Dance Curriculum Toolkit

Title of Resource: Dance in the ESL Classroom PPT Slides

 

Target Audience: Educators

 

Description of Resource: This resource is from a public slideshare site.  Suggestions that this powerpoint makes for educators working with ESL students is to write it down, take it slow, be committed to the process, have respect for students, free the body (fade inhibitions), and record everything.  This slideshare presentation could be utilized as a lesson plan for dance as it walks through an entire lesson with suggestions along the way to enhance ESL students in the classroom.  Throughout the warm-up, the author suggests using a progression through the elements of speech in the English language.  This warm-up begins with “be” words as a way of identifying parts of speech.  It continues with isolations of the body, which represent nouns in the English language.  From there, students are encouraged to embody verbs such as twist/stretch/glide/melt/freeze.  Building off of those verbs, adverbs are added to the verbs such as twist slowly, stretch widely, and glide softly.  Finally students will put all of that together by adding prepositions such as up-twist-slowly-around-your-spine, and stretch-strongly-towards-a-neighbor.  Post warm-up, students will view a video that links all of the elements of speech that they explored during the warm-up and will be asked to identify these parts within the video.  The core of the lesson is focused on the elements of dance, which make up the basic foundation of all dance.   The elements in dance include: Body, Space, Time, Effort, and Relationship.  The students will have the opportunity to develop a small composition of their own choreography by developing the parts of speech they explored in the warm-up and connecting those words to the elements of dance.  The author provides an example of a simple “Classroom Model” choreographic phrase that the teacher may use as a way of demonstrating the assignment for students.  The overarching theme throughout the lesson is student's exploration of “being” words.

 

Appropriateness for High School Students:  This lesson is appropriate for high school students as it explores a critical element of the English language and encourages students to embody the elements of dance.

 

Use of Resource in Classroom/Ways to Implement this Resource in my Classroom: I would absolutely use this lesson in my curriculum in a high school.  This lesson is interdisciplinary and encourages building off of what students already know and relating those concepts to dance.  I anticipate using this lesson with beginning dance students as well as ESL students as a clear lesson about the elements of dance.

 

Strengths of Resource as a Teaching Tool (Purpose, Value, Uniqueness, Positive Aspects):

The strength within this lesson is that it is an interdisciplinary lesson that encompasses language arts, the English language, and the elements of dance.  The purpose of this lesson is for students to build the connection and relationship between "being" words, nouns, verbs, adverbs, and prepositions and manipulating these elements of speech as a way to embody the elements of dance.  I think this lesson is incredibly unique because although it may look simple on the outside, it actually is a great way for students to truly grasp the elements of dance.  I believe that students that are not ESL students would also benefit from this lesson as it breaks down concepts that they have been familiar with since they were younger.

 

Possible Modifications to Resource (Weaknesses, Limitations, Supplemental Resources):

Although I think that this lesson is enriching across the board, depending on the demographic of my class, some modifications may need to be adjusted in order to fit the students in my class.  If my ESL students are comfortable with "being" word, nouns, verbs, adverbs, and prepositions, this lesson is a great tool for reinforcing the information that they already know.  I would build on those elements of speech to enhance the lesson for students if what is given, is to simplistic for them.  Another way that I might manipulate this lesson is to connect the parts of speech to what the ESL students are learning in their classroom.  This would require me to work alongside the ESL teacher in order to develop a lesson that coincides with what they are teaching in the student's regular classes.

 

Resource Citation:

Scott, A.Dance in the ESL classroom SLIDESHARE PPT. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/ariellels/dance-in-the-esl-classroom