An after-school cultural arts program.

Abstract

This article focuses on an after-school cultural arts program as an oasis in a test-preparation environment. It explains the school and program, defines culture, and includes a discussion of methods and program evaluation.

Introduction

Students in grades 2-5 had an opportunity to enter an oasis on their test-focused campus by participating in an after-school cultural arts program. This article describes and evaluates the enrichment program offered in a South Texas school serving mostly low-income Latino children.

School Description

Tarea is a pre-K-5 campus with approximately 400 students. It is one of the oldest, smallest, and poorest elementary schools in its South Texas district and is part of a federal empowerment zone. Approximately 75% of its students are English language learners and 99% are Latino. Yet because of its smallness, Tarea gets less district funding than the large elementary schools and it has no art teacher. However, it has a 98% attendance rate, partly because it is a neighborhood school. Another important context is Tarea's testing focus. Although the Texas Education Agency had rated Tarea exemplary for several years, district and school administrators had teachers focus on the state-mandated Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS). Similarly, Guerrero and Sloan (2001) discovered that teachers in four exemplary elementary schools (one urban and three on the Mexican border) focused instruction on the Texas-mandated test. School administrators serving primarily low-income students and English language learners often worry about test scores, concentrate on the basics, and eliminate non-tested subjects (Martinez, 1999).

ALAS Description

ALAS, the enrichment program I created and taught at Tarea, was not only an escape from seatwork and state benchmarks, but an oasis participants entered through beaded curtains. This oasis allowed participants to explore the world through the arts and authentic literature. ALAS (an acronym for Arts and Literacy to Achieve Success in English or "wings" in Spanish), was made possible because of a $5,000 grant from the Kenedy Foundation which paid for supplies and my assistant. ALAS was also made possible because of 87 volunteers: 21 graduate and undergraduate students and 7 professors, 4 Tarea teachers, 5 community members, and 50 adult family members of participants. These volunteers presented mini-lessons, assisted in class activities and cooking, performed dances, helped in decorating the room monthly, and shot photos.

From November 2002 to April 2003, participants learned about their own and other cultures through authentic reading and writing and hands-on experiences in the arts (e.g., creating a Chinese dragon head for a dragon dance). Participants attended ALAS twice weekly; each session started at 3:30 and ended at 5 p.m. Twelve third graders studied Native Americans in November. Seven fourth graders learned about Africa in December. Fifteen fifth graders explored China in January. Nine second graders examined Mexico in February. Seven third graders investigated Morocco in March. Lastly, twelve fifth graders focused on the arts (e.g., creating pantomime, performing a play, and exploring art styles) in April. There were 53 participants, nine of whom participated twice; an average of 10 students attended monthly.

ALAS goals were to: 1) involve parents in their children's literacy development, 2) involve the community to support family literacy, 3) increase students' and parents' knowledge and skills in social studies, and 4) increase students' enthusiasm and skills in learning and literacy. The following schedule connects ALAS goals with daily activities and assists those interested in program replication: Tuesdays began with pairs selecting and reading narrative and expository children's books in the ALAS room; these books related to the month's theme. Next, participants formed a circle on our gathering rug, summarized their books, read their favorite sentences aloud, and explained why these were their favorites. Next, a volunteer or I gave a mini-lesson relating to the month's theme. For our Native American unit, a pre-service kinesiology teacher taught the history of archery and demonstrated how to shoot a bow and arrow. For our Moroccan unit, an Islamic community volunteer dressed in prayer clothes, explained prayer protocols, and taught the five tenants of Islam. Participants then had unstructured time for listening to themed music, eating snacks, and exploring the "Magic Suitcase" (containing dolls, toys, and other artifacts to complement the month's theme). Tuesdays ended with the students writing what they learned and what they liked/didn't like that day.

Thursdays began with volunteers sharing their previous log entries on the gathering rug. Participants then did a drama, dance, music, or art activity related to the month's topic. For our Native American unit, third graders watched a video clip of a Pow Wow and took on different dance roles (e.g., "Head Dancer" and "Shawl Dancer"). For our African unit, fourth grade participants jammed with a music professor, two college music majors, and Tarea's music teacher; participants used African drums the volunteers brought, as well as the African drums they made and decorated. At the end of each month, we created and ate a meal to celebrate the culture of study; for example, we had fry bread, squash with corn and tomatoes, corn pudding, cranberry sauce, and beef jerky for Native Americans' harvest; families of participants and community and university volunteers assisted in cooking and eating these meals.

