DANCING THROUGH SENTENCE STRUCTURE

DANCING THROUGH SENTENCE STRUCTURE

Learning Description

This lesson allows students to explore sentence structure through movement and choreographicsequences. Discover how to integrate dance into your language arts curriculum and engage yourstudents in a brand-new way!

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: K-1
CONTENT FOCUS: DANCE & ELA
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can identify types of sentences.

  • I can identify parts of speech.

  • I can use movement to express the intent of a sentence, i.e., strong emotion, a question, or a command.

  • I can choreograph a dance based on a given structure.

Essential Questions

  • How can movement help us identify parts of speech and sentence type? 

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Kindergarten:

ELAGSEKL1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. 

ELAGSEKL2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

 

 

Grade 1:

ELAGSE1L1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

ELAGSE1L2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

 

 

Arts Standards

Kindergarten:

ESDK.CR.1 Demonstrate an understanding of the choreographic process.

ESDK.CR.2 Demonstrate an understanding of dance as a form of communication

ESDK.PR.1 Identify and demonstrate movement elements, skills, and terminology in dance.

ESDK.RE.1 Demonstrate critical and creative thinking in dance.

ESDK.CN.3 Identify connections between dance and other areas of knowledge.

 

Grade 1:

ESD1.CR.1 Demonstrate an understanding of the choreographic process. 

ESD1.CR.2 Demonstrate an understanding of dance as a form of communication

ESD1.PR.1 Identify and demonstrate movement elements, skills, and terminology in dance.

ESD2.CN.3 Identify connections between dance and other areas of knowledge.

 

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Kindergarten:

K.W.MCC.4.1 With guidance and support, use nouns.

K.W.MCC.4.3 With guidance and support, understand and use interrogatives. 

K.W.MCC.4.4 With guidance and support, use verbs.

K.C.MC.1.4 Participate in conversations with varied partners about focused grade level topics and texts in small and large groups. 

 

Grade 1:

1.W.MCC.4.1 Use common, proper, and possessive nouns. 

1.W.MC.4.2 Use singular and plural nouns with matching verbs in basic sentences. 

1.W.MC.4.8 Produce and expand complete simple and compound declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences. 

 

Arts Standards

Anchor Standard 1: I can use movement exploration to discover and create artistic ideas and works.

Anchor Standard 2: I can choreograph a dance.

Anchor Standard 3: I can perform movements using the dance elements.

Anchor Standard 5: I can describe, analyze, and evaluate a dance.

Anchor Standard 7: I can relate dance to other arts disciplines, content areas, and careers.

 

 

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

Sentence Types

  • Interrogative - A sentence that asks a question and ends with a question mark.
  • Imperative - A sentence that gives a command or makes a request. 
  • Exclamatory - A sentence that shows strong emotion and ends with an exclamation mark. 
  • Declarative - A sentence that makes a statement and ends with a period.
  • Punctuation - Marks used in writing to separate words and numerals.

Arts Vocabulary

  • Locomotor - Movement that travels from one location to another in a pathway through space

  • Non locomotor - Movement that occurs without the body traveling from one point to another point.

Energy Qualities 

  • Percussive - A quality of movement characterized by sharp starts and stops, staccato jabs of energy.  
  • Suspended - A quality of movement that occurs in a moment of resistance to gravity, such as the instant in which a dancer hangs in space at the top of a leap.  
  • Sustained - A quality of movement that is smooth and unaccented. There is no apparent start or stop, only a continuity of energy.  
  • Swinging - A quality of movement established by a fall with gravity, a gain in momentum, a loss of momentum, and the repeated cycle of fall and recovery, like that of a pendulum.  
  • Vibratory - A quality of movement characterized by rapidly repeated bursts of percussive movements, like a jitter. 

 

 

Materials

  • Sound source (CD player, iPod) and speaker  
  • Audio recording 
  • Cards with printed sentences 

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

  • As a group, lead students in a warm up that includes these dance elements:

    • Movement energy qualities, including percussive, suspended, sustained, swinging, and vibratory. 
    • Locomotor and non-locomotor movements.
    • Identify these dance elements so that students learn dance vocabulary.

 

Work Session

ELA Discussion

  • Ask students to identify different sentence types (declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, and imperative). 
  • Ask students to match a movement quality of their choice to each sentence type. 
  • Ask students to identify the following parts of speech: verb, noun, pronoun, adjective, and adverb. 

Small group choreography 

  • Divide students into groups and ask each group to create a movement/shape for each part of speech. Each group will create five movements. 
  • Now, give each group a card with a sentence on it. The members will need to identify the underlined parts of speech and the sentence type. 
  • Group members choreograph a short movement phrase that demonstrates the correct order of the underlined parts of speech as they appear, as well as the movement quality that matches the overall sentence type. 

Presentation

Once students have completed their choreographies, each group will present its sentence, identify the parts of speech, and present their choreography to the class. Option to choose music for each dance.

 

Closing Reflection

Ask students to explain, using dance vocabulary, how a movement of a peer group expresses a certain part of speech.

 

Ask students to explain why they chose certain movements to express certain parts of speech.

 

 

 

Assessments

Formative

  • Students engage in collaborative discussion about movement choices and parts of speech.

  • Students correctly use dance vocabulary during discussion.

 

Summative

  • Students correctly identify parts of speech and sentence types. 

  • The form and sequence of a group choreography correctly matched the sequence of the assigned sentence. 

  • Movements were correctly performed.

 

 

Differentiation

Acceleration: 

Add layers to the choreographic process to:

  • Include transitions
  • Vary movements to show a clear beginning, middle, and end expressed in terms of movement (as opposed to simply following the order given by the sentence).

Remediation:

As a class, identify the underlined parts of speech and the sentence type and then assign groups to match movements with parts of speech.

 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

As part of the standards discussion but not standards themselves, the statements below reflect the connection between the choreographic process and the writing process and are interesting to consider while implementing this lesson. 

Fundamentals of Writing  

Employ a recursive writing process that includes planning, drafting, revising, editing, rewriting, publishing, and reflecting.  

Interact and collaborate with peers and adults to develop and strengthen writing.  

Produce writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, discipline, and audience. 

Fundamentals of Communication  

Employ a reciprocal communication process that includes planning, drafting, revising, editing, reviewing, presenting, and reflecting.  

Communicate using style, language, and nonverbal cues appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.  

Use active and attentive communication skills, building on other’s ideas to explore, learn, enjoy, argue, and exchange information.  

Monitor delivery and reception throughout the communication process and adjust approach and strategies as needed.

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

 Ideas contributed and updated by: Melissa Dittmar-Joy and Julie Galle Baggenstoss

 Revised and copyright:  August 2022 @ ArtsNOW

 

Back to Modules