middle school dance assignment

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Dance units: Middle school levels

These Dance units are for Middle School Level students. Several are aligned with the Common Core and all are aligned with the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance.

Included Resources

Dance is community...community is dance, dance is community...community....

In this Dance Unit, Students will gather insight into self and community through improvisation and dance making. Students will create a dance that addresses the concepts of awareness to self and others: Address – others and different body parts; Nearness – relationship to others; Connect – making connections; and Support – the push and pull in the way we interact with others. This Dance unit is written for the 8th Grade and is aligned with the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance Benchmarks. This unit was written by Edwin Brathwaite.

Senior choreography project

In this Dance Unit, students will learn how to use an autobiographical literary work (memoir, poem, or story) to develop a solo dance and then collaborate to create a group dance. The students must include a 7th grade student, music, and costumes. This will result in an 8th grade student concert. This Dance unit is written for the 8th Grade and is aligned with the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance Benchmarks. This unit was written by Sarah Sandford-Perez.

Haiku choreography unit

In this Arts and the Common Core Dance Unit, students learn about the history and origin of the haiku. Students work with the teacher to create examples of haikus. Students suggest themes for haiku and create a list of possible themes to use. Students create a haiku with a dance theme and choreograph a short dance phrase that reflects the theme and rhythm of the haiku. This Dance unit is written for the 8th Grade and is aligned with the Common Core standards and the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance Benchmarks. This unit was written by Carol Lonnie and Traci Hinton Peterson.

Dance unit: Eight line dances: From then till...

Dance unit: eight line dances:..., dance unit: eight line dances: from then till now.

This Dance unit will focus on the impact of social dances and how these dances helped to build community. Students will learn about the history of line dances and how these dances originated from the 17th‐century English country dances. The unit will also focus on the present form of line dances performed at social events such as the electric slide, the cha‐cha slide, the Wobble. We will begin with the line dances of the 1970s and ‘80s. The students will learn many of these dances along with their patterns and formations. Small groups will be formed, and students will then create their own line dances using various formations and patterns learned in the class. Students will present their dances for the class. This Dance unit is written for the 7th and 8th Grades and is aligned with the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance Benchmarks. This unit was written by Carol Lonnie.

Dance unit: Flamenco!

In this Dance unit, the students will learn basic flamenco rhythms and movements. They will research the origins of flamenco, and develop a dance based on their research. They will perform their dance, and write a research report. This Dance unit is written for the 7th Grade and is aligned with the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance Benchmarks. This unit was written by Cheryl Galzur.

Dance unit: Free to be me

This Dance unit includes rich opportunities for learning as it explores strategies for provoking new ideas about dance while making connections to literature and visual arts. The theme explores dealing with the social/emotional challenges of being in middle school, including experiences with individuality, tolerance, and acceptance. Through movement experimentation, the students explore what it means to be “Free to Be Me.” Students use the knowledge they gain through the unit to inform their movement improvisations, leading to choreographic processes. Student work collaboratively to create a dance inspired by quotes, poems, personal narratives, stories, and visual arts. At the end of the unit, students will share their dances with their class and the school community. This unit will help students understand the meaning of individuality, tolerance, and acceptance so that they may live as leaders. This Dance unit is written for the 6th to 8th Grades and is aligned with the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance Benchmarks. This unit was written by Kristine Ventimiglia.

The science of ballet technique: Creating dan...

The science of ballet techniqu..., the science of ballet technique: creating dances from science.

In this unit, students will explore the many ways science influences movement. The unit provides opportunities for students to evaluate their range of motion and execution of ballet technique, set personal goals, experiment with scientific concepts in anatomy, kinesiology, and physics (Newton’s Laws of Motion), and apply these concepts to self- correct and to help achieve their personal goals. Since turnout is the foundation of ballet technique and one of the most difficult aspects of the technique to understand and master, the unit will focus on the structure and function of the hip joint. The unit is designed to provide middle school students with the knowledge of how to take care of their body, prevent injury, and avoid physical risks in dance class and throughout their life. This dance unit was created by Nicole Kasbar.

Waves: Creating dances from science

Waves: creating dances from sc....

Students will create a short choreographic study that helps them understand and differentiate between longitudinal and transverse waves. Students will research different types of waves and create dances inspired by the waves. They will create a dance study based on what they learned in this unit and their previous classes about the characteristics and behavior of waves. Ultimately, students will create original choreography inspired by phenomena the eye cannot see. This dance unit was created by Cheryl Galzur.

Exploring early modern dance choreographers

Exploring early modern dance c....

Students will research the following dancers/choreographers and develop choreography to share with the class. Students will research history and find choreographic samples from the dancers/choreographers to share with their group. Choreography inspired by these artists will be generated by the group. Isadora Duncan, Michio Ito, José Limón, Katherine Duncan, Lester Horton, and Martha Graham are the dancers/choreographers of study. This dance unit was created by Jan Ford.

This collection is also included in these collections:

• Social Studies

Dance Projects. Teachers take on Action Research projects in their own classrooms, then document their success here.

The teachers engaged in Arts Assessment for Learning take on Action Research projects: they implement formative assessment across long and short term durations, and document the results.

Select a dance project below . Each project contains helpful tools and resources to view and/or download. Use the filters at left to narrow your search results by grade level and assessment method.

• show all grade levels
• Elementary (K-5)
• Secondary (6-12)
• show all methods
• Peer Assessment
• Self Assessment

Revising Choreography: Peer Assessment

Seventh grade dance students created pieces of group choreography. Based on a choreography rubric generated by the class, students provided peer feedback on ways to improve the given choreography. The choreographic groups then worked to synthesize the new information into improved dance pieces, which were subsequently shown to the class.

Collaborative Choreography: Peer Feedback

My 7th and 8th grade dance students worked in groups of 4-6 to create an original piece of choreography, including determining a theme and selecting appropriate music. Students learned the skills of creative collaboration through generating and using a rubric with their peers. They also reflected on the process and their role within their group, in order to track their progress. The students learned to compromise and be an active participant in group activities.

Rehearsal Problem Solving: Self-Assessment

My middle school students were dependent on my feedback to improve their dance technique. They needed to identify and apply problem-solving strategies in order to become more independent dancers. This project built their metacognitive skills, improved their dance technique, and helped them develop skills that are applicable to all aspects of their lives.

Jazz Technique: Peer Assessment

This jazz dance unit demonstrates how peer feedback can be used to improve the dance technique of middle school students. During this unit students learned specific criteria on how to execute basic jazz dance technique, used a peer feedback protocol, and received partner feedback to revise the performance of the skill. The students were also given a compositional task to choreograph a short jazz piece that incorporated the four jazz skills. After six weeks of using the formative assessment strategy of peer feedback, these novice dancers demonstrated significant improvements in their technique and were able to perform the skills more accurately in their choreography.

Creating Choreography : Self & Peer Assessment

My 5th grade students used a Dance-Making Rubric and a Collaboration Rubric to support their creation of original choreography integrating concepts from Jose Limon technique. The ease of their collaborations and the quality of their dance-making was improved through their use of these tools and their feedback.

African Dance: Self Assessment

My 6th grade dance students worked in groups of 4 to choreograph and perform an eightcount pattern that depicted farming, hunting, housework, or fishing. Students learned the skills of working cooperatively to create, practice, perform, and revise. They also selfassessed as a group using a checklist in order to make and implement decisions to improve their dances. In the end, students reflected on the process and experience of working collaboratively to create, revise, and perform a dance.