Culture

Culture means "the ever-changing values, traditions, social and political relationships, and worldview created, shared, and transformed by a group of people bound together" (Nieto, 1999, p. 48). Participants shared many similar values and relationships because they attended the same school and program, and most lived in the neighborhood surrounding the school. They shared commonalities with guest presenters, also. For example, a Lipan Apache guest sang about his daughter's love for Wal-Mart, but wore ceremonial dance clothes and used a huge Native American drum for accompaniment. Tarea students could identify with Wal-Mart and they, like the performer, grew up in South Texas. The Wal-Mart song also demonstrated the transformation of the Lipan Apache culture.

Methods

I based program efficacy on 53 second-fifth grade Tarea students, selected by their classroom teachers; 52 were Latino (98%) and 30 were native Spanish speakers (57%). Although I repeatedly asked the teachers to send Spanish-dominant learners and those struggling academically, they sent students who fared well in school and who passed TAKS benchmarks. The population I wanted had to attend after-school TAKS tutorials. This is a limitation because ALAS was intended to benefit those who received the most remediation and high-stakes testing pressure.

For the curriculum and data gathering and analysis, I used a socio-semiotics framework, e.g., socially and contextually dependent meaning potentials through sign or communication systems (Harste, 1987). Data sources were: post-surveys of students and parents (short answer format), a Likert survey for classroom teachers of participating students, field-notes, teacher interviews, university volunteers' reflective essays, participants' logs, and my one-on-one interviews with participants (created in an Access database). I conducted these interviews in the ALAS room the last Tuesday of each month while other participants were engaged in activities. As each child spoke, I typed her/his answers into my laptop. Because I wanted to explore perceptions, I asked each child: "When you talk about ALAS to your family and neighbors, how do you describe what you do?" Immediately after an interview, I had the interviewee read what I typed for a language experience approach and for member checking.

For data analysis, I used an Excel spreadsheet and developed matrices for participant interviews, and teacher, child, and parent post-surveys. I used a key-word approach to create and delineate categories with Glaser's (1965) constant comparative method. Initially I had 20 themes, but combined them into seven because they represented similar concepts. For example, I combined friends, sharing, and social learning; hands-on learning, movement, and active learning; and fun and play. Similar patterns emerged between other data to establish the trustworthiness of findings. For peer debriefing, I had individual discussions with volunteers and my assistant immediately before and after sessions.

Program Evaluation

Goal 1: Involve parents in their children's literacy development Fifty of 53 participants (95%) had older family members who helped us to prepare monthly meals. If a parent could not assist, s/he sent a grandmother or aunt. At least five fathers helped us to prepare these meals. Also, we had at least 50 adult family members at the Culminating Celebration for ALAS in late April. Several parents said they enjoyed cooking with their children during ALAS and interacting with ALAS teachers and volunteers. In their conversations with me, parents said ALAS helped them to connect with their children because ALAS participants became interested in preparing food at home. Parents also said they became aware of the acting and dancing talents of their children. Lastly, most participants took ALAS books home and many said they read the books with their parents, although taking home books or parental reading weren't program requirements. (The only requirements were participants' good behavior in school and during the program and adult family members' assistance in preparing the monthly meals.)

Twenty-five of 38 guardians/parents (66%) completed a short-answer questionnaire about their children's participation in ALAS from February to April; other guardians had completed a Likert-scale questionnaire from November to January. I changed the instrument at the end of January because the format didn't facilitate enough depth about program effectiveness; also most parents circled "strongly agree" on all pre- and post-survey questions. Thus, I chose not to use the parents' Likert-survey for analysis and instead developed four short-answer survey questions to elicit detailed responses. From February to March, I had parents complete the revised surveys during the cooking session; this prevented data loss and helped me to assist parents who couldn't read or write in Spanish or English. One mother said she was embarrassed she couldn't read in her native language (Spanish), so she dictated answers to me. Following are their unedited responses:

Question 1" In what ways did ALAS help your child? "It helped by showing her other areas in the world and to help her have a bigger outlook on life." "It has influenced her need to continue reading, and the dancing part of the class was very enjoyable for her."

