Week 1: Dance and Literacy

Reflection: This lesson is an effective lesson because it allows students to practice reading skills, such as pulling out themes from poetry and extending their understanding of the themes into movement. I used this lesson in my grade 6 class in a dance unit to scaffold learning to their final task, which was to create a dance narrative from a story. This lesson prepared students for their final task by showing them that movement does not always have to be literal, it can be interpretive and inspired by other forms of expression such as poetry. 

Curriculum Connections:
Language grade 6

Reading 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.

Dance grade 6

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)

This can be adapted to Grade levels 4-8 in Dance, Creating and Presenting (A1.2 depicting themes in literature). I would use the Departures poem for grades 6-8 because of the depth of the poem. But this lesson can be easily adaptable to younger grades, even primary, just by changing the piece of literature.

Special Needs Accommodations: Visual Impairment - be sure to have larger size information on screen, be verbally very descriptive for students verbally so that they have a clearer understanding that does not rely on reading text.