OBJECTIVES:
The student should be able to:
SCIENCE OBJECTIVE (GLE from the Louisiana State DOE Comprehensive Curriculum):
• Analyze positive and negative effects of human actions on ecosystems (GLE LS-27; Benchmarks LS-H-D4 and SE-H-A7) ANALYSIS
DANCE OBJECTIVES (benchmarks from the Louisiana Arts Contents Standards)
• Utilize dance as an expression of individual ideas and feelings (D-CE-H3) APPLICATION
• Present a multidisciplinary dance project (D-CE-H6) SYNTHESIS
• Manipulate technical dimensions of dance individually and collaboratively (D-CE-H7) APPLICATION
VISUAL ARTS OBJECTIVES (benchmarks from the Louisiana Arts Contents Standards)
•Apply a variety of media, techniques, technologies, and processes for visual expression and communication (VA-CE-H2) APPLICATION
• Produce imaginative works of art generated from individual and group ideas (VA-CE-H5) APPLICATION
• Produce works of art that describe and connect art with other disciplines (VA-CE-H6) APPLICATION
TIME: 4 class periods
MATERIALS
Internet-ready computer equipped with Microsoft Office (PowerPoint, etc.)
LCD projector w/ document arm
Pretest
Posters
Pencils, Color pencils, markers
Posttest
INTRODUCTION/PREPARATION/ANTICIPATORY SET:
Students will take a pretest on knowledge of movement concepts (Appendix A). The teacher will lead class discussion on why music, movies, dance, and the visual arts have such an impact on our lives. The teacher will probe the class until students respond that these forms of art evoke emotions, allow the audience to personally connect with the subject matter, and are accessible to everyone. The teacher will explain that, for the next couple of classes, students will use movement, music, the visual arts, and technology to express their research of and opinions on an environmental issue of their choosing. The students will work in 4-member cooperative groups to research the environmental issue (statistics, potential solutions, etc.), design a public service announcement-style poster and PowerPoint ‘commercial’, and choreograph a movement composition to express the positive and negative impact humans have on the environment with regard to their chosen issue. The teacher will allow student groups time to choose an environmental issue for their project.
ACTIVITY:
Teach/Model: The teacher will discuss several environmental issues at the forefront of today’s ecological news: global warming, overfishing, acid rain, air and water pollution, coastal erosion, rainforest destruction/clear-cutting, ozone depletion, etc. The teacher will employ vocabulary associated with environmental issues (OBJ 1).
Guided practice: Students will work in cooperative groups in the computer lab to research environmental issues. The teacher will monitor groups and assist in locating reputable websites for statistics, etc. (OBJ 1). The students will then move back to the classroom. The teacher will guide the students in expression of previously-acquired, environment-related vocabulary through movement (OBJ 2). The teacher will use movement vocabulary such as axial movement, locomotor movement, creative movement, creative expression, movement quality, kinesphere, improvisation, tension, AB composition, call and response, canon, flocking, and palindrome.
Independent practice: Students will be given different vocabulary terms and will express their meaning through movement. Students will be given a few minutes to brainstorm and choreograph their performance. Students will then perform their movement pieces for the class (OBJ 2).
Closure: Students will reflect on new information they learned throughout the lesson as part of a reflective journal. Journals should include how the use of movement affected their learning. Students will share their journals with the class.
Day 2
The teacher will review previously-learned visual arts concepts for use in designing a ‘public service announcement’-style poster. The teacher will review with students the basics of designing a fluid PowerPoint presentation.
Teaching/Modeling: The teacher will show examples of professionally-designed public service announcement posters. The teacher will show a professionally-designed public service announcement PowerPoint.
Guided Practice: The teacher will guide students in a discussion of attention-grabbing, persuasive, and impacting elements of design. The teacher will also assist groups in brainstorming for poster and PowerPoint projects.
Independent Practice: Students will work in groups on designing a poster while in the classroom (OBJ 5-7). The class will then move to the computer lab to work on their PowerPoint presentations.
Closure: Students will reflect on the lesson as part of a reflective journal. Journals should include an evaluation of their group’s performance. Students will share their journals with the class.
Day 3
Independent Practice: Students will work in groups on designing a movement piece to represent the positive and negative impacts on the environment with regard to their issue (OBJ 4). Students will consider which type of music would best complement their movement piece.
Closure: Groups will present their posters and PowerPoint presentations to the class.
