Creating a permanent place for the arts in public education requires some adjustment between the two in order to create a fit — a whittling process that usually affects the art more than the public institution within which it’s finding a home. Given the current trends in educational reform, with emphasis on standardized testing, accountability, and data-driven funding, any maneuvers to maintain the arts in education bring up some good questions:

What are students actually learning? How do we know they’re learning it? How does arts instruction support other or lifelong learning? What kinds of data can we develop to prove learning and transfer?

The process of answering these questions – of assessing student learning – is one of the steps toward shaping the round peg of arts education into the square holes of public education. However, it’s essential to answer them without sacrificing the core qualities that humans gain from their artistic endeavors: expression of self, creativity, passion, and vision.

Which is to say it’s April, and I’m thinking hard about teaching and learning in a comprehensive, sequential dance program – because it’s assessment time in dance class! I need to gather data on what my students know and can do, without them feeling the discomfort of having their creativity squeezed and shaped to fit a particular mold.

This week, for spring vacation, I scored students’ performance assessments. Our dance program includes all students from kindergarten through fifth grade, at a rate of about one hour per week. Instruction consists of lots of creative movement, improvisation using the basic vocabulary of movement (categories of space, time, energy, body), choreography, and cultural dances from around the world. The performance assessment that students complete in fifth grade asks them to choreograph a solo dance based on either a poem or a piece of visual art, perform it for videotaping, and write briefly about their movement choices. The assessments are scored in three categories of Creating (choreographing a beginning, three different movement phrases, and an ending), Performing (performing their dance without interruption, with clear energy and space choices, and maintaining their focus), and Responding (explaining movement choices for three ideas or images from the poem or art).

The kids generate ideas collaboratively

Results from these assessments provide plenty of data concerning the first two questions above: “What are students actually learning?” and “How do we know they’re learning it?” I know it because a performance assessment asks them to do it: translate ideas into choreographed movement, perform their dance with confidence, and explain their ideas. And I know they’re learning because the results are generally good. But the results also provide plenty of fuel for reflection.

In one 5th grade class:
~25% of students (7 out of 27) met all criteria perfectly (including four boys and three girls; one African-American student, one African student, four students from SE Asian heritage, and one Caucasian). It’s a relief when I see students of various backgrounds succeeding!
~81% of students (22 out of 27) achieved levels of either competent or proficient.

So… many kids are learning in this class, but what about the 19% (5 students out of 27) that scored as emerging rather than competent dancers (an average of under 3 points on a 4-point scale)? They indicate plenty of room for instructional improvement. Looking at them individually, I notice two (a boy and a girl) who began dancing just this year, one boy whose religion disapproves of dance, and two other boys who should have done better – but didn’t. These last two boys are particularly troubling, providing plenty of food for thought in the months to come, as I reflect on ways to improve what they learn.

And what about trends visible as weaknesses throughout the class?
~9 students were either missing a third movement phrase in their choreography or their third phrase was too short. Note to self: keep teaching them how to build movement phrases with more than one movement!

~10 students didn’t understand about making their beginnings and endings express the ideas in their dance; instead they created beginnings that said “I’m ready!” and endings that said “OK, I’m done now!” Note to self: start working on stronger beginnings and endings in third grade, at the point when I’m really emphasizing the beginning-middle-ending sequence.

~3 couldn’t explain their movement choices. Note to self: check over the response sheets quickly and collect verbal responses if there’s an English-language-learning or writing problem.

~5 students performed with limp energy and minimal use of space. Note to self: get started early in the year on self- and peer-assessments, so they understand how their movements are coming across.

Reflection will continue, even though assessments are finished for this year. And there are questions that these assessments don’t answer, including the effect of arts instruction on other learning. For this, we’ll need new and different measures. But for now, while thinking about ways to do better next year, these students and I return to the exciting work of making art and another excellent question:

Can 380 students collaborate to put on an end-of-year performance for families and friends?!

Yes, most likely. Starting Monday. And happily, building a performance is not at all about making disparate parts fit – it’s at the core of dance, with excitement building daily!

But the article “Jump Patterns: Percussive Dance and the Path to Math” (TAJ vol. 9, number 2, April-June 2011) provided much more than food for thought. The article unwraps the dance/math residencies Malke Rosenfeld teaches in public schools. The fact that she shares her methodologies with classroom teachers for use in the classroom lit a spark for me. Even without being a step dancer myself, maybe I could lead my dance students through the jump pattern curriculum!

