Mini Grant Recipient Series: Provo High Art Teacher Lindsay Ruiz – Scholastic Arts Accessibility Articles for ELLs

The teachers and specialists in Provo City School District are our innovators, companions, caretakers, and more. The Provo City School District Foundation wants to recognize and support their efforts to make our schools a better place. 

This year, we’re speaking to a few around the district who have received mini-grants to ask them about their perceived need, their mini-grant product, the impact of their mini-grant, and lastly, advice for new and struggling professionals on how they can differentiate and extend learning in our schools.

We spoke with Provo High School Art Teacher Lindsay Ruiz about her mini-grant funded product: a Scholastic Arts digital magazine subscription. The software offers an opportunity for English language learners to gain literacy through art-related web articles, which provide a myriad of accessibility options. Read our conversation below to learn more!

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Q: What was the class issue, or where did you see a perceived need?

A:  We have a lot of English language learning students here at PHS. I’m really mindful of them. I’m striving to build literacy skills within my art curriculum—there are so many great articles, books, and more – but it’s hard to find ways to make those physical print materials accessible to my ELL students. I’ve been working in Universal Design for Learning, asking myself, “How can I make my classroom more equitable?”

I found this opportunity to use Scholastic Arts to share art-related articles that highlight diverse artists, movements, careers, and cultures that students can read, with links and text-to-speech tools. It changes the reading according to grade level and highlights the text as you read. There are a ton of ways they can supplement their learning using the online Scholastic Arts tools. 

Q: How did the mini-grant make a difference?

A: I’ve worked them into the classroom curriculum in a few ways already, but I’m still working out the best ways to implement this into the curriculum I’ve built. I’ve used it in my daily starters, extensions for early finishers, and additional resources in their Canvas modules. I will continue to work into my course units as required readings and reflections, as well as discussions within the classroom. 

Q: For new art teachers seeking to start differentiating their materials to assist English Language Learners in building literacy skills, where can they start?

A: First, decide where you want to build literacy inside each of your units, then review your district resources. 

As an art teacher, it’s trickier to find ways to incorporate literacy in your classroom, and even trickier to make sure all students can access that material. We run studio based classrooms, so you have to be creative and inventive to figure out what that looks like, but it does add variety to their instruction and a different avenue to understanding the broader art world. 

Reach out to your district specialists; there are a lot of people who know how to make your materials accessible. 

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