ModernTechnique: Peer Assessment

This Merce Cunningham modern dance unit demonstrates how the formative assessment strategy of peer feedback can be used to improve the dance technique of middle school students. During this unit students learned specific criteria on how to execute basic Cunningham dance technique, give and receive feedback, and apply feedback to their revision. After seven weeks of peer feedback, each child in the class improved the accuracy of their modern dance technique. This action research follows the journey of one student as she seeks to improve her triplet based on the peer feedback she receives.

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25 Dance Activities For Middle School: Group Dance, Partner Dance, And Game-Based Dance

April 10, 2024 //  by  Lauren Du Plessis

School dances create a sense of community by helping learners connect outside of their classroom walls. Students have the opportunity to interact with pupils that they wouldn’t normally, and in doing so, new friendships are fostered. Middle schoolers may be a little nervous at events such as these so we’ve put together a list of fun dance activities to help them break the ice!  By incorporating a few of the fun games we’ve picked out below, your learners are guaranteed to enjoy a fabulous night of fun and dancing.

1. Dance With A Balloon

This fun game is sure to have everyone on the dance floor! Blow up a few balloons before throwing them into the crowd. The students are required to work together to keep all the balloons afloat, ensuring that they don’t touch the ground.

Learn More:  Mom Junction

2. Partner Up

As fun as middle school dances can be, learners may need a fun activity to encourage them to get onto the floor and mingle with new people. Places all the attendees’ names into a hat and pull out two at random. The pairs should then be given time to prepare a creative dance to perform.

3. All Sacked Up

This game, traditionally used in physical education classes, is heaps of fun! Participating students should each receive a bag to dance inside. Students who fall out or drop their bags, lose. The last student dancing wins!

4. Ball Game

The ball game encourages everyone to have a little boogie. Students should line up and the first person in the queue will receive a large beach ball. A timer is set and the student is required to dance with the ball until the buzzer sounds and they pass it on to the next in line.

5. Emoji Dancing

Emojis are great fun, but who knew they could be incorporated into a dance activity? Students are required to come up with a dance that mimics an emoji so as to express that particular emotion or theme. To make it easier, choose a song that matches a given emoji. For example, if the emoji is happy, select an upbeat song.

Learn More: Gogogym

6. Follow The Song

Listen to the lyrics and follow the directions given by the singer! This activity is great for middle school-level learners and is guaranteed to get them moving. Turn it into a game by having teachers monitor the movements of learners and disqualify anyone who puts a foot out of place.

Learn More:  Youtube

7. Memory Moves

Get your middle schoolers moving and grooving with this awesome game! Start by arranging them in a circle before prompting one player to move to the center and perform a dance move. Next, have the player beside them repeat the first move and then add on one of their own. This cycle will continue until one of your pupils forgets a step or messes up the rhythm.

Learn More: Kim and Kalee

8. Musical Chairs

This classic dance contest is perfect for school dances! To begin, students should all be standing and dancing to the beat of the music. A teacher then pauses the song and students rush to find a seat. Students without a seat are out and as the rounds progress, more and more chairs are removed. The last person to sit on the final chair is the winner.

Learn More:  Party Games 4 Kids

9. Elimination Dance

With just a dash of imagination, you can easily create a super fun dance game for your kids to enjoy. Try using a starting point like solving a problem to help you conceptualize your game. For example, in Elimination Dance, you’ll call out random descriptions like “students with glasses” to prompt those players to stop dancing and leave the dance floor.

Learn More: Dance Teaching Ideas

10. Do The Macarena

The Macarena is a wonderful dance idea for students. Remember that one move in the dance corresponds to one beat in the song. Before starting, put on a demonstration so that students have an opportunity to learn the moves.

Learn More:  YouTube

11. Dance Move Switch Up

This activity will require your pupils to try their hand at different dance styles. As the music plays, call out various styles that you’ll challenge them to impersonate. Dance genres can be anything from ballet to salsa and if you’re struggling to think of ideas, check out this list of dance styles to inspire your creativity.

Learn More: Harlequin Floors

12. Square Dance

The square dance is an awesome introduction to line dancing. The fun video demonstration is easy to follow and guides students through exactly what is expected of them. Once you feel they have the hang of it, turn off the video and switch over to a country music song for them to practice their moves.

Learn More: Youtube

13. Spot Dance

Your learners are in for a whole lot of fun with this awesome elimination game. Invite them to take to the dancefloor and shake it while you play some music. While they’re busting out their best moves, use a flashlight to shine a light on one person at a time. When the light hits them, they’ll need to freeze and stop dancing until you move it off of them.

Learn More: Twinkl

14. Dance The Conga

The conga is the perfect dance for getting the party started. It involves all learners in an enjoyable routine whereby they form a conga line by placing their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them.

15. Balance A Book

To prepare, ensure that you have a few lightweight books. Participating students are each to balance a book atop their head whilst dancing around. Players who have their book fall, are eliminated from the game.

16. Play Limbo

Two students are required to hold either end of a stick. Participating students should then move their bodies under the bar without bending forward or touching them with any body part. As the game progress, the stick should be moved further and further downward. Players who touch the bar, lose the game.

Learn More:  Kid Spot

17. Chicken Dance

The chicken dance is great for including reluctant dancers! Even the most uncoordinated of students will have a ball participating in this activity. It simply requires students to watch the video and follow along- dancing like a chicken as they do so.

18. YMCA Dance

Just like the chicken dance, this YMCA dance video is sure to have your learners all moving and grooving! This song is a classic and will even motivate parent volunteers to get involved.

19. Musical Statues

Musical statues are played by pausing a song and having learners freeze at the same time. Anyone who doesn’t freeze on time or moves in the paused interim is disqualified and must sit out.

Learn More:  Childhood 101

20. Lip Sync Competition

Incorporate a lip sync battle into your middle school dance lineup. The activity tests learners’ muscle memory and is a fun way of encouraging students to loosen up and enjoy themselves.

21. Dance Battle

Middle schoolers are naturally competitive and a fun way to channel that energy is through a fun dance battle! Randomly pair students up to battle it out seeing who can outdance the other! Teachers, parents, and other learners can join up to be judges.

22. Dance Charades

Dance charades are similar to the classic word-guessing game. Only with this version, participants are required to dance out their words instead of acting them out.

Learn More:  E-How

23. Dance Island

Dance island requires that learners invent a fun dance routine, but are limited to performing it within the parameters of a relatively small square space. Teachers can monitor and eliminate students who step out of their block. The last person in their square or the one with the best dance wins!

Learn More:  Ice Breaker Ideas

24. Air Guitar Competition

Air guitar requires participants to imitate the guitar portion of a given song or songs. The students can play this competitively so that the student with the best imitation, wins a prize!

25. Music Trivia

This is a wonderful game for students to group up and work together to answer the questions correctly. Not only will it foster team spirit, but it certainly helps students break the ice at the beginning of the dance before moving on to have a groove on the dance floor.

Learn More:  Fun Trivia

Dance: Middle School

Introduction

The 2015-2016 academic year will mark the first implementation of statewide standards for middle school dance and the first time the dance Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) have expanded beyond high school. As your quest to share the arts with more students continues, you will want to look into the new standards with enthusiasm and a discerning eye.

The TEKS affect dance education by articulating what students must learn. Students who learn the middle school dance TEKS will be one step closer to being productive, curious, knowledgeable adults who can work collaboratively with others. Instruction aligned with the dance TEKS includes independent discovery, critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, and cooperative learning. Learning dance technique is about the independent discovery of mentally making muscles move in a different way. Choreography involves problem solving which requires high levels of thinking. Group projects involving research on history and culture increase collaborative learning skills.

