Dance, Dance, Dance

Memorable Strategies

I copied and pasted this list of strategies we are going to be learning in drama, because I want to remember them for the future. The ideas and strategies will be extremely useful when I am teaching dance in the future.

In week one, we started with the game

"Yes Let's!" 
Explanation: The class is in a circle and the teacher initiates an action by saying “Let's hop on one foot.” 

The class replies “yes let's” and they all hop on one foot. 

The next student player continues by saying "let's ..." filling in what ever they want the group to do.

The class replies “yes let's and carries out the action. 

This continues around the circle until everyone has suggested something.

I liked this warm up because it was a very welcoming and easy way to begin moving in a group, and a good get to know you game. I believe we also played a name game,

Name Game: 

Start in a drama circle.

Teacher/facilitator names themselves and then the name of a another who they will then throw a soft ball/object to, e.g. "John to Sarah."

Sarah would then say her own name and names someone in the circle and throws to them, e.g. "Sarah to Lucy.

This continues around the circle until everyone is familiar with names.

I liked this game for the sake of it being easy to get to know students names using a game like this.


Curriculum Connections/ Theory 

This week we explored Laban's theory of movement. We used the BERST model,
Body
Effort
Shape
Space
Time
In the curriculum it states 
"Students in Grade 4 will develop or extend understanding of the following concepts through participation in various dance experiences (e.g., exploring movement sequences and narrative forms), with particular emphasis on time and energy.

ELEMENTS OF DANCE

• body: symmetry versus asymmetry, organic versus geometric shape, angular versus curved shape, gesture, body zones (e.g., cross-lateral [left arm and right leg])
  
• space: positive versus negative space, pathways (e.g., in air, on floor)
  
• time: tempo (e.g., increasing and decreasing speeds), rhythm (e.g., steady, irregular, erratic), pause,
  stillness, with music, without music, duration
  
• energy: effort, force, quality (e.g., punch, thrust, float, collapse, wiggle, explode, vibrate)
  
• relationship: meet/part, follow/lead, groupings" (Ontario Arts Curriculum) 
  

Therefore, this Laban theory of movement is the fundamental elements of dance put into practice, directly from the Ontario curriculum of education.

Reflection
Week one of dance was a reflective week for me. I feel resistant to dance still and am still trying to get used to dancing as a teacher. I do want to implement important strategies and work on ways to implement dance into other subjects in the curriculum but feel unsure of how still. This week I did pick up some new and expansive knowledge so I am happy about that.

Accommodations/ Modifications
This lesson was filled with movement and incorporated tons of dance moves. I would want to differentiate movements based on each students needs in the classroom. For example, if a student had some sort of physical disability, giving a wide range of expectation when playing a game will allow the student to be able to fully participate. In dance, I always like to give lots of opportunities for shy or unsure students to jump in when they feel comfortable.