Day 4
Closure (cont.) Groups will finish group presentations with movement pieces (OBJ 3). Students will take a posttest (Appendix A) on movement concepts.
EVALUATION/ASSESSMENT:
Pretest (Appendix A)
Teacher observation/monitoring throughout class discussion and guided practice
Evaluation of independent practice
Evaluation of students’ reflective journals
Evaluation of posters, PowerPoint presentations, and movement pieces through use of rubric (Appendix B)
Posttest (Appendix B)
ART CONTENT/CONCEPTS:
Visual Arts: This lesson is integrated with visual arts activities to enhance student understanding of the impact of humans on the environment.
Dance: This lesson is integrated with dance/movement activities to enhance student understanding of the pact of humans on the environment.
Technology: This lesson is integrated with technology activities (PowerPoint presentation building) to enhance student understanding of the impact of humans on the environment.
COMPREHENSIVE
CURRICULUM, GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS AND STANDARDS/BENCHMARKS:
Science as Inquiry Grade Level Expectations (LA Department of Education Benchmarks)
SI 6 Use technology when appropriate to enhance laboratory investigations (SI-H-A3)
MODIFICATIONS | ACCOMODATIONS:
Copies of lecture notes provided for 504 students with “copy of notes” listed as an accommodation on IAP
Movement activities are included for kinesthetic learners
Drawing activities are included for visual and tactile learners
Cooperative grouping is utilized for small group and peer teaching accommodations
One student had a broken clavicle; he was allowed to perform axial movements only
To accommodate for gender and cultural differences, I purposefully did not state which kinds of movements would have to be included in their performance pieces; students could feel free to express themselves through whichever movements felt appropriate
TEACHER'S REFLECTION:
All of the students were engaged in this project. I believe that allowing the groups to choose which environmental issue they would research and present made them feel more responsible for their research. Very often, when my classes go into computer lab, I have them research a topic I’ve chosen using Internet sites I know are reliable. When I do this, I invariably have to redirect at least one student/group because they say they cannot find enough information.
Part of the rubric for this project was that groups had to use at least four reliable sources for their information. It was a great opportunity to teach them to be wary of the information presented to them from any form of media; so many of them considered Wikipedia.com a reliable source before this project (users themselves can edit information on this website so the information is not always reliable). It was amazing to see that students were extremely concerned about this. It was nice to have them call me over to their computers to simply ask if I could verify the reliability of the source. They never stated that they couldn’t find enough information. They simply tried to find reliable websites and used the information on those websites once the reliability was confirmed.
I wish I would have planned for more time for the poster project. The students turned out good products, but I think they could have been even more creative or neater had I allowed them more time.
I was pessimistic about how seriously my high school students would take the movement piece that they had to include as part of their final product. I was very impressed with the quality of work from most of the groups. Some students took the initiative to make and bring props; this wasn’t a requirement.
I was a little disappointed in the way I planned the lessons. The performances of their movement pieces (the last day of the lesson) came after a 10-day holiday from school. I emailed students over the holidays to remind them to bring their music, but I felt that I couldn’t hold them responsible for remembering to bring this after such a long break (especially since it depended on just one group member’s responsibility).
Overall, students really got into this lesson. When students were responding to their classmates’ PowerPoint presentations, I was impressed with the discussions that took place. It really seemed to spark interest in the environmental issues we covered.
The following table represents the pretest and posttest data (Appendix A) from the class. This test only included questions about movement. There were 10 multiple choice questions regarding movement concepts.
RESOURCES:
Louisiana State Department of Education Comprehensive Curriculum for Biology
Louisiana Arts Content Standards—Bulletin 1963
Biology Textbook—Holt Biology
www.4teachers.org (RubiStar)
TO DOWNLOAD APPENDIX A (POWERPOINT) FOR THIS LESSON, PLEASE CLICK HERE
TO DOWNLOAD APPENDIX B (RUBRIC) FOR THIS LESSON, PLEASE CLICK HERE
TO DOWNLOAD STUDENT POWERPOINT EXAMPLE FOR THIS LESSON, PLEASE CLICK HERE
TO DOWNLOAD STUDENT POWERPOINT EXAMPLE FOR THIS LESSON, PLEASE CLICK HERE
GALLERY
|
EXHIBITS |
K-12 |
STUDENT TEACHERS | HOME
|
