Word for Word/Youth Arts
Organization Details
| Name | Word for Word/Youth Arts |
| URL | http://www.zspace.org/overview/ |
| Phone number | 415-626-0453 |
Organization Description
| Service(s) description | YOUTH ARTS uses a combination of theatre arts and literature to inspire students to read, investigate, and create. Developed in 1998 using the model of our resident theatre company, WORD FOR WORD, the program brings the Company’s unique style of literature-based theatre to classrooms, guiding students in developing their own performances of classic and contemporary stories and poems. In a Youth Arts workshop, students investigate and perform a poem or short story that is relevant to their classroom curriculum. Using the “Five W’s: Who, What, When, Where, and Why” and theatre and language games, our Teaching Artists guide students’ investigation of the story or poem through plot, setting, character, theme, and writer’s style. Students help create a script and stage a performance from the text. |
| Program impact | Over its 21-year history, our YOUTH ARTS program has reached thousands of San Francisco Bay Area students at over 100 schools. Our focus is the integration of our work into existing curriculum so that classroom teachers and students can experience the lasting effects of improved literacy and a feeling of community. Youth Arts reaches out to struggling schools ranked in the lowest percent of educational quality in the state, targeting students from diverse and economically disadvantaged communities with very limited access to the arts, those for whom English is a second language, and those who have not responded to more traditional methods of teaching reading comprehension. The program addresses two very urgent concerns that continue to plague California schools today: the disparity in literacy rates between minority and non-minority students and the increasing disappearance of formal arts education in public schools. |
Community programs are organized into categories known as Community School Elements. All community programs associated with Word for Word/Youth Arts are listed below and each program may be provided at 1 or more schools. You can use the 'Show Details' buttons to learn more about each program.
Academic & Social Emotional Learning (1 program)
Programs to help bolster academic learning with SEL skills and competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making.