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The Benefits of Dance

Samantha Granados

ERWC/ Period: 3

October 14, 2016

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Table of Contents

Project Description. 2

Research Paper...

3-5

Reflection...

6-7

Works Cited... 8

Annotated Bibliography.

9-11
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Senior Project Description

My senior project consists of my major this year and will tie in with what I would

like to do in the future. My major in high school is dance and later down the road I would

like to become a physical therapist, specifically for children with special needs. This being

said my senior project will be me performing a routine for the special needs class in Santa

Susana and me teaching the kids and helping them move and have fun with it.

I will first have to begin with creating a permission slip to send out to all the parents

letting them give me permission to teach their children and allow me to do the exercise. I

will create this document by receiving help from one of the teachers of the special Ed

program to understand what I have to write and ask from all the parents. After I finish the

document and get approval I would have to create an exercise that the kids can learn easily

and understand. I would help them dance and move around every time I would visit and

show them new steps to encourage them to explore with the movement. After I develop a

relationship with them I can fully appreciate the work of a special needs therapist and put

this work to move forward with my future career.

I believe this project is important to accomplish because it will give me first hand

experience on the field and it will show me new perspective on how each day goes. This

project will help me see if I want to pursue this career choice and help me decide within my

schooling choices as well. It will be a great experience once I begin and give me a great

new thing to add to my college applications and my work resumes and help me go further

on.
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Senior Project: Research Portion

My project is focusing on two main things, my major in high school and my future

career. I am currently going to major in dance at Santa Susana High School and as for my

future career I would like to become a physical therapist, mainly for special needs children.

My project will be me teaching the special needs class at Santa Susana and showing them

very simple movements to get them moving and make it enjoyable for them. I believe that

this project will be a great learning experience and show me the difficulties and hard work

put into this type of job.

During my research I found a very interesting article written by Melissa Ferry. This

piece of information was very simple; it was a list of things that are fun and enjoyable to

have in a class with special needs children. She explained why each item was important to

the teacher and went into small detail explaining that it has an effect to the children in a

very positive way. I believe this small article could help me when I first begin my lesson

plans. It has allowed me to think outside the box and make sure all my plans for these

children are fun and different from what they usually learn.

There was an article written by Ellen R. Delisio that I found while looking for

information on my topic and it was quite different because this was an article that went into

an answer/ question format with a special educator. This woman was named Laurie

LeComer; she provided very detailed responses to insure the readers what it is like as a

special educator. She answers very in depth questions and provides well thought out

answers. LeComer also touches on the subject of her found developed process called

I.D.E.A.L. She says it stands for the five step process, the I stands for introduce the

activity; D for determine the tasks involved; E for evaluate expectations; A for
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accommodate for success; and L for list the activity components visually. (Delisio). She

discusses her experiences and gives out helpful tips to whoever is interested.

This piece of research will help me understand how to begin classes with these

children. It shows me how to ease into every activity I have planned and want to do with

them. This article help me understand that I need to have certain expectations and be very

prepared when teaching this class, being that I am only a student and not as educated as

most on the field. As I read further into this article there was a paragraph or two explaining

how to approach certain children and how to see all of them as individuals and not as a

whole. I felt as if just that paragraph alone made a difference in my upcoming experience

and had me thinking on different ways to approach difficult situations.

One of the last pieces of research I found was much like the others; it talked about

the basics of teaching a class with special needs children and how to make it simpler on the

educator. This author, Lorna Volmer, tells her readers strategies on how to make

instructions easier for the kids and how to apply them. She goes on and says that there

needs to be a lot of visual cues and demonstrations and models for the class. Her main

point in this article was to tell the readers that visual cues are most important because its

hard for these kids to understand when one is just verbally explaining. She also states that

not all kids with autism want to deal with eye contact, so if they are seated in your general

direction or are stopping other activities that they were doing before they are in most cases

listening.

This article helps me with the little things that I will have to focus on and have

patience for while teaching and giving instructions to the class. I believe that this article

helped me see a more realistic side of teaching and showed me how at some points it will
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be a difficult task to do. It showed me that not all teaching can be easy and that you need to

put hard work into it, even if it is as simple as showing them some movements. It will be

difficult to get the class to do certain steps depending on what they are feeling that day but

it will be a great learning process.

All in all this will be a very different but effective learning experience for me and

will show me a different side of the career I would like to pursue in the future. The research

I have done for this project has given me several ideas on how to approach each class with

a different style. I am excited to see where this project will take me and what I will learn in

the process.
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Reflection

I am more than excited to begin the final project of my high school career. I will be

incorporating dance to with a routine I will create to teach the special education program at

Santa Susana High School. I will be teaching them new movements every time they see me

to let them see a new style everyday. This will be a big project for me to take on but I am

more than happy to handle it. This project will be difficult for me to begin at first but as

time goes on I will ease into the environment and let the kids recognize me from time to

time.

