Engaging the Community

Yvonne has asked me to elaborate on my reference to the PEAK program in Monday’s post. In October 2004, Englewood (Col) Public Schools and Englewood Arts (a 501(c)3 organization in Englewood) was awarded an $813,000 grant from the United States Department of Education, Office of Innovation and Improvement, to conduct a three-year study of the impact that integrating art into elementary school curricula has on academic performance in reading and writing. The project is entitled PEAK (Progressive Education in Art+Academics for Kids).

The PEAK project is based on the premise that involvement in the arts improves academic achievement. According to recent research in brain development, the arts have a unique way of providing learners with opportunities to simultaneously develop and mature multiple brain systems, including integrated sensory, attentional, cognitive, emotional and motor capacities, which are the driving forces behind all other learning (Arts with the Brain in Mind, Jensen, 2001).

Teachers in the three participating schools are trained and supported by professional artists to incorporate arts integration techniques into the reading and writing curriculum. Students participate in weekly arts residencies that pair classroom teachers with music, dance and visual art or theatre professionals, receive instruction in playing the piano and/or the recorder, and have opportunities to participate in after school music and theatre programs.

Currently, 20 classroom teachers and three art and music teachers are participating in the PEAK project, working with approximately 600 students. They are joined by professional artists provided by Englewood Arts from the David Taylor Dance Theatre, Museum of Outdoor Arts, and Up Close and Musical in developing and implementing the curriculum.

Let me give two examples of using music and dance to enhance learning. In order to help young students understand unfamiliar text structures, such as those in the book Who Bop? by Jonathan London in which the words are written in circles and swirls, students are asked to draw lines on a paper that represent the melody line as they listen to a selection of music. The curves and swirls that they draw are compared and contrasted to the way the text appears on the page. Then, the music specialist introduces the concept of melody and notation to represent the curves and swirls. As a result, this integrated lesson gives children the opportunity to make connections between unfamiliar text and melody lines, which supports learning in both reading and music.

A second example is using dance movements to illustrate and reinforce the meaning of punctuation in a grammar lesson. Such integrated lessons enhance basic learning, broaden the child’s ability to assimilate information, and provide a connection that is likely to last for a lifetime.

The PEAK program is a partnership between Englewood (CO) schools and Englewood Arts that provides and compensates the artists for their services. We are in the third year of the program and will see the first hard evaluation data in September.