BRINGING DANCE INTO THE CLASSROOMS
Welcome to my Dance in the Classroom Blog! I cannot wait for you to follow me along this journey of bringing the arts into all areas of curriculum. Having grown up as a competitive dancer and continuing my education throughout university in the Arts, I am very excited to see what this course can offer to me as a future educator. Please feel free to comment, leave your words of wisdom and share resources!
Its more than just moving around...
Dance curriculum is so much more than just moving around in a space. Behind the movements that the students do there is intention, purpose, meaning, emotion, etc. By bringing dance into the classroom, students are able to express their emotions, tell a story and express themselves.
Before the first class, I had only known dance in school as, here is a series of steps, learn them, practice and perform. But I was so unaware of how much more, us teachers, can provide our students with. On the first day, we were able to explore different dance moments by using cards with movements on them. There were so many different options for students, walk, creep, dodge, shudder, melt, etc. These cards all provided students with a movement to complete, and by connecting the movements together they created their own dance.
Dance and Language Arts
1. Exploring dance/ movement through poetry
2. Exploring dance through emotions
Exploring dance through poetry and emotions
There were multiple activities that were done through poetry. One activity was done by rearranging the lines of the poem and creating movements that reflected the words in the best way. Another activity we were able to do was after reading through a variety of passages in a children's book. After grouping with peers in the classroom we were able to create a series of movements, with the assistance of movement cards provided, that worked best with the passage we were assigned. I I enjoyed working with dance through language arts because it was clear how easy it was to incorporate the arts into such a crucial strand in the schools. Growing up loving the arts, I was lucky enough to have great classroom experiences, with teachers always teaching dance and drama. Sadly, in some schools today, the arts are taught directly by specific teachers, leaving homeroom teachers with no art lessons to deliver. Now that I have learned ways to incorporate dance into laguage arts, in more ways than just the few activites shared here, I am confident and excited that I can bring the arts into my classroom, regardless of whether it is my job to or not.
There were multiple activities that can be done in the classroom in regards to expressing emotions through dance. Students can move to different types of music that represents a certain emotion. Students can pick from the Dance pack of movements over which one best represents their emotion they were given and use the given movements to create a dance sequence. Activities like these can be done in addition to writing emotion poems, which was what my group and I presented on. We felt that having students create their own emotion poem, and then having them present them through movements, can help them express their emotions. Below are some of the resources we used with the teacher candidates to show them this language and dance lesson that can be done in the classroom.
Activity Using Language and Poems on emotions: Using poems allows for individuals to create a cross curricular dance lesson between dance and the language arts. Poems allow students to develop their creativity and use their imagination. They allow students to think of writing in a different aspect. Students will showcase their creativity by composing their emotion poem and displaying it to their peers through dance. Students will have the luxury of creating an emotion poem, in groups, and then deciding on which dance moves will best interpret/flow with their poem. They can also adjust their poem to the difficulty of their dancing, in other words, if they believe that one part of their poem will be too difficult to dance to, they can change it and make it easier for their group to convey through dance. Poetry is a beautiful art form that correlates exceptionally well with dance. Appropriate instrumental music will accompany each emotion poem so that the students can freely dance.
Here are a few resources that can assist you in teaching dance and language in your classroom!
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/arts18b09curr.pdf
The above resources have a variety of lessons including dance and language arts (poetry, storytelling).
Until I post again, enjoy the resources and feel free to comment and follow along the dance in the classroom journey!
Emily
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