"The Story of Wilma Rudolph" - Arts & Literacy Residency at Ralph Waldo Emerson, IPS #58 - Arts For Learning Indiana
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Arts & Literacy Residency at Ralph Waldo Emerson, IPS #58 “The Story of Wilma Rudolph”
Arts & Literacy Residency
at Ralph Waldo Emerson, IPS #58
Arts for Learning, the Indiana Affiliate of Young Audiences,
is a nonprofit organization that has specialized in arts in
education since 1961. Our mission is to empower youth
to reach their creative and intellectual potential through
arts-integrated education.
“The Story of Wilma Rudolph”
About the Project & School About the Teaching Artist
Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust Shawn Whistler is an actor, director, producer, and
certified ball room dance instructor. In addition to his
This project, made possible by the Nina Mason Pulliam Trust, fo- experience in theater and dance, he has eight years
cuses on using an art form to improve literacy skills for third grade of classroom experience teaching grammar, writing,
students. The “Arts & Literacy Project” is a two-year partnership Spanish language and culture, and computer science.
With over 12 years of a curriculum writing experi-
between Arts for Learning and four schools in Indianapolis, IN - IPS
ence, he specializes in arts-integrated programming
#46 Daniel Webster, IPS #58 Ralph Waldo Emerson, IPS #15 Thomas to enhance the learning experience of math, science,
Gregg Neighborhood School, and Ignite Achievement Academy. In the technology, and literacy classrooms.
first year, Arts for Learning Teaching Artists provided arts-integration
professional development for the third grade teachers and developed
workshops that supported the school’s literacy curriculum. During the
second year of this project, teachers and Teaching Artists revised and
implemented redesigned arts-integrated workshops with a new group
of third grade students at the partner schools
Teacher’s Involved
Ralph Waldo Emerson School Project Description
During the 2019-2020 school year, third grade students and teachers Kathy Avery is a 2017 Hubbard Award Semi-finalist and
at Ralph Waldo Emerson School, IPS #58 worked with local Teaching theater enthusiast. A veteran teacher with a passion for
literacy, she goes above and beyond to ensure her student’s
Artist Shawn Whistler. Shawn used his extensive theater and writing
academic success. She holds a master’s in elementary
background to enhance literacy curriculum for 3rd grade students. education from Southern Connecticut State University.
In the first half of this year-long residency, students learned how
dancers put together a dance in a sequence to promote storytelling.
Over the course of a semester, students built their articulation and
Stacey Kelley is a 20-year veteran teacher at Indianapolis
vocabulary skills with their bodies through dance. As the lessons pro- Public Schools. Kelley has a master’s in education from
gressed, they transferred these skills into language arts by exploring Indiana Wesleyan and is a proud Boilermaker. She is an
context clues and creating “tableaux” that helped define the actions, Opportunity Culture multi-classroom leader and former
thoughts, and feelings of a group of character’s at a specific point in Teach Plus colleague.
the story. Through this series of lessons, students used text evidence
to independently choose a character’s perspective while collaboratively
problem-solving how each of them fit into the story and best represent
the “living picture.” The culminating activity, as seen in this book,
shows how the entire class recreated the story of Wilma Rudolf in se-
quence using tableaux created and performed in teams of 3-4
students.
3 4
Arts & Literacy Residency at Ralph Waldo Emerson, IPS #58 “The Story of Wilma Rudolph”
When Wilma was 5 years old, she got so sick. Her left leg was twisted and could not move. The doctor told her mom that Wilma had polio. The doctor said she would never walk again. 7 8
The doctors and nurses gave Wilma exercises to
help make her leg stronger.
Wilma practiced, but it hurt a lot.
9 10
Sad and lonely, she watched her brothers and
sisters run off to school each day.
This made Wilma cry.
11 12
Wilma wore heavy braces to help her walk to
school.
Wilma was sad.
But when Wilma got to school, the other students
made fun of her leg braces.
12 13
At church, Wilma took a deep breath, took
off her braces, and slowly moved one foot
in front of the other.
All the people in church stared at Wilma.
They couldn’t believe their eyes.
14 15
At the age of twelve, Wilma began playing
basketball, the game she liked to watch on the
playground.
Her long, long legs helped her glide through the air.
16 17In the summer of 1960, Wilma got to run in the
Olympic Games. More than 100 million people
would be watching on television for the first time.
Right before her first race, Wilma twisted her
ankle. It was very painful.
18 19The next day, the crowd was chanting her name.
The crowd went wild.
With the help of the crowd, Wilma ran like a
tornado through the rain and humid air to cross
the finish line in FIRST PLACE.
20 21Wilma still had one more race to complete -- a
team race. When the race started, her team-
mates ran well and kept the team in first place.
But when it came time for Wilma to run, she
stumbled.
22 23In that moment, Wilma remembered the day she
walked down the aisle at church. She knew what
she had to do.
Wilma put her mind to work and burst into
action. And like a miracle, by a fraction of a
second, she pulled ahead and crossed the
finish line in FIRST PLACE!
24 25The End! 26 27
More Project Photos
Special Thanks
Thank you to our wonderful funder, the Nina Mason Pulliam
Charitable Trust, for making this project possible.
www.artsforlearningindiana.org
Follow us @Arts4LearningIN
Thank you to Teaching Artist Shawn Whistler and school staff
involved in this project at Ralph Waldo Emerson School:
Karen Avery - 3rd grade teacher
Stacey Kelley - 3rd grade teacherYou can also read
