Supporting Teachers in Arts Integration Strategies to Foster Foundational Literacy Skills of Emergent Bilinguals

Oral language skills are essential to the future literacy of students in kindergarten and first grade, especially emergent bilinguals (EBs). Yet, U.S. teachers receive few professional development opportunities that prepare them to use effective strategies for promoting oral language development. Since teacher education is compartmentalized into curricular silos, methods for literacy instruction are taught in one course, methods for arts instruction in another, and so on. This article argues that well-designed arts integration can meet a key need of young, linguistically diverse students by providing opportunities for oral language practice across content areas. Experimental evidence that arts-based instruction benefits the speaking skills of EBs is presented; the underlying mechanisms are explored. An example of a fieldwork program that provided pre-service teachers with hands-on experience in K-1 classes is included, showing how they learned to enhance the verbal skills of EBs through integration of drama, music, and movement

The role of access to Head Start and quality ratings for Spanish-Speaking Dual Language Learners' (DLLs) participation in early childhood education

a b s t r a c t Data from the Head Start Impact Study (N = 4442) were used to test for differences between Spanishspeaking Dual Language Learners (DLLs) and monolingual English-speaking children in: (1) Head Start attendance rates when randomly assigned admission; and (2) quality ratings of other early childhood education (ECE) programs attended when not randomly assigned admission to Head Start. Logistic regressions showed that Spanish-speaking DLL children randomly assigned a spot in Head Start were more likely than monolingual-English learners to attend. Further, Spanish-speaking DLLs not randomly assigned a spot in Head Start were more likely to attend higher-quality ECE centers than non-DLL children. Policy implications are discussed, suggesting that, if given access, Spanish-speaking DLL families will take advantage of quality ECE programs

Boosting Language Skills of English Learners Through Dramatization and Movement

This article presents an arts integration program that uses drama and dance to promote foundational literacy skills, with an emphasis on the oral development of English Language Learners (ELLs). Previous research indicates that arts activities afford a beneficial opportunity for young students to practice language skills, but many teachers have received scant training in the arts. The Teaching Artist Project (TAP) is a professional development program that helps classroom teachers use dramatization and creative movement to enhance comprehension and promote verbal interaction in the classroom. Children learn to imaginatively connect the decontextualized vocabulary of the classroom with their own experiences. A mixed methods study of TAP found that K-1 ELLs who participated in TAP showed improvements in early literacy skills compared with their peers. This article introduces approaches used in TAP, suggests sources of the language gains, and discusses strategies for successful implementation

Boosting Language Skills of English Learners Through Dramatization and Movement

This article presents an arts integration program that uses drama and dance to promote foundational literacy skills, with an emphasis on the oral development of English Language Learners (ELLs). Previous research indicates that arts activities afford a beneficial opportunity for young students to practice language skills, but many teachers have received scant training in the arts. The Teaching Artist Project (TAP) is a professional development program that helps classroom teachers use dramatization and creative movement to enhance comprehension and promote verbal interaction in the classroom. Children learn to imaginatively connect the decontextualized vocabulary of the classroom with their own experiences. A mixed methods study of TAP found that K-1 ELLs who participated in TAP showed improvements in early literacy skills compared with their peers. This article introduces approaches used in TAP, suggests sources of the language gains, and discusses strategies for successful implementation

The Arts, the Common Core, and English Language Development in the Primary Grades

