Dance,
in many forms, has always been an Art expression that I have enjoyed
participating and observing in. Because of this I chose to look up the
standards on Dance. The standards were broken up in multiple sections by grade.
Between Kindergarten and Third grade students use dance to explore, recognize,
and begin to apply the elements of dance: space, time, energy/force,
choreography and composition, and foundation of dance. Teachers incorporate
these elements by having students participate in dance games, play, circle
dances, creative movement, and traditional folk and cultural dances. As
students move to the upper Elementary grades, middle school, and high school level they begin engaging in improvisation and
using their own creativity. Students also further their knowledge of dance
elements by learning the principles of choreography/composition and gaining
understanding of their skills as performers and active audience members.
Immediately,
as I opened the GLE's for Dance at the
1st grade level, noticed that students are expected to gain an understanding
and application the concepts and vocabulary of dance. GLE 1.1.1 states that
students will recognize, understand, and apply the element of space and the
vocabulary of dance by demonstrating: movement in different directions, variety
of levels, using the whole body to make shapes, and recognizes and identifies
personal and general space (just to name a few). GLE 1.1.2 also requires students to
demonstrate fast and slow movement and repetition of patterns they hear. These
standards were perfect examples of activities that could be used in a Math
lesson. In the first grade, students spend a great deal of time learning number
patterns, color patters, sound patterns, directions, and properties of space. Incorporating
movement in the way of dance greatly helps students to retain the memory of
these patterns.
A
standard that I felt could stand on its own or within another content area (or
in an of an area of its own) are the EARL 4 as a whole. This sections calls for
students to make connections within and across the arts to other disciplines,
life, cultures, and work. The standards written here, I felt as though they
satisfied the targets that would/could be focused on in a Social Studies
curriculum. I was surprised that the
standards fit so nicely in appealing and learning about varies cultures and was
pleased that teachers are required to extent an understanding of other cultures
through cultural dances and vocabulary from other cultures.
When I
have my own classroom I plan on incorporating dance as often as I can. It will
actually be somewhat of a project for me when it comes to helping students who
do not naturally enjoy dancing. I think dance would be fun to incorporate into
lessons in all content areas. When teaching Math, students could use their
bodies to create shapes, create musical and/or numerical patterns, and represent mathematical equations and
operations. In a science lesson I could encourage students to create small
dance movements to recall and retain science vocabulary using various levels
and motions. It seems that the opportunity to use dance in the classroom could
be endless. To top it all off, I believe that incorporating dance helps
students in being less likely to present behavior problems because they will
not be stuck in a traditional learning setting all day!
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