The purpose of dance education is "to broadly educate all students in dance as an art form in all its facets—to teach students to know about dance and to use the artistic processes inherent in dance. This purpose distinguishes educational dance from all other types of dance instruction. Teachers of K‐12 dance are to inspire students to inquire into dance as art and acquire artistic skills in creating, performing, and responding." (McCutchen, 2006). Educational dance is for all children. It broadly educates and embraces all aspects of dance that have educational value. It increases aesthetic education and affects the total education of a child.

"The mantra of educational dance is INSPIRE, INQUIRE and ACQUIRE!" Brenda Pugh McCutchen

The middle school years present students with many challenges. Students experience rapidly changing bodies and social relationships, along with new academic demands. The study of dance and dancers may help students explore aspects of body image and gain confidence in daily life. Teachers at the middle school level should be aware of and sensitive to these developments and base curricular decisions on the developmental needs of their students. In addition, dance education helps adolescents reach an understanding of how people come to identify themselves later in adult life, as dancers along with whatever other roles they will eventually fill.

How the TEKS affect dance

• Independent discovery
• Problem-solving
• Collaborating

The purpose of dance education

The study of dance may help adolescents to have confidence in the face of:

• Rapidly changing bodies
• Rapidly changing social relationships
• New academic demands

McCutchen, B. 2006. Teaching Dance as Art in Education. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Design of the Dance TEKS

The design of the Dance Middle School 1–3 TEKS provides both horizontal and vertical alignment of learning. Increased student expectations at course level are communicated in a variety of ways including the sophistication of language used to describe knowledge and skills, the scope of knowledge and skills, and the depth of understanding in students' evaluation and response.

The TEKS define what students should know and be able to do in all foundation and enrichment subject areas. Student expectations are based on careful consideration of the cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development of adolescents.

Dance concepts and principles function interdependently in the TEKS. Although certain concepts and skills are taught and learned in isolation, they are all integrated in performance. A solid understanding of how the elements of dance are related is crucial in creating artistic performance based on classwork.

In this module on middle school dance, you will explore the revised middle school dance TEKS , identify the benefits of the standards for dance education in Texas, and practice developing short lessons based on the middle school dance TEKS.

• Explore the revised dance TEKS
• Identify the benefits of the standards for dance education
• Develop short lessons based on the middle school dance TEKS

Overview of the Strands for Middle School Dance

The four strands for middle and high school dance include the creative expression strand, which is divided into two sub‐strands:

Dance Strands

Foundations: Perception

Creative Expression: Artistic Process

Creative Expression: Performance

Historical and Cultural Relevance

Critical Evaluation and Response

Please take a moment to peruse the Dance, Middle School 1‐3 TEKS in the middle school dance TEKS alignment chart . What are some of the similarities and differences you notice between the strands and levels? Download the interactive PDF to record your thoughts.

This module will focus on the Dance, Middle School 1, 2, and 3 TEKS. The course discovery middle school dance resource will help you get an overview of the Dance, Middle School 1, 2, and 3 courses and examples of what each course might look like in the classroom. Take a moment to review the three charts before we discuss each strand. Keep the charts handy as you may want to refer back to them as we review each strand.

Throughout the dance TEKS, the Foundations: perception strand articulates the expectation that students will develop their own kinesthetic awareness. Students learn their boundaries for personal space while working individually and in groups. They define body science applications through dance genres, styles, and vocabulary. They identify dance movement elements through space, energy and time, and learn the importance of a healthy lifestyle.

• Kinesthetic and spatial awareness
• Genres and styles
• Health, safety, and wellness

Let's look at an example of a lesson experience that focuses on the Foundations: perception strand for Dance, Middle School 1. An activity that provides an opportunity for students to demonstrate one of the student expectations from Dance, Middle School 1 (c)(1)(a) should demonstrate basic kinesthetic and spatial awareness individually and in groups. Take a quick peek at this same standard from middle school Dance 1 in the middle school dance TEKS alignment chart through high school Dance IV in the high school dance TEKS alignment chart . What do you notice about the similarities? The student standard is that the "student will discover kinesthetic and spatial awareness individually while walking with other students in the classroom."

In this lesson, the teacher invites students to move around each other throughout the space with a variety of different walks. The teacher will play different music or drums while suggesting walks that change in size (from large to small), tempo (from fast to slow), level (from low to high), and dynamics (from happy to sad). The teacher then asks students to carefully observe their surroundings, making eye contact with others around them. Students should create arm shapes, pause, and create unique pathways. The teacher encourages dancers to explore the entire space or not; the choice is theirs. Now students find a partner, connect in some manner, and repeat the exercise. The students should be observing and internalizing the differences in walking individually and in pairs. Once both experiences are finished, the class should discuss their observations and the differences. The teacher visually assesses each student throughout the lesson and may reteach later. The teacher may ask questions:

• What are some other traveling movements that might be used for this lesson?
• What were some reasons you chose a particular pathway to travel?
• What inspired your shapes, pauses, and space usage choices?

Review course discovery Middle School 1 dance to view how the Foundations: perception strand is taught in Dance, Middle School 1. You may also wish to view the examples provided to see what teaching with the revised middle school dance TEKS looks like in a classroom.

The Creative expression: artistic process strand is focused on the expression of ideas and emotions through and within movements, using the elements of dance and choreographic processes. One way to capitalize on this process is through the use of guided improvisation which encourages students to explore, express, emote, and create.

Now let's look at an example of a lesson experience that focuses on the Creative expression: artistic process strand. With this experience, students begin to combine movements rhythmically, spatially, and artfully to create dances. Students experiment with ways to create dance movements from everyday gestures and human movements. Students consider movements such as washing their face, brushing their hair, dropping something, grabbing something, pushing something away, walking, and pausing. Students take 10‐15 minutes to create personal movement sequences from their experimentations. The teacher gives a number of counts for the length of the sequences. Students demonstrate their sequences to the class who may even attempt to identify the original gestures in each other's movement sequences. This activity allows for guided improvisation, demonstrating original movement. The teacher visually assesses while the students are creating the movement sequence. The teacher uses the responses from the students to further discussion, and may ask the following questions:

• What were some of the reasons you chose the original gestures?
• What are some ways we might gesture in choreographing a dance?

The gesture activity lets students demonstrate Dance, Middle School 1 (c)(2)(B) define knowledge of dance composition elements, improvisation skills, and choreographic processes; and (C) identify movement studies using rhythmical skills and spatial directions. The student objective is to use human gestures to express an idea in a movement sequence. View the course discovery Middle School 1 dance to see how the Creative expression: artistic process strand is taught in Dance, Middle School 1. You may also wish to view the examples provided to see what teaching with the revised TEKS looks like in a Dance, Middle School 1 classroom.

What does this quote mean to you when thinking about the middle school dance TEKS?

"Do not forget – never forget it! – that dance-educational work is an artistically conditioned task." Mary Wigman

The Creative expression: performance strand is focused on the development of the quality of movement, memorization of movement sequences, communication through performance, rhythmic accuracy, proper skeletal alignment, conditioning, warm‐up and cool down practices, as well as opening the door to a larger variety of dance genres (for example, ballet, modern/contemporary, tap, jazz, musical theatre dance, and world dance forms) for study.

• Quality of movement
• Memorization of movement sequences
• Communication through performance
• Rhythmic accuracy
• Skeletal alignment
• Warm up and cool down
• Survey of genres

For example, let's look at an activity with focus on the Creative expression: performance strand. Consider the student expectation articulated in Dance, Middle School 2 (c)(3)(A) explore and demonstrate various dance genres and styles such as ballet, jazz, tap, modern dance, musical theatre dance, and world dance forms. The student objective is to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the jazz dance genre. Students will learn a short jazz combination. The teacher will provide 10–15 minutes for students to add their own jazz dance choreography to the combination. They are expected to stay within the boundaries of jazz movement and not mix genres. The teacher facilitates a discussion regarding important factors that define jazz movement, and then students perform their completed combinations in small groups in front of the audience (their classmates). The teacher visually assesses the students while they are showing their jazz add‐on. Students self‐assess their ability to create jazz by writing in their journals, reflecting on the difficulty or ease of this assignment, and noting new learnings or insights. The teacher may ask the following questions:

• What are some reasons jazz is important to dance in America?
• What have been some major influences on the jazz dance style?
• What were some challenges you faced in keeping the additional choreography in the same style?

