Dance with Grade 4 Poetry

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Grade 4: Poetry in Motion

Part 1: Description for form of dance and the dance elements:
 Using dance and movement exploration as a tool, students will examine the power of poetry to express feelings using their body. Students will work in groups to create movement phrases based on snippets of poetry that they assemble into sequence that makes sense to them.
  • Collage: a choreographic form consisting of a series of phrases that are often unrelated but have been brought together to create a single dance with a beginning, middle, and end.
  • Dance Literacy: using dance to communicate ideas/themes from other disciplines and from life. (Interdisciplinary).
  • Movement Exploration: guided and improvised movement explorations with the intent to develop a movement vocabulary.
  • Elements of Dance/Fundamental Concepts: using the fundamental components of dance, which include the following: body, energy, relationship, time, space.
Element of Dance:
  • Relationship; using different ways to explore relationship through dance.
  • Body; the body moving in different ways to create different shapes.  
Part 2: Guiding Theory
Laban’s theory looks at “movement as a two-way language process through which the body could communicate by giving and receiving messages”. He believed that the way a person moved represented their beliefs and what was going on in their inner world. In this theory, human movement is analyzed through four major categories: Body, Effort, Space and Relationship.
Laban’s theories can be viewed in three parts:
  1. What moves? (whole body, parts, upper/lower)
  2. How do we move? (effort, dynamics, time)
  3. Where do we move? (the space around us, personal space, general space).
Throughout this lesson, students will explore all four major categories, but really look at the aspect of relationship to others, with objects,  and how their bodies interact with the world around them through dance.

 Another theory that helps to guide our lesson is the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. This theory was developed by Howard Gardner and looks at how students demonstrate their intellectual abilities.  The main intelligences that our lesson contributes to are:
Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence - the ability to use words and language. These learners have highly developed auditory skills and are generally elegant speakers. They think in words rather than pictures.
Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence - the ability to control body movements and handle objects skillfully. These learners express themselves through movement. They have a good sense of balance and eye-hand coordination. Through interacting with the space around them, they are able to remember and process information.

 Musical/Rhythmic Intelligence - the ability to produce and appreciate music. These musically inclined learners think in sounds, rhythms and patterns. They immediately respond to music either appreciating or criticizing what they hear. Many of these learners are extremely sensitive to environmental sounds (e.g. crickets, bells, dripping taps).
Lastly, the Root-Bernstein’s Theory of Creativity is also demonstrated in this lesson. This theory recognizes that the most importants tools are creative thought. More specifically, Transforming (the process of translating between one tool for thinking and another; between imagination and formal languages of communication; moving from feelings to communication) can be seen throughout the lesson.  Students will be looking at poems to identify emotions and put movement to these emotions in order to communicate a message with their bodies.
Part 3: Integrated Grade 4 Ontario Curriculum
Overall Expectations:
Dance
A1. Creating and Presenting: apply the creative process (see pages 19–22) to the composition of movement sequences and short dance pieces, using the elements of dance to communicate feelings and ideas;
A2. Reflecting, Responding, and Analysing: apply the critical analysis process (see pages 23–28) to communicate their feelings, ideas, and understandings in response to a variety of dance pieces and experiences;
Language: Reading
1. read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, graphic, and informational texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning;
2. recognize a variety of text forms, text features, and stylistic elements and demonstrate
understanding of how they help communicate meaning.
Math: Geometry and Spatial Sense
- identify quadrilaterals and three-dimensional figures and classify them by their geometric properties, and compare various angles to benchmarks;
- identify and describe the location of an object, using a grid map, and reflect two-dimensional shapes.
Specific Expectations:
Dance
A1.1 translate into dance a variety of movement sequences observed in nature;
A1.2 use dance as a language to explore and communicate ideas derived from a variety of literature sources.
A2.1 demonstrate an understanding of how the language of dance can clarify and highlight ideas, images, and characters from familiar stories
Language
1.1 read a variety of texts from diverse cultures, including literary texts.
2.2 recognize a variety of organizational patterns in texts of different types and explain how the patterns help readers understand the texts

Math
- identify and compare different types of quadrilaterals and sort and classify them by their geometric properties;
- create and analyse symmetrical designs by reflecting a shape, or shapes, using a variety of tools , and identify the congruent shapes in the designs.
Part 4: Description of Source of Inspiration
We were inspired to create our first activity called  “Poetry in Motion” from a sample lesson found on ArtsOnline. The activity consisted of using dance and movement to explore the power of poetry to express their feelings and understandings using their body. For the Atoms warm-up, we were inspired by one of our physical education instructor, Joe who had used this warm-up during one of our classes. We found the warm-up to be a fun and collaborative way to get students to work with different peers, while socially and creatively thinking of different ways to work together as a team to form shapes. This warm-up was also great to test their listening skills, ensuring that students were following the teachers calls when calling out the number to get into a group.

