UC Irvine, VAPA Partnership Helping Children Learn English Through the Arts

An effort to boost the language skills of K-2 students through the arts is underway. The district's Visual and Performing Arts Program (VAPA), together with the University of California Irvine, have brought the Teaching Artist Program to some of San Diego's neediest schools

Instead of asking children to sit quietly at desks, teachers co-teach 27 arts lessons with teaching-artists in their own classrooms. The curriculum is balanced among lessons in theater, dance and visual arts. This boosts the amount of verbal interaction between adults and young English learners and is considered a key factor in learning a new language. This powerful arts instruction has already shown to build student enthusiasm for learning.

The effort is under way at Adams, Baker, Balboa, Cadman, Central, Hamilton, Jefferson, Jones, Knox, Logan, Marshall, McKinley and Paradies Hills. For more information, please contact Karen Childress-Evans, VAPA director, at (858) 539-5349 or kchildressevans@sandi.net.

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