| United Nations Association-Orange County |
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| Jane Barboza in Concert United Nations Association |
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| Jane Barboza Flute Solo Performance |
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| The North Star Mini Musical |
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The North Star Mini Musical
Bob Barboza has written a mini musical around the book "The North Star", by Peter Reynolds. This production is full of exciting sound effects and spoken word that makes the book come alive. Ronnie Ciago and Bob Barboza will performe the production live with the Alondra After School Performing Arts Club on "Parent Reading Night". The same production will be performed at the California CUE Conference in 2006. |
High Motivational Reading Programs for Teachers That Love To Teach
Project Super School Visual and Performing Arts Action Research
The creative minds at Super School University have kids lining up after school to read books, write original stories and create sound effects. The kids in the Paramount Unified School District get to perform at parent reading nights and before their peers. The high motivational reading program started when Bob Barboza got inspired by the re-reading Peter Reynolds’s best seller “The North Star”. He contacted his musical writing partner Ronnie Ciago and together that created and performed the new mini musical based on “The North Star”. Musical composer Barboza wanted to fine a creative way to blend art, music, dance, technology and oral reading. Ciago and Barboza had been on a tour at the Guitar Centers and Sam Ash Super Music Stores putting on drum clinics. When the professional drum clinic musical tour ended, Barboza decided to write mini musical based on stories that would get kids excited about learning. Barboza believes that before kids could get excited about learning, teachers have to get excited about teaching.
Background History
Many Super School University teachers are cross trained in dance, music and art. Our teachers love to teach. You can tell by just talking to them.
For the past five years Bob Barboza and five other teachers started working with kids after school. Teachers knew that most of teen crime occurs between the hours of 3:30 PM and 8:00 PM. We wanted to give kids something to do after school that would be fun and highly educational at the same time.
Teachers wanted kids to have opportunities to participate in both visual and performing arts. In recent years it has become very difficult to teach art and music during regular school hours. Teachers were dead focused on raising test scores and meeting state standards.
At the end of each school year teachers, parents, community members and students would perform in a major musical. This is a fantastic opportunity to end the school year with a bang. Students were so inspired after our concerts that they would sign up for the schools next year’s concert right on the spot.
The Future
Our action research performing arts team is going on tour spreading the high motivational reading and music program message to other school. At the end of the 2006 school year we want to have a special concert where teachers and their students can perform classic literature, original stories, and mini-musicals at one of our local universities. We wanted a location were different school districts can participate in a combined production.
Teacher Training
We offer a wonderful half-day and full-day teacher and student training program. Our team provides all the books, instruments, technology tools, training software, and musical instruments. Our training and performing arts reading program is tailored to match your states standards. We provide a presentation engagement form that helps us to plan together.
Tricks of the Trade
We have a few tricks up our sleeves. Our team is using a special computerized music stand to help kids with the reading and music. We are making and binding our own book. We have world class sound effects and our kids are well trained in old time radio sound effects. Our next step is to make original sound effect devices that will help us to make our readings and original writing projects come alive.
Professional Conferences
Barboza and Ciago will perform their mini musicals live at the 2006 CUE Conference in Palm Springs, California.
Session Title: Creative Uses of Technology: High Motivational Visual and Performing Arts Projects.
Day/Time: Friday, 1:30 pm-2:30 pm
Room: Madera
Location: Wyndham Hotel
Capacity: 300
Conference Dates: March 9-11, 2006
Conference Description: Bob Barboza, resource specialist, integrates technology and music to help special education, gifted and general education students to collaborate on high motivational integrated academic and visual and performing arts learning projects. |
| "Drum Monsters" A New High Motivational Mini Musical |
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| The action reseach team is performing an orgianl Bob Barboza musical called Drum Monsters. The new musical is an example of high motivational learning at its best. Instructor Ronnie Ciago uses drums to get kids excited about learning. |
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| Drum Monsters |
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| Performing arts students are getting ready for the mini musical "Drum Monster". This is based on the story written by Bob Barboza about the five boys lost in the jungle. This five boys learned the magic of talking drums and turned into Drum Monster. This modern day African Legend comes alive with art, music, dance, drama, and spoken word. It is one of a series of orginal legends written to motivate students to impove their oral reading skills. |
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America’s Greatest Talking Drummer
It would be impossible to talk about talking drums without bring up the name of Francis Awe. I had the pleasure to interview and photograph Francis at his home in Inglewood, California. Plans are underway to have Francis join us in our first school concert of “Drum Monsters”. This should prove to be more excitement that kids will be able to handle.
Francis is a real prince back in Africa. He is a college graduate with his degree in music and is a fine role model for young children. Our children are so fortunate to be able to experience such a world class talking drummer. We are so blessed to be able to perform live with him.
Drum Monsters is a wondeful way to teach children about diversity,world music,visual arts, performing arts, and high motivational reading and writing. |
Super School Read A-Louds for Elementary and Middle Schools
Karen Steff- Educational Innovators
Project Super Schools new action research program is all about high motivational read-aloud programs. Bob Barboza has written four integrated language learning legends around the themes of Africa, the Cabo Verde Islands, the rhythms of Brazil, and the music of Mexico. This is part one in a series of programs to promote better understanding of these four cultures.
Why read-aloud in middle school?
We have lots of evidence that read-alouds work in the elementary school. It is unfortunate that we know very little about teacher read-aloud practices beyond the elementary grades. Our new project Super School read-alouds will provided some important action research to the mysteries to today’s middle school student’s learning patterns.
