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About CSCAE
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Reports from the Field Getty Museum's ESL Outreach Thanks to a long-standing collaboration among several Los Angeles area adult schools and the famed Getty Museum, some of the world's great art treasures are now being used to help teach ESL. Designed to assist language acquisition through lessons and activities built around objects from the museum's priceless collection, including paintings, sculpture, and photographs, the Getty curriculum follows three themes, Looking at Portraits, Looking at Landscapes, and Looking at Narrative Art. Under the museum's ESL Outreach Program, member's of the Getty education staff visit intermediate to advanced ESL adult school classrooms to familiarize teachers with the program's Language through Art: An ESL Enrichment Curriculum. The teachers are also encouraged to continue to use the museum and its resources in their ESL lessons even after the outreach portion of the program has ended. Language through Art seeks to integrate works from the Getty into the ESL classroom and encourage continued student visits to the museum. Program components include four school visits by Getty personnel and two class trips to the museum. Up to 12 classes participate in the program annually. The Getty provides bus transport for museum visits and the final program event involves a weekend museum visit by students and their families. Workshops for up to 30 ESL instructors from the region are offered twice a year (increasing to three in FY05). Participants are introduced to activities and lessons from the Language through Art curriculum and are offered transparencies and posters for use in their classrooms. They also learn how to self-guide their students at the museum and are encouraged to return frequently. See the online curriculum at: www.getty.edu/education/for_teachers/curricula/esl/. Over the next school year, the Getty education staff will develop a new beginning-level ESL curriculum that will focus on three themes: still-life, decorative arts, and photography. This new curriculum will be introduced online this winter, though it is yet to be decided if it too will become an outreach program. Teacher workshops will also be scheduled for the beginning level curriculum. Contact Scott Winterrowd, ESL Education Specialist, 310-440-6755.
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