Week 6: Mathematics & Dance, Movement, Drama and Film

 Week 6: Mathematics & Dance, Movement, Drama and Film

 

Weekly Reading

This week I read Learning to Love Math Through the Exploration of Maypole Patterns written by Julianna Campbell and Christine von Renesse. This article focuses on how a university teacher and their students explored the mathematics in dance through an inquiry lens. Students started with questions regarding what they were curious about. The course was structured differently as it focused on meta-goals not content goals (Campbell & von Renesse, 2019). The article goes on to incorporate the perspective of one of the students in the class, a student who saw math as a formal, numeric, and logic-based subject (Campbell & von Renesse, 2019). Through the delivery and structure of the course this student began wanting to share their work with the class because they were proud that they got to think of a problem in a way that made sense to them (Campbell & von Renesse, 2019).

My first stop was related to student ownership in learning. As mentioned, the student that this article zoomed in on developed confidence as they wanted to share because the teacher allowed for choice and creativity as to how students shared their learning. This is an important takeaway for us as educators to see how creating choice in the ways students can show their learning increase student commitment to the leaning task and overall enhances their ownership to their learning journey. I wonder what this looks like at a primary level. During the primary years students are still learning about themselves as learners and often need explicit teaching about strategies related to ways to show what they know.

My second stop was around the quote “choosing a topic from the arts can give students that feel negatively about mathematics a chance to start new and meet mathematics in a different way” (Campbell & von Renesse, 2019). This is a statement in the article that is based on the experience of one student. I wonder if this student had a previous passion or interest in dance before they took this course. From other research I have read there is often a connection between student interest and engagement. If the educator can find a way to relate the learning to the interests of the students there will be more of a “buy in” from students. I wonder if choosing a topic from the arts can help increase student engagement if the arts is not an area of interest for the learner?

 

Introduction, Videos, and Activities

I found the videos this week interesting, specifically the TED talk with Erik Stern and Karl Schaffer. In the other course that I am currently taking, EPSE 526, I recently read an article that was about students commenting on what makes an effective teacher. “Students recognise that humour often serves as bridges across many potential divides-including frustration on both sides” (Connor & Cavendish, 2020). I think that is something that both Erik and Karl do well in the TED talk, and I imagine is their approach when they engage with students. This had me thinking about the whole educator rather than just their ability to incorporate teaching through the arts. As I strive to build an inclusive classroom, there are many contributing factors to what can help all learners be part of the learning, one of them involves bringing the right amount of humour into the learning.

I noticed that the source of some of the videos form this week was the Julia Robinson Math Festival. This caught my attention as in my last staff meeting, I was told that this festival will be coming to my school in March. My school is currently focusing on a 3-year FESL (framework for enhancing student learning) around increasing students’ ownership in mathematics. I am interested to see how my students engage with the festival and how it builds a collective commitment to seeing different ways of doing and playing with math at my school.

This week I tried the activity Clap Hands: A Body-Rhythm Pattern Game, click here to see lesson plan. I started by having students at the carpet sitting in a circle and explaining that we were going to use our bodies to make a repeating pattern. Once students got the idea of how it worked, we stood up to use different body parts. Students got to create patterns with 3-6 beats. When this learning was taking place, I tried to highlight the learning that was taking place with comments like “we are doing math right now” and “we can make patterns with movements not just shapes”. After doing some full group work, I split students into small groups, and I went between groups. I noticed that some students struggled with the activity, they were not able to recall the pattern that the leader set. As I noticed this, I changed groups criteria to focus on patterns with fewer beats/movements for all learners to be successful.

 

Works Cited

Campbell, J., & von Renesse, C. (2019). Learning to Love Math Through the Exploration of Maypole Patterns. Journal of Mathematics and the Arts , 131-151.

Connor, D. J., & Cavendish, W. (2020). Sit in my seat: perspectives of students with learning disabilities about teacher effectiveness in high school inclusive classrooms. International Journal of Inclusive Education , 288-309.