Deaf and Hearing Students Perform Together as Part of Digital Arts Program

The show will go on at Community School District 25 with a student production that combines live performances and digital demonstrations of classic works such as “The Crucible” and “Romeo and Juliet.” The Digital Arts program stems from a Teaching Matters initiative called “Digital Storytelling” that uses technology to help students understand and appreciate classic literature.

In a unique twist, this year’s program will feature deaf and hearing students performing together as part of a collaborative effort between District 25 and the Lexington School for the Deaf. The performance will take place at the Lexington School’s Ralph and Ricky Lauren Performing Arts Center.

“The Digital Arts program gives students the chance to display their individual talents while also learning the importance of teamwork,” said Arlene Jordan, Community School District 25’s Supervisor of Expressive Arts. “Working with local artists, actors, musicians, their teachers, and other students, they discover how each individual contributes to the success of the whole production.” In addition to working with the local community, some classrooms also collaborated with students from overseas. New York City students and their “cyber-pals” in London wrote plays set in each other’s location, so that each group taught the other about their city, geography, and culture.

Arts programs that incorporate a variety of technologies are particularly effective in helping students learn in the core content areas, especially “hard to reach” students, according to Teaching Matters Executive Director Lynette Guastaferro. “When you expand a student’s horizons, he or she becomes more motivated to learn,” she said. “Digital arts are not just about painting pictures. People are surprised by how much reading and writing kids have to do in these types of programs.”

Additional collaborators in the Digital Arts program include the Epic Theatre Center, Artsgenesis, Inc, Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts, and the Queens Council on the Arts. Digital Arts is supported by the New York City Department of Education’s Project ART’s, the New York State Council on the Arts, the U.S. Department of Education and The Helena Rubenstein Foundation.#

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