CELEBRATE PHYSICAL EDUCATION: DANCE CONTEST AT SLIPPERY ROCK AREA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
written by Wei (Willa) Bian, assistant professor, Slippery Rock University

On the morning of February 11, 2011, I was invited to attend the 20th Annual Dance Contest at Slippery Rock Elementary School. Ms. Darlene Bullock, who teaches K-5 physical education for two school buildings, was the sole physical education teacher present at the contest.

CONTEST PROCEDURE:

Walking into the gym area, I saw children sitting scattered around the gym dressed in different costumes. Slippery Rock Area Elementary has three homerooms for each grade so the total number of the students in the gym was around 500 kindergarteners to fifth graders. Classroom teachers, who sat at the front of the gym, served as the judges for the contest. Each class was assigned a zone area in the gym with a designated color: red, green, orange, and blue. To begin, Ms. Bullock handed each judge an evaluation sheet and explained the criteria used to assess each homeroom’s performance. This criteria centered on synchronization, rhythm, following cues, and enthusiasm.

The program started with a small group of 5th graders who danced along to: "Let's Get It Started" while tumbling and performing hand stands to show skills they had learned during their time with Ms. Bullock in physical education. Soon after beginning their routine, they were joined by the rest of the 5th graders. The whole gym was filled with excitement, smiles, and the spirit of celebration.

Here is the Program of 2011 Dance Contest

From the program, you can see that each grade performed two dance routines during the contest. Ms. Bullock informed me that dance routines 1 thru 6 have been in the program for many years. Dance routines 7 thru 12, however, were new dances introduced when rock star Michael Jackson passed away. Ms. Bullock found the chance to introduce "Thriller" as a new dance to the students, as a great opportunity. I was so impressed by such a well organized program that I decided to interview Ms. Bullock after the dance contest, and share the information to pelinks4u readers so that you may gather some important information to begin a similar contest at your school.

THE INTERVIEW

Ms. Bullock began by explaining to me how the contest began. She informed me that the first dance contest began in 1990 when she wanted to use more popular dance activities to motivate students to participate in physical education classes. Since then, it became an annual event every February.

The dance unit runs for 3-4 weeks right after the beginning of the spring semester. The physical education classes meet twice a week for 30 minutes. Students learn dance steps, how to properly use different locomotor skills such as walk, slide, gallop, skip, jump, hop, etc., as well as non-locomotor or axial skills such as twist, turn, push, pull, stretch and bend, etc in the dance routine. The goal of using these skills is to enable students to meet objectives in the psychomotor domain.

In the cognitive domain, students learn to memorize movement sequences in the dance routine, and demonstrate their understanding of movement concepts such as personal and general space, levels, directions, speed, and body awareness. In addition, Ms. Bullock expressed how this dance contest also promotes a positive attitude toward physical activity participation, especially for those children who are less skilled when performing sport-specified skills. Ms. Bullock stated that "Kids are looking forward to the following year because they know that they will learn another two new dances every year. They watched each other during the dance contest and want to do "Thriller" when they become 5th graders." She also said that "It's not the girls but the boys who ask what the next dance will be."

Cooperation, expression, and team-building are other aspects in which this dance unit and contest can benefit students in the affective domain. Since their performance is judged by homeroom teachers, they have to work together to achieve the common goal. Not only can students express themselves by dance movements, but by their costumes they have made for the performance. These colorful and unique self-designed costumes are indicators of the children's creativity and imagination.

Additionally, since most of the dances are to up-beat songs, it is "high in calorie burning." After watching the music videos on YouTube, Ms. Bullock choreographs and adjusts the dance routine to make it developmentally appropriate for each grade level. During the rehearsal and performance, she uses action cues to guide students to move together to the music beats, or dance with quick steps, jumps, turns, or kicks. Each dance routine runs about 3-5 minutes, and students repeat the same movement sequence several times throughout the routine. As a result, Ms. Bullock indicated that the activity level is between moderate to high, which is very important to promote health related physical fitness.

When being asked on the role of this dance contest to serve for physical education program advocacy, Ms. Bullock told me: "It's a time that all of us feel close." Due to the gym area limit, parents cannot be present to watch their kids' performance. However, the event is videotaped and broadcasted by the local cable service. Many parents will inquire by calling the school or asking classroom teachers for the date and time of the broadcasting.

Ms. Bullock expressed that parents want to see what their children are learning from physical education classes. It is also a time for classroom teachers to be part of the physical education program. Not only are teachers impressed by the students, but they are also impressed that Ms. Bullock is able to lead all 12 dances from beginning to end during the contest.

Music, dances, smiling faces, and clapping hands - this dance contest is a truly extraordinary tradition that will celebrate physical education, physical activity participation, and friendship for many years.

The following are suggestions for physical education teachers who plan to implement this event based curriculum into their program:

Start small: Organizing a school-wide event requires a lot of time and energy. To ensure the success of the event, physical education teachers can pilot the event by teaching one dance routine to one or two grade levels first, and then teach more dances to all grade levels. Starting with a dance contest event that only includes students at one or two grade levels can be more manageable and a good starting point. Gradually, the teacher can introduce more dance routines to more grade levels for a successful school-wide celebration.

It would be better to select music or dance routines that are familiar to teachers and students. Depending on the complexity of the routine, the teacher can schedule 4-6 physical education lessons as an instructional unit to allow students to learn and practice for the final performance.

Involve more people: Physical Education teachers should consider this event-based curriculum as a means to connect people within and outside the school building. School administrators, staff, and teachers, as well as parents can be part of this dancing contest event. Based on my observation, I saw parent volunteers play an important role by helping Ms. Bullock direct students to their assigned zone areas. In addition, I saw classroom teachers serving as judges for the contest and more than ten 5th graders who served as group assistants to lead the dance routine when Kindergarteners and 1st graders performed. School staff can also help by video recording the event and putting it on DVD. The more people get involved, the more connections are built.

Apply progressive instruction: Task progression is critical for students to learn and practice any motor skills, especially at the elementary level. Teachers can introduce the dance routine by teaching one or two dance movements without music. Once students are familiar with the movements, let them listen to the music and dance to the music. Use a few action cues such as "turn right, and step," or "jump, slide to the left" to guide students' performance.

Divide the routine into several parts, and then rehearse the whole routine several times to reinforce the correct movements. When demonstrating the dance movement, teacher can use mirror demonstration method when they face the students. Or demonstrate the movement from different directions. Make sure that every student has his or her personal space, and is able to see the demonstrator's performance. Teachers should constantly observe and assess students' performance and provide ample movement-specific feedbacks when necessary.

I would like to express my sincere admiration for Ms. Darlene Bullock, for her devotion to the physical education program, and for her permission to let me write this article to share what she has been doing with other fellow teachers. Thank you, Ms. Bullock. Let this high quality physical education program continue to rock and roll toward a higher level.

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