Teaching the Arts to Engage English Language Learners

Written for prospective and practicing visual arts, music, drama, and dance educators, Teaching the Arts to Engage English Language Learners offers guidance for engaging ELLs, alongside all learners, through artistic thinking. By paying equal attention to visual art, music, drama, and dance education, this book articulates how arts classrooms can create rich and supportive contexts for ELLs to grow socially, academically, and personally. The making and relating, perceiving and responding, and connecting and understanding processes of artistic thinking, create the terrain for rich curricular experiences. These processes also create the much-needed spaces for ELLs to gain communicative practice, skill, and confidence. Special features include generative texts such as films, poems, and performances that function as springboards for arts educators to adapt according to the needs of their classroom; teaching tips, formative assessment practices, and related instructional tables and resources; an annotated list of internet sites, reader-friendly research articles, and instructional materials; and a glossary for readers’ reference.

Margaret Macintyre Latta is an Associate Professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education in the College of Education and Human Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Elaine Chan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education in the College of Education and Human Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.