Grade 6 Dance and Social Studies

The following lesson is a cross-curricular lesson blending Dance and Social Studies, designed for Grade 6’s. This lesson was inspiring to me because it approached the controversial topic of social justice in such an approachable way. The songs used to create movement sequences were well-known and acted as a familiar introduction to each social justice issue. I think that this lesson could spark motivation for students to take action against social injustices by having music that they already know and like act as a jumping off point for deeper, critical thinking.

Curriculum Expectations:

The Arts - Dance:

Fundamental Concepts - body: body awareness, use of body parts, body shapes, locomotor and non-locomotor movements, body bases, symmetry versus asymmetry, geometric versus organic shape, curved versus angular shape.

Overall Expectation 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.

Specific Expectation A1.4: combine the elements of dance in different ways to communicate a variety of ideas.

Social Studies: Heritage and Identity: Communities in Canada Past and Present.

Overall Expectation: A2: Inquiry - use the social studies inquiry process to investigate different perspectives on the historical and/or contemporary experience of two or more distinct communities in Canada (FOCUS: Perspective).

Specific Expectation A2.3: formulate questions to guide investigations into different perspectives on the historical and/or contemporary experience of two or more distinct communities in Canada

Forms of Dance:

Narrative was chosen for several reasons:

• To show how affected groups have changed over time. To better string together a collection of movements and phrases to demonstrate the emotions and feelings of belonging. For groups to make connections to how other groups can feel, like they do not belong and feel similar ideas.  

Guiding Theory: Bernstein’s Theory of Creativity

This is the guiding theory for this activity, specifically the Abstracting and Empathizing tools.

What is this being used for?

Help take the complex idea of belonging and break it down into manageable and understandable parts.

To help students to experience and better understand the idea of belonging and how many people don't feel that they belong.

Overview of the Activity:

Read a song lyrics instead of stories: Dissect the lines of lyrics to select movements that can represent those lyrics. Take these movements and put them into phrases (explore abstract movement). If you have several phrases link the phrases.

Accommodation Suggestion: Action cards will be available to help select movements.

Potential Accommodations and Modifications:

Modifications or Accommodations to adjust to different grade levels. Focus could change from a Narrative to more on the Body and how different movements with it could express emotions and feelings. Higher Grade - the focus can remain on Narrative; movement phrases could become longer and more complex.

Modifications or Accommodations for ability or behaviour. Focus on the area of strength for the student; Example a student in a wheelchair could focus on upper body movements. Teacher could use strength based grouping techniques to support. The use of less complex scenario for those particular student’s level.