Jump to content

Mariah Jacobson

From KNILT

Welcome! You are currently visiting my Portfolio Page. Below you will find more information about myself, my design project and planning process. Click here to begin my My Mini-Course on Integrating Dance Concepts and Interdisciplinary Practices or return to ETAP 623 Spring 2020 (Zhang).

About me

I am currently pursuing a Masters of Science in Curriculum Development and Instructional Technology at SUNY Albany. In 2016, I received a Bachelors of Science in Dance Education at Hofstra University. Later that year, I became the first full-time dance educator at Community Health Academy of the Heights, a middle/high school located in Washington Heights, New York. Over these past few years, I have been working diligently to develop a strong and versatile 7-year dance curriculum for my students. In addition, I am committed to improving my own skills as an effective educator to increase the potential of my classroom.

My Topic/Purpose

This mini-course serves as a planning guide and resource for K-12 educators searching for creative inter-disciplinary lessons between their subject area and dance. As participants proceed through the following units, they will gain an appreciation for dance and its potential, as well as practical applications for their classrooms. By the end of this mini-course, they will design a discipline-specific unit that integrates dance made for their needs.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to...

  • Advocate for the position and value of dance in various K-12 settings
  • Integrate key dance concepts into any non-dance curriculum using the UbD framework
  • Engage in meaningful inter-disciplinary planning with dance educators

Needs Assessment

Part 1: Intent of Assessment
Educators are often encouraged to include inter-disciplinary studies to their practices. Sometimes this can manifest into a collaboration between two teachers of different subject areas, and other times one educator will take it upon themselves to creatively connect their content to another. Dance educators are constantly looking for ways to apply academic concepts into dance, sometimes with the goal of demonstrating the value and potential dance can have in the school system. As a relatively small field, dance education constantly requires teachers to advocate and prove its worth. However, as the inspiration for this mini-course, it is worth exploring non-dance educators and their interest in integrating dance concepts into their curriculum. Furthermore, in addition to assessing a need for training or assisting educators with inter-disciplinary practices, there is also a potential need of addressing communication skills or acquiring resources from local dance and arts educators.

Part 2: Methods of Gathering Information
To determine the need and essentially interest in a mini-course of this topic, an anonymous survey of approximately eight questions was created and sent to over 60 educators from various content areas. After a week, 41 responses were submitted from participants of every key subject area and grade level K-12. Notably, in addition to many responses from educators in the four academic subjects, math, science, english language arts, and social studies, there were also responses from educators in special education, speech and language, foreign languages, physical education, other arts disciplines, advanced placement subjects, self-contained settings, integrated co-teaching (ICT) settings, and more.

In addition to the questions about subject area and grade levels, the survey covered five main questions that pertained to the intent of this needs assessment, "Is there a dance educator at your school?", "Have you ever integrated arts subjects or collaborated with arts teachers on lessons, projects, units, etc.?", "What level of interest do you have in integrating dance concepts into your curriculum?", "If you were to integrate dance concepts into your curriculum, what would be your main motivation(s)?", and "If you were to integrate dance concepts into your curriculum, what would be your main concern(s)?". There was an optional opportunity to describe methods or frequency of integration/collaboration with arts subjects/educators if they answered yes to that question and 23 participants expanded on their experiences in that section. Both questions about main motivation(s) and main concern(s) included potential options for participants to select, or write-in their own responses.

Limitations included data being gathered mainly from the staff of one school in Washington Heights, New York City, that services grades 6-12 and does have a dance educator. There were a smaller sample size drawn from other educators in this ETAP 623 course as well. However, this factor may have likely affected the results as 85% of responders indicated their school currently includes a dance educator or program, which would not match national statistics.

Link to Survey

Part 3: Data Results
In response to the question regrading prior experiences integrating any type of arts subjects into academic curriculum, 51% said they have never included these practices, excluding the 5% of participants that were arts educators in non-dance fields. A few participants chose to share that the integration of arts occurred accidentally or in the form of a brief connection to content brought up by their students. Another common example expressed was the use of visual aids and design projects. Three responders mentioned an explicit collaboration with the arts educator in the school. One responder referenced the use of songs as pneumonic devices in science, and one math educator described a square dancing unit with a different dance educator many years ago.

As a result of a 5-1 rating scale on the level of interest in integrating dance concepts into their curriculum (5=Extremely interested and 1=Extremely disinterested), 20% of responders indicated an extreme interest. 39% indicated a moderate interest, 35% indicated a neutral interest, and 2% indicated a moderate disinterest. There were no responses of extreme disinterest, and 5% indicated they were not sure or needed more information.

To gauge the main reasons of interest or concerns, both related questions included five or eight potential responses to choose from each, as well as space to fill-in short answers. There was no limit to how many selections one could choose. In regards to main motivations, the most selected choice from 63% of participants, was to "Bring opportunities for more creativity into your classroom". Almost equally popular, 59% chose to "Potentially increase student engagement in a new way", 44% chose to "Strengthen acquisition of academic/content-specific concepts through unique activities", 37% chose to "Get students up, moving, or generally more active" and 29% chose to "Encourage a multi-perspective approach to problem solving." In addition, 5% reiterated they were not interested in integrating dance concepts in their curriculums, 2% indicated they were not sure, and 10% wrote-in other motivations. Most notably was the idea of "Integrating the concept of 'body' in a tangible way."

