Observed Session 2 – Lesson 9:
Today this lesson was also observed for my PDA. Parts in which worked well in this lesson were: the first 3 tasks worked so well. They enjoyed the first one because it was a great energy booster game and got them moving and motivated. The second one worked because it was a complete contrast from the first task. The second task had a completely different energy about it. It was much more demanding in terms of the amount of energy and force they had to use for the task to be successful. Both tasks successfully covered what I was trying to do in this lesson, which was experiment with energies in movement. The third task was really interesting and rewarding for them to see. It showed how a simple task can create great creative and interesting movement. I was really pleased with this lesson.
The one thing I would change about this lesson is the last task. The previous tasks were so interesting and engaging to the students that they wanted to develop them, so much so that we completely ran out of time to start the last task. I told them what the last task was and how it was a development of the other tasks and that we would carry on with this lesson next week. So my lesson for next week will have to be rearranged. My time is the major issue in all my lessons. I find that an hour lesson for choreography isn’t enough. It doesn’t give you enough time to develop your ideas.
Monday, 23 March 2009
Monday, 16 March 2009
LESSON 8 - REFLECTIVE NOTES ON THE OBSERVED SESSION 1
Observed Session 1 – Lesson 8: Today’s lesson was observed as part of my PDA: Introduction to Teaching unit. Overall this was a successful lesson. The positives regarding this lesson were: it was varied, the students were engaged with the video clips that I showed them regarding contact improvisation, they asked several questions regarding the contact movement which was a good sign that they were interested in what they were about to take part in.
When it came to them trying the movement one group picked it up very quickly and performed it well, they managed to develop it properly using timing techniques too which was what they had to do for today to complete the objectives of the lesson. This group worked well independently. I had 2 students sit out of this class today due to illness and injury, however they took notes of the techniques that were being learned in the class and at times engaged with the groups who were able to participate by encouraging them or assisting them in what looked right, or how to make a certain move work and move more smoothly. They also assisted in recording the duets on the mobile phone.
I made good use of ICT today with the use of the laptop to show them what their objectives were for today’s lesson, the internet to show the contact improvisation clips and the mobile phone to record the sequences that were being performed.
A few things that could’ve worked better or things that I could improve on for the next time I teach this lesson would be: make sure everyone can see the computer screen clearly, have an alternative duet for people who struggled slightly to do the one I had today. I’m not sure if they felt a little nervous because someone was in observing the lesson (they had little fits of giggles which in turn was making them lose footing in the steps and falling over). I also think a factor was the height difference. The difference in their heights made it a little more difficult for them to push each other up on the weight sharing technique, I should have an alternative contact duet for groups who do have a clear difference in height or weight.
Because a couple of the students struggled slightly with the duet it took longer to teach the duet than I had anticipated so the lesson may be felt a little rushed to the students near the end of the lesson. If I had had an alternative duet then more time could’ve been spent on the timing techniques, which I had for them.
I should also make sure that the students sitting out are continuously engaged in the lesson rather than every so often.
When it came to them trying the movement one group picked it up very quickly and performed it well, they managed to develop it properly using timing techniques too which was what they had to do for today to complete the objectives of the lesson. This group worked well independently. I had 2 students sit out of this class today due to illness and injury, however they took notes of the techniques that were being learned in the class and at times engaged with the groups who were able to participate by encouraging them or assisting them in what looked right, or how to make a certain move work and move more smoothly. They also assisted in recording the duets on the mobile phone.
I made good use of ICT today with the use of the laptop to show them what their objectives were for today’s lesson, the internet to show the contact improvisation clips and the mobile phone to record the sequences that were being performed.
A few things that could’ve worked better or things that I could improve on for the next time I teach this lesson would be: make sure everyone can see the computer screen clearly, have an alternative duet for people who struggled slightly to do the one I had today. I’m not sure if they felt a little nervous because someone was in observing the lesson (they had little fits of giggles which in turn was making them lose footing in the steps and falling over). I also think a factor was the height difference. The difference in their heights made it a little more difficult for them to push each other up on the weight sharing technique, I should have an alternative contact duet for groups who do have a clear difference in height or weight.
Because a couple of the students struggled slightly with the duet it took longer to teach the duet than I had anticipated so the lesson may be felt a little rushed to the students near the end of the lesson. If I had had an alternative duet then more time could’ve been spent on the timing techniques, which I had for them.
I should also make sure that the students sitting out are continuously engaged in the lesson rather than every so often.
