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Week 5: Dance My Presentation Week

This Week was all about my group's presentation! We decided to do a cross-curricular lesson with dance and the language arts, specifically poetry. The choreographic form of dance that we focused on was Narrative and the two elements of dance were Body and Space.
Narrative - A choreographic form that follows a storyline, often conveys a specific message, and usually includes an introduction, rising action, a climax, and a resolution. We will be using this choreographic form of dance to tell the story of various emotion poems that students will create and represent through dance.
Body: Students will be encouraged to discover their own way of moving and body awareness. Students will be asked to use different body parts, levels, sizes or directions for each line of the poem. They can even substitute specific actions words within the poem for a body movement. Students will be using their body to evoke the feeling and look of various emotions.
Space: Students will explore different movements and share the the general dance space safely. They must determine group formations that represent their poem’s emotion. Students will be taught the difference between positive versus negative space. When presenting their dance students will be able to use whatever space needed. They are encouraged to spread out and use the space to its maximum potential.
The guided theory that we used and our curriculum expectations for our lesson (grade 6) are listed below.
Guided Theory Used:
For this activity, the guided theory we used was Rudolph Laban’s Movement Theory. With our activity, the students will be creating an emotion poem, and then interpreting said poem through dance, and we believe that this heavily relates to Laban’s theory. In his theory, Laban discusses how creative dance is divided into four main areas: the body, the effort, the space, and the relationship. The activity we created allows students to explore and come up with creative dances that, firstly, showcase their emotion poem that they wrote in their groups, and secondly, showcase the four areas Laban discussed during their presentation. Students will use their bodies and the space given to represent the relationship/connection between emotion poetry and dance. The individual dances created will showcase the students effort and connection between their emotional intelligence, their body and their dance skills.
Overall Expectations Grade 6:
Dance: A1. Creating and Presenting: apply the creative process  to the composition of short dance pieces, using the elements of dance to communicate feelings and ideas;
Writing: Generate, gather, and organize ideas and information to write for an intended purpose and audience;
Specific Expectations:
Dance: A1.2 use dance as a language to interpret and depict central themes in literature (e.g., develop a movement vocabulary that reinterprets themes such as good versus evil or humans versus nature; construct a dance that explores bravery in a legend or peace in a poem)
Writing: 1.1 identify the topic, purpose, and audience for a variety of writing forms
1.2 generate ideas about a potential topic and identify those most appropriate for the purpose
The reason we chose poetry is because 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. Appropriate instrumental music will accompany each emotion poem so that the students can freely dance.
Modifications For Ages and Abilities:
The following poems and the associated movement activities can be adapted to suit students from level 1 to level 8. For example, to adapt this lesson to suit students in higher grades they could make up their own poems without using the given template. Students who use technology can use their ipads to fill in the template as well. Furthermore, for students in the younger grades we could give them a poem already created and they have to create a dance to reflect that poem. Likewise, further modifications could include students listening to songs, and their teacher reading various emotion poems. Students can then discuss how the songs/poems made them feel, and what movements they could use to represent the various songs/poems.
Emotions Wikipedia. (Google Images)
Minds On:  
1)    Introduce to students their Learning Goal for the class:
-“We are learning to move our bodies to a piece of spoken words (poetry) and instrumental  music”
-“We are learning to identify the different emotions that can be communicated through dance and poetry”
Play various songs and ask students to dance around the room feeling the music and the emotions of the song. (5 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmXluLvoJKY (Cant stop the feeling, instrumental - happy song)  
Angry song instrumental- play at 24 seconds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hMZJEUteGM
Love song instrumental- Ed Sheeran “Thinking out Loud” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6jhzHEIax8
2) Students watch emotion poem video to introduce today’s topic. Once the video is watched students are asked various questions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-j7WWEklgw
-How did this piece make you feel?
-What emotions would you associate with this spoken poem dance -Where you inspired by it? -What is the story behind this piece? -Do you think it was more impactful because it was combined with dance and movements or do you think it would have the same effectt on you if it was just spoken?
Action:  Students are grouped into groups using a unique grouping method (numbered blocks). Groups are handed a poem template. Students fill in this template as a group to suit the specific emotion they are given. Once this is complete, students create a dance to accompany each poem. Songs for each emotion poem (instrumental) are provided to the groups. Students are able to choose which song they would like to use and are then given time to practice their dance. They should use movements to express the emotion each group has. Students will then present their dance to the class. The teacher will read the poem the students created as they present their dance to their peers.
Below are some images of student work using the poetry template 
Emotion Poem Handout.

Emotion Poem Handout.
Songs for students to choose from (relating to their chosen emotion). We decided to choose the songs because it saves time for the groups and we know that they are all appropriate.

 Happy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSgl08QkR-U (Pharrell Williams - Happy Instrumental) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_xTaYxHutQ (Upbeat Happy Instrumental) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmXluLvoJKY (Can’t stop the feeling Instrumental) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLRtkY1RWBE (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch - I can’t help myself - Instrumental)
Sad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjwB9bcOrX8 (Adele - Someone like you - Instrumental) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRGJvLDj_tc (Skyscraper - Demi Lovato - Instrumental) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qzIlZx7aPc (Amazing Grace - Instrumental) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPrVJedMKA8 (See you again - Instrumental)
Angry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St5fDGoalcs (I hate everything About you - instrumental) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oqNiRdcRok (Linkin Park - One Step Closer to the edge Instrumental) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VvhOvlbdxs (Papa Roach - Last Resort instrumental) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SJpvURmYRU ( Burn it to the Ground - Nickelback Instrumental)
Love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNBCFyAOeTo  (Can’t help falling in love with you - instrumental) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_3p5gi3Fso  (L-O-V-E Instrumental) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZZDB6UHyQI ( Rhianna -We Found Love Instrumental) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpsc6oGXNAM (Justin Bieber - Baby Instrumental)
Emotion. (Google Images) 
Consolidation:
This activity could be used to discuss emotions, healthy relationships with individuals and move into a bullying unit (health) if the educator were to have them write specific poems about bullying and the emotions behind being a victim. This activity can be modified and made more difficult by either not providing a poem template or by restricting certain emotions so students branch out and find one unique to them. It is important that as teachers, we have conversations with our students about the different ways to express their emotions in a healthy manner. As well, you could talk about how being able to read someone from the emotions they display is an important intelligence (emotional intelligence) that many people possess. Cross-curricular lessons could include dance-language, dance-music, and dance-health.

 In conclusion we were extremely satisfied with the performances and the groups poems. We believe that this activity could be used with students in various grades and abilities.
Thanks For Reading Friends! 

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