Week 4 - Social Studies Through Dance and Drama

Dance and Drama provide excellent opportunities to explore issues in Social Studies - especially through an FNMI perspective.

Drama

The group that presented this week chose to explore FNMI issues through Drama - and it was fantastic. Let's look at the expectations covered:

Social Studies Expectations: (Grade 5 First Nations and Europeans in New France and Early Canada)
Overall Expectations:
A3. Understanding Context: describe significant features of and interactions between some of the main communities in Canada prior to 1713, with a particular focus on First Nations and New France

Drama Expectations: (Grade 5)

Overall Expectations:
B1. Creating and Presenting: apply the creative process (see pages 19–22 of curriculum) to process drama and the development of drama works, using the elements and conventions of drama to communicate feelings, ideas, and stories;
B2. Reflecting, Responding, and Analysing: apply the critical analysis process (see pages 23–28 of curriculum) to communicate feelings, ideas, and understandings in response to a variety of drama works and experiences;

FNMI Text

The inspiration used was the story "Dreambirds", a picture book written by David Ogden based on Native American culture. In this book a young native American boy spends his youth searching for the Dreambird his grandmother has told him will reveal his special gift.

One of the activities we did was called "Graffiti Wall". In this activity, students are separated into groups and then students will respond to a picture, various text, concepts, and other learning materials by drawing their responses in the air using different heights, depths, and movements. Here is my group attempting to make the bird that is picture above:

Dance

In week 1, we had a presentation about "Tinikling", a cultural dance that originated from the Philippines during Spanish colonial times. Although this isn't FNMI, it teaches students about the culture contexts of dance - an integral part of the dance curriculum. 

 In Tinikling, the dancer must move quickly between bamboo sticks. 

As you progress, two dancers quickly maneuver around the bamboo sticks as two other dancers move the sticks back and forth, up and down. The middle two dancers are supposed to initiate a call and response sequence.

Elements of Dance in Tinikling - Body and Relationship

I will talk about relationship in week 5 as my group will be exploring dance through science and have touched upon body last week. Tinikiling is not easy and requires a lot of hand-eye + foot-eye coordination. It also requires the group members to work in unison, even if the relationship between each other is conveying something different. This dance can get very complex!

Choreographic Forms:

In this activity, we also reviewed some choreographic forms - ABA and Rondo.

ABA is a three-part choreographic form in which the second section is different from the first section. The third section repeats the first section in a condensed, abbreviated, or extended form...

Rondo is an extension of ABA, as more than three forms are included (i.e. ABACADA). The sequence alternates between repeating movements but will return to the main theme (ABACADA). 

Reflection / Modification Considerations:

These activities in Drama and Dance are easily modified to suit all learners in the classroom. For example, in Tinikiling we can make modifications to suit students with physical exceptionalities:

• The speed and timing of the moving sticks can be slowed down
• A teacher or friend can hold one of the students while they try the dance (balance)
• Students who use a wheelchair or crutches can use a separate too to create the dance sequence - example: using a third stick and tapping it in and out of the moving sticks

For students will learning/behaviours exceptionalities:

• Tinikling movements can be repeated to a beat of a song
• Partners can help to guide the beat
• Students can mimic the teacher's beat
• A video or action cards can be used

Facilitating social studies through dance and drama is going to be an amazing way to engage my students in the learning. I think that these drama and dance strategies are so fun and will really help make the learning concrete for my students. Students will be able to explore deep and meaningful themes while applying the elements of drama and dance effectively. This is not only creating meaningful learning opportunities but experiences that students will hopefully remember for a long time. I'm really glad these two groups made these wonderful connections and am excited to use them in my classroom!