I had been away from my class for two weeks and was a little
worried about how this next lesson would. However the students were so eager to
dance! I’m really surprised at the impact I’ve had on the class as a teacher
and the big impact dance has on the students. Even the ones who are disruptive
and often lose privileges because of their distractions are excited when I come
for dance time.
After taking Jana Shumways class about teaching dance in
elementary schools I have been eager to dance a book with the class. We
followed the story of Edmund, a little ball of yarn and his traveling the world
by spiraling and unwinding. I was so focused on fitting everything into the
lesson I didn’t give enough time to explore movement, there were just so many
pages to the book and sections I wanted to cover. If I ever do this lesson
again I want to make specific sections in the book to limit the different
sections and give time to developing movement for specific pages. After we
explored the story I had them gather on the rug and without words or reading I
opened the book and showed them the story page by page. I then told them that
stories don’t always have to be shared with words, but they can be told through
pictures and dance. This was the best part of my lesson, the whole class was
engaged looking at the book intently and making their own connections of their
movement to the book. I think they were so surprised that the dance movement we
just did actually connected to a book! It was awesome to have them all captivated,
every single child was engaged.
We then moved onto our Indonesian dance, specifically
working on Sajojo. Last time I left them they had just created a secret
handshake with a friend, today I had them review that (some had forgotten) and
pair by pair they each stood up and showed the class. This was a great time for
them to feel special as they shared their creations, it was well worth the time
to have them do it individually instead of in two large groups. Each student
felt a sense of pride as they showed their master pieces and by taking the time
to do it individually it showed that what they do individually is important.
I can’t wait for next week when we finish the dance! I will record
the dance when it is finished and post it online.
I love the way you've allowed the students the opportunity to return to previous lessons and review movement they created in the past. Allowing the opportunity to review and revise helps students reach higher levels of thinking as they are required to make judgements and put value on what has already been created. Additionally the repetition helps them retain information and memory of their experiences.
ReplyDeleteWhen they danced the book without words were the students noisy? How did you share the images in the book with the students so that they could all see? I know when I teach with a book students always end up crawling over the top of each other to get a closer look at the book. What was your strategy at that point in the lesson for sharing the book resource with all the students?
I am excited to see the video you post when you finish the dance.
Book Lessons were a hit with my 2nd grade class as well! I was worried about getting through the whole book as well, and so I did end up picking parts of the book to focus on. It went really well! The kids were able to really get excited about the parts of the book that we did explore! I want to see your Indonesian video as well!!
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