ARTSEDGE: Moccasins Are Made for Dancing

This Lesson at a Glance:

Grade Band:

Integrated Subjects:
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Materials:

For the teacher:

		Tomie DePaola Legends Dance Assessment Rubric
		Self and Teacher Dance Assessment Rubric

For the student:

		Ideas or Concepts
		Tomie DePaola Legends Reading

Targeted Standards:

The National Standards For Arts Education:

Dance (5-8)
Standard 1: Identifying and demonstrating movement elements and skills in performing dance

Dance (5-8)
Standard 2: Understanding choreographic principles, processes, and structures

Other National Standards:

Historical Understanding II (3-5) Standard 1: Understands and knows how to analyze chronological relationships and patterns

Historical Understanding II (5-6) Standard 2: Understands the historical perspective

Historical Understanding III (6-8) Standard 1: Understands and knows how to analyze chronological relationships and patterns

Historical Understanding III (7-8) Standard 2: Understands the historical perspective

Language Arts II (3-5) Standard 1: Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process

Language Arts II (3-5) Standard 3: Uses grammatical and mechanical conventions in written compositions

Language Arts II (3-5) Standard 5: Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process

Language Arts III (6-8) Standard 1: Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process

Language Arts III (6-8) Standard 2: Uses the stylistic and rhetorical aspects of writing

Language Arts III (6-8) Standard 5: Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process

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Moccasins Are Made for Dancing

Part of the Unit: From Moccasins to Tap Shoes

Lesson Overview:

Students will read either of Tomie DePaola’s versions of two Native American legends: The Legend of the Bluebonnet or The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush. After learning basic dance movements, they will create a dance for the legend they read. They will also write about the dance for this legend.

Length of Lesson:

Five 45-minute periods

Notes:

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

Instructional Objectives:

Students will:

read either DePaola’s version of The Legend of the Bluebonnet or The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush.
practice basic dance steps.
create a dance for either of the DePaola legends.
write a version of the DePaola legend describing this dance.
demonstrate their dance for the class.

Supplies:

Some type of drum (Native American drum, if possible)
Charts created from teacher worksheet
The Legend of the Bluebonnet as retold and illustrated by Tomie DePaola
The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush as retold and illustrated by Tomie DePaola
Videotape of American Indian Dance Theatre: Finding the Circle produced by Catherine Tatge and directed by Merrill Brochway
Videotape of How to Dance Native American Style by Drumbeat Indian Arts
Videotape of State Arts Council of Oklahoma: Into the Circle: An Introduction to Native American Powwows produced by Scott Swearingen and Sandy Rhoades

Instructional Plan:

Before starting the lesson, instruct the students to make classroom charts using the Ideas or Concepts handout.

Show students a pair of moccasins and discuss them. Ask students if they know the origin of these shoes. Note that many slippers we wear today are moccasins or like moccasins, not like the hard, leather, heeled shoe most people wear.

Read aloud or have students read a Native American legend that contains a dance. Dancing Drum, A Cherokee Legend written and adapted by Terri Cohlene is a good choice. Other selections to read include the dance in Hiawatha’s Wedding in The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Talk about the dances in these selections. Explain and discuss the fact that Native American dance were religious or ceremonial, unlike the social dancing of today.

Divide the class. One half of the students will read Tomie DePaola’s version of The Legend of the Bluebonnet and the other half will read Tomie DePaola’s version of The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush. Distribute the DePaola books and the Tomie DePaola Legends Reading handout. Make sure the students understand what they are to do: read the book, answer the questions on the Tomie DePaola Legends Reading handout. One or two word answers are not acceptable. Complete explanations must be given. Students may refer to the story/book as they compile their answers. Have students begin the worksheet. When completed, collect the worksheets and the books.

Display the three charts based on the Ideas or Concepts handout and begin to discuss and introduce the fundamentals of Native American dances. Tell the students that Native Americans used a variety of movements. These movements varied among the tribes, who created dances from them. They based their movements on what they wanted to express.

Refer to the locomotor movement chart. Teach or review some basic locomotor movements. With each of the following movements, go over the definition from the chart, demonstrate the movement, have the students execute the movement with a rhythmic beat of the drum, and do it in various directions (forward, backward, sidewise, diagonally.) These movements can be done in scattered positions, moving around the room, or lines moving across in one direction; but they are to be done individually. Explain to the students that the locomotor movements can serve as a basis for creating movements that use other parts of the body. Review the levels of the body, referring to the chart.

