So I just wanted to write a blog that does not focus on technology as much and focuses on the transmediation/multimodal use of text in relation to dance. I am currently writing a paper for my class Teaching of Dance, and I found some great articles on how beneficial the utilization of dance and poetry is on anyone from students to audience members. Many of the articles discussed that by having students create a dance to a poem or to an excerpt of a work, they found that students were more likely to comprehend, and critically thing about the meaning behind the words. Not only did it engage the students more into the classroom but it allowed them to be creative and physically active (Anderson & McCormick).
I even found an article that reported a scientific organization that wanted to promote their focus in electromagnetism. The author writes that he wanted to "reach an arts-based audience to encourage them to engage with science and scientific issues" (Diprose). He goes onto say how the audience members seemed to love the performance and how the effect of it seemed to make this complex form of science seem easier to understand for most viewers. Although this performance of dance was not poetry it was based off of the written out/textual explanation of the electromagnetic process of the moon.
I absolutely loved writing this paper and finding ways that poetry and text can be paired with any learning process to better engage the viewers or doers into better understanding topics that may be hard to relate to. This is definitely a form of multimodal education that I will be on the verge of overusing in my classrooms....I apologize to my future students for making you dance too much :(
Sources:
Anderson, Jack. “On the Move: Poetry and Dance.” Dance Chronicle 33.2 (2010): 251-67.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Sept. 2012.
Diprose, Mike, D. Snyder, and J. Morland. “’Moonlight and Magnetism’: A theoretical
performance of electromagnetism, poetry and dance as a stimulus for ideas to use in lecture theatre. ” Teaching in Higher Education. 5.4 (2000): 547-51. Sociological Collection. Web. 3 Sept. 2012.
McCormick, Jennifer. “Transmediation in the Language Arts Classroom: Creating Contexts for
Analysis and Ambiguity.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 54.8 (2011): 579-87. ERIC. Web. 2 Sept. 2012.
I love the idea of movement in the classroom, because I definetely think that kids learn better when their entire body is engaged. I mean at the very least it increases blood flow to the brain and that can't be a bad thing! However, I am about as graceful as a newborn gazelle soooo I don't think that dance will be integrated into my classroom anytime soon! However, I remember in high school that some of the best lessons involved just getting up and moving, whether acting out a scene from a play or moving between stations to do art projects. I think it is more about the movement than the form, so while I may stay clear of the whole dancing scene, movement will definetely be a part of my classroom in some form!
ReplyDeleteI think it's wonderful how your knowledge of multimodal texts has transferred into your other classes. You have done some excellent research and tied it into learning outside the class, which is sometimes the benefit of these blogs.
ReplyDeleteI also think "embodiment" is important in learning. Remind me to tell you more about that when we begin to do the 20 shot short story.