National Taitung High School - First Sing - Harmony and Empathy ~ High School Music and Dance Performance Incorporating Social Emotional Learning
Course Theme 1: First Singing, Harmonious Empathy - High School Music and Dance Exhibition Integrating Social Emotional Learning
Course Theme 2: The Flow of Sound and Shadow: Listening to the Song of the Times from the Rhythm of Taiwan's History
This course was designed by art teachers following their design of the "Deeply Embedded in My Heart" feature course for first-year high school students. They felt that, in addition to focusing on the curriculum, students should also strengthen their connection with their peers during their school years. This approach involves integrating the five dimensions of CASEL (social-emotional learning) (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, interpersonal skills, and decision-making responsibility) into the school's annual feature event, the first-year inter-class choir competition. This is also known as Participatory SEL.
Social-emotional learning differs from emotional education in that it prioritizes the foundations of virtue and character, students' perspectives and critical thinking, and empowers students with decision-making power. In practice, students can personally experience the ABCs of emotional learning: Autonomy, Belonging, and Competence through the process of preparing for performances and competitions. This allows these first-year high school students, who have just entered the high school stage, to engage in inter-class singing competitions that go beyond the pursuit of results and instead foster memorable moments of teamwork and collaboration.
From the beginning of the singing competition, a cross-disciplinary team of aesthetic teachers, composed of history, mother tongue, art, and music teachers, began to intervene. By jointly preparing and designing a series of courses titled "Sound and Image Flow - Listening to the Songs of the Times from the Rhythm of Taiwan's History," students were encouraged to understand the intertextual and mutual interpretation of Taiwan's historical development through famous Taiwanese pop music songs, and to feel the visual sense of the atmosphere of the times through appreciation and singing. As a result, students were guided to choose a song from the designed courses that is representative of Taiwan's historical development or a song of similar style as their own song for the singing competition. It is hoped that students will "empathize" and then "experience" the topics of "colonization," "post-World War II," "ethnic (indigenous-Han) conflict," and "martial law period" in different stages of Taiwan's history, deeply aware of the emotions of the common people in Taiwan's grassroots culture in different eras, and thereby trigger deeper and broader themes of thinking.
This course in the 115th academic year will continue this theme, specifically incorporating performing arts curriculum design to explore the inner emotional diaries, scenes, and micro-theaters of historical figures. Three-dimensional sound layers will be added through recitation or lyrics narration to embody the dual expression of music and emotion. In short, this course will introduce basic drama elements into the 115th academic year singing competition, allowing students to experience the resonance between history and emotions and present them in a variety of ways through performances.
