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

Abstract

Background/Context Throughout schooling, English learners (ELs) perform well below their monolingual English-speaking peers on literacy assessments, and Hispanics make up the majority 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 adequately 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 professional 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 movement, gesture, and expression to promote stimulating English verbal interactions. TAP was specifically intended to engage non-native English speakers in classroom dialogues, facilitating 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 regressions 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 compare 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 performing arts activities corresponded well to the CCSS speaking and listening standards. Conclusions/Recommendations Creative drama and dance activities provide rich verbal 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.

Selection into, and academic benefits from, middle school dance elective courses among urban youth.

“…Although many studies have shown associations between participation in the arts in general and enhanced child cognitive, social, and academic outcomes (Brown et al, 2017;Brown & Sax, 2013;Catterall, 2009;Catterall et al, 2012;Elpus, 2013a) and some have explored positive benefits for dance engagement in particular (Gilbert, 2006;Greenfader & Brouillette, 2017;Kim, 2007;Lobo & Winsler, 2006;Minton, 2003;Morgan & Stengel-Mohr, 2014;Park, 2007;Rossberg-Gempton et al, 1999;Seham, 1997), much of the research is correlational and does not adequately control for preexisting selection effects-the many ways that students who do and do not get arts experiences are initially different. Further, studies often examine rather global arts experiences (Catterall, 2009;Catterall et al, 2012;Winsler et al, 2019) when outcomes associated with arts participation are likely to vary by the particular art form in question (Winner et al, 2013).…”

“…First and most important, the research linking arts involvement and increased academic or developmental outcomes is largely correlational or quasi-experimental (somewhat better but still lacking sufficient control of selection variables), which only shows (often weak) associations between arts participation and positive developmental outcomes. There exist a few true experimental studies that have randomly assigned students to arts participation and control groups (the design needed to infer causality) that have shown positive effects of arts engagement (Greenfader & Brouillette, 2017; Holochwost et al, 2017; Lobo & Winsler, 2006; Moreno et al, 2011; Rabinowitch & Meltzoff, 2017; Schellenberg, 2004). However, the majority of research in this area compare an arts-exposed group with a naturally occurring comparison group of children not exposed to the art form in question without sufficiently accounting for selection factors.…”

“…Children whose first language is not English may particularly use music, dance, and drama as a system of nonverbal symbolism to explore and exercise their creative and cognitive abilities (Connery et al, 2010; Hanna, 2008). When strategically coupled with a literacy curriculum, English learners in grades K–2 who participated in an in-school drama and dance intervention integrating movement, gesture, and expression into classroom-based early English literacy lessons reported greater gains in language acquisition and science vocabulary, compared with a control group (Greenfader & Brouillette, 2017; Morgan & Stengel-Mohr, 2014). Another experimental study by McMahon, Rose, and Parks (2003) found that a dance and literacy intervention improved the reading skills of low-income, African American first graders in Chicago public schools, compared with a control group that received traditional reading instruction.…”

“…sition and science vocabulary, compared with a control group (Greenfader & Brouillette, 2017;Morgan & Stengel-Mohr, 2014).…”

Selection into, and academic benefits from, arts-related courses in middle school among low-income, ethnically diverse youth.

“…Children who participated in an in-school drama and dance intervention integrating movement, gesture, and expression into early English literacy lessons showed greater gains in language acquisition and science vocabulary compared to a control group (Greenfader, Brouillette, & Farkas, 2015). In a recent study involving random assignment of teachers to professional development using drama techniques for teaching language arts, enhanced English acquisition among English Language Learners (ELLs) was found compared to regular professional development (Greenfader & Brouillette, 2017). Goldstein and Lerner (2017) assigned low-income 4-year-olds to a program involving repeated dramatic pretend play games and found enhanced emotional self-control for participants compared to controls.…”