Question 2: What does your child say about ALAS? What things did s/he learn that s/he continues doing? "She enjoyed it very much. And wishes it continue [sic] next year. Sharing and talking about how people ate different kinds of food and their different culture." "She states she enjoys it. She loves this program. She learned how to dance and know the Mexican Culture."

Question 3: What did you learn as a parent from ALAS? "Que es mucho ayuda para nosotros y que les ensenan cosas que ni nosotros sabemos." (It helps us a lot and they teach things we didn't even know.) "Que es muy bueno que tomen encuenta a los padres para participar con los ninos y asi aprende mas juntas." (It's very good they include parents to participate with their children, so we can learn more together.)

Question 4: What other comments do you have about ALAS? "Que es una buena motivacion para los ninos porque les hace divertida y amena la clase y aprenden jugando." (It's a good motivation ('or children because it is fun and they learn by playing.) "I think more programs like this should be available to students interested."

I did not receive many parent surveys in April because ALAS had ended and the school year was almost over. Also in April, my assistant and I didn't have an opportunity to collect parent surveys on a one-on-one basis because we were busy orchestrating the culminating celebration for the entire program. Thus, in April we received 7 of 16 returned surveys, in February we received 12 of 14, and in March we received 6 of 8. A limitation is the low return on parent surveys. However, all responses from the initial and revised post-parent surveys were positive; the responses from the revised format were rich and varied.

Goal 2." Involve the community to support family literacy

Many guardians brought their babies and pre-school children to ALAS, and participants brought their siblings; we embraced this practice. Also, two middle school students who attended Tarea the previous year participated in our Frida Kahlo play in April; they had heard about ALAS and wanted to attend. ALAS helped them, as well as other community members to connect with public schools. For example, we had 87 university students and professors, Tarea faculty, and community members who taught lessons, who assisted, and who performed dances. Additionally, we received $410 worth of community donations (e.g., art and cooking supplies, empty cassettes to record books on tape, and a beaded entrance curtain). These donations demonstrate support for the program, also. Following are sample quotes from university volunteers:

Cindy, graduate student in reading, who helped to cook Chinese food: "'All the while, they gathered up the rest of the Chinese dishes. It was a sight to see. I have been involved in education for 19 years of my life; this is true cooperation at its best ... This experience brought back memories of my learning years. I'll never forget the many projects I completed in grade school. Many of those skills are still used today. I'm glad I didn't grow up in this [high-stakes] era."

Avice, Hong Kong graduate student in ESL, who taught Chinese calligraphy, a dragon dance, and authentic Chinese cooking: "What the students learned about Chinese culture is impressive. They even read some stories I have never heard before. Through reading every day, they picked up knowledge as well as vocabulary related to the topic they read. They acquire the knowledge and words unconsciously. They have not been to China, but learned some Mandarin by reading. That is very amazing."

Mauricio, an actor and pre-service art teacher, who helped the children to explore improvisation and art styles: "I was even more impressed with the fact that these kids went on their own because they liked being there and learning all sorts of things to enhance their artistic selves."

Goal 3." Increase students' and parents' knowledge and skills' in social studies I evaluated this goal from: surveys from participants and their parents and regular classroom teachers, participants' daily logs, and one-on-one participant interviews. Teachers, students and parents responded positively to the post-survey question relating to learning about other cultures. Out of the 11 teachers in grades 2-5 who completed the post-Likert survey, all agreed or strongly agreed that ALAS helped participants in their classes to become more interested in or knowledgeable about other cultures. Six teachers strongly agreed and five agreed with this item; they rated this item, as well as student enthusiasm for ALAS, the highest.

Increased interest in culture was the most frequent category on the revised (short answer) parent questionnaire; 16 of 23 parents (70%) wrote that their children became interested in exploring their own or different cultures as a result of ALAS. Increased interest in culture was the second most frequent category from the student surveys; increased interest in arts was the most popular. Moreover, at the commencement of each session, student participants often wrote of learning about other cultures. Following are some of their unedited logs:

11/13/02 Paul (third grade): "We learn [sic] to do a [sic] Indian dance and had fun. We usd [sic] tipes [sic] of insterints [instruments] to do this dance."

1/14/03 Juan (fifth grade): "I learned how to write in Chines. Also I met Chinese people."

3/17/03 Elsa (third grade): "Today 1 learned how to decorate Azulejos [tiles] and arches. A long time ago, azulejos and arhces [sic] were made by Moroccan people. Now, people in Mexico make them, too.'"

