Ever since I was a little girl I always loved dancing therefore when I saw we had a dancing input I was excited. I danced from a very young age right through to around 16 so I have a quite a broad experience of dance. My experience however is very much learning how to dance and perform rather than actually teaching dance so the prospect of this excited me.

I was very unaware of the amount of skills you actually develop through dance and through gaining this knowledge I feel that Dance is a really important curricular area. Dance allows children to build social skills such as team work and creating friendships. Some of the people I met through dancing have been lifelong friends. You learn to support one another through the good and bad times and this is skill which is valuable throughout life. Dance also allows time for children to really think outside and bring out their creative sides. It can provide a time for children to express their thoughts and feelings through dance movements.

From a teaching perspective I understand the spectrum of ability and anxiety which may appear when planning and teaching a dance lesson. From my own experience of dance in schools, girls liked dance more than boys. In my professional reading I discovered that “dance levels are highest in S1 with 62.4% of girls taking part in dance compared to only 11.5% of boys.” (Get Scotland Dancing, 2012, p17.) I found this interesting as it is around an age range which is similar to those in the upper years of primary schools. There is a stigma attached to dance that it is a “girls sport” and this may be the reason for the lack of male participant in dance. However there also girls who do not enjoy dance. When planning for a lesson I believe you have to consider the confidence of children within your class, their ability within dance and also age. The older children become their self awareness develops and they conform to fit in with their friends. This can prove as a challenge as many may not be fully committed to the lesson. I believe you have to slowly build up their confidence within dance and not make it all performing in front of one another.

For a Primary 5 class and through my understanding of the Curriculum for Excellence I aim to create an exciting and fun lesson for all.

Curriculum for Excellence Outcome: I can explore and choose movements to create and present dance, developing my skills and techniques. EXA 2-08

Learning Intention (LC): To be able to create a short dance routine related to a specific mood through the use of different movements which will be explored in the lesson.

Success Criteria (SC): To successfully create a short dance routine through actions such as travelling, gestures and stillness. To understand how these actions portray the mood which has been chosen. 

How will I achieve my LC and SC:
Warm up: Gather the children in to a circle and begin to warm up the children’s body by loosing off their body. I will also incorporate some rhythm exercises into the warm up by asking the children to walk, run, jump or clap to a piece of music. This allows me to evaluate the stage each child is at and also to examine if a child is carrying any injuries.

Main body: I will talk the children through different actions within dance e.g. travelling and ways ti travel such as; striding, skipping and hopping. This is to show creative ways to travel rather than walking and running. I will also demonstrate different gestures such as twisting, flop and stretching. Stillness is another aspect of dance I aim to examine is stillness. I will explain to the children the power stillness such as a freeze, sleep or pause can have in dance. Finally we will look into different levels of dance such as high, medium and low levels. Once we have examined different actions of dance the children will split into groups of around five to six people. In these groups they will be provided with a certain mood such as happy, sad, worried or excited and work together as a team to put together a short dance routine in which they will incorporate the different actions they have learned. I will half the class and ask them to perform in front of the other half of the class. This will allow the children to see how different actions create a certain mood and also the contrast of different moods performing together. Performing alongside peers rather than one group at a time can reduce children feeling embarrassed or anxious about performing and can allow them to flourish fully within the lesson as it is not all eyes on them.  This lesson may be conducted over the course of a few weeks depending on the pace the lessons go at.

Cool Down: Gather the children back in a circle to stretch out their bodies and to regain their focus. We will then discuss as a group if we feel we have all met the LC and SC. 

Assessment opportunities: Through the children’s performance I aim to examine if they have met the success criteria but also allow their peers to examine if they feel they have meet the success criteria too.

As stated in the Standards for Provisional Registration as a student teacher I must “develop tasks and set pace of work to meet the needs of learners, providing effective support and challenge.” I feel through dance lessons I can achieve this. I understand the range of abilities that pupils in the class will have and to take this into consideration when planning in order to provide a challenging but supported lesson. I understand the challenges I may be faced with also such as lack of motivation to participate, anxiety and also children who have  experience of dance, providing a lesson which can challenge them. I believe I could successfully  support the needs of the pupils in my class by motivating them and encouraging them to challenge themselves and step out of their comfort zone.