Monday, 9 March 2009
LESSON 7 – USING A STIMULUS, RELATIONSHIPS AND CONNECTIONS
LESSON 7 – USING A STIMULUS, RELATIONSHIPS AND CONNECTIONS
1. I chose a more difficult stimulus today. I used a diagram with lines and shapes on it. They were to create a traveling dance sequence using this diagram. The lines represented them traveling in the space (dance studio), and when they came to one of the shapes they must create a movement which represents that shape. They must travel along the lines without coming off them but can choose any pathway. The top left star is the left front corner of the dance studio. This was challenging their core skills and their creativity. They really had to think about how they were going to create and also remember this sequence. I choose something a bit more challenging on purpose because I felt they could cope with it. Again I take a step back once I’ve given them the instructions for the task and the aims and objectives for the lesson, I leave them to work on their own, with me being there to assist and help if they need it. The students need the time to develop their own ideas so I can’t give too much input to their sequence as the whole point is that it’s their creation. And it’s practice for when they start to create their own dance piece.
2.A few today really struggled with this task. But I’m glad I used it, some of the students needed a challenge and the ones who struggled slightly I gave them some extra time to work on it and assisted them by giving some examples of what they could do. Also once they were able to watch each other’s it helped them to see what they could do and were quite impressed by each other’s sequences. I also got them to feedback to each other what they liked and what they could improve on in their sequence. I find this is a good task in itself as it gets them to be critical and evaluate the choreographic process. I think giving the feedback in this class was a real success today and it was good to hear some of the comments and reactions to people’s work.
3.From this lesson I can see that the feedback worked really well so would do make sure I keep this within all lessons. That the stimulus was a challenge for some and that I would need to spend more time on an example or explanation of what they have to do to complete the task.
4. Give more time to the feedback section. I could have them watch each others sequence, give feedback including something that they have to change in their sequence to make it better and make sure they tell them something they do really well in it. Let them see the importance of feedback as well as teamwork and good communication skills. Or it could be good rather than me assisting people who are struggling with the task, get the students who have understood it properly and confident in their movement to help their peers this would be a great idea.
5.To do this I have to manage my time better for this lesson. Less time of me chatting at the beginning (be more concise), and more time for the students to work on the task (on their own and with partner) and more time for feedback.
6.I know I’ll have succeeded by the students’ feedback and their recorded sequences. Constantly making sure that they communicate with me about what they liked about the lesson, what they didn’t like, what they would like more time on etc.
Monday, 2 March 2009
LESSON 6 – MOTIF, RELATIONSHIPS AND DYNAMICS
LESSON 6 – MOTIF, RELATIONSHIPS AND DYNAMICS
1.The students were working for most of the lesson today without my input, I mostly observed and assisted them when I felt they needed my help or they asked. The stimulus today was the students’ mobile or home telephone number. This was a very visual orientated lesson with their core skills being used (numeracy, literacy skills etc.) Each number has an action dance move next to it (see below). Using their own phone number create a dance motif. They’re allowed to put in a linking dance movement before they moved onto their next number.
0 - Arm movement
1 - Swing
2 - Elevation
3 - Falling
4 - Roll
5 - Travel
6 - Stillness
7 - Leg movement
8 - Gesture (Isolation)
9 – Turning
Once they had their own sequence they were then to work in a duet, trio, quartet and large group. This was to allow them to explore the movement within different groups and see how they can develop their own sequences and make them more imaginative and interesting just by working with someone else or a group of people.
2.This task is always a successful one. The students can look a little puzzled at the beginning but when you show an example they understand and really enjoy the creating process of it. I feel this is a great task to show students how a simple task can create great original movement that they wouldn’t have necessarily came up with if they hadn’t have had the task.
3. Looking back to the recorded film that we have of the sequences (on the students’ blog) I can see that this is a brilliant and simple task to use and develop. It’s a task that allows the students to see that they can come up with their own tasks using numbers, words, letters etc. I would use this task again next year as it works well.
4. For next time I want to make sure I mention Merce Cunnigham (One of the pioneers of Contemporary Dance). I totally forgot that this would e a great opportunity to mention him as he was very big on using tasks and using ‘chance’ as a way of experimenting with dance. The students had researched him at the beginning of their first semester but it would’ve been good to mention him and see if they remember anything from their research about him.
