It's been a busy 4-days! Thank you for your enthusiasm and participation!! We hope that the ideas we shared will be useful to you and your students as you study American History!!
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Here is my reflection. Thank you both for a wonderful class.
Reflection Bowzer.docx
A busy four days! We immersed ourselves in history with the arts as our guide. “Singing, dance and visual art preserves culture”. I would add that art is what remains after a civilization has died out. We saw the art, music and dance of many generations. What will this generation leave behind?
Art: The art activity that resonated most for me were the four tableaus that we created based on major works of art. It was interesting to see what each group picked as important to portray in each of the tableaus. I think students would enjoy this activity and that it would be memorable for them. I would have enjoyed more examples of art as we heard about artists of each era. It was helpful on day four to see the Pollock, for example, and to be reminded visually of his style.
Music: Many examples of music were shared from each era, almost exclusively popular music. Of course even the Vivaldi Four Seasons is considered Classical music today but would have been categorized as popular music in his day. Will it be popular music or classical music that we will be remembered by? Music was ever-present to support us in our attempts to perform a multitude of dance styles:
Dance: It felt good to get out of our seats to move and learn at the same time. Can I remember most of the dances we attempted? Allemande, Minuet, Waltz, Yakima Welcome Dance, Cakewalk, Turkey Dance, Circle Dance to “The Campbells are Coming,” Jump Jim Joe, Disco, and Hip Hop. What a treat to experience the energy and talent of Gabe! It was the dance portions that highlighted changes in behavior, societal expectations and taboos, and movement styles (partners or not) through the time periods most clearly. From the stately, formal Allemande to Hip Hop - quite a change!
History: We had a variety of activities to teach us history. Among them were listening to an interview with former slave Bob Ledbetter, examining coins of the original 13 Colonies, doing a Civil Rights activity in which we wrote responses to photo images posted on the wall, doing a similar Museum Walk using photos from 9-11, and trying to guess the source of famous quotes. It was a whirlwind tour of history starting from the pre-Columbus times,
Fashion: We saw many photos and drawings of fashion through all periods of history and saw how fashion influenced dance forms (or was it the other way around?). Thank you for sharing fashion down to the bottom layer, Stephanie, because crinolines and 17” waists were an important part of the culture for those women. We also looked at photos of Native Americans not only as examples of their dress and life style but as an example of making observations before making judgements.
Food: Examples of some foods brought those time periods to life in a different way.
Mixers: The Numbers game on day one could be used in many different situations as an ice breaker, mental respite or a getting-to-know-you activity. The same is true for High Five Buddy. Our class had fun with it, I can imagine students begging for it day after day.
Handouts: I have looked at them in detail now and am impressed with the wealth of information they contain.
Things I am thinking about:
Why is it that girls can dance with girls but not boys with boys? I wonder what message we are sending to children of both genders.
What else is the government influencing if they can control the evolution of dance styles?
How did black children in the Civil Rights era survive the loss of black classmates, black teachers and their school culture? They would have moved away from classmates with similar backgrounds and teachers sympathetic to their lifestyles to completely foreign territory.
Comments:
We were told that the class was formerly two days and had expanded to four. I was totally overwhelmed even at the end of four days with the quantity of material we covered!
Thank you, Elizabeth and Stephanie, for the enormous amount of preparation and research you invested in putting this class together. Brava!
Here is my Final Reflection!
History Through The Senses- Final Reflection.docx
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