Cultural Dance-Extra Credit

Cultural Dance

http://fitforafeast.com/dance_cultural.htm

The website “Fit for a Feast” provides a great amount of information pertaining to different cultural dance styles across the world. On the home page there is a link provided for twenty-three different countries, descriptions of that region’s dancing styles and videos of people performing that specific dance. For example, if you were to click on the first link for Africa, it brings you to a page with a colorful map of the continent and links to each specific country. When you click on one of the countries, it takes you to a page that discusses what kind of dancing is culturally relevant to that area and provides a video of either children or adults performing. One of the main strengths that I could see in this website for English language learners, was that every single dance had a video link to show physically what the dance looked like. For the most part this website is meant for older children or younger children who have adult supervision, but the videos could be used for any age group. The videos provide the students a way to understand different cultural aspects of countries without necessarily having to understand the text explanations of each dance. This could also be something that any of the children could relate to and share more about dances from their own cultures or countries. This would be a great tool for teachers to use in multi-literacy classrooms because the videos could inspire some dancing time of their own and by participating in this they are actively learning about cultural subjects. One of the limitations of the website that I found was that although it provides wonderful videos, some of the text explanations are much stronger than others. Some of them go into great depth and speak of the reasoning’s and uses of the different dances while others give one or two sentences telling what the name is. Overall I would definitely use this as a teaching tool in my own classroom because it provides an array of information in a way that is not intimidating to children.

http://library.thinkquest.org/3081/

The website “Southern Pow Wows” discusses the many different forms of dance that are used as a part of Native American traditional ceremonies. The website provides different links to information about the different dance styles, proper etiquette, terminology, what kinds of people participate, and background knowledge of the reasoning behind this type of dancing. For example the website provides a great amount of terminology such as the word bustle, which refers to the arrangements of traditional feathers worn by the dancers. This website would be of most use to older children, because of the large amount of text for each description. One of the main weaknesses of this website would be that English language learners would most likely find difficulty in understanding some of the descriptions if they are struggling with their reading skills. There are a few pictures provided for each page, but not enough to supplement what they would be reading. I think that this website would be much more useful and effective to English language learners if the teacher were to navigate it for all of the students during class. There are many activities that could be branched off of this website and could act as the base for their knowledge on the Native American dances. Another disadvantage that I saw with this website, is that it doesn’t provide any form of educational games or activities that would interest many children. I think that this would make it a much more friendly and entertaining website that the students would want to explore outside of class. Overall this website could be a good tool for teachers to use to further knowledge on a different form of cultural dance but it’s success depends how the teacher presents it to the students.

http://www.dance-kids.org/main.html

The website “Dance Kids Club”, is a wonderful website that incorporates many children friendly aspects. When you are on the home page of the website it shows you a room with two children standing in it and many objects around them. When you move the cursor across some of the objects they activate sound effects and tell you what that section will be about if you click on it. One of the first sections that I clicked on was “Dancing Globe”, which brings you to a page explaining that the children are going to explore different countries. The choices for countries to explore include Poland, Greece, Austria, and Sweden. Each different section gives you a very detailed description of the types of dances in that region as well as descriptions of the costumes, customs, and music that are associated with that style of dance. One of the weaknesses I found for this website was that although they provide very helpful and educational information for learning about different cultural dances, there are only four possible choices to look at. If this website provided several more options of countries to examine, then I think it would be much more useful. English language learners would easily be able to navigate and use this website due to the clarity and welcoming nature. There are many pictures and easy to understand explanations that any young children would be able to understand. One aspect that I found as a strength for using this in a multi-literacy classroom, was that the section “Lucky Dip” provides a list of words and dances associated with the alphabet. It goes through each letter and finds an easily understood dance term such as ‘C is for Cha Cha Cha’, and explains in simple language what each means. Another strength that is provides for understanding these terms is a picture gallery that shows clears pictures of each style of dance. Personally I would use this in my own classroom by assigning two or three students to a letter and having them navigate the website and come up with their own dance related word to use. This is something practical to use in a multi-literacy classroom because the majority of the children will not know many of these dance terms or styles of dance and by having the children work together to explore this, they would all be on a level playing field. Overall I found this a very interactive and educationally helpful website that would be wonderful to use either in the classroom or have the children explore on their own time at home.

http://www.knowitall.org/artopia/dance/index.html

The website “Artopia: Dance” is a wonderful resource for teachers and students to use when focusing on the topic of dance. The website it set up so that the viewer is in the dance lobby and there are five different places that they can “go”. One of the best attributes that I found on this website was the one minute movie that is found at the top of the screen. This short video discusses how dance can be used in different cultures and how diverse it can be. This video has been created using cartoon figures that are very kid-friendly and is narrated by a young child. This would a good tool for children who are learning a new language because everything that the narrator speaks of has a supplemental picture or action that reinforces what they are speaking about. The one down side that I saw of this video for English language learners was that the narrator speaks very quickly. I had to pay very close attention to catch everything that she was saying and if a child doesn’t understand a vocabulary word, then the video will move on before they have a chance to reflect or realize what it means. Another aspect of this website that I found very helpful for English language learners was the entire section called The Studio. In this section there is a link to a subsection called The Language of Dance, which discusses how dancers use their bodies to represent different symbols. These symbols are universal pictures that any of the children can learn how to represent with their bodies and does not have a language limitation. It then provides a short matching game for the students to match the dance symbols with a stick figure’s movements. One last part that I thought would be perfect to use in a classroom when discussing dance would be the Meet an Artist section. This section has six different dancer or chorographers that have 4-5 videos discussing different aspects of dancing. By showing the children an actual dancer speaking about various subjects, they can feel more connected and are able to relate to them on a better level.

(Evaluated by Amy Sand)