Lesson #4: Persuasive Essays

On November 18, I switched gears and taught about writing! I was excited for a completely new topic. We created movement based on writing persuasive essays. At the start, I had them raise their right hand to the square and promise to be focused today because it was a bit of a tougher lesson to understand and I wanted them to get it. We warmed up by “writing” our names with our bodies. I let them move around the room and write their bodies however they wanted, on the floor with a finger, in the air with an elbow or a foot, by making the shape of the letter with their body, anything! After they had figured out how they wanted to write their names, I split the class in half and had them watch each other and say something they saw and liked. 

Last lesson the class had been a bit chatty and I didn't want them to think that they could get away with that, so I told myself I would be more patient in waiting for them to be quiet before I continued. I have also been working on moving around the room and among the students when I speak instead of always at the front of the room. As I focused on this, their attention was better and I had less chatting. I am planning on continuing this in my future teaching. I also used proximity to quiet a talkative student. I continued to speak, but came close to this student until they got the idea and were quiet. I also had been studying their names a bit more so I was able to use a few names during class, but I am still working on it! It is amazing how much using a name really helps! One particularly chatty boy was focused the rest of class after I used his name when asking him to focus. 

I mentioned how movement is a lot like writing. We have moves that represent words, multiple moves to represent phrases and sentences, and a whole dance to represent a whole story. We then talked about the format and organization of a persuasive essay. Mrs. Washburn had told me that she teaches them this using the acronym OREO, spelling the cookie. It stands for Opinion, Reason, Example, and back to Opinion. She hadn't gone over it yet in class, so hopefully it gave them a precursor of what they are going to learn about. I likened this format to how choreography is created. I showed them and we then tried a move to represent each letter of A, B, C, and D and how the order of these letters is infinite. I found that they got a bit confused using both A, B, C, D and OREO. I should have just stuck with the OREO letters. However, they eventually understood what I meant. I had them split into groups and come up with their own moves for each letter, just like how we had done as a class. After a few minutes, we again split the class in half and watched each other.

Next, we discussed the writing process, which goes from prewriting to drafting, drafting to revision, revision to editing, and editing to publishing. I told them we would use the phrases they had drafted and were now going to revise, edit, and publish them. For revision, they got with their groups and made their movement more interesting by using levels, changing tempo, or body parts. After they did this, their next step was to edit. Just like editing in writing often includes the feedback of others, they got with another group, showed each other their movement, and the other group helped them make their movement more interesting. They could choose to either take the feedback or not. Lastly, when they were ready, we “published” their movement by performing it for each other. I was very impressed by the creativity and originality of their performances! My hope is that they will connect this process to everything and realize there is always room for improvement in whatever it may be: writing or dancing. 

We had bit of extra time, so I quickly went over some energy qualities of moving such as sustained, percussive, vibratory, heavy, etc. Since they are 5^th graders, I let them guess what they thought the quality was and most of the time they were right. I don't want to always just give them the answer. I then told them to individually create an A, B, C, D pattern that convinces me on the “best” way to move, or their favorite energy quality. They were to persuade us that it was the best way to move. They first danced the quality, then gave us a reason why, next an example of something that moves this way, and last they repeated their opinion. We didn't have time for everyone to show, so I chose 4 volunteers who danced as well as talked out loud their persuasive dance. Wish we would have had more time for this, but they had fun with it. 

In the end, I reminded them that the process we went through of prewriting, drafting, revision, editing, and publishing is a never-ending cycle. There is always something more to write about and there is always something more to dance about!