Dance Advantage » accomplishments

11 Ways To Create A Positive Atmosphere In Your Dance Classes

Guest Contributors — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:30:59 +0000

Today’s guest post is by belly dancer, teacher, and DanceCostumes.com writer, Erica Rhodes.

As you may have noticed, Dance Advantage is POSITIVELY focused on getting your dance year off to a great start. So, be sure to check out the related reading links within the article.

There are many reasons students walk in to take their first dance class, ranging from a love of the art to trying something new. Many dance students find that learning to move their bodies helps develop a more positive self-image. It’s not surprising, as learning to feel comfortable in your own body can often times can carry over to all aspects of life.

When students feel good about themselves in dance class, they enjoy their experiences more. This increases student retention and can inspire your class size to grow. You, the instructor, can enjoy knowing that you’re giving back to the community, when your students begin to experience a change, not only physically, but in mind and spirit too.

How can instructors help students think more positively about themselves?

Photo courtesy Brendan Lally Photography; dancer: Letitia, Ammara Dance (www.ammara.ca)

Words of encouragement and a positive atmosphere go a long way. Here are some suggestions to help instructors foster a healthy self-esteem in their students:

Give students plenty of support and encouragement. For many new students, dance is challenging. It can be frustrating when even the most basic moves seem much too difficult. Reminding students that everyone had to start somewhere and even the best dancers in the world faced challenging movements when they started out, as well.
Be free with your compliments. Everyone loves to hear good things about themselves and their skills, especially when trying something new. Make sure to compliment every student , even if it’s not during every class. This can be a great mark of their improving skills.
Eliminate negative talk about bodies. While constructive criticism can help students improve their skills, negative criticism is very damaging to a student’s self-esteem. This is especially important with negative self-talk and negative body talk. Comments like, “You’re so thin!” and “I’m so fat!” can have an effect on the whole class. It’s not just the student that is being spoken about or the student talking about themselves that feels the judgment, but the whole class may feel the need to compare themselves to that person. It’s better to avoid those judgments all together.
Keep criticism upbeat and positive. Delivering all criticisms in a positive tone helps encourage students to improve their skills, but also takes away the sting of feeling like they just don’t get it. The easiest way to keep things constructive is (...)

Continue reading "11 Ways To Create A Positive Atmosphere In Your Dance Classes"

3 comments

© Guest Contributors for Dance Advantage, 2011. | Permalink | Category: Blog, For Classroom, Teaching | Who's talking about this article?

Get free updates PLUS access to additional content, tips, and more. Get Subscriber PLUS.

Class Planning Part One: Developing a Curriculum Outline

Nichelle (admin) — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:00:09 +0000

When I visit forums or other areas online where dance teachers congregate, I find many questions regarding how to plan lessons and design curriculum. There are certainly a variety of methods for doing both and many teachers work from a codified syllabus. For those of you who may be searching for new ideas or needing some pointers in outlining your own lessons or program of study, I am sharing my methods for doing so.

Lesson Plans will be discussed in Part Two of this series.

Designing Curriculum

Approach for Young Children

There are many approaches to teaching young children, in all methods the objectives are generally the same: To introduce and practice age-appropriate movement skills, to prepare students for working and functioning within a classroom environment, and to instill a love of dance. Though it can vary, young children generally reach similar levels of motor skill, muscular, and cognitive development at or around the same time. If you are planning a curriculum for these younger age groups it is essential that you have some familiarity with childhood development. Pushing students to perform skills that are beyond their muscular control can damage their bodies.

Mastery Approach

After age six or seven, age-appropriateness on many levels is no longer as crucial (exceptions would be pointe work or other extreme physical activities prior to growth maturity, appropriateness of choreography and music subject matter). Instead, development is better measured through prerequisite skill mastery. Though advancement may occur at different speeds, a new student at 15 begins and progresses in much the same way a seven-year-old who is new to dance does. Designing a curriculum, then, becomes more about appropriate sequence of learning.

Moving Backward

When designing short-term curriculum, I generally work backward. In other words, I begin with the goal, the endpoint, the ideal, and then decide how to get there. If I am designing curriculum for a workshop the aims may be fewer and less grand than if I’m planning curriculum for a full year of study.