A teacher reflection: What movements from other dance genres as well as jazz did students use? How might this experience be used to build another lesson?

View the course discovery Middle School 2 dance to see how the Creative expression: performance strand is taught in Dance, Middle School 2. You may also wish to view the examples provided to see what teaching with the revised TEKS looks like in a Dance, Middle School 2 classroom.

The Historical and cultural relevance strand asks students to demonstrate an understanding of cultural, historical, and artistic diversity. Students will perform the characteristics of dances from several diverse cultures or historical periods, perform dance phrases or dances from several time periods with an understanding of historical and social contexts, and identify historical figures and their significance in dance history.

• Diverse cultures or historical periods
• Historical and social contexts
• Historical figures
• Significance in dance history

An example of a lesson experience that focuses on the Historical and cultural relevance strand in Middle School Dance 2 is an activity which addresses the student expectation in Dance, Middle School 2 (c)(4)(C) where a student would perform a dance representing one's heritage or environment. The student objective is to use knowledge of Texas history to create a dance. Students identify a particular event in Texas history or a historical character in Texas history to portray through dance. Students brainstorm various movements they want to include and may look for images from class resources. Some students may want to be literal with pantomime, gesture, props, and accurate time period clothing. Others may want to be more abstract with an image or emotion. Some may want to depict the event through abstract movement. Each student's movement experience should last 30–45 seconds. Audience members identify the Texas event being depicted in the dance. For reflection, the teacher might ask questions such as the following:

• What were some reasons you chose the event(s) you did?
• What were some images you considered but decided not to use?
• How would your dance have been different if you had used them?
• What are some other events in history that could be danced about?
• What examples do we know of in which Texans already dance about their history or heritage?
• What are some possible benefits of dancing about history and our heritage?

A great opportunity to provide interdisciplinary connections is to have the students write about what they discovered about their Texas heritage in conjunction with their studies in seventh grade Texas History. The teacher assesses visually and notes responses from students while they are performing as well as while they are serving as audience members. Which other TEKS would correspond with this lesson? Refer again to the course discovery Middle School 2 dance to view how the Historical and cultural relevance strand is taught. You may also wish to view the examples provided to see what teaching with the revised TEKS looks like in a Dance, Middle School 2 classroom.

Take a moment to reflect on the questions that Elliot Eisner has posed, substituting dance where he refers to art.

Most curriculums pay no attention at all to aesthetics, a branch of philosophy that deals with questions like, "What is art? Must all art be beautiful? Does art provide knowledge?" . . . somewhere between kindergarten and twelfth grade students ought to be introduced to such questions in order to participate in an intellectual dialogue that's been going on for two thousand years. Elliot Eisner (Brandt, 1987)

• What is dance?
• Must all dance be beautiful?
• Does dance provide knowledge?

These questions are important to consider when we think about the Critical evaluation and response strand.

The Critical evaluation and response strand describes the informed personal judgments students make about dance forms, their meaning, and their roles in society. These judgments occur through the use of appropriate movement vocabulary when identifying qualities of movements and discussions of the meanings of performances and dance productions. Students also demonstrate appropriate audience etiquette in the classroom and at performances as well as identify relationships between dance and other content areas.

Critical evaluation and response

• Personal judgments
• Qualities and meaning
• Appropriate etiquette
• Relationships between dance and other content areas

Brandt, Ron. On Discipline-Based Art Education: A Conversation with Elliot Eisner Educational Leadership v45 n4 Dec-Jan 1987-88: 6-9. Print.

Critical Evaluation and Response (Lesson Experience)

An example of a lesson experience that focuses on the Critical evaluation and response strand is centered on American choreographers. This activity provides opportunities for students to learn the student expectation stated in Dance, Middle School 3 (c)(5)(C) compare and contrast the content and choreographic structures used by various American choreographers.

The student objective is to use compare and contrast to discern artistic decision making. For the lesson experience, students choose a dance genre in which to study the artistic decisions made by choreographers within the genre. Students use the technology of their choice for research. Students consider how the choreographers' styles, purposes, and intents differ from one another. They reflect on how different choreographers compose their choreography, how their choreography is presented, and whether or not the choreographers created a new technique within the dance genre. Students determine their means of presentation—from multi‐media to choreography to visual hard copy. The teacher assesses the written work as well as meets with the students individually for personal evaluation and response to the project. Students also give the teacher the notes taken while researching the project. The teacher may use the following reflective questions:

• What are some ways the work of the various choreographers appears to differ drastically?
• What are some aspects they have in common?
• Why did you choose the choreographer you did?
• What were some reasons for the choices they made?
• What if they had made different choices? How might that have affected the outcome?

Lesson experience

Decision: American Choreographers

• Blankenbuehler

View the course discovery Middle School 3 dance to see how the Critical evaluation and response strand is taught in Dance, Middle School 3. You may also wish to view the examples provided to see what teaching with the revised TEKS looks like in a Dance, Middle School 3 classroom.

Planning Lessons for Middle School Dance Classes

Now it is your turn. Choose one of the revised middle school dance TEKS to work with at any level. Develop a short lesson that would help students demonstrate this standard and student expectation.

• How does the student expectation you selected change from Middle School 1 to Middle School 2 to Middle School 3?
• How might you differentiate your teaching/lesson plans for each level?

Review the strands below.

Curriculum Development

A variety of strategies can be used to prepare for curriculum development based on the TEKS. Effective curriculum development processes generally occur over time and begin with reading the TEKS and discussing them with colleagues. The curriculum development process might proceed with an evaluation of current instruction, curriculum, and program design.

Consider the following questions:

• What are the current goals of the dance program?
• How are they aligned with the TEKS?
• How do current goals need to be revised?
• To what extent can sequenced content be traced through all three levels of middle school and four levels of high school dance?

Download the interactive PDF to record your responses to the questions about curriculum development.

The Revised TEKS with Special Education Considerations

Accommodations for Section 504 and students receiving special education services are made on a regular basis by dance teachers, allowing all students to take part in dance instruction. It is imperative that dance teachers, along with all other teachers, be provided with professional development regarding required accommodations in order to make the connections of learning across all disciplines.

Having the dance teacher participate in the student's Individualized Education Program (IEP) or Section 504 plan can offer a different and valuable viewpoint regarding the student’s learning and participation in school. Dance teachers can give valuable input as to how the dance TEKS might assist in the student's overall achievement.

Additionally, dance teachers need to be aware of accommodations for their students and have access to the resources needed to provide these in their classrooms.

Accommodations may include:

• peer- or teacher-assisted movement or support during dance moves,
• special equipment to provide support and proper alignment during dance moves, and
• more one-on-one time with the teacher to learn complex choreography.

Some examples of opportunities for inclusion for students with special needs might include:

• helping the student who is dyslexic develop direction and order in a different way through movement,
• helping the student with a learning disability in math with fractions by explaining the division of sounds in a beat in a rhythmic phrase through tap, and
• helping the student who struggles emotionally find their creative outlet and voice through dance.

These, and so many more examples, are ways that the revised dance TEKS guide teachers to develop student skills by using kinesthetic, aural/oral, and visual techniques to address all learning styles and reach all learners.

