Project+Evaluation+&+Reflection

Team Reflection:
Please build this collaboratively. Feel free to respond to each others comments as well as post your own. If it's helpful, you could use different font colors or some way of identifying the contributor.

1. What worked well? (This can include the project collaboration and planning process as well as your classroom experiences.) Uve - extention activities beyond the collaboration period. Cherri-The dancing was the hook for the 1920s unit. 2. Describe student reaction to this pilot unit. Cherri-The core of students taught by Christopher loved the dance piece by the end of the second lesson. The other classes were taught by students from the core class and those being taught were excitied to learn because it was like the core group had inside information. It brought history to life. 3.To what extent did students achieve the learning goals? Or grapple with the big ideas and essential questions? Cherri- 80% of the students could indentify that dance changed in the 1920s and it was lively and its roots were African. 20% gave the answer I was looking for: that dance helped break down segregation. 4. How can we do this better? Any recommendations for next time? I think to meet the research standard and have more focus on the art disciplines I should have students research artists. That way I could also incorporate the interpetation of poems and paper quilt display of Harlem Renissance Artists. This type of research would be eaiser for the students and use more discussion to connect the arts' messages to the African American leaders' messages. I would also spend more time on images and using Critical Response Protocol in groups of three.

May 25 Presentation & Group Discussion:
Warm Feedback - Cherri was really excited about the topic and communicated that to students - the dance really made the history come alive - the unit brought in many related ways of looking at the topic for greater perspective, including advertising, poetry, famous writers and thinkers' works; - the teachers were very supportive of the use of dance and participated in the dance aspect of the class

Questions - Did the students get the irony of Chris, a white person, teaching afro-American dance to Afro-American students? - How can the students get a better perspective on what dance was like before this time period, so their comparisons to the dances they are learning shed light on the impact of the Harlem Renaissance?