PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT MATTERS

I will share the action research process that I engaged in, where I studied whether and how art integrated teaching with students who have language differences can boost student engagement and help students to hone their literacy skills. This will be a presentation with some interaction with participants.

I will present the population that I worked with: students who have English as an Additional Language and who have Speech, language and communication needs, and their teaching and learning needs, and identify the literacy skills for middle school that I explored. I will present how teaching literacy skills through art observation, creation, and drama will help to give students voice, choice and access. This is vital in an international environment, as populations shift rapidly, and student needs are varied. I will present qualitative data regarding whether literacy skills and engagement improve over the course of my action research study, and present some techniques and examples to participants.