麻豆传媒入口

French teacher Nicole Goepper is famous鈥攆or dancing with her students in the school courtyard. But even inside the walls of her northern Virginia classroom at Fauquier High School, kids are on their feet. 

鈥淚 truly believe that there is something in our brains that connect words with movement,鈥� says Goepper, who references research showing how movement cements recall and boosts mood, helping to improve the well-being of students. Goepper saw this firsthand when she faced postpandemic declines in student mental health. 

Goepper incorporates movement every chance she gets鈥攆rom pairing new vocabulary with gestures, to acting out French accent marks, to the pi猫ce de r茅sistance: going outside to dance. 

鈥淯sually we dance in the middle of class. I use it as a reward for something we鈥檝e done in class [kids get to pick which French pop songs they want to dance to], and I almost use it as a transition.鈥�

The benefits? 鈥淚t鈥檚 a brain break; it gets them moving, gets their hearts pumping, and that blood is going up into their brain. And it鈥檚 like a primer, getting them ready to go [back inside to] learn more stuff.鈥� 

But it鈥檚 also a cultural connection, 鈥渨hich is a huge piece of learning and understanding of world language. When I introduce any new song to them, there鈥檚 always, you know, who is singing it? Who is this person? A little backstory of the artist. And then just the general meaning of what鈥檚 behind the song.鈥� Students learn about the song鈥檚 relevance to French and French diaspora culture.

Finally, although it鈥檚 a well-established fact that movement benefits younger students, Goepper believes it鈥檚 just as beneficial for high school students. 鈥淭here are kids who in the beginning don鈥檛 want to put themselves out there,鈥� admits Goepper. 鈥淏ut then they realize that it鈥檚 fun, and they feel left out if they鈥檙e not joining in with us. I win over 99 percent of them.鈥�

For more ideas on incorporating movement into learning, read Sarah Gonser and Stephen Merrill鈥檚 article for 麻豆传媒入口, 鈥�More Than a Dozen Ways to Build Movement Into Learning.鈥� To dig deeper into the research around movement and learning, check out the resources below.

• Christian Andr盲, Brian Mathias, Anika Schwager, Manuela Macedonia, and Katharina von Kriegstein鈥檚 (2020)
• Lawrence Shapiro and Steven Stolz鈥檚 (2019)
• Panagiotis Kosmas, Andri Ioannou, and Panayiotis Zaphiris鈥檚 (2019)
• Spyridoula Vazou, Panagiota Gavrilou, Evangelia Mamalaki, Anna Papanastasiou, and Nefeli Sioumala鈥檚 (2012)
• Christopher R. Madan and Anthony Singhal鈥檚 (2012)