The Revised TEKS with Considerations for English Language Learners (ELLs)

Teachers will benefit from evaluating students' use of language in the four linguistic domains.

The Four Language Domains

Listening is the ability to understand spoken language, comprehend and extract information, and follow social and instructional discourse through which information is provided.

Speaking is the ability to use spoken language appropriately and effectively in learning activities and social interactions.

Reading is the ability to comprehend and interpret written text at the grade-appropriate level.

Writing is the ability to produce written text with content and format to fulfill grade-appropriate classroom assignments.

In English Language Proficiency Standards (c)(2), the ELL student is expected to demonstrate the following skills:

• Listen to and derive meaning from a variety of media such as audio tape, video, DVD, and CD ROM to build and reinforce concept and language attainment
• Speak using learning strategies such as requesting assistance, employing non-verbal cues, and using synonyms and circumlocution (conveying ideas by defining or describing when exact English words are not known)
• Use prereading supports such as graphic organizers, illustrations, and pretaught topic-related vocabulary and other prereading activities to enhance comprehension of written text
• Write using newly acquired basic vocabulary and content-based grade-level vocabulary

The revised dance TEKS directly call for skills in all of these areas. For example, language is needed to view dance and write a critique, read a text for a song and understand its poetic or literary meaning to use in dance composition, or simply learn dance terminology. All of these activities can help ELLs build English language skills without feeling singled-out or embarrassed.

The beauty of dance is that the physical "language" is universal. Everyone can move and communicate through movement so that anyone can understand without saying, reading or writing a word. Movement is easily modified to be inclusive for all learners. The arts are inherently inclusive, differentiated, and universal.

There are many new opportunities to connect students with dance. Dance education encourages 21st century learning, college and career readiness, and most importantly, creativity. Learning and innovation skills are being recognized as the skills that separate students who are prepared for increasingly complex life and work environments in the 21st century from those who are not. Focusing on creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration is essential to prepare students for the future, and dance taught with the TEKS in mind addresses each of those. There is more information on how dance inherently includes and supports these skills in the "The Value of Dance Education: Applying the Revised TEKS" module within this online course.

Extend Your Learning: Tools and Resources

Here are a few resources that will be beneficial to creating and developing your program. Take a moment to review each one. You may wish to bookmark these resources or some of the others used in this module, such as the middle school dance TEKS alignment chart or the course discovery middle school dance . Thank you very much for joining us on this journey.

Tools and Resources

• ArtsEdge Lesson Finder http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/lessons
• A study of hand movement and gesture in dance and everyday activities http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At_gSZO9lJ4
• Middle School Fine Arts TEKS http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter117/index.html

Professional Development Opportunities for Dance Teachers

Texas Dance Educators Association http://www.tdea.org/

Copy and paste the link code above.

Related Items

Games to Play at a Middle School Dance

Ice Breaker Games for Middle School

A middle school dance should include some games to create an environment in which the students can have fun and connect. Not everyone who attends a middle school dance will feel comfortable. Games provide a way for those students to be a part of the dance and to mingle. Games also help provide direction for the event; otherwise you may have a lot of middle-schoolers standing around.

Guess Who uses information not commonly known by students about their teachers. Students must match statements to teachers. Divide students into teams, based on the tables where they are sitting. Bring four teachers on stage and read a question such as, “Did you know this teacher received a 'D' when he/she was in seventh grade?” Have each group write down whom they think the statement is about. After about 10 statements, reveal the correct answers one by one, adding an element of suspense to the game. Award a prize to the group with the most correct questions.

Autograph Game

The Autograph Game is an excellent ice breaker. Prepare a sheet with 20 statements about activities that some of the students may have done, but most have not. For example, write statements such as, “has skipped school pretending to be sick,” “has never received anything lower than a B” and “transferred in from a different school.” The objective is to have the students find other students who have taken part in a particular activity. When a student is found, he autographs the line next to the statement. The first student to fill up her paper is the winner.

Musical Chairs

Talk with the DJ before the dance. Let her know that you’ve planned to play Musical Chairs. After the game is announced, have everyone take a chair and form two lines, with chairs back to back. Take one chair away. Instruct everyone else to stand up and wait for the music. When the music begins, everyone begins moving clockwise. Once the music stops, everyone has to find a chair to sit in. The person left standing is “out.” Remove another chair and start the music again. Play this game until two people remain to fight for the last seat.

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Ideas for Elementary School Assemblies

Joey Papa lives in the Tampa Bay area, and has four years of experience as a professional copywriter. His years of experience and a bachelor's degree in communications from Oral Roberts University, provide him with creativity, technique and a comprehensive viewpoint to complete a wide array of writing styles.

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Dti can take your dance education activities from good to great, this is what membership with dti can do for you..

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• Connect with a global community of teachers, dancers, and artists
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• We support all teachers to use dance to engage, inspire, and motivate children.

What are the benefits of using Dance in the Primary classroom?

• Dance promotes pupils’ holistic development, well being and motivation to learn at school. • Dance has positive effects on learning—challenging and versatile forms of physical activity appear to be the best way to boost cognitive performance. • It combines physical activity, expression of feelings, social interaction and cultural participation. • It helps build children’s confidence and self esteem. • Dance develops social skills. • Movement has a positive effect on social interaction, group spirit and sense of empowerment in groups, especially where pupils do not have a common spoken language. • Dance can also assist in preventing mental problems and social exclusion among children. • Rather than individualistic competitive achievement, it focuses on cooperation and group cohesion.

• Dance avoids the valuation, comparisons and competitiveness connected to physical education. Such comparisons may lead to a negative perception of one’s physical competence and can reduce the motivation for movement and exercise. • Encourages freedom of expression not available in other activities.

Dance in the classroom is an exciting and engaging way for your lessons to come to life.  

How can Dance Teaching Ideas help you in the classroom?

Here at  Dance Teaching Ideas  we’re passionate about supporting teachers and parents in making learning joyful, effective and inclusive.

DTI was created to assist primary teachers and home-schooling parents in developing and implementing high quality, inclusive dance and Arts lessons. Classrooms, at school and at home, will benefit from the energy, joy and enriched learning that comes from engaging in the Arts.

With Premium DTI Membership you have access to dance activities, complete lesson plans and in class resources that you can use immediately in your classroom.  The articles, by experienced dance educators, support you implementing dance and movement in your classroom.

Engaging with the Arts is part of a comprehensive education that raises emotionally skilled people to promote a healthy society.  Children who investigate, explore and imagine, learn how to be   adaptive in a constantly changing environment . 

How can DTI help if you’re a Primary teacher?

Dance Teaching Ideas provides ongoing support to introduce or continue with dance in your classroom. If you are just starting to connect with the Arts at an Australian curriculum level, dance is a great way to begin.

With fun, physical and written activities that are easy to implement and encourage student engagement, your classroom will have the productive energy that all primary teachers love.

The lessons are shared ideas,  as a way to solve the  teaching issues that each of us experience.  They solve the problem of developing more and more learning resources.

The free articles and lesson plans show you how to structure safe dance  activities,   warm up ideas , getting the most out of a  rehearsal  and much more.

How can I develop literacy skills through dance?

Many of the ideas for classroom activities on  Dance Teaching Ideas  are linked to developing skills in literacy. Students’ motivation to learn is enhanced when they are engaged in an activity that they really enjoy doing.

John Hattie, researcher and education guru, sees “skill, will, and thrill” as being crucial to encouraging a love of learning in students. Hattie asserts, “In fact, if we can increase their sense of love of learning, the thrill, we can increase their sense of self.”

Discussion, feedback and reflection are the tools of the dance artist and promote literacy at a deeper level.

The activities and resources in Dance Teaching Ideas provide written and oral evidence of learning.This is so important in an achievement based, learning intention driven education system. 

