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LESSON PLAN
For Secondary Teaching (Years 7-13)
This resource has been collated to support and assist teachers working in the classroom. It is intended to be a guide in planning learning activities that strengthen dance in the classroom. This is a sample class plan designed for secondary students although it can be altered to work for younger students. There is no specific theme so it can be adapted to suit your learning outcomes and objectives (through your choice of verbs for section 2).
Achievement Objectives
- Developing Practical Knowledge in dance (PK): Students will explore and use vocabulary and practice in dance.
- Developing Ideas in dance (DI): Students will explore and use choreographic structures to give form to dance ideas.
- Communicating and Interpreting in Dance (CI): Students will present, interpret and respond to dance as communication.
Learning outcomes
- To extend personal movement vocabulary
- To use elements of trust/partner work in a dance sequence
- To create and show a dance
- To work cooperatively with other dancers
1. Warm up
Movements you could include in the warm up:
- The grapevine - in a circle, in a straight line, with arm actions
- Tall stretches out and low crouches
- Shaking out the body to a rhythm, to no rhythm
- Shoulder rolls, ankle rolls, standing, balances, moving from one balance to another
- Brain gym
- Make sure warm up includes the elements of stretching, safe dance practice, pattern and locomotion.
Teacher to create a movement phrase: Must have locomotion, at least 3 levels,
one jump. This phrase is to be remembered for later use in the class.
2. Movement derived from movement words/verbs
- Brainstorm movement words (possibility of exploring a theme at this point) and the opposites to the words.
- Each student is to work solo, they choose four words and their contrasting energy.
- The students physically respond to the words with individual creative movement.
- Task concluded with an eight count movement phrase (dance).
In partners, join the two phrases together, coming up with a 16 count phrase.
Repeat above by joining pairs into groups of four (a 32 count phrase).
3. Trust/partner work
Working in partners:
- Come up with four different contacted supports covering different levels, two counter balances and two full body supports where the partner’s weight must be completely supported off the ground. Again a theme can be utilised to develop the partner work here.
- Bear in mind that there are safety aspects to partner work: For example Where is the best place to bear weight, how to hold a partner, where to stand when receiving a partner’s weight.
4. Extension
- Add to the supports - one jump, one low level roll, and the warm up dance learnt earlier.
5. Completing the work
- Decide on music, direction to face (where the audience is sitting).
- Join all the movement information together (in any order).
- Work out transitions (getting from one phrase to the next is also part of the dance).
- How to stage the movement - in the centre, off to stage left, is the whole class going to be on the stage at once, how will everybody fit?
- Choose a name for your dance.
© by Annabel Reader for DANZ, 2006
Websites - For further information
www.tki.org.nz – teaching resources and the New Zealand schools curriculum for dance
Units and Lesson Plans – on Arts Online
Other pages on this website on: Education or DANZ LEOTC programme for schools or audio/visual dance teaching resources to buy
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