Arts Programs Engage Kids in Learning!

Arkansas Learning Through The Arts (ALTTA) offers literacy workshops and arts-focused sessions integrating language arts, social studies, art and music learning standards that are taught in specific curriculum units throughout the school year.

Workshops generally consist of two one-hour sessions with a Teaching Artist in a language arts classroom. Each workshop includes Lesson Planning Guides (LPG’s) for the artist and classroom teacher to use to integrate student learning from various subject areas.

Artists engage the students through:

• Demonstrating their art form.
• Following lesson plans shared with classroom teachers prior to the workshop.
• Integrating their art form with texts being studied in language arts and social studies classes.
• Staging an informal final arts performance in the classroom as a culminating event.

Classroom teachers are included in the process by:

• Reading selected texts with the students and have them write formative responses to essential questions that come from the curriculum being taught.
• Reviewing Student Journals with students prior to the workshop or as outlined in the LPG.
• Participating with the Teaching Artist during the lesson.
• Completing an on-line assessment at the completion of the workshop, or completing a one-page survey that is collected by ALTTA.
• Engaging students in re-writing formative responses to essential questions that can be used to evaluate student learning as a result of the workshop.
• Sharing student writing samples or evaluation data with ALTTA as appropriate.

Residencies include literacy workshops and arts-focused sessions giving students a more hands-on arts experience with the teaching artist. These arts-focused sessions are generally held in the specialty teachers’ classrooms or in the library. For example, poetry may be held during the scheduled library periods, dance in the gym, and music in the music classroom. Specialist teachers participate in the planning and in the activities in order to connect the programs to their curriculum requirements.

Costs: The school pays $90 for each workshop/arts-focused session plus travel expenses for artists who travel more than 80 miles round trip. Schools must schedule a minimum of 4 sessions per day and a maximum of 5 sessions in groups of 25 or less. Mini-grants from the Arkansas Arts Council are available on a first-come, first-serve basis to cover up to half of the cost.

Scheduling: These programs should be scheduled to connect with the curriculum according to the regular timing planned during the school year.

Send an e-mail to:

• Karen Bryan, Executive Director arkansasltta@gmail.com or
• Allison Clark, Program Manager for Central Arkansas allisonclarkaltta@gmail.com