I am glad to have a background in dance to help me come up with creative things to

do during class time. This will help if theres ever a situation where I have to create a

routine on the spot or a new game plan for the day if it doesnt suit everyone. I am also

very patient when it comes to stressful situations, which will help if any of the kids have a

fit or are not happy that day. I am very eager to learn new material for this type of job and

am willing to step in whenever necessary.

I believe for the most part this will be a great learning experience for me but I am

also afraid to run into problems on the way down the project. I am nervous for when one of

the children have a fit or get upset; I wont know how to help the situation as fast as the

actual aids and feel as if I will be in their way. I am afraid I wont be able to teach them a

routine and it either is too difficult or it is just they refusing to do it. It is very nerve racking

to think of all the mistakes and wrong ways this project could go, but those things are the

situations I will learn to overcome and conquer as I grow in this project.

I will need to watch the aids for a full week to fully understand what they do on

their daily routine with the kids and see how they deal with them when they get in a bad
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mood. This will help me overcome any problems I face later on in my project; I will know

how to handle them if they get out of hand or I will know how to get their attention back on

me.

Honestly, I feel like this is going to be so fun and such a great not only learning

experience but life experience. I will get to learn how these kids go about on their normal

days and I will witness them when theyre in any type of mood and I am beyond happy to

have figured out how to contribute my time with this side of my community.
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Work Cited

Martel, Heather A. "Effective Strategies for General and Special Education Teachers"

(2009). Paper 210.

Deliso R., Ellen. Education World. Education World Inc., 6 June 2011,

http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/chat/chat255.shtml. 22 September 2016

Volmer, L. Interventional Central. Interventional Central (Jim Wright),

http://www.interventioncentral.org/behavioral-interventions/special-needs/teaching-

children-developmental-disabilities-classroom-ideas. 20 September 2016

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Annotated Bibliography

Ferry, Melissa. Friendship Circle. Friendship Circle Organization,

http://www.friendshipcircle.org/blog/2012/11/20/10-items-every-special-educator-

should-have-in-their-classroom/. 23 September 2016.

This is a very short article but very useful. This piece explains the main materials

you need to have when teaching a group of children with learning disabilities. It is a list

with the explanations right under them to tell the reader the reasoning behind the object or

objects. It is an easy read in obvious cases and can help with the basics. This website article

also shows a picture at the top of its work. It is a fun list to keep any beginning teacher

prepared and excited for their new career path.

Martel, Heather A. "Effective Strategies for General and Special Education Teachers"

(2009). Paper 210.

This article explains the various amount of learning there is going around America.

The author goes into detail about different types of growing strategies, such as how to

challenge students and make them expand on their knowledge. This piece talks about how

every child has a different skill level and that as their teacher you always need to work with

it. The author deciphers that children with learning disabilities, not emphasizing on how

severe, need to be taught at a slower pace to help them comprehend and have a better

understanding of the material. The author explains thoroughly about a variety of ways to

teach students. From children that can grasp the material fast, to ones that need a little more

time to fully understand the lesson, to ones that are mentally not capable of learning certain

subjects.
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Picard, Ceil J. Strategies of Effective Teaching: The Twenty-First Century. Louisiana State:

Cecil J. Picard, 2004

This book is only filled with strategies and ways to approach students with learning

disabilities. It provides a reader with multiple charts and sources that the author cited. She

explains all her reasoning within small paragraphs and goes straight to the point with all her

views. If one were interested in this book, they would have to want bullet points of

information and not paragraphs. This source is indeed helpful with research but doesnt

give the proper in depth explanation of a position as a teacher or aid that wants to help with

children that are in the special education program.

Deliso R., Ellen. Education World. Education World Inc., 6 June 2011,

http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/chat/chat255.shtml. 22 September 2016

The authors purpose of this article is to help teachers who are teaching or aiding

children with special needs. She provides helpful tips and useful information to help her

audience understand what they need to do. For example she touches on each form of

mental disorder and arranges them into different categories to make it clear for her readers.

She is very careful with the words she chooses and is considerate with how she explains

each different disability. The articles main goal is to help new teachers on their way to a

new career path. But on the other hand it is also an in depth explanation of disabilities

which can potentially enlighten ones who are unfamiliar with the certain basic knowledge.

Volmer, L. Interventional Central. Interventional Central (Jim Wright),

http://www.interventioncentral.org/behavioral-interventions/special-needs/teaching-

children-developmental-disabilities-classroom-ideas. 20 September 2016

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This website resource discusses the main goal that a teacher should have when

teaching a child with special needs. The writer explains ways you can go about learning

and still make it enjoyable for the student and yourself. For example, he gives you ideas on

how to incorporate visual cues and how to make the subject youre teaching very clear. He

states that a teacher with this kind of job should always be encouraging and be positive

when around his or her students. This website shows one how to behave properly and how

to manage around students that are in need of your help perfectly.