Arts-Infused Learning Summer School

U.S. Department of Education
Arts Education Model Development and Dissemination Grant: 2002-2005

Arts-Infused Summer School was a 3 year project in collaboration with Tacoma Public Schools. This program researched the impact of teaching educationally at-risk elementary students through dance, theater, and visual arts in support and demonstration of shared concepts and understandings in reading, writing, and math.

Project Design

Arts-Infused Summer School took place during a typical summer school learning setting of five weeks of instruction, four days a week, for three hours each day, totaling 54 hours of instruction and three hours of testing. Title I students in grades 1-4 were identified by their school and characterized by high rates of poverty and below grade level performance in literacy and math. Students were organized into three classrooms by grade level.

A collective work group of Arts Impact trained classroom teachers, Artist Mentors, and curricula specialists researched and wrote arts-infused arts lessons. They selected concepts which appeared in both an artistic discipline (dance, theater, or visual arts) and a parallel academic discipline of reading, writing, or math. Teachers were the primary instructors 65% of the time. Artist Mentors supported instruction of students approximately 35% of the time.

Quantitative and qualitative data was collected to measure student learning in the arts, literacy and math, and quality of project implementation. Instruments included:

Project Goals

  • Increase student knowledge, skills and confidence in the arts
  • Increase student knowledge, skills and confidence in literacy and math
  • Expand standards-based arts education in Tacoma Public Schools
  • Integrate standards-based arts instruction with literacy and math
  • Create a sustainable and replicable summer school model for the arts and arts-infused education

Curriculum

Infused concepts (92KB)


Resources

  • Curriculum Notebook
  • Artworks from local museums as object-based references of concepts in each visual arts lesson and on disc
  • Web-based lesson plan database

Report