Early Learning Pilot Model

The Early Learning program is a partnership between Arts Impact and Puget Sound Educational Service District Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (PSESD ECEAP) sites at Black Diamond and Southwood Elementary Schools in Enumclaw School District. These sites were selected because the Arts Impact Core program is already in place throughout Enumclaw School District elementary schools, including both Black Diamond and Southwood. The Early Learning pilot investigates an Arts Impact model for early learning professional development and arts lessons.

The first year of this pilot project was funded by the Washington State Arts Commission. The second year of training is funded by Arts Impact and PSESD ECEAP, who have committed to finding additional resources to expand this program throughout the region.

Project Design

Year 1: 2009-2010

  • ECEAP teachers trained alongside K-5 teachers in the Core Year 1 Summer Institute, learning foundational arts concepts and skills in dance, theater, and visual arts to build their own knowledge in arts and to identify pre-cursor skills for the Arts Impact lessons that are part of the K-5 Enumclaw curriculum.
  • ECEAP teachers received mentorships in all three disciplines and wrote lesson plans exploring one concept or skill from the Core Arts Foundations curriculum and adapting it to a pre-K setting.
  • Year 1 was evaluated by Dr. Bruce Cunningham, PSESD. Results from that evaluation and feedback from Arts Impact Artist Mentors and ECEAP teachers and staff informed development of the second year of training.

Year 2: 2010-2011

  • ECEAP teachers from Black Diamond and Southwood Elementary and from Frederickson Elementary in the Bethel School District participated in a one-day Mini-Institute using an Arts-Infused Literacy Curriculum in all three disciplines.
  • Black Diamond and Southwood ECEAP teachers will receive conferring/consulting mentorships in all three disciplines to write arts-infused literacy lesson plans, which teachers will implement independently. The Frederickson teacher will receive a Core model mentorship as part of the whole school Core program.
  • Results and recommendations from the second year training will be collected in the spring of 2011 in order to formalize an early learning teacher training model.

Program Goals

  • Increase pre-K teacher knowledge in arts foundations and concepts
  • Increase pre-K teacher autonomy to teach the arts
  • Increase pre-K student knowledge in standards-based arts concepts
  • Increase pre-K student literacy readiness
  • Increase and formalize pre-K arts education

Program Components

  • Pre-K Teacher Teams (one teacher and one teacher’s assistant per school)
  • Two year course
    • Year 1: 50 total hours of professional development include:
      • Experiential Summer Institute: 30 hours
      • Classroom mentorship: 12 hours
      • Supplementary Workshops: up to 6 hours
      • Up to 50 clock hours or 3 graduate credits from Seattle Pacific University
    • Year 2: 15.5 total hours of professional development include:
      • Experiential Summer Institute: 6 hours
      • Classroom mentorship: 3.5 hours
      • Supplementary Workshops: up to 6 hours

Curriculum

ECEAP Scope and Sequence PDF (96KB)

  • Year One focus: Arts foundations in dance, theater and visual arts
  • Year Two focus: Dance, theater and visual arts infusion into literacy

Assessment and Evaluation

  • Autonomy Rubric for Teachers: measurement of growth in teacher practice
  • Performance-based assessment of teacher learning
  • Performance-based assessments of student learning in the arts and in arts-infused content
  • Program evaluation: teacher levels of engagement; pre and post teacher surveys; teacher, staff, and Artist Mentor focus groups

Resources

  • Two curriculum notebooks (one per year): Arts Foundations Lessons and Arts-Infused Lessons
  • Digital images of artworks from local museums as object-based references of concepts in each visual arts lesson, available in notebooks and on disc
  • Web-based lesson plan database

Reports