One might not have ever pictured dance moves being used for argumentative writing in a middle school English classroom, but it can be done.
Marrington Middle School of the Arts has an ongoing partnership with ArtsNOW, a grant program provided by the South Carolina Arts Commission (or SCAC). It delivers customized professional learning and support through integrated learning methods. By emphasizing the arts in education, ArtsNOW provides an engaging learning environment that promotes teacher confidence and improves student engagement.
ArtsNOW has worked with several different schools in Berkeley County School District through varying support models. At MMSOA, ArtsNOW has a partnership that will continue all year. Representatives from the program will visit once a quarter, focusing on a specific fine arts area. All teachers will receive professional development and have the opportunity to watch arts integration lessons taught by ArtsNOW professionals. Teachers will then plan with those ArtsNOW experts for their own arts integrated lessons. Principal Lauren Canfield said the long-range goal is that by 2029 MMSOA will be implementing arts integration with fidelity schoolwide.
For their November visit this week, ArtsNOW officials worked with the school to show how dance elements can be used for lessons in the four core subject areas. Karen Bellush’s dance students participated in the demonstration lessons, which were led by arts integration specialist and dance consultant Simone Liberty.
The whole objective behind ArtsNOW’s mission is to treat arts integration as a way for students to engage in a creative process that connects an art form and another subject area, so these lessons were very hands-on – and, since dance was involved, there was quite a bit of movement.
When they were in Zane Lycke’s science/social studies classroom, seventh-grade dance students did a social studies lesson involving symbolism with the colors of national flags. Since dance uses symbolism too, the students broke into groups to come up with dance moves to reflect facts they have learned about different countries.
In Erin Majewski’s English class, eighth-grade dance students did a similar lesson that centered on argumentative writing. In Alyssa Seyfried’s math class, sixth-grade dancers participated in a demo involving plotting dancers on coordinate planes.
In addition to the day of demonstration lessons, ArtsNOW representatives worked with teachers on professional development on how to incorporate these lessons into their classrooms.
