I was so nervous to be teaching dance in PE since I don’t have a coordinated bone in my body. But working with Jen and Ashley was so much fun, I think we created an energetic yet comfortable setting for the class today. Our goal was to create a simple and enjoyable lesson that would be a great for a dance introduction class for grade 5 students. Overall, I think the class went well. Everyone seemed to enjoy practicing the dance sequences and bringing everything together to perform a final dance routine. The class shared some great recommendations for what we can do next time and how to make the lesson even better. Firstly, we could have tweaked our instant activity a little by playing music while students completed the fitness activity instead of playing music while they ran, walked or skipped. The music would have motivated the students to complete their exercises and free style dance. Secondly, we could have incorporated a wider range of dance moves that involved bigger movements like arm reaches and bending to the ground. This would have been a great adaption that could have been incorporated if students needed a challenge. Thirdly, Steve brought up a great recommendation of introducing the class by sharing a bit of dance history. This would have been a good opportunity to access prior knowledge and motivate students for the rest of the class.
We were glad we incorporated technology into our lesson by allowing students to use iPads to record themselves while practicing the dance routine. It was helpful for students to see their routine on video since we did not have a mirror in the gym.
I really enjoyed teaching the dance class. Next time, I will use more of a ‘teachers voice’ in the gym to make sure everyone in class can hear me. I think dance will always be a fun unit to teach in PE. I look forward to teaching more fun classes in future. Can’t wait for our next class!
Hi Amy,
You and your group did such a great job with the dance lesson. I was impressed even more when I found out you put the dance together yourselves. I’m sure that was a lot of work but now you have the practice under your belt;)
It was fun! I know students would have fun. I could see how you could make a whole dance unit incorporating Steve’s suggestion to bring up the history of dance, using Ipads to review and reflect moves, etc. I think it would be great to bring to a PE class, though I wonder if any students would feel intimidated or self-concious doing a dance unit. As I’m writing, I wonder now too how older boys might take the class. I wonder if they would be right in there or if they might good around thinking it was more of a girl thing. However, I do remember when I was in South Africa. We had a youth group there and we invited one of the older boys (18 or so years old) to come and teach the youth a dance. These were more like dance moves from music videos you would see on TV, not cultural dances or anything. The children all loved it–even the older male youth. So maybe that’s an idea: Getting some of the youth to volunteer to teach a move or two?
I heard someone else in our class talk about how she remembers how she got to make a dance routine when she was younger. She remembered it as something she really enjoyed doing in PE.
Again, great job!
Hi Amy!
I thought your dance lesson was SOO much fun! It was fun to do something totally different than what most of us are used to. All three of you guys had great energy. I think its normal for a lot of people to be nervous and embarrassed to dance in front of others, but it was a great way to break out of our shells a bit. I thought it was a good sequence of dance movements, but like you said, it may have been valuable to have some movements that explored different range of motions that used more of our space. I like the idea of using history in dance. That could even be something that is incorporated in another PE lesson. Even watching a dance video would be cool. The ipads were awesome! It was really nice to see how a teacher can use technology in a PE class. I loved it.