Arts for Academic Achievement Evaluation Report

Abstract

This report focuses on Arts for Academic Achivement’s efforts to provide professional development opportunities to teachers using a school-based planning approach for integrating Tableau during the 2008-2009 school year. Tableau is a theater arts strategy in which students interpret stories using dramatic techniques. The Arts for Academic Achievement Program (AAA) has incorporated Tableau in Minneapolis Public Schools’ classrooms as a strategy to supplement reading and writing instruction. The main goal for students participating in Tableau is to use their bodies and facial expressions to portray the meaning of a reading passage, in a “frozen picture.” The strategy allows students to “bring thinking and reading to life.”