INQUIRY QUESTION
How can enhancing music literacy through folk dancing expand physical literacy while also promoting student social, emotional and physical well-being?
How it all began:
When I returned to Mike Mountain Horse School for PS III 10 months after my PS II practicum there had abruptly ended, I soon realized that teaching music would look a lot different than it had during the first two weeks of March 2020. Prior to the pandemic, a music lesson was typically made up of three main components: singing, playing instruments and movement. This year, students are not able to be in the music room and cannot share materials, so it is nearly impossible for them to experience playing instruments and singing can be done only in limited amounts. Movement always was an important aspect of my teacher mentor’s music program, and this year especially it is proving to be a Covid-friendly way to teach musical concepts and skills. With my TM’s guidance, I decided to focus my PIP on the benefits of folk dancing for students. My original project idea had centered only around the benefits of folk dancing for the development of music literacy and enhancing physical well-being. However, after submitting my proposal to my TM, she gave me more ideas as to how to expand my project to include social and emotional well-being as well, given the collaborative nature of folk dancing.
Project Overview:
Through research, I discovered the connections folk dancing has to physical literacy, music literacy and social, emotional, and physical well-being. During my internship, Grade 4 worked through a circle dances unit I had created and gained experience with long-way set dancing. Grade 3 worked on a variety of line, scatter and circle formation dances and Grade 2 and Kindergarten focused on 4 and 8-beat phrase movement in scatter formation. I gathered students’ thoughts on the use of dance in music class, which were very positive. From my own observations, students are demonstrating proficiency at musical skills such as listening, moving and creating that dance requires, and are showing that they understand the musical concepts presented in dance, such as rhythm, form, melody and expression. I have seen high levels of participation in all movement activities, and students collaborate well with eachother through these inclusive, hands-on learning experiences. Teaching movement and dance is a sequential process. Younger students experiment with symmetrical locomotor and non-locomotor movements and spatial relationships in personal space. Older students will progress to more complex, collaborative dances that focus on phrasing and steady beat, and sequence locomotor and non-locomotor movements in structured formations such as concentric circles and long-way sets. The results of this project suggest that folk dancing is a great way to build community in any classroom and is not limited to music classrooms only.
When I returned to Mike Mountain Horse School for PS III 10 months after my PS II practicum there had abruptly ended, I soon realized that teaching music would look a lot different than it had during the first two weeks of March 2020. Prior to the pandemic, a music lesson was typically made up of three main components: singing, playing instruments and movement. This year, students are not able to be in the music room and cannot share materials, so it is nearly impossible for them to experience playing instruments and singing can be done only in limited amounts. Movement always was an important aspect of my teacher mentor’s music program, and this year especially it is proving to be a Covid-friendly way to teach musical concepts and skills. With my TM’s guidance, I decided to focus my PIP on the benefits of folk dancing for students. My original project idea had centered only around the benefits of folk dancing for the development of music literacy and enhancing physical well-being. However, after submitting my proposal to my TM, she gave me more ideas as to how to expand my project to include social and emotional well-being as well, given the collaborative nature of folk dancing.
Project Overview:
Through research, I discovered the connections folk dancing has to physical literacy, music literacy and social, emotional, and physical well-being. During my internship, Grade 4 worked through a circle dances unit I had created and gained experience with long-way set dancing. Grade 3 worked on a variety of line, scatter and circle formation dances and Grade 2 and Kindergarten focused on 4 and 8-beat phrase movement in scatter formation. I gathered students’ thoughts on the use of dance in music class, which were very positive. From my own observations, students are demonstrating proficiency at musical skills such as listening, moving and creating that dance requires, and are showing that they understand the musical concepts presented in dance, such as rhythm, form, melody and expression. I have seen high levels of participation in all movement activities, and students collaborate well with eachother through these inclusive, hands-on learning experiences. Teaching movement and dance is a sequential process. Younger students experiment with symmetrical locomotor and non-locomotor movements and spatial relationships in personal space. Older students will progress to more complex, collaborative dances that focus on phrasing and steady beat, and sequence locomotor and non-locomotor movements in structured formations such as concentric circles and long-way sets. The results of this project suggest that folk dancing is a great way to build community in any classroom and is not limited to music classrooms only.