Exploring Cultures Through the Arts

By Jacqueline Kahan and Christina RamsayEd200 Curriculum Project ‘06Trinity College

Introduction

• Our curriculum is a month long unit on cultures through the lenses of language, music and dance. Each week the students will study one culture, the culture’s music, and a dance from the culture of the week.

• The lesson plans we will focus on are from the second week of the unit which is on merengue and the Dominican Republic.

Context

• Who? 5th graders• What? The Exploration of Merengue and

the Dominican Republic• Where? Hartford public classrooms• When? 2-3 hours per day

Framework

• Bloom’s Taxonomy • Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences

• Linguistic

• Music

• Bodily-kinesthetic

• Interpersonal

• CT Framework • Under The Arts

• Under Social Studies

• Cooperative Learning

Objectives

• Students will be exposed to a variety cultures.• Students will compare and contrast the different

cultures, music, and dances in the unit. • Students will express themselves through

movement and music. • Students will collaborate with each other and hone

their interpersonal skills• Students will construct a dance performance (with teacher’s assistance)

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5-The teacher will give a brief overview of the country/culture

-Students will work in small groups. Each group will be assigned one aspect of Dominican culture (i.e. food, language). -Students will be given a worksheet of questions and they will present the information they gather to the rest of the class.

-Students will write a short journal entry from the perspective of someone from that culture

-Students will be exposed to a folk song of the culture

-Students will be given a sheet with lyrics that they will sing along to and listen to merengue music.

-Students will compare the folk songs to songs that they know through a discussion, facilitated by the teacher

-Students will work in groups creating their own folk song integrating the cultural aspects learned yesterday.

-An ethno-musicologist will come in to speak to the class about music from the Dominican Republic

-A guest speaker from the community will provide students with historical and cultural context of merengue.

-The speaker will demonstrate some moves to the class using typical merengue music.

-Students will be write a journal entry to describe their experience of listening and watching the guest speaker perform. Students will also connect what they previously learned about the culture to merengue.

-Students will learn the basic steps of the dance from the guest speaker.

-After the class learns the basic steps together, students will continue to practice in pairs

-The teacher will observe students and evaluate them based on participation and attentiveness.

-Students will continue to practice and perfect their dance.

-With the guest speaker’s assistance, the students will come up with a two eight-count sequence that would be presented during the dance performance at the end of the month.

-Students will be evaluated based on a journal entry reflecting on the entire week and compare the culture of the Dominican Republic to their own culture.

Schedule of Week’s Activities

Day 2 – Music Day!

• Folk Song• Sing-a-long• Discussion comparing merengue folk song to songs

students know• Create their own folk songs in groups • Presentation on merengue music by

ethnomusicologist/musician• Main Objectives: Students will develop an understanding

of merengue music• Students will demonstrate cultural understanding by using

linguistic, musical and interpersonal intelligences

Day 4 – Let’s Dance!

• Learn the basic merengue steps (together) from merengue expert

• Practice basic steps in pairs• Students will be evaluated based on participation and

effort displayed• Main Objectives: Students will demonstrate bodily-

kinesthetic intelligence through learning merengue steps.• Students will learn to make connections between dance

and music.

Justification • Students develop “acceptable” ways of releasing

energy and expressing themselves creatively

• Interdisciplinary learning integrates different academic subjects, which fosters higher-level thinking

• Our curriculum project employs several learning

approaches and intelligences that takes into account different learning styles.