Consenses Curriculum
A Multidiscipline Art Curriculum for Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in the classroom setting
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"The Consenses curriculum is itself as beautifully constructed as a work of art..."
-Jessica Hoffmann Davis (Founding director of the Arts in Education Program at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, and author of numerous books on arts learning including Why Our Schools need the Arts. 2008)
Consenses Curriculum
- Format: Online
- Prerequisites: Consenses Teacher Training & Professional Development
What is the curriculum?
Inspired by Sally Taylor's global creative initiative—The Consenses Curriculum is a beautifully crafted, unique, multidisciplinary approach to building social-emotional skills through the arts. Participants engage in a structured collaborative process of creating "Interpretive Chains," using a range of media to engage all five senses as they build understanding and appreciation for the value of diverse perspectives and the equality of all voices.
What's Included?
- Lesson plans
- Optional teacher scripts
- Worksheets
- Organizational tools & tutorials
- Video tutorials to teach students each artistic medium. Sally will teach along-side you through these video tutorials, each offering a lesson in a new medium (photography, music, movement, sculpture, poetry, painting & set design)
- Online student gallery for exhibition
- E-mail teacher support with our Consenses Team
Why Consenses?
In a world that is fragmented and divided, it is often difficult for people to consider, relate to or appreciate the perspectives of others. In addition to enhancing social-emotional learning and arts based competencies, the Consenses Curriculum promotes tolerance and empathy through “listening” to others, not through their words, but through various art forms.
Consenses is highly effective at spreading the message that everyone’s perspective is equal and valid. This message helps people to appreciate in new ways, both the limitations and the distinct value of their own unique perspectives.
How is it Taught?
Consenses Curriculum is an in-class, 10-module course, consisting of approximately 20 hours worth of learning. The curriculum was designed to be taught over the length of a semester at the pace of one 60-minute class two times a week but it is up to you how fast or slow you'd like to teach it.
Teachers & facilitators who have completed Consenses’ Teacher Training & Professional Development 2-hour, online course are qualified to:
- Choose a group of students to teach. (it is suggested teachers pilot the curriculum with a small group to test drive the material before facilitating a group larger than 10)
- Give each student an emotion as a starting point
- Students learn about a new medium each module
- Students transform their given emotion into a photograph
- Teacher collects and distributes creations as the class begins the Consenses process of transforming one medium into another. For example: photographs to music, music to dance, dance to sculpture, sculpture to poetry, poetry to painting and painting into set design
- Teacher leads students in discussion about the artwork created. This is where students are able to see how differently they each see the world, build empathy for their differences and confidence in expressing their particular perspectives
- The course culminates in an exhibition of each "Interpretive Chain" Host an exhibition for your community or on our on-line student gallery where participants can experience the work they produced collaboratively throughout the course and discuss their different perspectives through the expression of their art
Check out what people are saying....
Testimonials
Student, Emerson College, Boston MA
"I think Consenses has been one of the most enlightening, eye-opening projects I have learned about in a very long time and it has truly changed the way I will perceive and understand art for the rest of my life. I can’t say enough about the project and I’m going to keep sharing it with others who would appreciate its purpose and reason for being created. I can say this is a project I will never forget. Thank you so much!”
"I can't wait to teach it again!"
Holderness School, Visual & Performing Art Chair
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Testimonials
Holderness School, NH
"I learned that everyone interprets art differently. Not just art, but also life. People have their own point of views, even if you might be seeing the same thing."
"I had to write a quick note to say how wonderful it is to have a program like this brought to the school. I found Consenses to be very inspirational and important – not just for art and music students but also for all students – and adults. Working together, listening to other people’s perspectives, hearing what other people bring to the table, using all of our senses in interpreting the world around us, and doing so without worrying if we’re “right” or “wrong” – she is making a program that speaks to each person and helps people grow both individually and together. Personally – I left inspired for the rest of my day!"
Parent,Coventry Public High School, RI
Frequently Asked Questions
You need to take and complete Consenses' Teacher Training & Professional Development before you start to teach Consenses' Curriculum. The training takes 2 hours and is a separate purchase. Once enrolled, you will have continual access to it if you'd like to revisit or refresh the course. Once you have taken the training you will be a certified Consenses Teacher and able to teach Consenses' Curriculum.
The Consenses Curriculum is offered on a monthly or yearly basis. From the time you enroll, you will have your designated time to freely teach and administer the Consenses Curriculum to the participants of your choice. If you ever need longer for to finnish up a class, you can always extend by purchasing additional months.
We would never want you to be unhappy! Please contact us with questions prior to purchase, as this online classe is non-refundable.
There are 10 modules and 18 lessons in total. We recommend scheduling 20 sessions for students to complete the curriculum just incase you need more time. You can use any additional time at the end of the course for discussion and group sharing.
The Consenses Course can be taught as a semester-long course (twice a week) or a year-long course (once a week). We suggest scheduling each lesson for 60 minutes.
We created the curriculum with students aged 11-18 in mind but it’s up to your discretion who can handle the material. It’s been taught to students as young as 8 and as old as 89. There is some writing involved so if you wanted to teach younger students, you might want to engage parents to help them with assignments.
No, because Sally’s in-class video tutorials supply all the art teaching skills your students will need. But it is suggested that you are openminded and creative.
Sure. Just share it with us so we can see what sort of cool stuff you’re doing. We're also happy to help make suggestions to accommodate your particular needs.
Yes, absolutely. Any money you charge for teaching this course is yours to keep. We recommend charging between $100-$350 per student.
Scripts, worksheets and lesson plans for each class.
Nope. Consenses can be taught as a weekend workshop, camp elective, corporate retreats, homeschooling, an extracurricular activity or however you see fit.
You will need a computer, internet connection, a physical meeting space and an e-mail address to communicate with students. You may also want to use something like google drive or dropbox to collect students' artwork but you can always choose to have students' hand in assignments via email instead.
To complete artistic assignments, students will need a device (like a smartphone) for taking and uploading photos & videos and recording audio. Students will not need many art supplies for this course, and you can get creative with materials. For example, in the sculpture and set design lessons we suggest teachers collect materials in a recycling bin or a junk drawer for their class. We do recommend that students have paints and paintbrushes however, if you can't get a hold of paint supplies, you can get around this by having students create collages instead of paintings or using food dye or make-up in lieu of paint. There are tons of workarounds if you're willing to get creative and if you need suggestions feel free to reach out to us.
Still have questions? email the team at [email protected]
