They
discovered a few key things about how to learn, the importance of how embodying
a problem is memorable, social and creative, the student’s physical energy is
no longer a concern and choreography and mathematical thinking are composed of
similar building blocks, remembering sequence, asking the things are bigger or
smaller and check your work to see if its consistent. They also explained
symmetry and mirror image with dance movements and by copying each other
movement and how we tend to think more effectively with special imagery on
larger scales. They want to create a mathematics classroom environment where
teachers would just say, “ put the books away, and push the desks aside, lets
warm up, its time to learn Mathematics”.
In
a video below, students use music and sound movement to help them describe
different graphs such as linear, quadratic, absolute, cubic. What I found
interesting about this approach is students learning these through sounds and movement,
which makes the learning more engaging and encourage learners to make their
Mathematical thinking more visible. What the words mean, sound and movement
help them identify different functions. In my classroom, my
students use dance movements to describes different types of graphs as well as
transformation concepts in grade 11 and 12. The students should create their
own dance movements to describe graphs and their transformations, which is
similar to the video here.
In another video,http://www.malkerosenfeld.com/math-in-your-feet-for-students.html the students learn in a reach learning
environment which increase their understanding of mathematical topics such as
congruence, symmetry, transformation, angles and degrees, mapping on a
coordinate grid as well as deep experience with mathematical practices and
problem solving.
I do believe by the end of the
lessons students have a better understanding of the concepts learned in the
classroom and they learn that mathematics can be fun. I do believe bringing
dance movements in to Mathematics classroom could benefit students with
different learning abilities. Please share if you tried dance movement in
any of your lessons.
Thanks
Bahar, your post was very interesting. I never thought of using dance to teach math, but after seeing your post I think dance would add another dimension in teaching math. I also think it would make math fun. The second video which showed the use of using dance to show the shape of graphed equations could be used in senior math.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of using movement and dance to teach is wonderful! I use similar visualization techniques when teaching molecular modelling in chemistry class. Many students are able to understand and remember abstract concepts if they can act them out or visualize them in some way. When students need to recall these ideas later it will be this type of unique activity that will remind them of the theory. This is a great share, thanks!
ReplyDeleteSome of our schools, and mine has been one of the lucky ones, have participated in the Learning Through the Arts program, in which artists of various disciplines plan a unit with teachers and visit their classes three or four times over several weeks. The artists include visual artists, a puppeteer, a musician, and yes, dancers. Although when the dancers worked with my classes, we did language and science, there was a demonstration at a workshop I attended of ways that dance can be used to teach math. I thought it quite innovative. The artists’ visits were certainly engaging to my junior-level classes, and I think that my intermediate students would like these types of activities just as much. As for making the learning memorable, well, I still remember the song that went with our digestive system dance (imagine! a digestive system dance).
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