It is equally important that this doesn’t take away  from your students’ meaningful arts experiences.  These teaching ideas can be easily adapted to your individual classroom specifically for your students.

How can DTI help if you’re a home schooling parent?

Dance Teaching Ideas helps home schooled children learn through the Arts. It places you along side your child as a maker of art. This creates a supported learning environment in your home and encourages children to try a range of approaches to problem solving.

Dance is a great way to learn about many areas of the curriculum and allows you to enjoy   creating together.

These are Dance activities you can do at home!

The ideas for dance activities presented in the articles and in free lesson plans and resources, demonstrate how  children can make meaning and learn about their world . Arts learning can be messy, elusive and unpredictable at times and  Dance Teaching Ideas  creates a road map to help you navigate the curriculum and its implementation.

There are  short dance activities    that can be done to introduce physical activity and longer  dance and movement lessons   that link to key curriculum areas.

Interviews with distance educators and seasoned home schoolers support you on your dance journey and keep your children active and creative. Learning should be fun for everyone and dance can enliven your home classroom .

Recent Articles in 2021

Using Collaboration to Engage Middle School Students in Dance

by shannondoolingdances | Nov 29, 2014 | For Dance Teachers | 0 comments

Why is dance beneficial in middle schools?

Teaching dance in a middle school was an adventure like no other. All of my research and years of experience teaching in other settings didn’t quite seem to prepare me for the challenges (and joys) of working with this population. While dance can have tremendous benefits for middle school students in K-12 schools, I found that my usual teaching style wasn’t effective in this setting. Teaching middle school dance required that I rethink my approach to dance education, especially when it came to collaboration.

There is no question that dance can have a tremendous impact when introduced into the curriculum. In “ Evidence: A Report on the Impact of Dance in America’s K-12 Schools, ” we learned that dance can have many benefits in the school setting. Dance can:

• Offer opportunities to engage different kinds of learning styles, especially kinesthetic learning (p. 10)
• Allow for multiple perspectives (p. 11)
• Encourage sustained attention (p. 12)
• Enhance learning in other subjects (pp. 13 – 18)
• Offer neurological benefits (pp. 37-46)
• Assist in the development of empathy (pp. 44-45)

However, I quickly learned that simply offering a dance program or classes to middle school students does not guarantee a positive impact in the school setting.  If middle school students are not engaged in their dance classes, then those benefits are lost.

Why don’t middle school students engage in dance class?

From my personal experience and in my research, I found the following reasons why middle school students may not always engage in their dance classes:

• Students are experiencing rapid physical, social, cognitive, and emotional changes that may affect their feelings toward physicality, movement, and expression and result in an an evolving, fluid sense of self.
• According to the California Science Teacher Association, “They want to know how what we teach relates to them, not as people, but as tweens.” Many students cannot find a direct connection between dance and their everyday lives.
• Students are discovering sexuality, which can make physicality and movement both intimidating and exciting.
• Also according to the California Science Teacher Association, “Adolescents seldom stop to contemplate. They storm through life.” Because of this, they go on to say, middle school students are, “easily bored.” The repetition and practice needed to learn and refine dance technique can be tedious for this age group.
• Students are experiencing a growing awareness of peer and societal pressures. Middle schoolers are more susceptible to peer and societal pressures that indicate dance is not cool or exciting.
• The social dynamics in middle school are constantly evolving. Given students’ growing awareness and peer and societal pressures, these changing social dynamics can impact how a student feels about dance on any given day.
• Students have a complex relationship to authority figures at this stage of development. They both need and resent guidelines, boundaries, and rules set by teachers and another authority figures. This can make leading a dance class with students of this age challenging.

How can dance teachers use collaboration to engage middle school students?

Based on my previous teaching experience in the Higher Education and Private Sectors, I knew that collaborative dance activities often prove useful in helping to engage reluctant students. Collaboration in the dance studio can:

• Allow for differentiated learning
• Allow for students to help and support one another
• Provide safe opportunities for self-expression, improvisation, discussion, and risk-taking within the context of a partnership or a small group, rather than in front of an entire class
• Help students develop social skills and navigate the social landscape

Most importantly, collaboration is student-centered; that is, it takes focus off teacher as “authority figure” and allows the students to take ownership of the class and their learning.

Is collaboration always the answer in middle school dance classes?

After just a few weeks in middle school, I realized that my tried-and-true approaches to collaborative dance were not working as well in this setting as they had in others. I found myself questioning the role of collaboration in the middle school dance studio. Why do collaborative activities not always lead to increased student engagement in the middle school setting?

• Students are wrestling with their identity, which can impact their ability to work cooperatively with others, and the emphasis on socialization in the middle school setting can interfere with productivity while working in collaborative groups.
• Social dynamics in middle school can change from week to week, which can make long term collaborative activities difficult.
• Some students just don’t like dance, while for other students, dance is everything – the tension between these two extremes can be overwhelming in middle school.
• No matter how you differentiate, you could be asking for trouble. By grouping students by interest or skill level, you can accidentally alienate those without strong interest or skill. Creating more diverse groups can lead to tension.
• Without the familiarity of desks, chairs, and other classroom boundaries, students can be more likely to push behavioral boundaries as well.
• Students’ strategies for dealing with physical, cognitive, or social differences may or may not be developed yet. Without these skills, students can have a difficult time working in diverse groups.
• Students’ brainstorming, trial-and-error, feedback, and revision skills may or may not be there yet. Without these skills, students can have a difficult time engaging in long-term collaborative projects.

How can you improve the impact of collaboration in middle school dance classes?

I knew, from my past teaching experiences, that collaboration can work in myriad environments. It was clear that my activities weren’t working in this particular setting, however. I spent significant time and effort considering how I approached collaboration with the students. I made the following determinations:

• A student-centered approach is a collaborative approach.
• Responding to individual and group needs is an act of collaboration.
• Collaboration involves keeping the needs of the students at the heart of the class, ahead of any one teaching style or method.
• Collaborative activities are only effective when they enhance the learning. Insisting on group work or collaboration when it does not make sense for the learning goals often backfires as it feels disingenuous or irrelevant to students.
• Individual work can be more of a collaborative challenge during this stage of development and in this educational setting than group work. As students learn to work effectively on their own, especially given their fluid identities, and they begin to share their work with others, they will learn powerful lessons about self-expression and respectful communication.
• Setting and enforcing boundaries creates the potential for a safe, collaborative atmosphere. While middle schoolers will complain about teacher-driven boundaries, they secretly know they really need them. It is my job as an educator to honor their immaturity as much as I honor their maturity.

In order to try to make this theoretical approach a reality in my classroom, I had to remind myself of some very basic tenants of teaching. The following mantras proved helpful:

• Listen. (Do much less talking.)
• Observe. (Do much less judging.)
• Model. (Do much less assuming.)

I’m still working on applying this reflection into my teaching practice. I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I’d like to share a few of the activities that I implemented as a result of this reflective practice, as well as some thoughts on why each one worked (or not).

Examples of collaborative dance activities to use in middle school classes

Example one: a baroque-era spectacle activity.

• Curricular Theme: Community
• Essential Questions: How was Baroque-era spectacles the cultural, social, and political values of the people who created and performed it? What does it mean to modernize the dances and spectacles of the European Renaissance? How can we reflect our own cultural, social, and political values through artistic expression by modernizing the dances and spectacles of the European Renaissance?
• Project Description: Working as a class, choose a myth or folk tale that can serve as an allegory for a contemporary issue, just as King Louis XIV used the myth of Apollo to show his rise to power over his dissenter. Create choreography, music, and spectacle that relate the myth non-verbally.
• Introduction to King Louis XIV through discussion and video provided context
• Student-selected working groups –props, sets, music
• Character-created choreography was comfortable for students
• More teacher direction
• Integration with Humanities faculty to highlight curricular connection
• Follow student lead – scale up or scale down
• Monitor social dynamics – get support when intervention is necessary
• Set clearer expectation for choreography – how can I safely push them out of the comfort zone
• Schedule – how much collaboration is happening in other classes?

