Lesson Overview:

Barn Dance by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, read aloud, will introduce students to the American dance style called barn dancing or square dancing. Students will hear square dance calls and a fiddle providing music. They will learn, practice, and perform a square dance They then will read other books or literary selections that include this kind of dance before writing a friendly letter that carefully and thoroughly describes the dance in their reading selections.

Length of Lesson:

Five 45-minute class periods

Notes:

This lesson was created with ESOL students in mind but is adaptable for any classroom.

Instructional Objectives:

Students will:

• distinguish fiddle playing and violin playing.
• read descriptions of barn/square dances in literature.
• describe a barn/ square dance after reading a variety of descriptions in literature.
• write a friendly letter and address an envelope correctly.
• perform a square dance while following selected calls.

Supplies:

• Stationery
• Envelopes
• Folk Dancing for Elementary School Grades. Hoctor Records. Freeport, New York. HLP 4027.
• Gil Shaham, violin. Akira Eguchi, piano. The Fiddler of the Opera. Sony 447-640-2.
• Johnson, Anne and Susan Spalding. Step Back Cindy: Old Time Dancing in Southwest Virginia. 28 min. Whitesburg, Kentucky: Appalshop, Inc. 1990. Videocassette.
• Seeger, Mike and Ruth Pershing. Talking Feet: Solo Southern Dance-Buck, Flatfoot and Tap. 90 min.El Cerrito, California: Flower Films and Video, 1987. Videocassette.
• 15 Louisiana Cajun Classics. American Masters Series, vol.

Instructional Plan:

Before the class begins, write the following square dance calls on the board:

"Begin! Get yourself a partner an’ jump right in!"

"Right hand! Left hand! Around you go!"

"Now back-to-back your partner in a do-si-do!"

"Mules to the center for a curtsey and a bow!"

"Now spin once again an’ that’s a-plenty!"

When the class comes in, go over these calls. Ask the following questions:

• Can anyone guess what these are?
• What are they used for?
• Has anyone ever seen or heard anything like this before?

Read aloud Barn Dance! by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault. Talk about this book in verse that is about a distinctive American dance style, barn or square dancing. Note the calls in the book are on the board. Divide the students into pairs and have students go through the calls with their partner.

Point out the fiddler in the book. Play a CD of fiddle playing and another of traditional, classical violin playing. Discuss the violin’s sound on the two recordings. Are they alike? Are they different? Give examples of how they are alike or different. Are the Instruments any different. Have ademonstration by a music teacher or a student who plays the violin.

Show a video of a square dance. Tell the class about square dancing using the following notes. Square dancing is the most widely-known type of folk dance in the United States. Especially popular in rural areas, it is performed by groups of four couples. These couples may dance in a square, a circle, or longwise in two lines of couples facing each other. A caller gives directions to the dancers. These calls include: "Promenade," "Swing Your Partner," and "Form a Star."

Following the directions of the caller, the dance couples do many kinds of movements all based on a smooth, shuffling walk. The dance style is lively and free. The dance is traditionally accompanied by an accordion, banjo, fiddle, and guitar. The square dance derives from courtship dances brought by European immigrants to America. English, Scottish, and Irish country-dances were important influences as well as French court dances. The square dance call is an American invention and is a response to the complexity of dance patterns. With a caller, anyone could join in the dance. The caller also insures that order is kept on the dance floor.

Tell students that they are going to learn certain calls that, when put together, form a square dance. Remind them of the book, Barn Dance, that you read to them previously. Tell them that the class will do the Virginia Reel, a square dance. Remind the class that a square dance has a caller. On the record they will hear the caller telling the dancers what square dance steps to do. Explain to the students that square dance calls started about the same time as the War of 1812.

"…Some smart American invented 'calling' which made it unnecessary to memorize the dance beforehand. Like all great inventions, it was simple: the fiddler or the leader of the orchestra merely kept telling the dancers what to do next. Nobody who knew the six or eight fundamental calls could go very far wrong." (Damon, p.25)

Assign students partners or have them choose and stand across from a partner, forming two long parallel lines facing each other. Name the calls, demonstrate, and then have the students execute the calls:

• forward up and back: take three steps to your partner, bow or curtsey and take three steps back.
• right elbow swing: in eight counts, walk or step forward, hook right elbows with your partner, go around one time, then let go of the elbows and go back to place.
• left elbow swing: same as the right elbow swing, only with the left arm.
• two hand swing: walk or skip forward and join both hands, moving clockwise, go around the circle one time and go back to place.
• do-si-do move forward: while facing the same direction all of the time, make a circle around your partner, passing right shoulders first back to back and then left shoulders and back to place.
• head couples-sashay down: the couple at the end or top steps forward and joins hands out to the sides and slides down the center for eight counts while the others are stomping and clapping.
• sashay back: the same head couple slides back the other way in eight counts and ends up back where they started.
• cast off: everyone turns in the direction of the head couple and walks forward - each of the two people as the head couple turns toward the outside of the group and walks back to where the end of the line of 2’s used to be. The others in his/her line follow.
• make an arch and pass through: the head couple comes together again, makes an arch, and the other couples join hands as they go under the arch and then straight forward to form two lines again, but with a new head couple.