I’m about to begin Week 5 of 6, finishing the jump patterns with my second set of 4th & 5th graders (six lessons per group), and we’re all enjoying it. Malke’s outline provided lots of material to work with, and I’ve worked the pacing & focus of instruction for each lesson to fit my ELL learners & my circumstance. The movement variables are broken into malleable chunks, and we’ve explored the math-related concepts of precision, congruency, reflection, and turn symmetry, with students choreographing patterns in teams of 2 and 3. In addition to integrating dance & math, there’s a problem-solving (choreography) component that parallels the “workshop/conferencing” structure that my students are familiar with through Writers Workshop, allowing me time to confer with & jump-start individual students. In addition, there’s a spatial arrangement that supports classroom management (personal dance spaces for each team — wow, what a concept!). Add in some dance videos to “mentor” the kids in their choreographic process & journaling questions to provide feedback on what students are learning, and it’s no wonder we’re all engaged!

My first groups of 4th & 5th graders finished the unit before the holiday break, with some of them performing their patterns, both congruently & in mirror symmetry. They nailed the precision steps they’d created, even without the support of their personal dance spaces, and their peer audience was able to talk about what they were seeing with insight and new vocabulary. What a pleasure to watch… I’m so grateful to be able to learn from colleagues!

rehearsing for congruency

Practicing 270-degree turns

I’m filing it here, so I can use it next year to show them that dancing their own way doesn’t require R-rated music!

Lil Buck and Yo-Yo Ma

We were using the musical Character Matters, by Ron Fink & John Heath at the Bad Wolf Press. It’s a great resource: script, teacher’s guide, CD with songs & intrumental accompaniment. A fun play, with jokes (many of which I had to explain to my ELL kids, which was a good lesson too!). Lively music, with great lyrics — and we could search for the rhyming words to help us memorize.

Of course students had their worries…

“What if we can’t remember our lines?!”

“Who’s going to play the characters?!”

“I’ll be scared! What if we forget our lines?!”

“We’ll never be able to learn all the words to the songs!”

And I had answers:

“Yes, you will. You can do this! Each character only has a few lines…”

“Everyone’s going to have a special character, and I’ll ask you for your favorites.  Oh, and it’s OK if boys play girl-characters & girls play boys-characters!”

“Eeew!” Eyes rolling…

“You won’t be scared cause there’ll be 2 or 3 people playing every role, so you’ll have company.  And if you forget your lines, someone else will remember them & help you out.”

“We’re going to practice.  You learn all kinds of things, so you can learn these songs!”

Of course, I had my own worries… how to get the lines & songs learned & still have time for the dancing! The third leg of any musical is the dancing, and I’m a dance specialist… but how to get it all done?!

And I have to say I was even more worried when I read the teacher’s guide, cause it reflects a bit of dance-phobia — not surprising in our society, but nonetheless!  The teacher’s guide says, “Don’t have the students “dance” while they are singing. Making music of any kind while moving is extremely difficult for anyone of any age to do. Moreover, the students are likely to turn away from the audience during their dance, and that, you will remember, is a no-no.” And then there’s an explanation of why the teacher’s guide never includes the word dance without “quotes.”

Oh well. I’m a dance specialist, dancing is what we do all year & musicals are meant to dance. So off we went, worries & all.

The play has 10 scenes. My 2nd graders learned scenes 1, 2 & 3. My 3rd graders learned 4, 5 & 6. My 4th graders learn 7 through 10. Following suggestions in the teacher’s guide, I didn’t assign parts til about 10 days before our performance, but I did tell kids they could go ahead & learn their favorite part. Some chose & learned a part within a week or so, while others only learned their parts after they’d been in their character group for awhile. Everyone had a special character part & there were lots of kids singing all the lines in the music. Having large clumps of kids sing all the parts helped make the lyrics audible during the occasional dancing turn!

It took a lot of time to get the lines & lyrics down. It was valuable time as we analyzed & memorized the script — really aiming for comprehension, seeking out rhymes & repeats, learning how to practice not only our own lines but the cue lines — but even mid-way through I was wondering how am I going to fit the dancing in?!

But the dancing happened…

• There were 2nd graders who came in at recess a lot, just to dance to the music. This little recess group — all girls — became a dancing chorus during the Goldilocks song. One day Carlos showed up, doing his own favorite hiphop moves on the side, so as we staged the piece, his improv took center stage at the end of Goldilocks.
• During rehearsals, I encouraged them all to move while they were singing — we didn’t do much sitting-down rehearsal & there was no seated singing. As they moved, I encouraged them to watch each other,  copy the best moves & repeat what worked. Pretty soon, some of the songs had a complete set of gestures — lots of mime, acting out the words. But then, an amazing thing happened… as rehearsals progressed, a number of the mime-ish gestures started becoming exaggerated & abstracted. Precisely the process I would use to have them build dance from gesture! We never took the time to talk about what happened, cause we were way too busy, but it was a beautiful process — and so natural!
• For a few songs, I worked with a small group of volunteers (willing to give up recess for a day) to create interactive dances.
• And for a few songs, we choreographed movements for the whole group.

