Equity & Access Professional Learning

Developing Citizen-Teachers Through Performance Arts in the Summer Institute

Summary:

The authors describe their integration of the arts, particularly process drama, into the summer institute as a vehicle for providing equity, supporting educational reform, and promoting the concept of the citizen-teacher. Originally published on January 3, 2006

Authors Nancy Mellin McCracken and Anthony Manna, with Darla Wagner and Bonnie Molnar, describe the journey they undertook integrating the arts into the summer institute. Over a ten-year period, 1996–2006, they turned the arts into a vehicle for providing equity, supporting educational reform, and promoting the concept of the citizen-teacher.

The monograph describes three activities in detail: a writing wall, performance poetry, and process drama, showing how each addresses state academic content standards for writing while developing the participants’ capacity as citizen-teachers. Extensive appendices provide information on implementing these activities.