Unit Plan Template Guide

Understanding By Design Framework

Research Project – Science, LA, One

Subject Grade Level
Art
Time Frame - Developed by Alex Hoover

Stage 1 – Desired Results

Content Standard (s) (Front Matter)

General Learner Expectations

 acquire skills through a variety of developmentally appropriate movement activities; dance
Specific Learner Expectations
 A1-8 perform simple movements by using elements of effort and space to respond to a variety of stimuli; e.g., music
 A1-9 demonstrate body awareness when performing dance activities

Enduring Understandings/Big Ideas: Essential Questions:

Students will understand...  How can we move our bodies to tell a story?
 Music can represent more than just sound  How do we move our bodies to represent emotion?
 Our bodies can tell a story  Does music carry more meaning then just the sounds it has?

Skills/Attitudes objectives: Related misconceptions . . .

Students will be able to...  Music is just sound
 Show emotions with their bodies  The way we move doesn’t affect how people think and feel
 Represent adjectives with their bodies
 Understand and move to tempo and rhythm
 Cooperate with others
 Plan ahead with others according to class made
success criteria

Stage 2 – Learning Plan

Lesson Materials
# Lesson Activity Key Outcomes Evidence
Title Resources

Ask students to find their bubble space

once again. Ask them to sit with the soles Forward thinking
to plan out a
of their feet together and with their spines
dance that meets
lengthened as though their heads were
the success
filled with helium gas and were trying to criteria.
float away (we're going to call this neutral
sitting position). Explain that they will Cooperative skills The cooperation and thinking
make a shape and freeze that shape for developed while ahead skills will be shown as
three counts. Each time the signal is made, planning and students work together to
have students choose another position working with one plan their dance.
Grow and Music
1 that is different than the first. Students will another.
shrink player
think about how to move from a low The unison, cooperation, and
Able to move in ability to follow tempo and
position to a higher position.
unison with rhythm will be evident in the
Prompt: How are you going to get there? another partner. dances themselves.
Are you going to spin, jump, reach up, melt, Developing co-
operation skills.
rise, wiggle?
Have students start in a low shape. Count Able to follow
to 8 while they rise slowly to a high level rhythm and
tempo.
shape. Ask them to freeze in that shape by
count 8 – not before or after. Then count
 backwards from 8 as the students sink back
down to make a new low level shape.
Ask students to find a partner and work
together to create a rising and sinking
dance to 16 slow counts (8 counts to rise, 8
counts to sink). They must decide on what
SIZE shape they want to make at each
LEVEL. Make the beginning and ending of
each rise and fall clear (by holding their
shape) and different.

Students then present their rise and fall

dances to the class. The class comments on
what they saw and liked.

http://code.on.ca/resource/introducing-
creative-dance#section-4

expressive movements and postures are

ways we can communicate feelings,
thoughts, and ideas. All movements can
convey meaning and tell a story Able to
understand that
Elicit responses from students and create a our bodies can
list of emotions. Write different emotions tell a story.
on chart paper, have students make a pose
Cooperative skills
for each one. The cooperation and thinking
developed while
ahead skills will be shown as
planning and
Play music that sounds like different students work together to
working with one
emotions. Don’t tell the students what this plan their dance.
another.
emotion is supposed to be, have them
The ability to comprehend
listen and decide for themselves by Able to convey a
emotion based on sound will Music
2 Feelings showing it with their bodies in movement. feeling using their
show in the warmup activity player
body.
and dance.
Place students in groups of three where
they have to make a dance that relates to Able to listen to
The ability cooperate, follow
music for clues
the emotion they have been given. tempo and rhythm will be
about what it is
Develop some success criteria with them. evident in the dances
trying to convey.
Ask what could make an interesting dance? themselves.
(all 3 levels, different ways to move, Forward thinking
different ways to shape your body) to plan out a
dance that meets
Share and show off dances with students the success
commenting on what they liked. criteria.

http://code.on.ca/resource/introducing-
creative-dance#section-5
Able to relate The cooperation and thinking
Get students into the headspace of their adjectives to ahead skills will be shown as
various body parts by having students specific body students work together to
Music
3 Body parts move specific parts with the challenge of parts. plan their dance.
player
keeping all other parts of their body totally
still. (Such as pretending a chainsaw cut Cooperative skills The understanding of the
developed while adjectives chosen,
 their bodies in half and now only their left planning and cooperation, and ability to
side can move). working with one follow tempo and rhythm
another. will be evident in the dances
Explain that we used our bodies to themselves.
Able to act those
communicate feelings yesterday. Today we
adjectives out
are going to use our bodies to using just their
communicate a message about our bodies. bodies.

Create a list of body parts. Choose one and Forward thinking

create a variety of words associated to that to plan out a
specific body part, eg back – strong, wide, dance that meets
flat, etc. Talk about how we can express the success
these words using our bodies. Develop criteria.
success criteria for the dance with the
students (all 3 levels, different ways to
move, different ways to shape your body).
Then let them be creative working in
groups of three.

Share and show off dances with students

commenting on what they liked.
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Adapted by Jeff Turner (2016) from:

Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by design. Alexander, Virginia: Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development.

Llewellyn, D. (2013). Teaching high school science through inquiry and argumentation. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.