Integrated Arts Lesson Template
by Jeff Pierson (#780929)
Grade
10
Content Areas Being Integrated
Dance & English Language Arts
Arts Discipline
Other Content Area
Standards
Addressed in the
Integrated
Lesson/Activity
Student
Objectives in
Each Discipline
Dance 9/12 proficient 2.1 & 2.4
(CCSS) RL. 9-10.1, RL. 9-10 .4, W. 9-10.9a & SL.9-10.6
Students will create an original dance/movement
exercise that communicates the intent of the poem
text.
Students will select words and phrases that create imagery
in the poem text and present them (with dance) to the
class.
Integrated
Student
Objective
What is the objective of the integrated activity? Look at connections being made between the two content areas.
Students will use examine how imagery creates a sense of movement in the poem by creating their own dance
exercise implied by the text.
Today, we will read a poem paying special attention to how the poem creates imagery of motion. Then, we will
use our bodies to interpret that imagery of motion into a dance.
Essential
Question
What is the question you want the students to be able to answer at the end of this lesson?
How does imagery created by words suggest motion in the physical world and our bodies?
Materials/Resources
“The Rider” by Naomi Shihab Nye (http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/165.html) (also below), highlighters, room to move, students.
Integrated Arts Lesson Template
by Jeff Pierson (#780929)
Lesson/Activity Description
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Group students into groups of four.
Teacher reads poem to class. Students mark unfamiliar words.
Review new words. (Add to word wall.)
Students read poem at table. Highlight any words or phrases that create imagery.
Teacher reviews highlights with groups or with whole class.
Students create a dance of at least three gestures that are inspired by their list of image words & phrases. (15 minutes)
Students perform the dance for their peers.
(At this point, the dance becomes the text students will select evidence from (RL.9-10.1).
Peers will identify which words from the text were used to inspire the text. This will lead to discussion with the artist dancers.
Students will write an exit-ticket reflection on one of the performances they found to be particularly effective.
The Rider
Naomi Shihab Nye
A boy told me
if he roller-skated fast enough
his loneliness couldn’t catch up to him,
the best reason I ever heard
for trying to be a champion.
What I wonder tonight
pedaling hard down King William Street
is if it translates to bicycles.
A victory! To leave your loneliness
panting behind you on some street corner
while you float free into a cloud of sudden azaleas,
pink petals that have never felt loneliness,
no matter how slowly they fell.