Research indicates that motivation, interest, and engagement are often enhanced when teachers read-aloud to middle school students. Students agree that read-alouds scaffold their understanding because the teacher helped to make the text more comprehensible or more interesting to them. The research suggests that teacher read-alouds in middle school grades can have positive outcomes for both motivation and learning. It has been our action research experience that when teachers read-aloud in an exciting voices it turns out to be one of the few activities that middle school students have found to be exciting. When we integrate reading, drama, dance, art, and music into the read-aloud we show an increase in word and passage comprehension. Because studies suggest that teacher read-alouds in middle schools can be catalysts for motivation and learning, more research is needed to explore how teachers are using the proactive in the classrooms. Lettie K. Albright and Mary Ariail have written a paper titled (Tapping the potential of teacher read-alouds in middle schools) that is well worth your time to read. You can find their work in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, April, 2005.
Reading aloud to children helps them develop and improve literacy skills -- reading, writing, speaking, and listening, Trelease adds. And since children listen on a higher level than they read, listening to other readers stimulates growth and understanding of vocabulary and language patterns.
Bob Barboza integrates the arts into reading. He has worked with students with both gifted and students with specific learning disabilities for over twenty-five years. His specialty is integrating technology and performing arts into his reading and writing programs. “Drum Monsters” is an example of effective creativity to promote reading and writing in the elementary and middle school classrooms. Barboza is excited about learning and he gets others excited about learning.
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| Getting Kids Ready for Show Time |
| The Long Beach Jazz Messengers are getting ready for year two. The group has been working with children and keeping jazz alive in our youth. These fine musicians are passing on their creativity. The group will perform the sound track for the musical "Drum Monsters". This photo was taken at their last mini musical "Cabo Verde Dreams". |
A Master Drummer Takes The Time To Inspire Young Children
After school programs are becoming a very good way of keeping children off the streets and out of trouble during peak crime hours. It is great for schools and communities to invest in quality after school programs for young children. We have found it to be a fantastic and inexpensive way to take a bite out of growing crime statistics. Maybe this article will inspire someone in your community to find creative way to help kids to fall in love with learning.
The students at Alondra School attended a very special book signing conducted by master drummer/composer/author Ronnie Ciago.
Alondra School has a very unique after school performing arts club. Students in grades 2nd through 8th. receive dance and percussion instructions for about 7 months. Then the students participate in three shows. Kids are always lined up at the doors of the after school club the second that the school bell ends. Some of the biggest lines are at Bob Barboza’s door. He volunteers to teach kids how to play Brazilian and traditional percussion instruments once a week. From time to time he invites special guest to visit his class to inspire his students. This month Ronnie Ciago was Barboza’s special guest. It turned out to be perfect timing for the drum class. Ronnie had just published his new drum book, “A Natural Development in Drumming Technique,” published by Mel Bay.
The drum class learned a great new word, “ambidexterity”. They also learned that Ronnie Ciagao began playing drums at age 5. Growing up in New York he had the opportunity to study with the great masters of drumming. Ronnie emphasized the importance of practice makes perfect. Ronnie had some of the best music training possible when he attended Berklee School of Music. At Berklee his studies included ear training, arranging, music theory, piano, and harmony. As percussion major he had a chance to work towards becoming the best that he could be. Ronnie has toured and record with Black Sabbath, Rickie Lee Jones, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, and many other legends of rock and roll. He plays all styles of music and is a fantastic drum teacher.
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Super School University School of Dance
Professor Del Leon
Del Leon took her first modern dance class in London, England with a brilliantly talented member of the Michael Clark Dance Company. and she has been hooked ever since.
Leon began her first formal dance training at the University of Oklahoma and received that university’s highest award for choreography, the Scott Salmon Modern Dance Choreography Award for her first work. She was subsequently commissioned to create a dance for the O.U. Black Graduation Celebration before transferring to her native Southern California. She also substitute taught junior high school girls at a local Oklahoma City dance studio.
While waiting to recover her residency, Leon moved up to Sacramento and was honored to work with Dr. Linda Goodrich and to perform with her company, Sacramento’s Black Art of Dance.
At California State University Long Beach, where she completed her BFA in Dance Performance, Leon performed in numerous faculty concerts, choreographed works that were presented in each of her concurrent student concerts, and performed for guest artists such as Theresa “T” Ross from New York and Janet Eilber of the Martha Graham Dance Company. She studied the techniques of Cunningham and Tharp with Jeff Slayton, and once again Graham technique with Susan McClain and Humphrey-Limon technique with Tryntje Shapli. There were also two wonderful semesters with local dance celebrity Loretta Livingston of Loretta Livingston Dancers. Later, she studied release technique with Keith Johnson. Leon also performed and presented works in the American College Dance Festivals.
With BFA degree in hand, Leon co-founded Ione Dance Collective (now Ione Dance Theatre) where she produces concerts and stage plays that feature original dance, music, and drama by local artists.
In 2003, she met Bob Barboza through a friend and was introduced to his idea for a jazz opera. They met regularly. They chose song #2 on the Cabo Verde Dreams CD from the 6 original compositions by Barboza and his four collaborators to begin the experiment.
Now Del Leon is finding that she can have a lasting effect on young lives that would not otherwise have opportunity to engage in the fine arts. With a brand new before/after school enrichment program called Super School University, where she is Dean of the Performing Arts Department, she can launch young people into the future with a more integrative education than can currently get from the financially wounded public schools. She gives talks at Career Day. She is working with a group of children for a professional stage production and is currently developing the finalized curriculum for the SSU Dance Department. She eagerly looks forward to instilling in these children a level of inspiration, discipline, and respect for others, the arts, and themselves. She firmly believes, “If it is cruel to keep an animal in constant close confinement, why is a kid is expected to learn by sitting still at a desk for 6-7 hours a day. How can they learn if all the energy inside of them is teaming to get out. If movement is life, let the children move.”
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