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 Inspiration      Blades:     Home        Learn More        Standards        Inspiration        About the Author


Project Inspiration

Two factors sparked my research:

1) The desire for art and engineering lessons to increase for my students.
I wanted to do more than just what the curriculum offered. I wanted to extend lessons with meaningful or at least more engaging activities. 
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2) The desire to improve language skills for my students.
Students in my Title I school are predominately English Language Learners (60% in the 2019-2020 school year). Annually, they take a state test called the English Language Proficiency Assessment of California (ELPAC) if they were identified by their family as an ELL. Students are assessed in four domains: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. Traditionally, 60% or less of the ELLs assessed at my school demonstrated progress towards being considered proficient in English. 60% is OK. We need and can get better results! But how?

So I thought about some of my learning from the past about strategies or about findings from educational experts. Two themes stuck out:
  • How does the brain work?
  • How do we learn language? 

I had basics from my undergraduate work as a Child Development major. 
I had training from professional development over the last 15 years.
I had special interests in literacy and language based on my teaching experiences.
And so, my research started to evolve.

I wanted to test my hypothesis of: If students received art and engineering infused opportunities along with scripted Language Arts curriculum lessons, is there an impact on their language skills?

After poking around in various research data bases, I discovered there was little (3) research available on infusing art and engineering into Language Arts curriculum. And the three that I did locate, did not have elementary aged participants.  And definitely there was NO research published yet on infusing art and engineering into language arts during a pandemic! 
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Research
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Design Process
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Support and Next Steps
PictureCreated by S. Blades in Canva.com

​Want to know about my journey through graduate school? Or read about my research evolution? 
Then click on the book to read all about it!

Here's a sneak peak at the Abstract from my Research!
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