Blog Post #5: How do I plan for and program DANCE?

Dance can be planned to be taught in three ways; stand alone, fully integrated or combination.

Learning in Dance

Dance can be used to assist in the teaching of other KLA’s. Planning for this helps to reinforce concepts that students are taught through the application of real-world uses.

For example, in the following task pictured students use mathematical terms such as angles, reflection counting and rhythm. All these terms are taught to students in their mathematics curriculum. Having students write down their steps is a chance for them to reflection and see the connections between the activity and the curriculum if they have not already done so. This task is great for stage 3 students. It allows a small amount of structure which the students would appreciate while they can still be creative and express their selves.

In the following pictures we can see the mathematical concepts that can be applied to the activity, this includes terms that students should use when writing the steps to their dance.

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Making In Dance

An example of this task can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watchv=jdddEYkVY7M&feature=youtu.be

This Dance fits the Australian Curriculum Content Descriptors ACADAM010 – Develop technical and expressive skills in fundamental movements including body control, accuracy, alignment, strength, balance and coordination. While it also fits with the mathematical Descriptor ACMMG141 – Investigate, with and without digital technologies, angles on a straight line, angles at a point and vertically opposite angles. Use results to find unknown angles. And ACMMG142 – Investigate combinations of translations, reflections and rotations, with and without the use of digital technologies.

Responding in Dance

Reflecting on a dance can be as simple as filling in the form seen below. Doing this allows students to think of and ask questions. After competing the reflections students can then be paired up, placed in small groups or as a class discuss what they had on their reflection sheet. Here they could ask the questions they had, and their peers may be able to answer them. Reflecting, questioning and discussing allows students to gain a better understanding on dance.

Using these ideas and tools can assist in planning and programming dance.