Creative Dance and Multiplication

“Using Creative Dance as a Comprehension Strategy for Literacy” Creative Dance, Text, and Multiplication Lesson Created by, Rachel Swenson, Dance Specialist For grades 3rd and 5th 45 minute lesson

Description: Help students make meaning from what they read through creative dance. While reading and connecting through dance to the book, “Amanda Bean’s Amazing Dream,” by Cindy Neuschwander, this session will teach ways dance can help students connect to text in a deeper way through using prior knowledge, making connections, finding out the main ideas, imagery, making inferences, asking questions, rereading, and much more. Amanda Bean’s Amazing Dream,” is a book about multiplication.

The Lesson:

Introduction: Dance energy qualities. Introduce verbally, visually, or demonstrate 7 different energy qualities (swing, vibratory, collapse, suspend, percussive, explosive, & sustained).

Warm-up and locomotor in one: Introduce locomotor (dancing traveling through space) vs. axial (dancing in one spot) Have students start with…  axial sustained movement 16 counts  locomotor walking 16 counts  axial swing movement 16 counts  locomotor jogging 16 counts  axial vibratory movement 16 counts  locomotor skipping 16 counts  axial suspend and collapse movement 16 counts  locomotor side-slide 16 counts  axial percussive movement 16 counts  locomotor gallop 16 counts  axial explosive movement 16 counts  locomotor leaping 16 counts

*Side-coach students to dance using various pathways as they locomote (leap zigzag, skip direct, gallop curving)

Picture Book Connection: Read the first few pages (to the sheep arriving at the barn) of, “Amanda Bean’s Amazing Dream,” by Cindy Neuschwander. ISBN: 0-590-30012-1

1 Creative Dance:  Intro to Amanda. Have half students on each side walk into the dancing space snapping while you chant… “1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8…Amanda Bean loves math. Everybody laughs and calls her… Bean (Lean to the other group and then away when the other group leans to you) Counter (Lean to the other group and then away when the other group leans to you) Stop! Amanda Bean counts anything and everything. She can count by…ones (change shape)…twos (change shape)…fives (change shape)…tens (change shape). She can add up anything. (Cross arms) Kids at school call her…Bean Counter…1-2-3…Amanda Bean!”

 Things that come in groups. Amanda counts everything. In four to five groups, create a group frozen shape that represents a group of things that Amanda would count (ex: clouds in the sky, crayons in her crayon box, etc.) One student will be Amanda and dance her way around the groups of things as if she is counting them. Dancers dance to group shape and freeze and then Amanda dancer dances in-out-& around the shapes.

 Counting sheep. In the story Amanda can’t sleep because all she can think about is counting. Amanda’s mom tells Amanda to count sheep. I need a new Amanda to count sheep and the rest of you get to be the sheep dancing in Amanda’s mind. Dance across the dancing space in front of Amanda, have one air moment, just like Amanda were counting you leaping over a fence. Make your sheep movement unique from the rest of the flock. Once you have been counted, you may crawl to all four and wait for the others, or sit and wait.

 Amanda chases sheep on bicycles. We need to create even groups of sheep (4’s or 5’s). Each group gets to gallop in a line, as if you were all riding the same bicycle. We need a new Amanda to gallop and follow the sheep on bicycles. When the music stops, the sheep need to exaggerate and slow motion stop galloping/stop the bicycle.

 The sheep dance with balls of yarn. In the barn, the sheep each pull out 5 balls of beautiful yarn. Spread out and make a shape that show you are displaying your 5 balls of beautiful yarn (encourage unique shapes). When the music turns on, dance and do tricks with your balls of yarn. Try turning, rolling, throwing, catching, balancing, juggling with different body parts, kicking, and so on. Use your imagination.

Picture Book Connection: Finish reading, “Amanda Bean’s Amazing Dream,” by Cindy Neuschwander. ISBN: 0-590-30012-1

Perceive and Reflect: Ask students, “What did you see?” Ask students, “What did you like?”

2 Comprehension questions: “What was the beginning of the story?” “Who was the main character?” “What does the main character want most?” “Who is stopping the main character from getting what they want?” “What was the climax?” “How was the story problem resolved?” “What was your favorite part of the story and why?”

What is comprehension? Teaching that reading is an active process where we make meaning from what we read. Comprehension is meaning making from text. A brief overview of comprehension: a. Using prior knowledge (bk-background knowledge) b. Making connections (text to text, text to self, text to world) c. Finding out the main ideas in text d. Imagery, constructing mental images of the meaning conveyed by the text e. Making inferences beyond the information given in text f. Asking questions (about what is written, author’s intentions, what will happen next, etc.) g. Rereading for clarification and/or more meaning

Dance and Comprehension strategies are woven together: Dance can be another way to tell a story, and comprehension is understanding the text that was read. Using text to create dance allows students to make text-to-text, text-to-self, text-to-world connections. When using text for dance inspiration, the creation of the dance invokes students in asking questions of the story and characters, relationships, setting. Students are constantly recalling the order of the story and information learned of characters thus far. The creating of the dance helps students make meaning of the text they read or that is read to them.

All text is written to give information and/or tell a story. When using dance with text in the classroom, you are not only making reading enjoyable for your students, but you are reinforcing students’ meaning making from text. You can improve student meaning making by teaching them to use comprehension strategies used by good readers. You can point out how strategies are used throughout creating the dance, enforcing the use of good reader strategies.

Contact Information: o Rachel Swenson [email protected] Teaching Artist / Dance Specialist William Penn Elementary Granite School District