Strategies for Technology Enhanced Learning and Literacy through ARt

A professional development opportunity from the University of Oregon

What is STELLAR Online?

STELLAR Online is a professional development project that helps teachers learn to use Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) to teach argument writing. We would like your help to develop, test, and refine an interactive online course and implementation protocols that together provide an easily adoptable, but also intensive and sustained, professional development program in strategies for teaching argument writing. STELLAR Online is based on a previously funded professional development study. In the video below, a teacher shares her experience with STELLAR and VTS.

STELLAR Online is a collaborative research and development initiative involving the University of Oregon’s Educational and Community Supports, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (JSMA); Visual Thinking Strategies, Inc., Trifoia Media, and teachers in rural schools in Oregon. This study is being conducted by Erin Chaparro, Keith Smolkowski, and Lisa Abia-Smith and is funded by the United States Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Grant #R305A170603.

Publications

Abia-Smith, L., Smolkowski, K., Strycker, L. A., Anderson, L., & Marconi, P. (2020). Teaching argumentation through art: Insights for museums from the STELLAR Project. The Museum Review, 5(1). https://themuseumreviewjournal.wordpress.com/2020/09/05/tmr_vol5no1_jsma/

Chaparro, E. (2022, June 3). Using visual thinking strategies in the classroom. Edutopia. Retrieved June 6, 2022, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-visual-thinking-strategies-classroom

Smolkowski, K., Strycker, L. A., Anderson, L., Marconi, P., & Abia-Smith, L. (2020). The Visual Thinking Strategies Approach to teaching argument writing. The Elementary School Journal, 121(1), 100–124. https://doi.org/10.1086/709984

Screenshot of STELLAR Modules Dashboard.

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