Teachers and School Administrators
MUSIC! WORDS! OPERA! is a curriculum designed to help students in grades K-12 discover the power of the arts through a hands-on engagement with opera. Together, teachers and students explore an operatic masterpiece in the context of its music, history and language. Using this knowledge, students become composers, librettists and performers in their creation of an original operatic work.
Professional development for teachers
OPERA America’s week-long training workshops are an opportunity for teachers to reinforce their artistic aptitude and learn new pedagogical techniques. M!W!O! training offers teachers a chance to learn how to best use opera in their classrooms, and they learn how to link the arts to other content areas. Teachers spend time developing effective future lesson plans, and workshop leaders work with their host opera company to adapt the curriculum to meet national, state and local standards for the arts and other subject areas. The workshop and the written curriculum also place a strong emphasis on assessment and evaluation by providing concrete techniques that teachers can use to measure student learning in the arts. Many opera companies who have used M!W!O! have collaborated with local universities to offer college or graduate credit for completing the workshop.