Part 5: Suggestions of How each Dance Convention could be Modified for Different Ages
  • Making the task simpler for younger students. For example, primary students could focus on creating one particular shape with their body, using one specific body part such as only their hands.
  • For ESL learners, students can use picture pictures at a lower level grade.
  • Students could also focus on only one movement (instead of four) and illustrate the movement by using the space around them (move in different directions and levels).   
  • Students can also be provided with visuals (pictures, diagrams, videos, anchor charts) in regards to poetry writing.
Activity:
Minds on:
Pre-assessment: What skills related to this unit have students already developed?
  • Ability to work independently to make shapes and movements around a specific topic
  • Ability to follow instructions when working with stage direction in one large group.
  • Ability to follow a short movement sequence
Atoms Warm Up Activity:
Students will run around the open space in all sorts of directions. The teacher calls out "Atom___" and a number. Whichever number is called, the students have to get into groups of that number. For example, the teacher calls "Atom 6!" and children get into groups of 6.
  • They must “sculpt a shape” by posing into a creative shape using their body parts, getting down at different levels and directions. Some students can get creative by sculpting a piece of work that tells a story.
  • To integrate this with a minds on activity in math, the teacher calls out a number representing the number of vertices of a shape. The students then have to form that shape in their groups using their bodies (arms, legs, fingers, etc). This activity was extended to transformations of shapes by translating, rotating, and reflecting the shapes.
*Play a happy upbeat song during this warm-up
Examples: Thunder, Happy, Lazy song, or any disney music.

Action: Learning Activities
Big Ideas of This Unit: Students will understand that:
  • Dance can be used to depict feelings.
  • Dance can be inspired by the written word.
  • Dance can be both literal and metaphoric.
  • Dance is empowering.
Shaping:
Stand in neutral
Stretch slowly into a shape
Curl into another
Now POP! into a shape
Swing into another
Slash into a shape
Melt slowly into another
Spin into a shape
Jump into another
Slink into neutral
And relax.
Using this poem may include:
  • asking the students to use different body parts, levels, size, or direction for each line of the poem substituting selected words of the poem with other actions or qualities, such as ‘collapse’, ‘rise’, ‘breathe’, ‘pounce’, ‘shimmer’.
  • Material: Instrument (drum) to be used for 4 counts, colour paper, print out of the poems, and glue.

Exploring various ways of presenting the poem:
  • Part 1: Individually
  • Part 2: As a pair activity
Developing movement sequences from a jumbled poem:
  • Part 3: In small groups of 4 [number them off]
→ Students are given the poem “Rain Sizes” by John Ciardi ahead of time. The poem will be divided into 4 sections (1 section per group) and the lines will be cut out in an envelope. Students will try and put the order together in an order that makes sense to them. They will then select 3 movement cards and put movement sequences together to perform the poem to music.
→ Exploring collage as a dance element, the class will form a circle and each group will come forward in the circle to perform their part of the poem in chronological order. The idea is to create one single dance performance.
Within these 3 activities, students will be exploring the following:
  • putting movement sequences developed from the poem to music
  • developing movement sequences from the poem and exploring various ways of structuring this movement material.
  • performing actions or sequences as a canon, using call and response
  • adding a prop, sound effect(s) and/or body percussion to the movement sequences
  • sequencing and rehearsing movements as a continuous piece of dance work, for example setting the work to an appropriate piece of music (with no stopping between lines) and then performing the dance work for others in the class
  • performing the dance sequences developed from the poem in a different, confined, or unusual space
Extension: Creating your own poem (cinquain, haiku etc). Asking students to write their own poems, then create, rehearse, and perform their own poetic movement sequences that tells a story [using movement cards].
Assessment:
  1. Self-assessment: Self-reflection using a journal every other week
  2. Peer assessment: Observation and discussion each week and a checklist of performance.
  3. Teacher assessment: Observation of student work using rubric/checklist. Recording of each stage of the process for formative assessment. Recording of final dance performance.


Resources:
  3. Book - “Voices of the Wind” by David Booth and poem selected “Rain Sizes” written by John Ciardi
  4. As a modification/accommodation for ESL learners, use the picture book “The Great Big Book of Thematic Poetry” by Betsy Franco & Friends


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