Literacy and the arts

1. Literacy and the arts Theater is a great tool for promoting literacy while engaging students in the arts. I hope you will find these sites to be helpful. Links Compiled by Monica Graham

2. Using Drama and Theatre to Promote Literacy Development: Some Basic Classroom Applicationsby Ping-Yun Sun • The author suggests that there are four primary reasons teachers shy away from using drama and theatre in the classroom when research shows the tremendous benefits it has for children's cognitive and affective development. The four barriers are as follows: • Teachers are overwhelmed by various terms • Dramatic activities seem to be time-consuming and unnecessary • Teachers are unfamiliar with facilitating dramatic activities • Dramatic activities are so playful that teachers might be afraid that children will not take learning seriously • In arts administration, we often talk about the "barriers to participation" that we face in trying to engage new audiences. This article addresses the same problem in the context of the classroom. We need to provide the training and tools necessary for teachers to succeed. I this this article is great way to start the conversation addressing the lack of dramatic arts in the school curriculum.

3. The Art of Reading • This site has tips and tools for both parents and teachers on how to motivate kids to read. It's a great resource for fun activities that encourage reading. Such As: • How Appreciating Art Can Promote Literacy Combine Learning and Fun at Art Museums • Pairing Books with an Art Activities • And Lots of Booklists, Web Resources, and Games for Kids

4. The curriculum theme “Reading Art” builds essential comprehension strategies and draws parallels between art, reading and writing. Six works of art from the North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) collection illustrate some of the ways artists communicate stories through a visual language of color, line, shape and pattern. • The curriculum provides suggestions for teaching students in grades K-8 to use proficient reading strategies, visualizing, determining importance, making connections, inferring, questioning and synthesizing, to analyze a work of art in much the same way they read strategically. • Lesson plans are also provided on their website.

5. The International Theatre and Literacy Projectis a non-profit organization that brings theatre artists from the United States to developing countries to conduct community-based playwriting and theatre workshops for secondary school students and teachers. • This is an incredible organization. The students write their own plays reflecting on their observations of the society they live in. For most of these students, English is a second language, and a program like this provides an engaging outlet to express themselves while gaining a deeper understanding of the nuances of both written and spoken language.

6. Readers’ Theater is an activity in which students, while reading directly from scripts, are able to tell a story in a most entertaining form, without props, costumes, or sets. This is a reading activity, and students are not asked to memorize their lines. They are, however, encouraged to "ham it up" and use intonation and gestures appropriate to their characters and their characters’ words. • This program is designed for the classroom. This site is great because it provides a Teacher's Guide and a list of books with Readers' Theater Scripts with others available for free online. It basically points you in the right direction whether you are looking to learn more about literacy for kid, adults, second language literacy, or even using music to build reading skills. It's a good information hub for teachers.

7. Stages Theatre Company Theatre Arts and Literacy Curriculum • This is another great organization working to incorporate art into the school curriculum. Stages offers workshops that provide educators with hands-on experience with theatre lessons and activities. They also have free curriculums available online. One is the Theatre Arts and Literacy Curriculum with lessons for Pre-K through Grade 6. The other is called In My Own Voice: Responding to Life and Literature Through Playwrighting for grades 6 - 12.