Creating and Connecting Mathematical Concepts through Creative Dance

Educator: Dr. Celeste Cruz, Music Teacher

Other Participating Staff: 6th Grade Math Dept

Teaching Artist: Maria Loreta Celitan - Dance

School: Turtle Hook Middle School, Grade 6

District: Uniondale UFSD: https://data.nysed.gov/profile.php?instid=800000049792

Summary

This partnership centered on 6th grade students who are new to middle school and striving to adapt to academic and social changes. The students and math department teachers collaborated with a dancer who challenged students to see the social, emotional, physical, and mathematical possibilities in dance. Students described unlimited discoveries about relationships, self-awareness, math concepts, and more.

Rationale

Why did you work with this specific group of students? What issues were addressed during this project?

Students in 6th grade are often challenged with acclimating to the new structure of a different building. While this project is occurring in the middle of the school year, it does not negate the fact that many students may still be struggling with not only their academics but perhaps emotionally and mentally. This project will hopefully serve as an opportunity for success towards student academic achievement and inclusivity.

Dance is geometry – shape-making, symmetry, asymmetry, reflections, rotations, transformations and directions. Dance uses algebra patterning, group formations, tessellations, repetition, sequences and variations. Dance uses numeracy and the counting of beats, accents, syncopated time patterns, and other rhythm and time structures. Dance uses mapping, the clock, compass, and other shapes and spatial formations. Dancers and choreographers need to calculate and measure spatial dimensions and the proportions of floor and air space when choreographing and staging a production. Dance explores and creates patterns, pathways and group formations.

What learning goals/standards did this meet?

Arts

STUDENTS PARTICIPATING

Create

Generate, conceptualize, develop, and refine new artistic ideas and work.

Perform, Present, & Produce

Select, analyze, interpret, develop, and refine artistic work for conveying meaning and sharing with others.

Develop and refine artistic techniques and work through dance presentation. Exploring algebraic patterns, repetition, sequences, and variations through dance.

Respond, interpret, analyze and evaluate meaning in artistic work through applied criteria and personal perception.

CCCR

Personal Choice in College & Career Development

Connect overlapping skills and relationships among personal, academic, extracurricular and work activities.

Civic Mindset - Demonstrate understanding of self as part of and responsible to larger social society through democratic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and informed actions for meaningful participation in civic life.

Encouraging academic achievement and also allowing students to express their creativity in a place where they may not usually have that opportunity. Convey meaning through the presentation of artistic work,

CR-S

Welcoming & Affirming Environment - Contribute to shaping an environment that welcomes and allows unique expression of identities, cultural backgrounds, and beliefs.

High Expectations & Rigorous Instruction - Hold high expectations for all in an academically rigorous setting by encouraging positive self-image and personal empowerment.

Inclusive Curriculum & Assessment - Elevate historically marginalized voices by exploring power and privilege, biases and inequities, and decentering dominant ideas and voices.

Ongoing Professional Learning & Support - Develop and sharpen a critically conscious lens toward learning and teaching through assessment, history, culture, institutions, and self-directed growth.

Recognize the skills needed to establish personal and educational goals -

Students who live in a Title 1 district may not be afforded the opportunity to attend private dance lessons or math tutoring. It is hopeful that this partnership will create a foundation for enhancing math comprehension as well as create a safe space for students who may feel left out creating a learning space that is emotionally and mentally stable.