#modelschools

Coaching Field Notes: What opportunities can we find to deepen the mutual reinforcement between artistic and academic learning?

I've been coaching ARISE 7th grade teacher Rai Bolden on dance+reading+writing integration.  Two of her big coaching goals are encouraging creative choices and providing an appropriate amount of time for students to complete the lesson.  Her students are learning to write summary frames through reading and discussing Ernest Gaines', "A Lesson Before Dying."    In our debriefs, we've been looking at what she's asking them to do as dancers and what she's asking them to do as writers (mutual reinforcement of objectives).  Initially, there was some disconnect between the two: students were dancing the emotional journey of the main character, but then writing summary frames about the entire chapter.

In the next book, Ms. Bolden used the new thinking from our debriefs to make more connections for students between their dancing and reading comprehension goals.  She led a whole class discussion of the chapters in the book, had students explore free and bound movement in demonstrating character conflict, then students gathered in small groups to create a summary of their assigned chapter and choreograph a dance that demonstrates those character emotions and events.