Towards the end, teachers jumped in to help by doing some extra line-rehearsals in the classroom & singing the songs each day. For costumes, I did my usual — telling the kids to wear whatever seemed appropriate for their character without buying anything new. One 2nd grader — Anna — arrived at school on the day of the performance with costumes that she & her mother had more for her whole class: ears for the bears, ears & noses for the wolves! Teachers gave the kids supplies for tiaras…

By the end, all the elements were there. They remembered their lines. They spoke clearly & expressively. They were scared, but they supported each other.  Everyone had a character to play. Oh yes, there were boys playing girl-characters & girls playing boy-characters — by choice. And there was dancing!

What will I do differently next time? I’ll start using the songs for accompaniment to our dance warm-ups earlier in the year, so we’re all familiar with the music sooner — and already dancing to it! But there will definitely be a next time…

If you think of any other tips for me, do let me know!

Adiel is a 5th grader in one of our regular classrooms. I’ve been working with him since kindergarten & he’s always been a bit of a challenge. He spends most of his recesses inside, doing work that should have been done at home or in class — and sometimes in the office of the intervention specialist dealing with bad choices he’s made in his dealings with teachers & other students. Challenged about his work or behavior, he has a tendency to close his eyes & clam up… it’s like you’re talking to a turtle that’s pulled inside its shell. I noticed this year, however, that Adiel could take movement concepts — curvy & straight pathways, delicate & forceful energy, symmetrical or curriculum-inspired body shapes — and nail them using his own individual style… uprock with a lot of crumping, but totally clear at showing the movement concepts!

An aside: Most of the kids respond as though the concepts we explore demand something different from their favored style of movement… as in, “when are we going to do hiphop?” Not so, Adiel. He’s happy to explore his favorite moves with a new emphasis.

As is Daniel. Daniel’s also a 5th grader, but in a self-contained, special education classroom. Clearly, he’s been identified as needing some extra academic support, and in addition he could sure use some help getting to school! In a given year, he has 20-30 absences & 70+ tardies. He’s had some moments of poor choices & behavior difficulties over the years, but mostly he’s a pleasure to work with — if he’s there.  This year for the first time I was able to use the 5th Grade Classroom-Based Performance Assessment with my self-contained 5th graders.  [Logistical issue -- they've always been mainstreamed with 4th graders before, but this year they were mainstreamed with 5th graders.] Daniel’s the only student who’s ever taken a short poem (the “Poetry in Motion” assessment item) & expressed it with his breakdancing style. Totally nailed it — 3 images from the poem, 3 different breakdance moves that clearly showed the words he had chosen to express. Perfect score: choreographing, performing & explaining his moves.

So…

…I decided Daniel should have a chance to enjoy his strength by choreographing & performing not only with his own class, but also with the regular 5th grade classrooms. His teacher agreed to allow him extra time in dance class. Adiel & his group agreed to include him in their small group choreography, in rehearsal & performance. Daniel came to several rehearsals & this group of 5 boys got their moves sketched out, including a short “battle” between Adiel & Daniel.

Then Daniel didn’t come to school for 2 weeks. Every day when Adiel’s group rehearsed, they’d ask, “Where’s Daniel?” …and they continued to rehearse without him, perfecting their choreography with 4 rather than 5 dancers. Daniel had strep throat — a good excuse this time — but by the morning of the performance, he’d been out for 2 weeks, missing all the final rehearsals, including the development of a longer unison sequence the 5th graders made up by contributing segments of their small-group choreography to the combination. Morning of the performance, when we hadn’t seen Daniel in 2 weeks, I talked to his teacher & we decided Daniel had best just perform in the piece his own class choreographed.

I delivered the news to Adiel, so he could be prepared for how the performance was going to go. He looked downcast.

“Couldn’t we meet at recess & work him in?”

I returned to Daniel’s teacher, to let her know how much the group missed Daniel. She said Daniel had been disappointed but understood. She & I looked at each other with resignation.

I returned to Adiel.

“So… Adiel… do you think your whole group would be willing to show up at recess? If everyone can be there to work him in, he can hang back during the unison section & still join your group during the small group choreography…”

“Yeah,” he said, “we’ll be there!”