EXAMPLE TWO: FOSSE-STYLE DANCE WITH A TWIST ACTIVITY

• Curricular Theme: Identity
• Unit: Famous Choreographers
• Unit Essential Question: How have some well-known choreographers used dance to express aspects of their identity?
• Short Project Description: Be inspired by the videos of Bob Fosse’s dancing and choreography and create your own short Fosse-inspired dance with a partner or own your own!
• Materials needed: A piece of clothing or accessory that is significant to you and can be used as a prop in your dance, such as a scarf, hat, jacket, gloves, sports equipment, ribbon, bag or purse, etc. Think about something that makes you feel special, important, or good about yourself, like wearing a hat and gloves made Fosse feel more secure about his appearance and helped him find his choreographic genius!
• Accessibility and familiarity of Fosse’s film and stage work
• Connection to curriculum (identity)
• Connection to “tween” experience
• Collaborative Design – student driven, teacher designed
• Option to work individually, with partner, or with small group
• Expectation of individual expression, even if working with group
• Scaffolding, clear expectations, written brainstorms and checklists, teacher feedback throughout
• Class ownership – they controlled the pace and timing of the activity through their enthusiastic response to the project
• Explain and model “special items” in advance
• Make space and time for discussion and manipulation of special items
• Support student interest in lighting, design, and filming further with more facilities and time investment

EXAMPLE THREE: PROTEST DANCE UNIT

• Unit: Protest Dance
• Essential Questions: How do individuals and communities use dance to respond to, raise awareness of, promote, or protest against issues that matter to them? Why do they choose dance? Why is dance an effective tool for protest?
• Part 1: Learn a variety of protest dances from instructor.
• Part 2: Watch your assigned video of a dance from the “One Billion Rising” protest movement. Learn the choreography and determine how you want to teach it to your classmates.
• Part 2: Be inspired by the dance you taught and those you learned from your peers. With your group, decide on a cause you would like to raise awareness about through the creation of a protest dance. Create a 2 minute dance with appropriate costumes, music, and scenery/props to help you get the message across.
• In part 1, students were introduced to “real world” applications of protest dance, making the topic and the project feel relevant
• In part 2, students took ownership of the material through the process of teaching
• Part 3 provided an opportunity to make a personal connection to the material
• The unit tied into their Curricular Theme, without being repetitive or too like other projects
• More time for discernment of cause, and more teacher support during process of selecting cause
• More instructor feedback during creative and rehearsal process
• More time for reflection on the effectiveness of the dance in raising awareness for the cause, and revision based on the reflection
• Clearer expectations about the incorporation of sets, costumes, props, etc.
• Allow for smaller, self-selected groups or individual work and/or spend more time on strategies for dealing with different work styles,  opinions, or dance experience
• Provide a formal performance opportunity

A final thought

Throughout this process, I realized that I had to treat myself as I would treat any fellow collaborators, and to set the same expectations of myself as I would have for others as well. These include:

• Lose the ego.
• Fail with integrity.
• Admit mistakes with good humor.
• “Ask for what you need.” (A very wise mantra at the school in which I was teaching.)
• Start each class new.
• Let others surprise you.
• Be a real person (they’ll know when you’re not.)

Resources for middle school dance classes

• The Dance Games Bundle  features 75 educational dance games that help your students learn through play. My middle school age students LOVE these games!
• The Holistic Collection of Dance Improvisation Prompts & Activities  includes 25 improvisation exercises that are perfect for middle school dancers.

Visit my Resources page for tools that support a holistic teaching and creative practice, sign up for my monthly  newsletter , or join me on Facebook at The Holistic Dance Teacher .

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‘Education has definitely been impacted’: Hoax bomb threats plague Nebo school after ‘furry’ outrage

The threats started april 19, two days after video of mt. nebo middle schoolers protesting “furries” began spreading in conservative social media circles..

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Nebo School District spokesperson Seth Sorensen speaks during a news conference at the Payson Police Department to address recent hoax bomb threats targeting Mt. Nebo Middle School in Payson on Wednesday, May 1, 2024.

In the two weeks since video of a student-led “furry” protest at Mt. Nebo Middle School spread in conservative social media circles , the school has received multiple hoax bomb threats that officials believe are tied to viral “furry outrage” stoked by the posts.

“Students’ education has definitely been impacted,” said Nebo School District spokesperson Seth Sorenson during a joint news conference Wednesday with Payson police. “However, we’re committed as a district to maintain a stable situation for all of our students.”

That’s why district officials announced Wednesday that they intend to keep the school open for the remainder of the academic year, despite the significant learning disruptions.

The bogus threats started April 19, two days after video depicting Mt. Nebo middle schoolers walking out of school began to circulate on far-right social media, with posts claiming the students were protesting because the district was allowing student “furries” to “terrorize” other students.

“Students claim that the furries bite them, bark at them, and pounce on them without repercussion,” one post read from Libs of TikTok , an account on X that shares anti-LGBTQ posts and other clips geared at generating right-wing outrage. “However, if they defend themselves in any way, they get in trouble.”

Sorenson asserted those claims were false, explaining that the student protest seemed to be organized after a message the school sent to families was misinterpreted. Sorenson has also said students at the middle school are not wearing full-body animal costumes to class, as “furries” — part of a subculture of people who sometimes dress up like animal characters but act like humans — are known to do.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Mt. Nebo Middle School in Payson on Thursday, April 18, 2024.

Two other subsequent hoax threats came to the school on April 23 and April 30, police said Wednesday. The Payson Police Department canvased the school with bomb detection dogs but found no devices or other materials.

After the April 30 threat was cleared, school officials allowed families to pick up their children early from Mt. Nebo. About 70% of students were picked up early that day, Sorenson said.

Payson police alongside federal law enforcement continue to investigate the hoax threats but have not yet identified who may be behind them.

“If we identify suspects, they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Payson police Sgt. Scott Hall said Wednesday.

That could include charging perpetrators with a second-degree felony after HB14 passed during this year’s legislative session, making falsely reporting an emergency at school a felony. If the perpetrator is found to be a public school student, the law mandates that they be suspended or expelled.

The district in the meantime has employed additional counseling resources for students who may be experiencing increased anxiety due to the threats, Sorenson said. More adult supervisors are also patrolling the school’s hallways, and extra police will remain on campus for the rest of the school year.

“Student safety is our top priority,” Sorenson said. “We want students to be safe and secure. And we want parents to feel confident sending their students to our schools, knowing that they’re going to be safe and protected.”

What led to the ‘furry’ protest, outrage

The message that Sorenson believes led to the April 17 student protest came after a group of students had been targeting another group of students at the school, saying things “that were overheard by others that the administration felt were inappropriate and shouldn’t be said,” Sorenson has said.

The group of students being targeted, he said, sometimes come to school wearing headbands “that may have ears on them.” He said he doesn’t think the targeted students necessarily refer to themselves as “furries.”

In one specific instance, the targeted students “were sitting in a corner of the lunchroom, eating as a group of friends” when others began calling them names and throwing food at them “because they were dressed differently,” Sorenson told The Salt Lake Tribune.

After word of the altercation spread, the initial message sent to families stated, “We expect ALL students to be respectful towards each other while we are here at school.”

“We hope you will treat others how you would like to be treated,” the message stated. “Outstanding behavior might demonstrate curiosity, understanding, patience and tolerance.”

