Exploring Cultures Through the Arts By Jacqueline Kahan and Christina Ramsay Ed200 Curriculum Project ‘06 Trinity College

Introduction Our curriculum is a month long unit on cultures through the lenses of language, music and dance. Each week the students will study one culture, the culture’s music, and a dance from the culture of the week. The lesson plans we will focus on are from the second week of the unit which is on merengue and the Dominican Republic.

Context Who? 5 th graders What? The Exploration of Merengue and the Dominican Republic Where? Hartford public classrooms When? 2-3 hours per day

Framework Bloom’s TaxonomyGardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences Linguistic Music Bodily-kinesthetic Interpersonal CT Framework Under The Arts Under Social Studies Cooperative Learning

Objectives Students will be exposed to a variety cultures. Students will compare and contrast the different cultures, music, and dances in the unit. Students will express themselves through movement and music. Students will collaborate with each other and hone their interpersonal skills Students will construct a dance performance (with teacher’s assistance)

Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5 -The teacher will give a brief overview of the country/culture -Students will work in small groups. Each group will be assigned one aspect of Dominican culture (i.e. food, language). -Students will be given a worksheet of questions and they will present the information they gather to the rest of the class. -Students will write a short journal entry from the perspective of someone from that culture -Students will be exposed to a folk song of the culture -Students will be given a sheet with lyrics that they will sing along to and listen to merengue music. -Students will compare the folk songs to songs that they know through a discussion, facilitated by the teacher -Students will work in groups creating their own folk song integrating the cultural aspects learned yesterday. -An ethno- musicologist will come in to speak to the class about music from the Dominican Republic -A guest speaker from the community will provide students with historical and cultural context of merengue. -The speaker will demonstrate some moves to the class using typical merengue music. -Students will be write a journal entry to describe their experience of listening and watching the guest speaker perform. Students will also connect what they previously learned about the culture to merengue. -Students will learn the basic steps of the dance from the guest speaker. -After the class learns the basic steps together, students will continue to practice in pairs -The teacher will observe students and evaluate them based on participation and attentiveness. -Students will continue to practice and perfect their dance. -With the guest speaker’s assistance, the students will come up with a two eight-count sequence that would be presented during the dance performance at the end of the month. -Students will be evaluated based on a journal entry reflecting on the entire week and compare the culture of the Dominican Republic to their own culture. Schedule of Week’s Activities

Day 2 – Music Day! Folk Song Sing-a-long Discussion comparing merengue folk song to songs students know Create their own folk songs in groups Presentation on merengue music by ethnomusicologist/musician Main Objectives: Students will develop an understanding of merengue music Students will demonstrate cultural understanding by using linguistic, musical and interpersonal intelligences

Day 4 – Let’s Dance! Learn the basic merengue steps (together) from merengue expert Practice basic steps in pairs Students will be evaluated based on participation and effort displayed Main Objectives: Students will demonstrate bodily- kinesthetic intelligence through learning merengue steps. Students will learn to make connections between dance and music.

Justification Students develop “acceptable” ways of releasing energy and expressing themselves creatively Interdisciplinary learning integrates different academic subjects, which fosters higher-level thinking Our curriculum project employs several learning approaches and intelligences that takes into account different learning styles.