And they were. I overheard Daniel say quietly to Adiel, “Thanks, man!” before they all got to work.

~~~~~

During the afternoon performance, Daniel hung back during the unison section, following along as best he could. During the rotation of small groups, he came out & battled Adiel with confidence.

And at the evening performance? Daniel was right behind Adiel, move for move, during the unison section, looking like he’d never missed a single rehearsal.

And Adiel was leading the 5th graders, holding them in stillness to count them in for the beginning, keeping them on beat & together throughout.

~~~~~

This week, Adiel’s in for recess again, working on stuff that should have been done at home or in the classroom, and Daniel’s probably tardy most mornings, but it’s a pleasure to rerun their performances, both on & offstage, in my mind.

Onstage from Meg Mahoney on Vimeo.

The Colonial Williamsburg website has a rich resource teacher site.
from Eileen Sheehan, Illinois

“Colonial Singing Games and Dances,” produced by the Williamsburg Foundation, has dances which are notated and easy to follow.
from Elly Porter, Washington, DC

In addition to Colonial Singing Games and Dances and White Mountain Reel [which seems to be out of print], one should know about Chip Hendrickson‘s book, Colonial Social Dancing for Children:
from Jacob Bloom, Massachusetts, a friend of NDEO member Erica Sigal, Massachusetts

Colonial Social Dancing for Children by Charles C. Hendrickson
Contact the Hendrickson group in Connecticut
Also, Williamsburg’s foundation is a wonderful resource.
from Suzanne E. Henneman, Maryland

“Early American Roots,” a CD from the Smithsonian, includes 22 short musical pieces from Colonial America. From Hesperus, a contact address is:  Maggie’s Music, PO Box 490, Shady Side, MD20764, phone 410-867-0642.  The publisher might have information about the dances done to pieces on the recording.
from Rima Faber, Maryland

Colonists would have been Englishmen and Scots primarily. Their dances were likely the dances they brought with them; round dances and country dances would give you a wealth of ideas, using circles, weaving, and partner exchanges. The steps are comprised of slip steps (chasses moving sideways), retire skips (forward or backward), skip change of step (hop step step step) and setting step (usually a pas de basques danced tightly as if doing the “pony” from the 60s). Your courtesies, based on the manners of the time, include bows from the men and “acknowledgements” from the ladies. A simple allemande is also appropriate and can be done in much the same fashion as we saw in the 70s on Soul Train…just far more refined!
A good general reference to have on hand if you are working with dance in the context of social or geographic influences is
Dance A While: Handbook for Folk, Square, Contra and Social Dance
by Jane Harris, Anne Pittman, Marlys Waller, Cathy Dark, 8^th edition published in 2000 by Allyn and Bacon.
from Kathryn Austin, Florida

The Library of Congress and the Smithsonian have tons of online resources.
Try YouTube — look for the NY Baroque Ensemble and/or the Colonial Williamsburg VA dancers.
from Karen Bradley, Washington D.C.

The Library of Congress website may have some video clips of dances from that period. It’s a great site but you’ll have to kind of work your way through it to see if it has anything relevant.  From the site: “To form an idea of the type of dance that was performed during the American colonial period, see the essays on baroque and late eighteenth-century social dance in the special presentation on the history of dance accompanying An American Ballroom Companion: Dance Instruction Manuals, ca. 1490-1920.”
Another nice site:  www.americanrevolution.org/dance.html
The Society of Dance History Scholars has a really nice site as well; check out the “Colonial Dancing Master” in particular.
AND remember the Virginia Reel was supposedly Georgre Washington’s favorite dance.
from Shana Habel, California

For European-based Colonial American Dance I highly recommend the book / CD entitled Chimes of Dunkirk: Great Dances for Children, available from New England Dancing Masters at 41 West Street in Brattleboro, Vermont 05301.
For African American dances of the Colonial period, including Juba and the Ring Shout, I have always reached out to my NYC colleagues who are experts in this area such as Mickey Davidson. There is some excellent footage of early African American dance in the Channel 13 Dancing series, volume 5, ‘New Worlds, New Forms.’
from Sandra Stratton-Gonzalez, New York

The New England Dancing Masters have a wonderful series of line, contra, and square dances that could be pared down to be more authentic for Colonial Dance.  White Mountain Reel also has a collection with 2 pieces that use sparse instrumentation, more authentic to the Colonial period.
from Laurel Lesio-Eisenstadt, New York

**This list is compiled from the NDEO K-12 Special Interest Forum. NDEO (National Dance Education Organization) has a set of email forums for special interest groups within the field, where NDEO members exchange ideas. Folks not belonging to NDEO who are interested in this or any other topic on dance education should consider joining NDEO and the online discussion! Current members can get discounted prices, if they use user name & password, to order resources from the online store.