Background/Context: Throughout schooling, English learners (ELs) perform well below their monolingual English-speaking peers on literacy assessments, and Hispanics make up the ma- jority of EL students in the United States. There is a strong consensus about the importance of early English oral language skills for ELs’ literacy development, yet teachers are not adequate- ly prepared to meet the needs of these young learners. Historically, policy has not provided incentives for educators to focus on oral language development in the classroom. However, the recently adopted Common Core State Standards (CCSS) emphasize oral language skills. Purpose/Objective: This study examines a professional development program that equipped early elementary teachers in five urban schools with arts-based strategies to promote the oral English development of ELs. A second line of inquiry looked at the extent to which the creative drama and dance activities were aligned with CCSS. Participants: There were 3,792 K–2 Hispanic ELs (treatment: N = 497; control: N = 3,295) from Title I schools in a large school district in California. Intervention: The Teaching Artist Project (TAP) was a two-year K–2 arts and literacy profes- sional development program consisting of 28 weekly 50-minute lessons (14 theater and 14 dance). The project provided classroom teachers with in-service training on utilizing move- ment, gesture, and expression to promote stimulating English verbal interactions. TAP was specifically intended to engage non-native English speakers in classroom dialogues, facilitat- ing their oral English development. Research Design: This study utilized a mixed methods design. To address the first research question, schools were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. Multiple regres- sions were run on data from the California English Language Development Test (CELDT) to investigate the impact of the program on the English speaking abilities of K–2 Hispanic English learners. To address the second research question, document review was used to com- pare the K–2 CCSS speaking and listening standards and the TAP lesson plans. Findings: The treatment group was found to significantly outperform the control group (β = 0.13; p < 0.05) on CELDT speaking scores. Additional review suggested that the per- forming arts activities corresponded well to the CCSS speaking and listening standards. Conclusions/Recommendations: Creative drama and dance activities provide rich ver- bal classroom interactions, boost English oral language skills of ELs, and align with the CCSS. Yet concerns are raised about the lack of speaking assessments on tests created by the Smarter Balanced and PARCC consortiums and the potential subsequent distortion of K–2 instruction

Boosting Language Skills of English Learners Through Dramatization and Movement

This article presents an arts integration program that uses drama and dance to promote foundational literacy skills, with an emphasis on the oral development of English Language Learners (ELLs). Previous research indicates that arts activities afford a beneficial opportunity for young students to practice language skills, but many teachers have received scant training in the arts. The Teaching Artist Project (TAP) is a professional development program that helps classroom teachers use dramatization and creative movement to enhance comprehension and promote verbal interaction in the classroom. Children learn to imaginatively connect the decontextualized vocabulary of the classroom with their own experiences. A mixed methods study of TAP found that K-1 ELLs who participated in TAP showed improvements in early literacy skills compared with their peers. This article introduces approaches used in TAP, suggests sources of the language gains, and discusses strategies for successful implementation

Effect of a Performing Arts Program on the Oral Language Skills of Young English Learners

Although English oral language proficiency in the primary grades is critical to the literacy development of English learners (ELs), we know little about how to foster these skills. This study examined a yearlong K–2 drama and creative movement intervention. A randomized experimental design (N = 5,240) was used to address two research questions: (1) Did participating ELs perform better on oral language assessments than those who did not receive the inter- vention? (2) Was the impact of the program moderated by students’ baseline English-language skills? Student speaking and listening skills were measured using the California English Language Development Test. The treatment group (N = 902) outperformed controls (N = 4,338) on speaking assessments. ELs with the most limited English speaking abilities at baseline benefited most from the program

Spanish-speaking Preschoolers' Conceptual Vocabulary Knowledge: Towards More Comprehensive Assessment

This study examined Spanish-English preschoolers’ (n = 32) vocabulary performance when using traditional English-only compared to measures that utilize conceptual scoring (i.e., vocabulary knowledge in terms of known concepts independent of whether the label for the concept is known in either Spanish or English) designed for and normed on Spanish-English bilinguals. Children’s performance at the item level on the conceptually scored measures was also examined. In English, receptive and expressive average scores were in the below-average ranges.  However, on the conceptually scored vocabulary measures, the average scores were within the average range, receptively and expressively.  Examination of children’s performance at the item level suggests there may be differences by language in bilingual children’s receptive and expressive vocabulary performance. The findings underscore the value of utilizing conceptually scored vocabulary measures, suggesting that their use may have potential for differentiate language difference from language disorder among young bilingual learners