New York State Funding for Arts Education Partnerships - SAP

Glen Head Elementary School and Dafna Soltes Stein - “Becoming a Classroom Community”

We decided to use improvisational dance and dance composition to support character education in the second grade, to fill a need expressed by classroom teachers for support in finding ways to help students understand how to form good mutually satisfying friendships. We posed the question, “What does it mean to be a good friend or not?” How can dance making be used as a friendship building tool?

Our students learned that that communication occurs in many languages - literary arts, dance arts, visual arts, musical arts. Students were able to make the connections between these different languages using them to explore friendship and classroom community building. Students were given the opportunity to see one another in a different light, to develop sensitivity to themselves as dancers and to one another as people. They developed new sensitivity to language, not only to the power of words but also to the power of movement to express emotion and feelings. The power of movement often led student towards finding the power of words. They needed the movement experience first, then the talk/reflection, and finally the reading of the poem around which a lesson was focused.

When I dance I feel happy. And I feel like a leaf gliding through the air. I fell like a beautiful butterfly. I feel so good when I dance. And I feel like a boat floating in the water. I can be whatever I want to be. I feel like a ball and I feel high like a bird. And that is what I feel when I dance. By Stephanie

Through the dance classes students were able to work on important life skills like working within a team, building together with others, following directions, playing by the rules, adding constructively to a situation, depending on others, giving support, accepting that some things may be left unfinished, enjoying spontaneity, and many others.

The residency also supported district literacy initiatives. Teachers selected a group of poems from which the TA chose four. The poems dealt with coping with fear and loneliness at school, mean words and bullying, feeling confident and capable, and the give and take in a friendship. Dances were made, visual art works were created, reflective discussions were held, and students wrote poems and narratives.

Leaves in the fall twirl and tumble, Children kick them, play with them. Leaves in the fall dive through the air And spin from the wind. Leaves in the fall swish and flow. The wind sends messages for the leaves to COME. By Mary Grace

For students who are not able to verbalize well, it was a powerful experience to be confident and able to be articulate physically using kinesthetic intelligence. Classroom teachers found this especially meaningful, allowing them to view certain students from a new perspective.

I can whirl, swoop, fly, float, glide, Soar as fast as a cheetah, As slow as a sloth. Free as a slave set free. High as the sky and happy as a hyena. And with all these things I can dance. By Katerina