I taught my 3rd graders a lovely dance I learned from Sanna Longden last week — “I Don’t Care if the Rain Comes Down.”  Once they were over the shock and ickiness of changing partners with each repeat (which is one of the skills I wanted them to practice), they were so lively & engaged dancing it, I thought, “OK, let’s show this!”

Tuesday we worked out a lot of kinks & it was looking good, but yesterday we did it again & again, and each time some kid would be standing there without a partner.  There is nobody quite so forlorn-looking as a 3rd grader, boy or girl, without a partner.  An orphan, miserable from rejection & abandonment.  Not a pretty sight to put on stage…

We tried again & again.  We fixed the two kids who were running, the one who was passing others in line, the one who was anticipating her next partner incorrectly & the game of tag that cropped up between 2 dancers.  Still we couldn’t get through the dance without orphans & it was a different problem every time.  I decided I’d misjudged — they couldn’t do it!  In an attempt to salvage our time together & let them feel successful, I decided to called it quits, apologized for choosing a dance that might be too hard & suggested we give it up for now & have some fun.

They wouldn’t have it.  The room was noisy with problem-solving.  Finally, out of the noise, a hand went up:  “Why don’t we try it without the music?”  They voted: a resounding yes!  So we did.  We sang the song slowly, we stopped at each transition, we checked, we corrected, we restarted again & again. Finally, it started to flow, from phrase to phrase, partner to partner, without stopping, no mistakes, everyone with a partner. Each time we completed a round, they looked happier — and really satisfied!

Finally, we ran it with the music again.  This time, not only were they energetic, changing & finding partners, but as they passed each other in clockwise & counterclockwise circles, they were smiling & waving to each person they passed!  Hopefully, they’ve made all the mistakes that can be made, and they’ll perform it with smiles & waves. But the performance is less important than the persistence already achieved.

Not to shift the blame, but I couldn’t help noticing this week as I was reflecting-to-learn, that 3 of the 5 times I’ve broken a part of my foot have been with 5th graders. Not generally the 5th graders that still look like 4th graders, but the ones who’re well on their way to 6th or 7th grade bodies.  Nearly adult-size, without having the whole thing quite under control.  Exactly the ones for whom dance is great, cause it gives them a chance to practice using this whole, new, large-size body.

In fact, the very 5th grader whose heel my toe contacted the other day was just beginning to join the dance. She’s pretty nearly my height now & really reticent about moving, restrained not only by size but head scarf, robes & dance-averse background.  But she’s been coming to the dance studio at recess every day to watch others dance.  During recess this week she finally took her shoes off & joined in on Tinikling, checking out the rhythm of the sticks with her foot, hopping through & practicing with a partner.  It was in the class immediately following those ventures. I was helping her group set up the sticks, she was joining in during class for the first time, and my toe contacted her heel.   No one but me heard the telltale crack, so the dancing went on while I retreated, thinking “oh @#$, another broken toe!”  Right foot, 4th toe.  Nursing it & watching her dance, I mentally ran through the upcoming steps: accident report, trip to the doc, x-ray, ice, wrap…

My 2nd toe on the right foot, the one that mended crooked, cured me of nonchalance.  Yes, toes mend nicely by themselves, but only if they’re still aligned!  That toe met Big Tony, 5th grade, enthusiastically and spatially everywhere.

Flash back 2 more years: 5th grade, the Hora, I almost-but-didn’t step on someone’s foot while the line spiralled inward.  Right foot, 5th metatarsal broken in 2 places, surgery & 2 pins, 2 weeks home, 4 weeks teaching on a knee scooter.  That’s the one I broke while dancing — but still, with 5th graders!

Of course, the other 2 broken toes — one against a rock & the other against a vacuum — skew more to the dancers-are-clumsy-in-real-life theory.

In any case, I do know from experience that it’ll mend, and this time the x-ray shows a well-aligned fracture, so I’ll be back to normal in a few weeks.  If I don’t bump it again.

On the positive side, in 15 years, student injuries have so far all been solved with a quick trip to the nurse for an icepack.

And what have I learned, besides “get an x-ray”?  Wear my studio shoes with the 5th graders!

• Play is a central condition for learning.
• There are & have always been teachers who know that play is central to learning.

When I have time, perhaps I’ll elaborate on the connection between dance & play, but for now, it seems too obvious to dwell on.  I have classes to plan for tomorrow, and it’s more important to make them playful than to explain how.

play or engaged learning? both!