This website features videos and lesson plans created through the K-2 Teaching Artist Project (TAP), a partnership between the San Diego Unified School District and the University of California, Irvine (funded by a USDE Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination grant). These resources are provided free-of-charge and can be accessed via tabs on the toolbar.

The project utilized arts integration to significantly boost the oral language skills of children in 15 high-poverty elementary schools that serve large numbers of children who speak a language other than English at home. Lesson plans and classroom videos of lessons being taught by teaching artists are available, along with a description of the project and articles (from The Reading Teacher, Reading Research Quarterly and Teachers College Record that report the project’s impact on the language skills of English language learners. The articles are accessible below.

Boosting the Language Skills of English Language Learners through Dramatization and Movement

Impact of the Teaching Artist Project on English Language Development in the Primary Grades

The Arts, the Common Core, and English Language Development in the Primary Grades