We applied for the course with the aim of gaining more skills to help us reach one of our school’s priority developments targets - To understand and to implement strategies to cultivate equity and inclusion in the classroom. Since art is a way of connecting people, including those facing challenges, originating from different socio-economic backgrounds regardless of country of origin, race, religion, ethnicity, disability and prior knowledge, we wanted a course that would teach our participating teachers new methodologies that would help us serve all learners. We wanted to achieve a greater understanding of inclusion and diversity. Our aim was to gain a better understanding of content and language integrated learning that could help our teachers to develop activities and lessons that incorporate works of art that could in turn help our learners. Our main objectives were to: - achieve a better understanding of how art can be used in language learning - reflect on our own teaching methods - reflect on how other creative arts are already being used in the classroom - share examples of good practice and learn from others - learn new ways of how to capture students’ attention - be inspired to implement and try innovative ideas - develop tools to stimulate creativity and be able to help our students develop creative ideas - develop tools to be more inclusive and promote equity - strengthen intercultural awareness We also wanted our teachers to understand how works of art can be incorporated in the language classroom to teach, motivate and encourage: - literacy - inclusion and diversity - curiosity and imagination - creativity - critical thinking - cultural knowledge - communication skills
This project aims at enhancing techniques used by our English language teachers to teach language through art as a means of breaking down barriers in an ever increasingly diverse and challenging classroom. Art is a personal expression of skill and imagination which reaches our diverse students regardless of their cultural or social backgrounds. The aim of our project is to train our teachers to integrate art into English language teaching and learning so that students develop and deepen their understanding of their own and others’ human experience. Since our school is experiencing an influx in students coming from different countries, learning English through art could help bridge the distances between the students’ home country and their new home. Using art in combination with reading, writing, speaking and listening, can truly open the doors for communication. In order to reach one of our school’s priority development targets, which is to better understand and implement strategies to cultivate equity and inclusion in the classroom, teacher training needs to be our first step.