5. To do this I need to add it into my LTA plan and in my lesson plan that will have the phone number task in it next year. I intend to mention it to the students next time, but it would be in a more relevant lesson if I were to mention it with this particular task.
6.Seeing what the students produced today in terms of movement using this task, I was really impressed and they clearly showed that they understood the task and so I would think this was a successful lesson, and the comments left by the students on their blog reiterates this.
1.The students were working for most of the lesson today without my input, I mostly observed and assisted them when I felt they needed my help or they asked. The stimulus today was the students’ mobile or home telephone number. This was a very visual orientated lesson with their core skills being used (numeracy, literacy skills etc.) Each number has an action dance move next to it (see below). Using their own phone number create a dance motif. They’re allowed to put in a linking dance movement before they moved onto their next number.
0 - Arm movement
1 - Swing
2 - Elevation
3 - Falling
4 - Roll
5 - Travel
6 - Stillness
7 - Leg movement
8 - Gesture (Isolation)
9 – Turning
Once they had their own sequence they were then to work in a duet, trio, quartet and large group. This was to allow them to explore the movement within different groups and see how they can develop their own sequences and make them more imaginative and interesting just by working with someone else or a group of people.
2.This task is always a successful one. The students can look a little puzzled at the beginning but when you show an example they understand and really enjoy the creating process of it. I feel this is a great task to show students how a simple task can create great original movement that they wouldn’t have necessarily came up with if they hadn’t have had the task.
3. Looking back to the recorded film that we have of the sequences (on the students’ blog) I can see that this is a brilliant and simple task to use and develop. It’s a task that allows the students to see that they can come up with their own tasks using numbers, words, letters etc. I would use this task again next year as it works well.
4. For next time I want to make sure I mention Merce Cunnigham (One of the pioneers of Contemporary Dance). I totally forgot that this would e a great opportunity to mention him as he was very big on using tasks and using ‘chance’ as a way of experimenting with dance. The students had researched him at the beginning of their first semester but it would’ve been good to mention him and see if they remember anything from their research about him.
5. To do this I need to add it into my LTA plan and in my lesson plan that will have the phone number task in it next year. I intend to mention it to the students next time, but it would be in a more relevant lesson if I were to mention it with this particular task.
6.Seeing what the students produced today in terms of movement using this task, I was really impressed and they clearly showed that they understood the task and so I would think this was a successful lesson, and the comments left by the students on their blog reiterates this.
Monday, 23 February 2009
LESSON 5 – MOTIF, UNISON, CANON & DYNAMICS
LESSON 5 – MOTIF, UNISON, CANON & DYNAMICS
2.Today’s lesson did have valuable and interesting information and tasks involved in it, however I think I gave them too much in the one lesson. I should’ve broken this lesson down into 2 parts (Motif and Canon techniques). I hope I haven’t bombarded them with so much that it doesn’t make sense when they come back to it next week. I feel that I have so much information that I want to give them that it’s difficult to choose what to keep and take away. This is the first year of running this unit so hopefully this is going to help me for next year’s class.
3.All I can take from this is that I can learn what works and how much material to give them in one lesson and use this information for the next time I run this unit.
4. For some of my choreography lessons this year, I can take some of the techniques out of their choreography class and use them in their Movement and Dance unit which I’m going to cross assess, as they have to create a dance piece for this unit too.
5.To achieve this I will have to review the techniques and adapt and change my LTA plan for this Choreography unit and the Movement unit. Also to be better at choosing what to keep in the lessons and discard to make sure the students don’t get overwhelmed with the amount of information that I’m trying to give them.
6. The students are very open with me and are capable of telling me if they think there was too much in the lesson or not. They’re evaluations on their own choreography blog (www.choreography09.blogspot.com) is what is helping me see if I have had a successful lesson that the students enjoyed and learned from. Today they enjoyed what they were learning but they did think there was a lot of information to take in and would’ve liked longer to develop the ideas and techniques.
1.I used an abstract painting for the stimulus of today’s lesson (see below). I focused on the outline of the black shape to create the motif, which the students then developed (eg. made it faster, smaller, on the spot, reverse the levels of it, change the direction). The motif started at the top of the black outline and then made its way round the shape clockwise. They then tried different types of canons (Simultaneous, Loose, Cumulative, Simple) as well as dancing in unison. I wanted to show them that from 1 short dance motif, you can literally create minutes worth of interesting movement just by using simple choreographic techniques which are mentioned above. The lesson was tutor led at first but the students then had to work on their own to create their own individual motif.