Even though fifth grade participants focused on the arts in April, many wrote that they learned about a Mexican artist from their Frida Kahlo play (Winter, 2002). However, not all commented that they learned about culture in their logs. It was difficult to have one content focus because ALAS involved a sign or communication system approach to culture. Furthermore, some might have interpreted what we did in ALAS as playing, not learning. However, Kieff and Casbergue (2000) state that playful learning can help children retain knowledge and skills and can help motivate students to be life-long learners.

I interviewed three of four teachers whose students participated in ALAS. A fifth grade teacher said her students often wore the Chinese pendant necklaces I made them and that the children felt proud to be in ALAS. A third grade teacher said that her students wanted to teach non-participants the locations of countries and the connection between Mexican and Moroccan fountains, arches, and tiles. Lastly, Tarea's music teacher said ALAS was significant because it helped children to see a world outside of South Texas: "They see that their culture does not stand by itself. It's a part of the bigger culture. We are influenced by the area around us and other cultures are influenced by us."

Goal 4: Increase students' enthusiasm and skills in learning and literacy I used teacher, student, and parent surveys; participants' daily logs, and child interviews to evaluate this goal; all responded positively to questions relating to increase enthusiasm for reading and writing on their post-surveys. Second, students often wrote in their logs that they enjoyed reading ALAS materials, but some said they did not like writing the logs. All third grade participants passed the reading TAILS; third graders cannot advance to fourth grade if they fail the reading TAKS.

Although 53 students participated in ALAS, I only was able to interview 49. Following are the most frequent categories that emerged from participants' answers to this question: "When you talk about ALAS to your family and neighbors, how do you describe what you do?"

1. Students engaged in active, hands-on learning

2. Students creating (paper mache dragon, dance, etc.)

3. Three or more sign systems mentioned (art, music, dance, etc.)

4. Curriculum integration (interdisciplinary focus)

5. Reading

6. Fun and playing

7. Friends and sharing

The most common themes emerging from student interviews were engagement, creativity, multiple sign systems, interdisciplinary learning, reading, enjoyment, and community. These themes demonstrate the research-based best practices of ALAS, as illustrated by Danielson (1996). Based on her consultations with expert teachers, a review of research, and U.S. teacher certification standards, Danielson found that student engagement in meaningful, intrinsically motivating work represents best practices.

Conclusions

ALAS, an after-school cultural arts program in a high-stakes testing environment, involved multicultural literature and multiple sign systems to explore culture. We met ALAS goals of involving guardians and community members in literacy; and enhancing participants' knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm in literacy and social studies. Moreover, participants learned that reading was more than test passages and that literature and the arts could be enjoyable ways to explore their worlds. Although participants experienced no direct instruction of reading and writing during ALAS, they read children's books about the culture of study, selected favorite parts to read aloud, summarized the stories during group sharing, and wrote logs at the end of each session. The fact that participants mentioned many research-based best practices when describing ALAS indicates that an after-school cultural arts program can be an oasis for children in a testing milieu.

References

Danielson, C. (1996). Enhancing professional practice: A framework for teaching. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development: Alexandria, Virginia.

Glaser, B. (1965). The constant comparative method of qualitative analysis. Social Problems, 12, 436-445.

Guerrero, M., & Sloan, K. (2001). When exemplary gets blurry: A descriptive analysis of four exemplary K-3 Spanish reading programs in Texas. Bilingual Research Journal, 25, 1-27.

Harste, J. (1987). Toward practical theory: Halliday applied. In R. Steele & T. Threadgold (Eds.), Language topics: Essays in honour of Michael Halliday (105-484). Philadelphia: John Benjamin Publishing Company.

Kieff, J.E., & Casbergue, R.M. (2000). Playful learning and teaching: Integrating play into preschool and primary programs. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Martinez, M. (1999, February 8). System fuels animosity: Wealthy school districts not always willing to help poor ones. Valley Morning Star, pp. A1, A10.

Nieto, S. (1999). Affirming diversity: the sociopolitical context of multicultural education. New York : Longman.

Winter, J. (2002). Frida. New York: Scholastic.

Kathy Bussert-Webb, The University of Texas at Brownsville

Bussert-Webb, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at The University of Texas at Brownsville.