In hope of understanding some of the limitations and concerns that educators may posses when it comes to integrating dance concepts, participants were asked to select as many main concerns they had from the list or fill-in a short answer. The most selected option, with 56% of responders indicating "Limited available space in your classroom/school building" was one of their main concerns. Followed by, 51% choosing "Not enough instructional time" and also "Not enough knowledge/understanding of dance concepts". In addition, 39% chose "Not enough planning time", 17% indicated "Mandated curriculum does not allow for flexibility of content or procedures" and 12% chose "No available dance educator resource" and also "Current practices seem sufficient." Lastly, 2% indicated no concerns, 2% cited behavior management concerns, and one responder was really just not sure what this would look like for their content area. There were no selections of "Hesitant to collaborate with dance educator resource."

Part 4: Conclusions
Overall, the results seem to confirm many elements of this proposed mini-course, as well as provide inspiration for further applications. Most inspirationally are the responses of not knowing or not being sure about dance concepts and how they could possibly apply to other content areas. Based on certain answers, it is clear that this mini-course would also have to address some key mis-information or assumptions made about dance that could hinder the effectiveness of its goal. This suggests the need for a section geared towards conceptual change on the topic of dance, arts in general, and their role in all areas of education. Most concernedly, were the responses of disinterest. While this was an important aspect of this needs assessment, the low percentage that indicated such should not discourage the development of this work. Furthermore, this suggests that this mini-course may also require a section on researched benefits of arts-integration. This may persuade more interest from the large percentage of neutrally-interested responders. Of course, it is also important that this mini-course serve the large percentage of moderately or extremely interested responders who may be looking for concrete and practical methods to integrate dance concepts into their current practices. There are several concerns this mini-course will attempt to address or provide ideas for. Essentially, this serves as a reminder of the many limitations educators face when broadening the range of their curriculum. The bulk of this mini-course will center on instructional devices, but will not ignore reality.

Analysis of the Learner and Context

Target Learners
This mini-course is planned for current or prospective K-12 non-dance educators seeking to plan or supplement their curriculum designs by creatively integrating dance concepts. Educators of all grades or subject areas will benefit from this mini-course as long as they have an open mind to the potential of arts education. Ideally, participants in this course will also have an interest in experimenting with their activities, lessons, or unit plans to push the application of their content in new ways. They are also hopefully open to expanding their own knowledge and experiences within the dance field.

Learner Analysis
The participants of this mini-course are likely to have expertise in many different grade levels and subject areas. They also probably serve a variety of student demographics, for example, English language learners or students with disabilities. Regardless, this mini-course will serve as a guide for educators in all types of K-12 settings as long as they have some cursory understanding of their student population. Participants should have experience lesson or unit planning and mastery over their discipline and corresponding standards. While some participants may have prior experience with interdisciplinary practices between their subject area and dance, this mini-course operates under the assumption that they are beginning with little to no knowledge of dance concepts or dance education. This is also the case for participants with no prior interdisciplinary experience at all. Finally, participants may or may not have a current dance educator within their school system, this is not a requirement.

Context
Throughout this mini-course, participants will be asked to read and watch videos that directly relate to the potential and application of integrating dance-concepts into non-dance fields. They will engage in reflective and collaborative activities that will help self-evaluate and goal-set. Participants will be exposed to the New York City and National dance standards. Gradually, participants will develop objectives, assessments, and activities, that meet standards in dance as well as their individual discipline.

Performance Objectives

Over the duration of this mini-course, participants will...

  • Identify three to four general goals for their dance-related interdisciplinary unit
  • Define learning outcomes for interdisciplinary unit supported by national dance standards and concepts
  • Explore practical applications and example lessons of dance integrated into specific content areas

Task Analysis

Unit 1: Call to Action ~ Participants will identify three to four general goals for their dance-related interdisciplinary unit

  • 1.1 Review need for dance integration into K-12 schools
  • 1.2 Define key benefits of dance education, dance integration, and interdisciplinary practices
  • 1.3 Describe personal goals for integrating dance into unit plan

Unit 2: Laying the Foundation ~ Participants will define learning outcomes for interdisciplinary unit supported by national dance standards and concepts

  • 2.1 Review PreK-12 National Core Arts Standards (NCAS) for dance
  • 2.2 Determine types of dance activities based on access to space and available class time for their setting
  • 2.3 Formulate desired results, enduring understandings, and essential questions

Unit 3: Discipline-Specific Applications ~ Participants will explore practical applications and example lessons of dance integrated into specific content areas

  • ___ Explore practical applications and example lesson plan for math, science, english language arts, and social studies

Unit 4: Inter-disciplinary Communications and Resources ~ Participants will design effective assessments and learning activities aligned to interdisciplinary performance objectives

  • 4.1 Construct performance objectives based on desired results
  • 4.2 Develop clearly aligned performance tasks and assessments
  • 4.3 Compose learning activities that promote teaching for understanding

Unit 5: Final Message

Curriculum Map

References

Graphic Images

Retrieved from "https://knilt.arcc.albany.edu/index.php?title=Mariah_Jacobson&oldid=167373"