Fifth Grade Dance Curriculum Amber Rhyne Master’s Defense May 6, 2009

Introduction The following is a model dance curriculum for a one year public school dance education program for fifth grade students. Purpose: To be used as a model for Washington County Public Schools. The curriculum lessons are designed for an encore dance class receiving dance once a week for 50 minutes.

Introduction This curriculum is also aligned with: – The Maryland Fine Arts Standards in Dance – The American Association of Physical Education, Health, Recreation, and Dance – National Dance Education Organization 5 units of study within the curriculum – Elements of dance, Multicultural Dance, Balance and Acrobatic Dance, Ballet, and Social Dance

Related Research Dance education is vital to a well rounded public education system. Dance education Dance Education is: – Art Appreciation – Differentiated Instruction/Multiple Intelligences – Physical Education – Self-Esteem – Brain Development – Academic Achievement

Related Research: Art Appreciation The art of emotion and universal expression Provides a connection between the audience and the artist Art Education encourages students to take risks, think creatively, and fosters cultural understanding, sensitivity, and diversity.

Related Research: Physical Education Aerobic dancers showed – Higher mood benefits – Decreased BMI – Decreased heart rate – Decreased body weight – Increased positive attitude towards health – Increased self-esteem and emotional stability

Related Research: Brain Development The brain learns the fastest between ages 4-12 Balance, coordination, and muscle movement are stored in the cerebellum as well as cognition, higher order thinking, emotions, and long-term memory. The most significant learning happens when the brain is learning something with novelty, repetition, brain stimulation, or emotional connection.

Related Research: Academic Achievement Performing arts challenge students to – use reasoning skills – Think critically – Formulate ideas – Draw conclusions – Gain ownership of work Correlations with movement arts and: – Higher college entrance scores – Singapore pre-school’s descriptive writing – Balance and motor development and reading skills

Rationale Dance education is a form of personal expression and development through active problem-based learning. This curriculum includes important concepts of exploration, dance technique, learning appropriate vocabulary, and creating choreography. Dance education students formulate an image or opinion of the world and how the individual relates to this world culturally, socially, and personally.

Curriculum Design arhyne.wikispaces.com/DNC550- mastersproject arhyne.wikispaces.com/DNC550- mastersproject Scope and Sequence Unit Map Lesson Plans, activities, assessments

Unit 1: Elements of Dance and Creative Movement Overview: – Exploring dance concepts and the elements of dance and creative movement; movement, body, time, space, force – Communicating thoughts or ideas through choreographic choices by using the elements of dance within choreography. – Enduring idea that dance has meaning.

Unit 1: Elements of Dance and Creative Movement Explore movement vocabulary Communicate ideas using force Creating aesthetic movements Kaleidoscope choreography – Graphic organizer and videotaping for evaluationvideotaping

Unit 2: Elements of Dance and Multicultural Dance Overview: – Learning three multicultural dances and comparing similarities and differences between their elements of dance. German Plattle Dance Native American Rain Dance Highlife Dance from Ghana – Creating a minimum of five adaptations to one dance learned. – Presenting adaptations to the class through an instructional pamphlet, teaching the class, performing, or drawing an illustration.

Unit 3: Balance and Acrobatic Dance Overview: – A skill-specific unit that involves balance and acrobatic dance strategies. – Skills Weight, weight transfer, balance point, center of gravity Break dancing Yoga Rolls, handstands, cartwheels, etc – Self-Evaluation Checklist Self-Evaluation Checklist

Unit 4: Ballet Overview: – Students will learn basic ballet vocabulary and technique. – Students will memorize ballet movement phrases – Identify sports movements that best represent ballet movements – Written assessment – Create ballet stories to perform behind a shadow screenshadow screen

Ballet in Sports

Unit 5: Social Dance Social dance is any dance where you are dancing in a large group, small group, or with a partner. Social Dances performed in this unit were square dances, Virginia Reel, and ballroom dances including Tango, Swing, and Chacha. Social Dance Card

Reflection Time is always a factor in a public school with school events, testing, etc. Opportunities to gain time with students by using flexible groupings which allowed for individual group conferencing and re-teaching. Consider the order of the units within the school year. What would the effect be if certain dance units were placed elsewhere in the year.

Reflection Scope and Sequence Revisited – There was a strong emphasis in perceiving and responding to dance requiring students to view and analyze dance through various media. – Due to the fact that there is no formal performance, standards that addressed performance qualities such as projection, execution, memorization, and the affects of choreographic choices were less represented.

“Everything has rhythm, everything dances” – Maya Angelou