Dance: Flocking

Flocking is a type of dance technique which makes use of the elements of body, space, time, and relationships. Flocking is something that can be improvised or rehearsed in groups. The point of flocking is to make a diamond formation and to mirror movements of the leader. It is an extension of mirroring that adds two more people and doesn't require everyone to look at each other.

Students should be divided into groups of four for flocking and make a diamond formation like the image below.

 

One student (in this case A) will be the leader and face away from everyone else. Everyone else should be facing the same direction as the leader and trying to mirror or follow their actions. The leader can do one or two kinds of movement that the group has to follow. The tricky part comes when you switch the leader. In our case the leader turns to the left and so does everyone else, thus making the person to the left of the leader the new leader. The golden rule to use to know if you're the leader is if you don't see anyone else, you're the leader. Students can do this improvisationally to music or can spend time rehearsing it to a chosen song or one pre-selected. 

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Think that this is an excellent group activity the whole class can participate in. I think that it promotes good teamwork skills and cooperation. Like mirroring it requires a lot of focus and body awareness to see what the leader is doing and to mirror them. Like mirroring flocking allows students to take on a more shared leadership and responsibility for their flocking routines.

Accommodations I would suggest for flocking include: verbal and non-verbal instructions, extra time, modifying the kinds of movements to be done in a group with a student who has a physical disability, set a time limit on the routine.

Dance: Yes, Let's

Yes, Let's is another kind of ice breaker activity for dance class rather than drama. Yes, Let's is a kind of Simon Says game, where a leader suggests something to do and everyone does it. Everyone else then gets a chance to suggest something for the class to do. In terms of elements of dance this activity best uses body, space, and energy.

This activity is best done in a standing circle. Music can be played in the background for the students to help them get moving. A student starts by suggesting something like "Let's all spin" and the students reply "Yes, let's all spin" and then do the action the student modeled. This should continue around the circle giving every student a chance to say and do an action. Students should attempt the action but it can be modified or changed by them based on need or ability.

This activity is great for dance as it gets students up and moving. Since everyone takes a turn doing it I think it helps students feel safer and more comfortable during dance classes. I think it is a great way to encourage students who might be reluctant or shy in class. Teachers need to keep a positive atmosphere about the activity with themselves and with other students. Overall a simple but effective way for engaging students in dance.

Accommodations for this lesson could include: verbal and non-verbal instructions, allowing different kinds of movement based on physical needs, and allow students to perform an action to the best of their physical ability or comfort level.

Dance: Finger Kaleidoscope

This activity called Finger Kaleidoscope is designed to show students that dance does not have to involve your whole body moving. I challenges students in groups to come up with a performance using just their hands and fingers. The elements of dance that best suit this activity are body and relationships.

This activity is best begun by showing students a video example. XTRAP's finger kaleidoscope dance video can be seen below and is an excellent example. It shows how their fingers and wiggle and move in intricate patterns. This activity should be done in groups of 4 and students should arrange themselves so they can all place their hands on a flat surface like a desk. Then ask students to choreograph a dance routine using their fingers. The key is that everyone needs to mirror the hand movements of the other person. This will require students to focus and explain their movements so that everyone can do them. You can also have students select a piece of music to go along with their routine, this also helps to integrate the dance element of time to their work. The teacher can walk around and assist any groups. Give them time to rehearse their routines before presenting.

I like this activity because it helps prove to students that dance does not require the whole body. Although body is an element of this lesson it is focused on the hands and shows that small intricate movements with a specific part of your body is still an important part of dance. I think students would have a lot of fun making complex finger movements, working together, and presenting their routines.

Accommodations for this activity would include: verbal and non-verbal instructions, allowing extra time, allow some students to work in partners rather than groups to make simpler routines, limit how long the routine can go, pre-selected groups, encourage small subtle movements.

Dance: Mirroring

Mirroring is a technique of dance that could be improvised or rehearsed. I consists of body movements involving two people. The elements of dance it most focuses on are relationship, body, and energy. It involves to people standing facing each other, one of them acts as the mirror and tries to copy what the other person is doing. Students should maintain eye contact and refrain from talking during the activity. This activity requires good concentration and imagination but also requires understanding of your body movements, the relation with your movements with the other person's, and the energy that the other person is putting into the movements you are mirroring.

