Several years ago I read about a math program that combined math concepts with dance. I thought the program sounded really neat and at the time wondered how I could "sell" dance steps to teachers, let alone explain to students how dancing and math are related. After reading about sequential ordering and perception in chapter 6 I can now see a connection.
Mel Levine explains when parents suspect a possible dysfunction in sequential perception parents can teach their children rhymes, try an instrument that stresses serial ordering or try rhythmic dance.
If one were to teach a rhythmic dance with the steps of a math problem could it help students to better sequence the steps of a math problem and have the added benefit of helping students with general sequential deficits?
Here is a link to the article I read several years ago: http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2008/0503-do_the_math_dance.htm
Here is their program: http://www.mathdance.org/
A new article: http://www.dance-teacher.com/content/1-1-pas-de-deux
I love the idea of dancing in the classroom, but never thought of it as serving a sequential processing purpose or using it for math. I used to dance to poetry as a teacher to give my students the idea of rhythm within the words. I know it certainly engaged them if nothing else! I find this very intriguing and look forward to checking out the links you included.
ReplyDeleteI too agree that utilizing dancing/instrument playing could do wonders if we were to incorperate it with sequential processing. Math steps and dance steps could create a bridge for our students that struggle with this concept. I know we spoke about sensory concerns, and this would defenitly support that as well.
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