Montague Township School District
Dance Curriculum Guide
Grade 4
2025-2026
Melissa Neamand
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Description
This 3-5 dance curriculum combines kinesthetic learning with other subject areas to deepen student understanding through movement. Students engage with dance elements, improvisation, and choreography while exploring how movement expresses content, emotion, and personal expression. The curriculum emphasizes the relationship between dance and culture, examining how different societies use dance to communicate values, beliefs, and historical experience. Throughout the year, students develop technical skills in body control, spatial awareness, and choreographic structure while learning to analyze and critique dance from aesthetic and cultural perspectives.
Big Ideas
- Basic choreographed structures employ the elements of dance.
- Movement is developed and generated through improvisation, with form and structure essential to interpreting original choreography.
- Musical and non-musical forms of sound affect meaning in choreography and improvisation.
- Compositional works are distinguished by the use of various body movements and sources of initiation.
- Works of art may be organized according to their functions and artistic purposes.
- Formalism in dance varies according to personal, cultural, and historical contexts.
Essential Questions
- How do dancers make movement and spatial choices, and why did we make these particular choices?
- What are the impacts of movement quality and speed on meaning and expression?
- How can the elements of dance be used to express content, emotions, and personal expression?
- How can improvisation of movement communicate ideas and feelings?
- What are the origins, meanings, and cultural influences of different dances throughout history?
- How can criticism of aesthetic expression improve an individual's ability to communicate through the arts?
Dance - Connecting
Dance - Creating
Dance - Performing
Dance - Responding
Students read and comprehend diverse texts to understand themes and central ideas in dance history and cultural contexts. Students participate in collaborative discussions about dance performances and cultural significance. Students write reflections, research reports, and informative texts about dance origins, cultural influences, and choreographic analysis.
Students examine how culture is expressed through dance and explore the cultural diversity and individuality reflected in various dance forms. Students investigate the historical and cultural origins of dances from different regions and time periods, learning about diverse cultures and their traditions. Students analyze how dance reflects the values, beliefs, and perspectives of different communities and societies.
Assessment occurs throughout the year using formative, summative, and alternative approaches. Students engage in self-assessment through reflection on their own learning and performance using rubrics and checklists. Peer critique focuses on constructive feedback using protocols such as 'I noticed,' 'I like the way...because,' and 'Have you thought of.' Teachers evaluate informal classroom performances and video evidence using observation, discussions, drawings, and student-created rubrics. Written reflections on dance principles and journal responses are assessed using rubrics. Formal performance rubrics measure technical proficiency and understanding of elements. Research projects, primary source analysis, and technology-based presentations document learning. Hand signal checks and exit materials provide quick formative data on concept understanding.
| Unit | Formative | Summative | Benchmark | Alternative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01Elements of Dance and Kinesthetic Movement | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 02History of the Arts and Culture | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Coverage | 2/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 |
| Unit | IEP | 504 | MLL | At-Risk | Gifted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01Elements of Dance and Kinesthetic Movement | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 02History of the Arts and Culture | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Coverage | 2/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 |