experiences of collaborating and resolving conflict, they can then begin to internalize and use
these skills in other situations (Camilleri, 2007, p.168). Successes in this environment can spill over into
other areas of life, which can protect students from the risks of negative social involvement.
Similarly, this arts experience focuses on protecting children by providing a safe space for their
development. Carey (2006) refers to safety as the first essential area to address in trauma treatment,
because it disables students primitive threat defense system and allows them to behave in ways that
encourage social engagement and positive attachment (p.26). Such protection can come specifically in
the form of stabilizing impulsive aggression against self and others (Carey, 2006, p.26), which again
emerges from the metaphor of a violin functioning at its best when each part contributes unique value in

Caitlin Leffingwell
ARTS 565: Arts in Healing
5/13/2015
Final Application Project

Page |8

connection to all the other parts. As students learn to value themselves and each other, they play an active
role in fostering a safe classroom environment that then creates even more personal and collective
growth.
The third primary protective factor in this arts experience is that of a caring adult, which comes in
the form of a violin instructor who has committed to do all within her power to help her students achieve
the best life possible. Camilleri (2007) expressed the importance of this factor by explaining that Having
a reliable adult to confide in decreased the likelihood that the child would develop depression or anxiety
(p.47), while Corbitt and Nix-Early (2003) explained that In the hands of well-prepared, skillful
teachers, the arts provide learning experiences and environments that engage the whole student: their
minds, their bodies, and their hearts (p.243). This child-centered, hope-infused, and trauma-informed
lesson certainly aims to engage students at all of these levels and assist in their personal transformation
process.
Resilience: Ultimately, these elements of hope and protective factors all work together to help
students build resiliencya universal capacity which allows a person, group, or community to prevent,
minimize or overcome the damaging effects of adversity (Grotberg, 1995). Epitomized in this first pilot
lesson, this entire curriculum involves helping students discover and utilize the I have, I am, and I
can qualities that allow them to understand what happened to them within the larger context of who they
are and what their futures can hold (Grotberg, 1995). Carey (2006) calls this phenomenon repairing the
sense of self and notes that opportunities to create this more balanced and complex view of self abound
in creative arts therapy (p.35). By delving into what makes them unique and how they can contribute to
the quality of their classroom community, students can use various art forms to unlock a world of
possibility that meets their particular need for safe spaces and self-efficacyultimately lowering their
risk for an adverse future. As Camilleri (2007) wrote, Through the use of creative arts modalities,
children are given alternative experiences of what life can be like. Helping at-risk children discover their

Caitlin Leffingwell
ARTS 565: Arts in Healing
5/13/2015
Final Application Project

Page |9

own talents and creative energy, explore alternative options for their futures, and develop ways to channel
their inner resources is an important aspect of prevention work (p.181).
References
Camilleri, V.A., (Ed.) (2007). Healing the inner city child: Creative arts therapies with at-risk youth.
Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Philadelphia.
Carey, L. (Ed.) (2006). Expressive and creative arts methods for trauma survivors. Jessica Kingsley
Publishers. New York
Grotberg, E. (1995). A guide to promoting resilience in children: Strengthening the human spirit. The
Early Childhood Development: Practice and Reflections Series. Retrieved 5/20/15 from
http://www.resilnet.uiuc.edu/library/grotb95b.html
Junkin, J. (2015). Lesson 2.2: Fostering resilience: Resilience. ARTS 565 Arts in Healing. Retrieved
6/24/15 from https://sites.google.com/a/buildabridge.org/ra-201-arts-for-healing-arts-basedresponses-to-trauma/modules/5-the-restorative-artist/ra201-m22-lesson
Sutton, J.P. (Ed.) (2002). Music, music therapy, and trauma: International perspectives. Jessica Kingsley.
Philadelphia.