The message also reiterated the school’s dress code policy as well as the school’s policy against written, verbal, or physical acts that stand to threaten, humiliate or abuse others.

But Sorenson said he thinks some parents misinterpreted the note, incorrectly taking it as a message that the school was “taking the side of a single group, saying, ‘We want you to be kind to this group, but they don’t have to be kind to anyone else.’”

“Nobody was taking the side of one group or another,” he said. “What we were saying is everyone needs to treat everyone else with respect.”

A few days later, the school sent another message to parents, trying to clarify its original note.

“We have had several parents reach out to us over the past few days, regarding rumors that are being spread about behaviors of a small group of students at our school,” the message read. “We hoped our efforts to clarify misconceptions would be sufficient, but it seems we still have some misunderstandings.”

The note concluded with an acknowledgement of rumored plans of the April 17 walkout protest.

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'Burning of your face and eyes' | WS/FCS families enraged after Flat Rock Middle School students were pepper sprayed at a dance

Some WS/FCS parents believe there was too much force used on middle school students.  

The district said an incident happened during a dance at Flat Rock Middle School on the night of Friday, May 3. 

The Forsyth County Sheriff's Office said a deputy used pepper spray to break up a fight among students.

"This is the memory that she has, the memory of having to help her fellow students get out of the gym. The memory of having milk poured all over your face to try and stop the burning of your face and eyes," Rejeana Ellis said. 

Ellis said her granddaughter is traumatized and she wasn't the only guardian frustrated by the turn of events.

 "This should've never happened, one of the teachers were pepper sprayed as well. She had actually had gotten into the middle of it," Sarah Cole said. 

She said her daughter called her while she was outside waiting to pick her up. Cole said the fight happened a few minutes before the end of the dance. 

"She was shaking, she was overwhelmed, it was just too much," Cole recalled, "There's a lot of kids that went through that and they have no idea how to react."

The sheriff's office said using pepper spray is common practice to de-escalate situations in schools. It started using pepper spray last school year. 

WS/FCS said they have identified the students responsible and plan to discipline them in  accordance with the code of character.

WS/FCS statement in full:

" We did have a student disturbance during a dance last evening. We have identified the students responsible and they will be disciplined in accordance with the Code of Character. My understanding is there were no injuries from the disturbance but some students were treated by medical professionals for the effects of the pepper spray fogger. You may recall, the use of foggers is not new, the FCSO made the decision to use them starting last school year.  If you need more on that you will need to reach out to them, we do not control what officers do and why . "

Forsyth County Sheriff's Office statement in full :

"OC spray is a tool that School Resource Officers (SRO) can use to de-escalate altercations within our schools.  Prior to the use of OC spray, Deputies give commands to break up the altercation, or OC will be deployed. If they do not heed the warning by the deputy, OC spray is then deployed. The use of OC spray is a minimal use of force that does not require our deputies to physically intervene to break up an altercation.  OC spray allows deputies to safely intervene, where by preventing the least amount of physical harm to the students as well as the deputies. It is our goal to ensure our schools are a place where all students can grow and learn in the safest manner possible." 

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Middle School Reading Comprehension | TikTok + Dance Assignment | Updated!

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Boost reading comprehension with this middle school TikTok-themed reading comprehension resource. Explore the social media giant's risks, mental health implications, and its surge in the 21st century. This comprehensive package includes an engaging article, in-depth comprehension questions, a mini dance assignment, and an answer key. A perfect blend of literacy and creativity, students will delve deep into text analysis, reinforce answers with text evidence and personal experiences, and create social media trends using Canva. Enhance spelling, writing, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills in an exciting, relevant context for today's learners. A must-have for middle school educators looking for cross-curricular activities.

This article is about the effects of TikTok, the social media phenomenon that surprised the world in the early 21st century. Students will learn about the risks of using social media platforms, including safety concerns and mental health. This resource includes a cross-curricular resource dance assignment. Students will have to create their own social media trends using Canva.

Enhance your students' reading comprehension skills with this engaging and interactive resource on the social media phenomenon TikTok. Students will learn about the risks and concerns of using social media platforms and have the opportunity to apply their critical thinking and analytical skills by answering reading comprehension questions and creating their own social media trends using Canva.

This resource includes a guide, an article, comprehension questions, a mini dance assignment, and an answer key. By working through this resource, students will develop higher academic self-confidence, improve their spelling and writing skills, and hone their problem-solving abilities. Whether you're a teacher or a student, this resource is a great way to spark interest and support learning in your classroom.

Reading comprehension skills are essential for students, professionals, and anyone wanting to read for pleasure or information. If you're interested in the following outcomes, this resource may be for you. 

• Develop higher academic self-confidence. Developing their reading will lead to more comprehension. 
• Improve spelling and writing and exposure to different writing styles
• Develop critical thinking and analytical skills. Trying to understand a text forces you to decipher the author's intent. 
• Improve problem-solving skills. We are taking information from the text and applying it to a cross-curricular activity.

This resource includes: 

• A guide to using the resource 
• An article tailored to their interests (TikTok) 
• Reading comprehension questions 
• Mini dance assignment 
• Update Nov.2023 - report card comments and dance activities added!

✬Looking for other exciting reads? Check these out!

Interesting Reads, Vol 1: TikTok + Dance assignment

Interesting Reads, Vol 2: Doughnuts, Reading Comprehension + Math Handout

Interesting Reads, Vol 3: Fortnite, Reading Comprehension + Math Activity

Interesting Reads, Vol 4: Canadian Residential Schools, Assignment

Interesting Reads, Vol 5: Blockchain and Cryptocurrency, Art assignment

Interesting Reads, Vol 6: Area 51 + Research, Grades 6-9

Interesting Reads, Vol 7: DALL-E AI ART, Reading and Descriptive Activity

Interesting Reads, Vol 8: Instagram + Photography Lesson and Assignment

Interesting Reads, Vol 9: Symbolism and Halloween - History + Assignment

Interesting Reads, Vol 10: Comprehension - The Power of Descriptive Writing

Interesting Reads, Vol 11: Labour Unions + Collective Bargaining Activity

Interesting Reads, Vol 12: The Feline Menace + Art Activity

Interesting Reads, Vol 13: Unstoppable Women + Assignment

Interesting Reads, Vol 14: Cocoa and Corporations + Assignments 

Interesting Reads, Vol 15: Conspiracy Theories + Assignment

Interesting Reads, Vol 16: Bottled Up + Assignment

Interesting Reads, Vol 17: Price Tags and Paychecks + Assignment

Interesting Reads, Vol 18: ChatGPT + Assignments

Interesting Reads, Vol 19: The Daydreamer's Dance, Albert Einstein

Interesting Reads, Vol 20: Behind The Meme + Art Assignment

Interesting Reads, Vol 21: Winged Rebellion + Letter Assignment

Interesting Reads, Vol 22: Falling Blocks + Math Assignment

✬Are you looking for French versions of these resources?

Compréhension de Lecture, Numéro 1: Tik-Tok, French, Français

Compréhension de Lecture, Numéro 2: Fornite, Dépendance aux Jeux Vidéo, French, Français

Compréhension de Lecture, Numéro 3: Les Beignets, Français

Compréhension de Lecture, Numéro 4: Devoir de Photographie et Instagram

Compréhension de Lecture, Numéro 5: Symbolisme et L'Halloween - Lecture et Devoir

Compréhension de Lecture, Numéro 6: Le pouvoir de l'écriture descriptive + Devoir

Compréhension de Lecture, Numéro 7: Pensionnats Canadiens + Devoir

Compréhension de Lecture, Numéro 8: La Révolution Féline - French - Français

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