Week 1 - Language Through Drama/Dance
This week we explored many activities in relation to Dwyer's Learner's Theory and the Language Arts curriculum. We read the story Jeffrey and the Sloth and made Drama connections to the Language Arts curriculum in grade 6. We also explored a poem and made connections to the Dance curriculum.
Langauge:
1.6: extend understanding of text /ideas by connecting, comparing and contrasting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights, to familiar texts and to the world around them.
Drama:
B1.3 plan and shape the direction of the drama or role play by introducing new perspectives and ideas, both in and out of role.
Some of the activities we used to explore these expectations were: Hot Seating, Teacher in Role, Voice Alley and Corridor of Voices. Let's have a look at one of my favourites... corridor of voices.
In this image, each side is representing a thought that Jeffrey is having while drawing in his battle against the doodles and the sloth. The person in the middle is representing Jeffrey and must try to make a decision after his/her time going through the corridor of voices. It was a lot of fun to try with our classmates.
Finally, we took the movements and put them together in a group presentation. The choreographic form we represented in this activity was unison. This meant we had all the dancers doing the same movements at the same time.
Drama
Jeffrey and the Sloth is a story about a little boy having trouble finding inspiration for his drawings. He ends up in a battle vs his drawings as they start to order him around. Using this book and several activities we made connections to the following expectations:Langauge:
1.6: extend understanding of text /ideas by connecting, comparing and contrasting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights, to familiar texts and to the world around them.
Drama:
B1.3 plan and shape the direction of the drama or role play by introducing new perspectives and ideas, both in and out of role.
Some of the activities we used to explore these expectations were: Hot Seating, Teacher in Role, Voice Alley and Corridor of Voices. Let's have a look at one of my favourites... corridor of voices.
Corridor of Voices
Corridor of Voices is a neat activity in which students form even lines facing opposite of each other and touch hands above their heads (see picture). The idea is one person takes a character from the story, poem, or subject being studied and will walk through the middle of the voice alley. Each side of the alley will represent one of the choices the character must make and the students on that side will speak words of encouragement to the character as they walk by. Students will ONLY talk when the character is passing by them - hence creating a corridor of voices.In this image, each side is representing a thought that Jeffrey is having while drawing in his battle against the doodles and the sloth. The person in the middle is representing Jeffrey and must try to make a decision after his/her time going through the corridor of voices. It was a lot of fun to try with our classmates.
Dance
In dance, we used poetry to connect to the same reading strand for Grade 6.
Dance:
A1.2 use dance as a language to interpret and depict central themes in literature (e.g., develop a movement vocabulary that reinterprets themes such as good versus evil or humans versus nature; construct a dance that explores bravery in a legend or peace in a poem)
The activity we did looked at the poem "Departures" and required us to find words that spark emotions. Each of these emotions would be collected and called out by the instructor. We then created movements based on these emotions. While making these movement we focused on two elements of dance - energy and space.
Energy: The element of energy is considered how the movement happens - we can say it is the force with which the body moves (e.g., light, strong, sustained, sudden). You can read more by clicking the link - it is a fantastic resource.
Space: The element of space is about the amount of physical space we are taking up or the area around the body.
A1.2 use dance as a language to interpret and depict central themes in literature (e.g., develop a movement vocabulary that reinterprets themes such as good versus evil or humans versus nature; construct a dance that explores bravery in a legend or peace in a poem)
The activity we did looked at the poem "Departures" and required us to find words that spark emotions. Each of these emotions would be collected and called out by the instructor. We then created movements based on these emotions. While making these movement we focused on two elements of dance - energy and space.
Energy: The element of energy is considered how the movement happens - we can say it is the force with which the body moves (e.g., light, strong, sustained, sudden). You can read more by clicking the link - it is a fantastic resource.
Space: The element of space is about the amount of physical space we are taking up or the area around the body.
Finally, we took the movements and put them together in a group presentation. The choreographic form we represented in this activity was unison. This meant we had all the dancers doing the same movements at the same time.
Reflection
Jeffrey the Sloth was a really cute book, and an excellent point of intervention to integrate Drama with Language Arts. I know I will enjoy finding more opportunities to explore drama using books in my teaching practice. My mother is a teacher-librarian and she is always making connections between books and the Arts too! Learning the elements of dance was new to me - and I am glad I had the opportunity to do so. I feel much more confident heading into an occasional placement knowing I have a foundation for these elements and am continuing to learn strategies to teach them.
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