After teaching forward up and back, right elbow swing, left elbow swing, two hand swing, and do-si-do move forward, have the students practice these calls with music. Then teach head couples-sashay down, sashay back, cast off, and make an arch and pass through, and do these calls with music. Later, do the entire dance with music. Repeat a number of times. Have the students practice saying two or three of the calls that you select. If someone can play the fiddle, the sheet music to the Virginia Reel can be found in Durlacher, E. p.64.

Distribute various books in which square dancing appears. Students may work in teams, pairs, or individually; whichever is appropriate for the class. Sample books include: Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton, Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving, Lyrics of Lowly Life by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and Bigfoot Doesn’t Square Dance by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones. There are many others. (See Materials.) Note the online resources for bibliographies with other possible selections. Distribute the Barn Dance/Square Dance Study Guide handout. Tell the students they are to read the dance passage and complete the study sheet. Have the students read the entire book if it is short. Otherwise, identify the passage containing the dance. Have students read the entire chapter in which the dance appears. Collect the students' worksheets when completed.

Review with the class the parts of a friendly letter. Remind them that this type of letter has five parts: the heading, the salutation, the body, the closing, and the signature. It might be helpful to compose a class friendly letter as a group and review it.

Return the students' Barn Dance/Square Dance Study student guides. Tell the students to pretend that they were at the dance they read about. previously. They are then to write a friendly letter carefully describing the dance they witnessed. Distribute the Swing Friendly Letter & Envelope Assessment. Make sure the students understand what they are to do. Help the students as they write their letters. At the end of the period collect the students' work. Edit it for use in class the next period.

Distribute the edited letters and the Swing Friendly Letter & Envelope Assessment. Review with the class how to correctly address an envelope, including the return address. Emphasize that this is important so that the letter reaches its destination. Show the students how to fold their letters to fit neatly into the envelope. Have students re-write, incorporating your edits and comments. Have students recopy the letters on regular notebook paper. You should work with them as they are doing this. Re-check all student work before having them recopy the friendly letter on the stationery and, as they complete the re-write, distribute envelopes. Have students correctly address the envelope to themselves. Collect all work.

Assessment:

Use the Swing Friendly Letter & Envelope Assessment Rubric and the Dance Assessment Rubric to assess the work of your students.

Extensions:

Invite a local square dancer to the class. There often are square dance clubs in many communities. Ask the guest to talk about square dancing, model square dance clothing, demonstrate and teach a favorite square dance.

Learn more square dance calls. Have groups learn and then teach the calls to the rest of the class. See: Mainstream Square Dance Calls.

With the help of the music teacher, learn some folk songs. These will provide more insight into another popular folk activity.

Students may study the origins of square dancing and the history of social dancing in America. Such a study will show the many dance links to other countries. A class-created time line may help students visualize when these dances arrived in America.

Sources:

Print:

• Dadey, Debbie and Marcia Thornton Jones. Illustrated by John Steven Gurney. Bigfoot Doesn’t Square Dance. New York, Toronto, London, Auckland, Sydney: Scholastic, Inc., 1997.
• Damon, S. The History of Square Dancing. Barre, Massachusetts: Barre Gazette, 1957.
• Dunbar, Paul Lawrence. Lyrics of Lowly Life. New York: Citadel Press, 1984.
• Durlacker, E. Honor Your Partner. New York: Bonanza Books, 1949.
• Gunzenhauser, M. The Square Dance and Contra Dance Handbook. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., Inc., Publishers, 1996.
• Harris, J. A. Pittman, and M. Waller. Dance A While. Minneapolis: Burgess Publishing Co., 1978.
• Irving, Washington. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. From The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. London, 1820.
• Jensen, Clayne R. and Mary Bee Jensen. Square Dancing. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1966.
• Krauss. Richard. Square Dances of Today and How to Teach and Call Them. New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1950.
• Martin, Bill Jr., and John Archambault. Barn Dance! Illustrated by Ted Rand. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1986.
• Roan, Carol. Illustrated by Ann Gross. Clues to American Dance. Washington and Philadelphia: Starhill Press, 1993.
• Variety of children’s literature containing barn/square dances: Boynton, Sandra. Barnyard Dance. New York: Workman Publishing Company, Inc., 1993.
• Wilder, Laura Ingalls. Illustrated by Renee Graef. Dance at Grandpa’s. Adapted from the Little House Books. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1994.

Media:

• Folkcraft Record Company, Newark, New Jersey.
• Honor Your Partner Records, Freeport, New York.
• Homespun Tapes, Woodstock, New York
• Workshop Records, Austin , Texas

Authors:

• Lillian Hasko, Dance Teacher
  Montgomery County Public Schools
  Silver Spring, MD United States
  
• Phyllis Gron, ESL Teacher
  Fairfax County Public Schools
  Alexandria, VA