2.Today’s lesson did have valuable and interesting information and tasks involved in it, however I think I gave them too much in the one lesson. I should’ve broken this lesson down into 2 parts (Motif and Canon techniques). I hope I haven’t bombarded them with so much that it doesn’t make sense when they come back to it next week. I feel that I have so much information that I want to give them that it’s difficult to choose what to keep and take away. This is the first year of running this unit so hopefully this is going to help me for next year’s class.
3.All I can take from this is that I can learn what works and how much material to give them in one lesson and use this information for the next time I run this unit.
4. For some of my choreography lessons this year, I can take some of the techniques out of their choreography class and use them in their Movement and Dance unit which I’m going to cross assess, as they have to create a dance piece for this unit too.
5.To achieve this I will have to review the techniques and adapt and change my LTA plan for this Choreography unit and the Movement unit. Also to be better at choosing what to keep in the lessons and discard to make sure the students don’t get overwhelmed with the amount of information that I’m trying to give them.
6. The students are very open with me and are capable of telling me if they think there was too much in the lesson or not. They’re evaluations on their own choreography blog (www.choreography09.blogspot.com) is what is helping me see if I have had a successful lesson that the students enjoyed and learned from. Today they enjoyed what they were learning but they did think there was a lot of information to take in and would’ve liked longer to develop the ideas and techniques.
Monday, 16 February 2009
LESSON 4 – AURAL TASK – RELATING MUSIC TO THEMES
LESSON 4 – AURAL TASK – RELATING MUSIC TO THEMES
1.Explained the choreography unit to the dance students and told them what’s expected of them with regards to completing the unit successfully and also mentioning the techniques that they’ll be learning. I then explained first task as well as giving them some handouts.
The first task I gave them was a fun one which got them using their imaginations straight away and working in small groups to then all come together to share their ideas.
2.I feel this lesson was successful, I could see at the beginning the students didn’t really see were I was going with the task it wasn’t until they all came together again that they realised what an impact music has on a dance piece and its theme. Both groups had similar ideas about what music would suit a particular theme. This was my aim to get them to realise this, so it worked.
I felt we ran out of time and we could’ve spent longer on this but the students got the idea of what the lesson was about.
3.It’s a good imaginative lesson. Having different types of music, working in small groups and then coming together to give ideas collectively made the class fun, energetic and fast paced (they only got to hear 1 minute of each track and had to make a decision on a theme). It was a good introduction to the unit.
4.I could cut the music clips down to 30 seconds, which would give the class more time to discuss their ideas. Or use less clips of music. This would help greatly with the time factor. We only have an hour for each class which is really difficult for a unit which greatly depends on creative development of ideas.
5.To be able to do the above I would have to make sure I chose relevant music clips which have enough development in the short clip for the students to be able to grasp a theme for the music. Or If I’m going to reduce the amount of clips that I use that would be really straight forward. I think I would go with the first option which is to keep the same amount of clips but cut them to 30 seconds. It would make the class flow better I think it would keep the students’ attention.
6.The reaction of the students while completing the task today made me see that they were enjoying it and having fun as well as developing their listening skills and team work. I think this says I’ve had a successful lesson with the group.
Sunday, 15 February 2009
QUESTIONS TO REFLECT ON IN MY LESSONS
QUESTIONS FOR MY REFLECTIVE DIARY
Below are some questions I've asked myself with regards to evaluating my lessons in the choreography class. I feel they're helpful for me to fully understand how successful my lessons have been.
1.WHAT DID I DO?
2.HOW DO I FEEL ABOUT IT?
3.WHAT CAN I TAKE FROM THIS?
4.WHAT IMPROVEMENT DO I WANT TO MAKE?
5.WHAT DO I NEED TO DO OR LEARN TO ACHIEVE THIS?
6.HOW WILL I MEASURE AND KNOW THAT I HAVE SUCCEEDED IN THIS?
Below are some questions I've asked myself with regards to evaluating my lessons in the choreography class. I feel they're helpful for me to fully understand how successful my lessons have been.
1.WHAT DID I DO?
2.HOW DO I FEEL ABOUT IT?
3.WHAT CAN I TAKE FROM THIS?
4.WHAT IMPROVEMENT DO I WANT TO MAKE?
5.WHAT DO I NEED TO DO OR LEARN TO ACHIEVE THIS?
6.HOW WILL I MEASURE AND KNOW THAT I HAVE SUCCEEDED IN THIS?
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