 

 I think that mirroring is an excellent activity for either drama or dance. In either context it is a great way to get the class moving and working with a partner. Students need to be focused and respectful of each other in order for this activity to work. I think that students who are excited to get moving can get carried away and begin moving too fast or erratically so much so that their partner cannot keep up and it ceases to be fun for the partner. As a teacher if I knew a student might be too rowdy I would pair them with a calmer student and have them follow their movements. It would be a great opportunity to allow students to demonstrate leadership and responsibility skills in the classroom.

Accommodations for this activity can include things such as: verbal and non-verbal instructions, allow for different movements if a student has a physical disability such as sitting in a chair for a student who is in a wheelchair, pre-selected pairs or groups, time their mirroring, and encourage subtler movements.

Dance: Show Me The Shapes

The Show Me the Shapes activity that focuses on the elements of body, space, and relationships in dance. The students are encouraged to collaborate with classmates to create shapes with their bodies. This is a great team building exercise and one that connects really well with geometry expectations.

For our activity we did this in groups of three. We were asked to think of three different ways to create shapes using different body parts. The teacher should go around and ask students to identify what shapes they are creating, they could also ask follow up questions such as how many sides does it have. We were then given green tape to put on the floor to act as a line of symmetry and asked to make a shape with the line of symmetry in it. Students can then show off how many lines of symmetry can exits within their one shape.

This activity was a great way of getting students up and active. It was a really interesting way of getting student physically involved with geometry. It allowed students to build on fundamental knowledge for geometry while having a lot of creative fun.

Accommodations for this activity would include: verbal and non-verbal instructions, extra time, changing of group sizes to encourage various shapes, and pre-selecting groups.

Drama: The Wind Blows

The Wind Blows is similar to Zip Zap Bop in that they are both great icebreaker and introduction activities. The game is pretty easy to run, all you need are some chairs. Like Zip Zap Bop the element that this game involves is focus.

Have the students sit in a circle, once person starts in the middle of the circle and says the line "The wind blows for everyone who is..." then says a characteristic that is true for that person speaking. Everyone else who is sitting who finds that statement to also be true has to stand in find a new seat. If the person is not able to find a new seat they must be the new person in the middle and say a new statement. You can find an example of the game in a video below.

This is a great activity that can really involve kids of any grade or age. It also becomes really fun suggesting different types of movements for students when switching seats. This also helps with safety as students aren't trying to run as fast as they can. Overall this activity requires little preparation and really helps build a sense of community in the classroom.

Some accommodations I'd include: using verbal and written instructions, give all students a turn in the middle, expand or decrease the circle size based on movement of students, and provide some statement prompts to help students come up with a true statement.

Drama: Roleplay

Role playing is a common drama activity which of course falls under the element of role/character. Role plays can be both rehearsed and improvised. Improvised role play involves very little preparation where students are given only a few basic facts about the setting or the characters. A rehearsed role-play involves careful planning where they rehearse a scene in role but is created without a script. This is likely the most commonly used in schools.

Improvised role-play should be centered around a conflict and resolving that conflict. This gives the role-play a focus so the students don't get too off track. The characters in this scene should want something but can't achieve it without engaging in a conflict usually with another character. One of the golden rules of improvisation is to always go along with whatever new information the other actor is offer you and your character. Avoid saying no to a character or changing an already established fact. If you do say no never just say no instead try using "no, but."

During my time in our drama class I was able to present a lesson on role-playing as a cross curricular activity. You can find the slides to it below. One thing that I want to emphasize from the presentation is the difference between role-play games and simulation games. Both are often used in classes but simulation games are more commonly used outside of drama classes. For this reason many teachers would be more comfortable running simulation games as there are more resources across curriculum for it. In this though I argue that there are common traits in role-playing games and simulation games and that both types have things the other does not do. I therefore think that for cross curricular approaches combining aspects of both role-play and simulation works best.