ZOE GORSKI
May I Have This Dance?
The girls giggled and the boys snickered as I twirled about the room in a waltz. They moved to the edges of their seats as I spun closer, and their faces reddened with excitement, or perhaps embarrassment. This was no ordinary Quotation Mingle: we were going to the ball.
All week in Language Arts class, we had been exploring new reading strategies to trace and define plot. Harvey Daniels’ “Quotation Mingle” strategy from Texts and Lessons: Teaching Literature calls for students to explore samples of text and predict the plot before being exposed to the selected text. Each student received a slip of paper with a different quote from the story. Without context, they were to “mingle” with their classmates, read each other’s quotes, and predict the plot of the story. After about ten minutes of mingling, they shared their theories with partners, small groups, and then with the whole class as I called on students to share. We talked about the definition of mingling and how it did NOT mean to dominate the conversation and hold one person’s ear as it was begging to fall off. Mingling worked well, and my students came up with thoughtful theories drawn from the only textual evidence they had. Now, it was time to tango.
This time, I told them, we would meet on the dance floor. Ladies and gentlemen alike would ask a partner to dance, and eloquently bend their ears in a light conversation regarding their quotation slips, all the while spinning a step. However, I exclaimed, we must remember that no one wishes to be a wallflower, unnoticed and left without a dance partner, and that all of you, I reminded them, are ladies and gentlemen and could not bear the thought of one of their esteemed classmates being left in the corner. With that, my expectations were clear, and not a single student was left standing alone during this Ballroom Quotation Mingle.
We do not dance every day in my classroom, but we certainly enjoy the occasional thirty-second dance party on a gloomy Wednesday morning, or Brain Gym activities before tests. We will even listen to Pharrell’s “Happy” after lunch, just because we are. Whether or not we are showing off our moves, my classroom engages and motivates my students to learn the next step in the dance of learning. I believe that students will only learn when the material is presented in a way that excites and captures their interest. Young adolescents crave structure and affirmation from their teachers, but they also need to see adults modeling that learning will lead them. When students allow learning to take the lead, they become open to all of the possibilities the world may present to them.
Some of my students enter as wallflowers, and some of them are ready to dance, but all of my students emerge from my classroom as self-directed learners and internally strong individuals. My goal is to guide my students until they find the courage to say, “Yes” when learning begs the question, “May I have this dance?”