School Type: Public	School Setting: Urban
Level: High	School Design: Traditional
Content Presented By:
The Education Alliance at Brown University
ArtsLiteracy Project

Summary

The practice: Creating Responsive Classrooms

• In this English language learners class at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island, most students have spoken English for only a few years or months, some for a few weeks.
• The city of Central Falls ranks the highest in the state of Rhode Island for community-wide limited English proficiency (29.5%, compared to the state average of 6.2%).
• These students and their teachers are participating in a literacy development opportunity, offered through Brown University, called the ArtsLiteracy Project (ArtsLit).
• ArtsLit draws on research in language development, literacy, and arts education. The research suggests that acting, speaking, writing, planning, and organizing for a performance is a powerful tool for improving students' engagement in school, and especially in literacy activities.
• The ArtsLit professional development workshops and summer programs (http://www.artslit.org/programs.html) emphasize the teaching concepts of modeling, apprenticeship, and scaffolding.
• The ArtsLit curricular framework (or Performance Cycle: see http://www.artslit.org/handbook.html) emphasizes high standards, community building, interactive learning, student voice, and connections to life experiences.
• Aspects of the ArtsLit Performance Cycle that contribute to this practice are Building Community, Rehearsing/Revising Text, and Performing Text.

The stage is set with 20 English language learners, their teachers, their ArtsLiteracy Project mentor, and a performance artist. Together they will develop a theatrical performance based on various texts and personal stories that explore the students' lives and their hopes for the future. On performance day, they will share their stories and demonstrate their skills to the whole student body at Central Falls High School in Central Falls, Rhode Island.

The ArtsLiteracy Performance Cycle benefits English language learners by creating a safe, engaging, and welcoming community of learners and by offering an abundance of motivating and purposeful activities for practicing skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Students benefit from the enactive learning activities and collaborative structure of the Performance Cycle. With these supportive elements, English language learners are better able to understand challenging text.

By participating in the ArtsLiteracy Project, these students and their teachers have learned new strategies for literacy development. When students make personal connections between their lives and their academic reading and writing, they become more engaged in school, and their literacy skills improve. As they work toward their final project, teachers and students create a responsive atmosphere in which students feel comfortable sharing and developing their stories.

• Making Connections to Students' Lives  
• Having Students Interact with Each Other and with Text  
• Roles of the Teacher  
• Creating a Student-Centered Classroom  
• Supporting the English classroom through literacy development   
• Utilizes best practices in the area of systemic educational reform.  
• Involves ongoing support for teacher professional development.  

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This resource is developed and maintained by The Education Alliance at Brown University. Seed funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Education. Send comments to: loom@alliance.brown.edu