Put simply, Total Literacy is the most complete way to teach emergent and early readers. By using strategies from music, movement, visual arts, and drama; children not only comprehend the language of words more successfully, they also become literate in the other four languages. They achieve TOTAL literacy.

Basic Elements of the Total Literacy Approach.

• Total Literacy utilizes a learning sequence and arts-infusion strategies that overlay existing activities and materials. In other words, it is not a reading program; rather it is a delivery system that works with any existing literacy materials for emergent and early readers. Through the use of music, movement, visual art, and drama, the instruction in the language of words is vastly more powerful.
  
• Music, movement, image, and words are all considered equal languages, and there is teaching in and through all four languages in this approach. Learning concepts and skills through the arts provide tools to make links to acquisition of word language skills. The process of communicating through all four languages makes possible deep and powerful learning. Music, movement, and art therefore are still taught as separate and essential components of the program and curriculum.
  
• Implementation consists of professional development and support, as well as Total Literacy support materials and literature. Through a combination of workshops, videos, model demonstration lessons, and conferences/coaching, teachers expand their understanding and skill sets in the arts. The timeline depends on the organization’s level of commitment. The professional staff is introduced to all the basics and then given a number of sample lessons to try with their classrooms. Over time, they will develop more and more strategies and ideas, and eventually will create their own units with minimal guidance.
  
• The heart of the approach is teamwork. Total Literacy allows and facilitates teachers working as a cohesive unit, classroom and arts teachers together. Every teacher has skills that can benefit students, but they can also benefit colleagues. By sharing ideas and eventually creating units across disciplines, children learn a concept through many lenses, achieving deeper understanding through higher order synthesis.
  
• Total Literacy trainers are familiar with current instructional and literacy trends, and will apply Total Literacy strategies to your specific programs and needs. We will work with you to determine needs, construct goals, and monitor growth steps.

Supporting Research

Total Literacy is based on current research related to teaching and learning, including:

Brain Research supports learning in and through the arts.

“Teaching with the Brain in Mind,” and “Teaching with the Arts in Mind,” by Eric Jensen, published by ASCD, provide current research coupled with teaching suggestions. Among the findings:

• The arts lay the foundation for both academic and career success by building creativity, concentration, problem solving, and self-discipline.
• Schools and program across the country are reporting academic success through arts-infused initiatives.
• Social/emotional gains through arts-infused literacy provide the confidence, self-esteem, and absence of threat that allow deep, creative learning to flourish.

Champions of Change, and Critical Links, published by the Arts Education Partnership document the powerful impact of arts education and arts-infused curriculum related to achievement, motivation, higher order thinking skills, collaborative/interpersonal relationships, attendance, and liking of school.

The SCANS Report indicates that support for arts education is a powerful investment in the future. There are many arts-based businesses, and our multi-media environment requires integrated visual, aural, and kinesthetic processing. In addition, critical listening and higher order thinking will be required for informed and thoughtful participation in a democratic society.

Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences indicates that each intelligence is a unique “language,” and every child has the right to learn in, about, and through all ways of knowing. Links between intelligences allow one to be used as a conduit to another, strengthening and deepening understanding.

Leslie Hart’s Proster Theory is built on findings that the brain seeks pattern from complexity. Simplifying information does not provide the richness required for learning. The learner will select what is useful from rich and meaningful experiences, especially when both freedom and guidance are provided.

Frank Wilson’s work with brain scans shows that when reading words, the language center of the brain lights up. “When reading music, the brain lights up like a Christmas tree.”

Phyllis Wiekart indicates that ability to keep a steady beat is highly correlated with ability to read. She also suggests that inner hearing is highly correlated with ability to read silently.

Reading First, common comprehension strategies from State Mastery Tests, the International Reading Association’s definition of literacy, and Dr. Sue Snyder’s theory Integrate with Integrity have informed Total Literacy theory, foundations, processes, and strategies.

No Child Left Behind Act identifies the arts as core curriculum by law. Many programs recommend using the arts, but do not provide strategies. Most arts and classroom teachers require models and training in order to teach in and through the arts.

Total Literacy provides the strategies, and a sequential professional development sequence that brings the theory into classroom practice, with benefits for all. Total Literacy is joyful, it is deep teaching and learning, it is fun, and it works!

Supporting Evidence

Initial Field Testing and Observations

Total Literacy began with a six-week pilot test, funded by the Connecticut Commission on the Arts HOT Schools program. The first group of 21 first graders received classes four times a week. Pretest-posttest comparison documented the following successes:

• Approximately 1/3 of students began reading on their own.
• Nearly all students demonstrated increased attention and motivation.
• Children entered classrooms with enthusiasm and confidence in what they know.
• Teachers began modeling a style that allowed for greater student involvement, less teacher talk, and more hands-on learning.
• Teachers became more confident in their ability to use music, movement, art, and drama as classroom tools.

Based on the pilot success, a variety of implementations have taken place across the United States. Through compilation of test scores, teacher reports, a research project, and teacher logs and journals, the following findings support Total Literacy as a research-based, effective, and cost-efficient approach to emergent literacy in and through the arts:

• In two first grade classes, after one year of Total Literacy combined with guided reading, students who entered below average grew an average of 16 DRA levels, to reading at a high 2 nd/low 3 rd grade reading level. This finding was supported by additional anecdotal reports.
  
• In one implementation, teachers reported student gains even though the first year was a training year. They have continued to have success as they implement Total Literacy in a more sequential and organized fashion.
  
• Teacher grew from skeptics and inexperienced novices to creative, innovative adapters of the materials, tools, concepts, and skills. They left with a new excitement for teaching and a strong understanding of how powerful integration of music, movement, visual art and drama is – for adults and for children.
  
• Approximately 2/3 of SFA reading students “stuck” in Roots (the phonics-based learning to read component of SFA) moved up at least one level when involved in an intensive arts-based intervention. In addition, Wings (reading to learn) students in classrooms of Total Literacy trained teachers advanced at a significantly higher rate (p=<.001) than their peers in non-trained teacher’s classrooms.
  
• There is evidence that Total Literacy processes are especially powerful in special education and ESL settings, and for different learners struggling with traditional strategies.
  
• The status of arts and arts educators increased, and arts educators reported that they were thinking much more deeply about literacy in their disciplines, as well as the literacy links with classroom curricula. Artistic processes and standards guided the arts curricula, and products became the end result of deep, sequential learning and reflection.
  
• The number of discipline problems declined noticeably, student self-esteem increased, liking for school and attendance of teachers and students increased, and administrators reported that Total Literacy began permeating the whole school atmosphere, giving new common processes, procedures, and understandings across the school.

Feedback:

I always enjoy the time spent with you. It renews my enthusiasm for what can happen for kids within the classroom. Thanks.

—Diane Lindenmeyer,

Grade 6 teacher, Michigan City Area Schools

“I enjoy watching those faces otherwise not engaged light up. That's the joy we were all missing.”

-Pam Belury, 2 nd Grade Teacher

McDonough School, Hartford, CT

“I am empowered to reach all children by allowing me to differentiate instruction and tap into learning styles. If the child does it, the child remembers it. We saw some brains awaken. They could act out a story and could give me 100 percent comprehension. It is absolutely working.”

- Total Literacy trained teacher, Hartford, CT

“ I just wanted to tell you how beneficial I found the training sessions I attended this year. I cannot thank you enough for showing me how to use the tools I already have to teach the students in many different ways. I truly feel that each of these sessions has helped my teaching in so many ways. I have learned so much!.”