Next, present the chart with the list of ideas and concepts from the two books of legends. Demonstrate and then have the students do the movements associated with each concept/idea. Later, add a rhythmic beat of the drum while the students demonstrate these movements on their own, and then as a group.

Legend of the Bluebonnet

The rain - arms reaching up and coming down in a wavelike movement to the floor; running a few steps, reaching up and having the arms come down as though it is raining in various places.
The jay bird - with arms extended, run in curved pathways around the room, at times swooping down and changing levels and then lifting up again, changing the pace or speed of the run.
Scattering the ashes - walking or running with arms initially close to the body then stretching out or reaching to the sides as though scattering; this is done to the four sides or walls in the room.
Fire - jumping in place with arms thrusting up and out as though fire sparks are shooting out. The arms are thrust at different levels-low, medium, high; and in different directions - forward, back, side, up. This also can be done with a hopping movement.
Deer spirit - running a few steps and then leaping; facing a different direction, repeat the movement and then keep repeating, facing different directions each time.

Legend of the Indian Paintbrush

Flower-growing - starting at a low level, students slowly rise, their arms extending up or out, depending on the shape of their imagined flower.
Sunset - the body begins extended, with the arms raised out , run quickly to the opposite side of the room, gradually having the arms and body come down to a low level. Repeat a few times traveling in different directions and speeds.
Running and shooting - running a variety of distances, stopping at different levels and shooting, running while shooting.
Sky growing dark - move slowly around the room as the arms gradually extend out as though hovering above the earth moving around throughout the room as though covering the entire space.
Divide the students into groups of four or five. Hand out the Dance Assessment Rubric. Read through it, making sure the students understand it. Note that they will need to use what they just learned about Native American dances for this part of the lesson.

Discuss and review with the students what they have learned about Native American dances. Remind them that dance is structured with a beginning, a middle, and an end. The questions for the following discussion of dance structure may be put on the board to aid the discussion. Tell the students that the beginning answers these questions:

How does the dance start?
What position (shape) are your bodies in and why?
Where are you in relation to one another? (In a line, a circle, a diagonal, scattered, some front, some back.)

Remind the students that the middle is the major and the largest part of the dance. Tell them that it is here that they share what they want to say through the use of their bodies. This section answers these questions:

What are the movements?
How many times do you do or repeat the movements?
Does everyone move at the same time?
Does everyone move in the same way?
Do your facial expressions change when you are doing the movements? Where are you looking (focusing?)
What part of the story are you identifying to be in your dance?

The ending answers the questions:

How are you going to bring the dance to the class?
What is the last thing you do?
What position are you in, and where are you in relation to each other?

Remind the students that these three parts are clear and evident in their dances.

Return the completed Tomie DePaola Legends Reading handouts and the books. Have students reread the DePaola legends. Emphasize that each legend contains a dance that is not fully described. Tell the students that their job is to create a dance that belongs in the story. Remind them that they know a lot about this kind of dance and that they learned how to perform several steps in a previous lesson. They are to write a description of their dance. They are to practice their dance before performing it for the class.

Assessment:

Use the Tomie DePaola Legends Dance Assessment Rubric and the Self and Teacher Dance Assessment Rubric to assess your students' works.

Extensions:

Instruct the students to research Native American instruments. They will make a drum and a rattle and learn to play the instruments.

Sources:

Print:

Cohlene, Terri. Dancing Drum: A Cherokee Legend. Very Beach, Florida: The Rourke Corporation, Inc., 1990.
DePaola, Tomie. The Legend of the Bluebonnet. New York, Toronto, London, Aukland, Sydney: Scholastic Books, Inc., 1983.
DePaola, Tomie. The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush. New York, Toronto, London, Aukland, Sydney: Scholastic, Inc., 1988.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. Early, Margaret. The song of Hiawatha. Brooklyn, New York: Handprint Books, 2003.

Media:

American Indian Dance Theatre: Finding the Circle. Produced by Catherine Tatge. Directed by Merrill Brochway. Dances directed and staged by Handy Geiogamah and Raul Trujillo. 60 min. VHS. WNET/Thirteen in association with Tatge/Lasseur Productions, Inc. 1990. Videocassette.
How to Dance Native American Style. 30 min. VHS. Drumbeat Indian Arts, Inc. 1996. Videocassette.
State Arts Council of Oklahoma. Into the Circle: An Introduction to Native American Powwows. Produced by Scott Swearingen and Sandy Rhoades. 58 min. Tulsa, Oklahoma: Full Circle Communications. Videocassette.

Authors:

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