Exploring Cultures Through the Arts

By Jacqueline Kahan and Christina Ramsay Ed200 Curriculum Project ‘06 Trinity College

Introduction

• Our curriculum is a month long unit on cultures through the lenses of language, music and dance. Each week the students will study one culture, the culture’s music, and a dance from the culture of the week. • The lesson plans we will focus on are from the second week of the unit which is on merengue and the Dominican Republic.

Context

• Who? 5 th graders • What? The Exploration of Merengue and the Dominican Republic • Where? Hartford public classrooms • When? 2-3 hours per day

Framework

• Bloom’s Taxonomy • • • • • Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences Linguistic Music Bodily-kinesthetic Interpersonal • • • CT Framework Under The Arts Under Social Studies • Cooperative Learning

Objectives

• Students will be exposed to a variety cultures.

• Students will compare and contrast the different cultures, music, and dances in the unit. • Students will express themselves through movement and music. • Students will collaborate with each other and hone their interpersonal skills • Students will construct a dance performance (with teacher’s assistance)

Schedule of Week’s Activities

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 -The teacher will give a brief overview of the country/culture -Students will work in small groups. Each group will be assigned one aspect of Dominican culture (i.e. food, language). -Students will be given a worksheet of questions and they will present the information they gather to the rest of the class.

-Students will write a short journal entry from the perspective of someone from that culture -Students will be exposed to a folk song of the culture -Students will be given a sheet with lyrics that they will sing along to and listen to merengue music.

-Students will compare the folk songs to songs that they know through a discussion, facilitated by the teacher -Students will work in groups creating their own folk song integrating the cultural aspects learned yesterday.

-An ethno musicologist will come in to speak to the class about music from the Dominican Republic -A guest speaker from the community will provide students with historical and cultural context of merengue. -The speaker will demonstrate some moves to the class using typical merengue music.

-Students will be write a journal entry to describe their experience of listening and watching the guest speaker perform. Students will also connect what they previously learned about the culture to merengue.

-Students will learn the basic steps of the dance from the guest speaker. -After the class learns the basic steps together, students will continue to practice in pairs -The teacher will observe students and evaluate them based on participation and attentiveness. Day 5 -Students will continue to practice and perfect their dance.

-With the guest speaker’s assistance, the students will come up with a two eight-count sequence that would be presented during the dance performance at the end of the month.

-Students will be evaluated based on a journal entry reflecting on the entire week and compare the culture of the Dominican Republic to their own culture.

Day 2 – Music Day!

• Folk Song • Sing-a-long • Discussion comparing merengue folk song to songs students know • Create their own folk songs in groups • • Presentation on merengue music by ethnomusicologist/musician

Main Objectives:

of merengue music Students will develop an understanding • Students will demonstrate cultural understanding by using linguistic, musical and interpersonal intelligences

Day 4 – Let’s Dance!

• Learn the basic merengue steps (together) from merengue expert • Practice basic steps in pairs • • Students will be evaluated based on participation and effort displayed

Main Objectives

: Students will demonstrate bodily kinesthetic intelligence through learning merengue steps.

• Students will learn to make connections between dance and music.

Justification

• Students develop “acceptable” ways of releasing energy and expressing themselves creatively • Interdisciplinary learning integrates different academic subjects, which fosters higher-level thinking • Our curriculum project employs several learning approaches and intelligences that takes into account different learning styles.