Dance of the comedians

I had so much fun watching the creativity you teachers shared at training with Dance of the Comedians. 

A few tips for success when teaching this:

• Adapt and scaffold to support your students in success. As much as possible, let students lead the discovery of concepts, but increase or decrease support as needed to ensure their success and understanding.
• Try using scarves while listening the first time through. I didn't think of this until I was writing up this post, but here is how I might set it up. Have your students choose one of six colors of scarves as they enter the classroom, with the music playing. Let them dance their scarves to the music until you stop the music. Next, guide them through listening to the form. Display the notation, and indicate that different sections will represent different colors. Only the scarves matching that section color should be moving during that section. This would definitely create more engaged listening that just following along or just pointing. If you're worried about management, just take the scarves away as soon as they are using them inappropriately. They'll get the message quickly if you are consistent. ;)
• Focus on the freeze. If we had done this another time through at the training, I would have had you all freeze right in place when your section finished, instead of shuffling off stage. There's not necessarily a right or wrong to either way, but I really like the magic of the movement shifting from one place to another, one group to another, and the magic and focus it takes for students to instantly freeze in place.
• Positively reinforce desired behavior. Stating what the student did well helps them learn and create value more than just telling them they did well. Your tone of voice will communicat the positivity. 
• Look how many of you remembered to freeze! 
• Look how Alex is using her arms to tell the story. 
• This group is making sure to stay in their own space, even though they are working all together in their movement.
• Make it a performance! Take a video of the students or invite their teacher in at the end to watch. Students will be more excited and invested with this end goal.
• Do you want props? I know, I completely forgot to use the scarves when I taught this. I intended to let you bring the scarves into your movement sections at the end. Scarves do change the effect. Decide for yourself which way you prefer, or let your students try both and let them choose. It's a great chance for discussion, analysis, and decision making with your students. Ask questions like, do the scarves help better illustrate the effect we are trying to achieve?

You all should have recieved an email with files to go along with this lesson. Please ask if you didn't get it. Shannon or I are absolutely happy to come help with this (and any) lesson if you'd like. Any of you can email either of us. 

Below is the packet from the training. Please take note of the training dates for next year. Susan Kenney will be presenting at the required training on the 24th, and she's the one who came up with this Dance of the Comedians lesson plan. She's fabulous! Have a great rest of the year.