Literacy Tutoring That Works —
Abstract of

Chapter 9
Teaching and Learning About Literacy Through Arts Infusion: Successes, Challenges, and Lessons Learned in an After-School Program

Nancy Rankie Shelton

Morna McDermott

This chapter describes how the authors implemented an after-school, arts-infused literacy program with preservice teachers and students from diverse backgrounds who resided in a facility that provides long- and short-term residential care for children. Tutoring partners collaboratively selected texts and rendered their comprehension through art-based responses. The chapter reports on the success of the program that includes counteracting stereotypes initially embraced by many of the preservice teachers. The findings are an invitation to consider how the arts can promote meaningful literacy connections and experiences for students. The authors share evidence from their data that confirms the preservice teachers became aware of their own biases when working with diverse students, made efforts to work toward self-reflection to change some of those biases, and developed an understanding of how students learn in arts and literacy-rich contexts.

Shelton, N., & McDermott, M. (2009). Teaching and Learning About Literacy Through Arts Infusion: Successes, Challenges, and Lessons Learned in an After-School Program. In J.C. Richards, & C.A. Lassonde (Eds.), Literacy Tutoring That Works (pp. 108-118). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.