Farewell to Halloween Dance

Introduction

Dance Analysis

Section 1

Section 2 

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Management Suggestions

Assessment Strategy

Teacher Reflections

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Teacher Reflections

Working Together

     It was beneficial to be able to work together in composing a creative movement sequence.  Both of has had plenty of ideas and most importantly unique and valuable teaching experiences.  We think the students enjoyed having the attention of two very enthusiastic teachers in their classroom teaching them creative dance.

Moving in Space

     In a classroom of 20 grade one students (9 girls, 11 boys) we found this a good number to work with.  Especially since we would be doing plenty of partner work.  The dance lessons were performed in the classroom due to limited time available in the gym.  Arrangements had to be made to time the moving of desks in order to create as little of a distraction as possible.  Of course this is best done while students are out on recess break.  Students in this class were capable of helping to stack chairs but the moving of the desks was left up to us, the teachers.  The size of the classroom and the space we had to work in did not create much of a problem at all.  We were thinking if we had more space there may have been less reminders to utilized open space.  It is also important to consider what the students movements would look like if we had more space.  It was obvious that the students had experience with the language of creative dance.  The lessons were approximately 30 minutes in length.

Pacing the Lessons

     The pace of the first lessons showed us that we needed to extend refinement and practice time on some of the actions in order to ensure that each student was successful at performing the movements.  The lessons kept each student engaged and moving.  There were many 'rosy-cheeks' by the end of the lesson!  The transition from skipping to freezing in a scared shape was very successful.  Students were able to quickly move to the beat of the rattle, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-Freeze!  Time was a factor but the students adjusted well.  With more time students would be able to explore each movement more and we could focus on more refinements.  By the second lesson we learned that more time had to be given to reviewing the previous lessons due to the fact that some students were absent.  This was easily done by having some volunteers share their partial dance to model what had been done last class.  

Introducing the Story

     Introducing and reading the story helped to familiarize the students with action words and movements in the dance.  Since the lessons were taught well after Halloween we decided to name the dance a Farewell to Halloween Dance to help wrap up this theme in the classroom.  The students were also very intrigued by the instrument (pod rattle) and noticed that the sounds it made reminded them of a skeleton's bones shaking.

Putting It All Together

     Unfortunately we were unable to see the finished product.  Timing and scheduling was challenging.  The rest of the unit will be adapted to a new creative dance in the new year.  It is interesting to note that the students were able to make connection to a previous creative movement lessons taught by their classroom teacher.  They understood aspects such as pathways and levels.  The 1/2 & 1/2 share was very effective.  These students already have experience in giving compliments directed at particular individuals or groups.  The classroom teacher even guided the group in giving feedback to both us.  Students commented on the "fun lesson and action movements".  They really liked the rattle and the story too.  It was also very valuable to share with the students the next movements so that they could come up with some ideas of what they would look like.  They were very eager to show what their creeps and darts would look like.

Keeping Your Eyes Peeled

     The only major problem that was taken care of immediately was two boys abandoned their partners so that they could be together.  Once we had a quick chat with them there were no problems after.  We think that we would have liked to address this further after the class by talking about working with new people and considering others feelings.  We were aware that one particular (ESL) student had a difficult time following the task at hand, she has trouble following instructions (verbal and non-verbal).  We observed this during our lesson and we watched to see if she would follow visual cues of her peers.  This seemed to be a successful activity for her.