At Tupper, for our HUM8 novel study, I used Touching Spirit Bear instead of The Outsiders (these were the class sets available – it was one or t’other). The kids loved it.
Without giving too much away, the story involves the protagonist discovering, performing, and learning through Tlingit animal dances – the whale dance; the wolf dance; the eagle dance; etc. They’re connected to the story’s major themes. They’re reflective of the protagonist’s personal journey. In a lot of ways, they’re at the heart of the novel.
18 students. 9 dances. Mana from planning heaven! I asked students to pair off, plan, rehearse, and perform a dance, then explain to their peers a) what the protagonist learned via their dance and b) what choices they’d made and why vis-à-vis interpreting their dance in the way that they did. I also gave them a sharp direction: “In doing this, we’re borrowing from and stepping into a culture not our own. Respect this…”
It went even better than I’d hoped…which was good, since FA and SA were observing. Straight up: kids love to move! – their dances were awesome; their explanations of the protagonist’s learnings and their own choices re. representing these learnings were inspired. More than this, though, the self-regulation and respect with which they participated blew me away – thinking about it, I think they took as much from negotiating this aspect of the activity as they learned about the novel through it. Maybe more.
Thank you for sharing! I love this idea and really appreciate any ideas for getting kids up and moving. Great reflective questions too.