SEEDS

Stimulating Educational Excellence through Drama Standards

Nationwide, researchers are working to quantify the impact of arts education and how the arts foster academic learning.  Playwrights Project is one of 58 exemplary arts organizations that contributed to this body of research through the California Arts Council's (CAC) Demonstration Project.  Each Demonstration Project across the state was rigorously evaluated by a local independent evaluator and contributed data collected through proven and confirmed measures to the statewide study conducted by WestEd, thus enabling data from individual projects to be combined and assuring that results can be generalized and replicated.

Stimulating Educational Excellence through Drama Standards (SEEDS) infused theatre arts into the language arts curriculum at Castle Park Middle School in Chula Vista.  SEEDS began to grow eight years ago when we taught a playwriting residency to a dozen eighth graders.  John Washburn, a dynamic teacher of English and Latin, watched the sessions and recognized the power of our material to help his students use language effectively. Over 2,000 students participated in SEEDS in the past two years, with 480 of these students participating in extensive 18-hour playwriting residencies in the 2001-02 school year and 300 in 2002-03.  Another 200 students received instruction in playwriting after participating in the study as a comparison group.

Data from the study demonstrates that all types of learners advance in English competency as a result of the theatre curriculum we provide. Students also discover a personal connection to theatre as an art that speaks directly to them.

• SEEDS students demonstrated greater improvement on test scores than students who did not participate in the program. Students participating in SEEDS improved their scores on a district writing assessment significantly more than students who did not participate in the program.  The assessment involved students writing narrative essays in response to a writing prompt.  Students' writing was scored in terms of:  clarity of thesis, organization of information (i.e. use of paragraphs), sufficiency of evidence, coherence of key ideas, accuracy of vocabulary, logical meaning, and staying on topic.


• SEEDS students gained confidence in their writing skills, as their peers' confidence declined.  Students in the SEEDS program increased their writing self-efficacy significantly more than did students in the comparison group, as evidenced by a validated writing self-efficacy measure (Sawyer, R., Graham, S., & Harris, K., 1992).

• Students improved their grasp of Language Arts basics over students who didn't participate. Participating students made greater improvements than students in a comparison group at demonstrating their understanding of the elements of drama (e.g. setting, conflict, obstacles, characters), which are also the elements of fiction (a Language Arts standard). Students ability to list the elements of drama on a pre and post survey were compared to nonparticipating students.  Throughout the program, students learned to identify these elements in their own work and the work of their peers.


• Students' confidence soared.  Teachers reported that the students participating in SEEDS grew emotionally as well as academically.  They were more respectful of their peers, especially during readings.  Students also reported that following the completion of SEEDS, writing was significantly easier for them and more fun.


• Teachers gained a greater appreciation of the value of arts across the curriculum.  Teacher surveys and post program discussions expressed a greater awareness of Visual and Performing Arts standards, placed a higher value on the importance of arts collaborations, and planned to continue to use the arts in their regular instruction.
  

Kudos to the CAC for supporting these model arts education programs and compiling this important body of research, despite drastic cuts in the Council's overall budget.

Participants’ Comments:

Student Profiles

Through the Demonstration grant, we work with a wide range of classes: standard, advanced, English Language Learners (ELL), and Special Education. Our data demonstrated that all types of learners advanced in much needed English language competency and gained a deeper understanding and appreciation of theatre. Behind the numbers, there are always the individuals… each with his or her own story.

• One ELL student used her play as "a mirroring of her life" when she wrote about a teenager determined to find her birth mother through an Internet search.  She later confided to her teacher that the play was largely autobiographical. Through writing the play, the student explored feelings related to the loss of her own mother.  The teacher, initially doubtful that her ELL students could master the higher level thinking required in the program, expressed surprise at the change in this student, "She went from skeptical and not very confident to very confident.  She had a good attitude about using her own ideas.  She needed this, to voice her story - it was part of her healing - choosing that moment that she had to work out."  The student not only agreed to let professional actors perform the play-in-progress at a CAC conference, but she read one of the parts herself along with the actors, despite her shy nature and limited English proficiency. Her aunt, uncle and sister attended the performance and beamed with pride.
  
  
• A withdrawn student in a special education class, who spent most of his time with his head drooped down towards his desk, expressed interest in becoming a professional actor after his writing was performed by actors visiting his class.
  
  
• One student phoned his teacher from home explaining that he would miss class due to a family emergency and urging her to turn in his scene to the teaching artist.  The teaching artist critiqued the script, adding "Thank you for turning in your script.  You're a man of your word."  The teaching artist did not know these words would resound with new meaning and bring the boy to tears-the boy's father had died, leaving him as the "man" in his family.

These students were not alone in the difficulties they experienced.  Many others dealing with difficult situations also benefited from the self-expression encouraged in the playwriting program.  Beyond the significant statistical achievements, the many life-changing experiences that occur as a result of the program are our greatest accomplishment.

SEEDS Branches Out

We've further modified and replicated SEEDS at The Preuss School UCSD, thanks to the Ackerman, Citigroup, and Parker Foundations; and in Long Beach thanks to the Citigroup and Weingart Foundations.