Jay Matthews of "Literacy goes M.A.D.D." (Music, Art, Dance and Drama)

Literacy Goes M.A.D.D. is a planned programme showing how literacy can be enhanced and developed through the arts. Materials exist showing how NLS objectives can be met with a range of texts. The team will show primary teachers and pupils, how these can be managed in school. The programme aims to support non-specialist teachers of arts subjects who are keen to explore creativity without being desk bound. The programme grows out of primary school concerns that the arts are endangered (All Our Futures) and that kinaesthetic and affective learning receive insufficient attention.

Key questions emerged as follows:

• How can we better promote children's understanding of selves and cultures through the Arts?
• How can schools best be supported to enrich the curriculum by making connections between literacy and other subjects (not just the Arts)?
• Are we clear how empathy, emotional and intra-personal intelligences are developed in the curriculum?
• What measurable evidence may be sought to prove the positive effects of Arts education on the well being of communities? (e.g. attitudinal surveys)
• How do we plan to promote QCA's forthcoming recommendations on creativity (post Ken Robinson)?
• How do we best encourage multi-dimensional (and multi-sensory) explorations of literacy?
• How do we plan to harness teaching and learning in foundation subjects (KS3 2002) to raise profile of the Arts?
• Are we clear how we can measure progress in meaningful encounters with literature and literacy?
• Do we have a language and a critical prospective about the value of literate and language arts in order to define and measure progression?