BY INTEGRATING ART, TECHNOLOGY AND LITERATURE, the Los Angeles Educational Partnership is using a $200,000 grant from the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project (LAAMP) to improve literacy at urban elementary schools in Los Angeles.

This month and next, specially trained peers will train parents, teachers and others in computer basics so that they can use their newly acquired knowledge to improve literacy. The Technology Enhanced Learning and Literacy in Urban Schools program, or TELL US, is a four-year grant which will be used to train participants at six school sites. This month’s trainings are taking place at Foshay Learning Center, Norwood Street School and Vermont Avenue School. Other schools participating in later months are 32nd St./USC, Menlo, Normandie and 52nd Street schools. All participating schools are within the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Manual Arts Cluster.

Unique to this project is the melding of art and literature with technology. Highlighting this month's workshop series is West Coast artist Maya Christina Gonzalez, a painter who likes to share her art with children. Gonzalez uses the book “Just Like Me: Stories and Self-Portraits of Fourteen Artists,” in which she is featured, to help educators enrich their students’ experience of the literature as well as increase the students' understanding of the portrait as an artistic art form.

Following a mini art appreciation lesson, workshop participants have a chance to create their own autobiographies and self-portraits using state-of-the-art hardware and software such as HyperStudio, ClarisWorks and Microsoft Word. Participants will also use image scanners, digital cameras, email and the Internet to integrate photos, art and text into their projects. Teachers and parents can then duplicate these projects in the classroom and at home.

“Maya is wonderful,” said Michele Parga, LAEP’s manager of technology. “She knows how to use art and literature to make learning fun. Integrating technology to enhance art appreciation and aid creativity is an added bonus.”

Workshop participants will be asked to train the remainder of their own faculty next year. Teachers already experienced in using computers are conducting the three-part training along with staff from the Los Angeles Educational Partnership and LAEP’s Urban Learning Center program.