Let’s say one of my final goals is to present a dance, I try to decide which skills I’d like to include or which performance qualities I’d like to see, and give special attention to these in the classes leading up to the performance. In fact, for ease in preparation, I often create entire phrases or combinations of movement for class with the intent that these (or something very similar) will go directly into a final performance work. I do the same in lesson planning, making sure to include exercises featuring movements found in the final combination.

This backward method of planning is not that original. After all it is difficult to figure out how to get somewhere until you know where you are going. The whole idea may even seem obvious but it is a process that I’ve neglected myself at times (regretfully). If you’ve ever found yourself trying to pound a skill into your students and wondering why they are not improving, this is a good time to reassess your goals and determine if perhaps they’ve missed some key building blocks along the way!

To build curriculum for a class or course of study, ask yourself the following questions:

What do I want the students to be able to do by the end of the year(s)/month/semester/session?

What skills are necessary to reach each of the above goals? (List them all, even obvious ones)

What skills must the students have familiarity with (if not mastery of) to accomplish these goals?

Click on image to view larger*

The above image contains samples of various goals. Your opinions and experiences may often dictate what is considered necessary, though some skills have inherent prerequisites.

Moving Forward

When I’m working on curriculum that spans multiple years of training, I often work in a more progressive manner, though the end goals are always in the back of my mind:

I list skills in the order I think they should be learned (including variations like facing barre, then one-hand on barre, then from 5th position, then in center, etc.)

Then, I place these skills in two columns, according to level: Essential and Overlap. Essential Skills are those requiring mastery in order to move on to the next level. Overlap Skills are those of which students are developing a working knowledge. Overlap usually appear in the Essential column of subsequent levels.

Click image to view larger*

Abstract Skills

Some skills are more abstract than others (for instance musicality, performance quality, etc.) but I like to consider these when focusing on curriculum planning – setting a few goals in these areas which I will strive to incorporate into daily/weekly classes. I do this simply because I don’t want to forget them. They may seem obvious to me but not to a less experienced dancer. “They” say that certain things can’t be taught – but I believe even these less tangible skills can be improved through thoughtful practice and encouragement.

*These tables are not intended to be used as curriculum. They are just rough examples of how a chart might look. Your curriculum would be more thoroughly planned and would probably make more sense!

Have you ever designed your own curriculum? How did you go about it? Can you think of other methods or tips to share with readers?

© Nichelle Strzepek for Dance Advantage, 2009. | Permalink | Category: Blog, Featured, For Classroom, Teaching | Who's talking about this article?

Get free updates PLUS access to additional content, tips, and more. Get Subscriber PLUS.

Appraising the Value of Praise

Nichelle (admin) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:00:27 +0000

Photo by Tommy Hemmert Jørgensen

One of the desires of a teacher or a parent is to create an environment within which self-esteem can grow in a child. The goal is to build confidence in a healthy way so that they can better deal with the every-day adversities and challenges that life brings, both as children and adults. Often, parents and teachers take action by providing children with plenty of praise, accolades, and awards. But, is there such a thing as too much praise? Is it possible for praise to backfire? How can one instill confidence without creating a dependence on external approval?

Too Much of a Good Thing?

Most experts seem to agree that empty praise like “Good job!” or “You’re awesome!” is ineffective because children recognize that these statements are not always accurately or sincerely offered. It has been found that students praised for being smart are less motivated to achieve than those appreciated for working hard. They believe their intelligence to be unchangeable rather than something that can be improved upon, in turn affecting their performance:

“Kids who get too much praise are less likely to take risks, are highly sensitive to failure and are more likely to give up when faced with a challenge.” – Why Praise Can Be Bad For Kids, ABC news

As you can see, because of such findings, it has often been surmised that too much praise can be a bad thing (as noted in the quote above). However, similar outcomes might also apply in students who are continually criticized. So is too much praise really the problem or is it something else?

Descriptive and Appreciative vs. Evaluative

A statement is evaluative any time we use “good,” “poor,” or “excellent” to label a person, skill, or effort. Assigning a judgment tells the dancer how they should feel about themselves or what they did. Faced with continuous evaluation (be it positive or negative) by others, a student begins to depend on this feedback for forming opinions about themselves (self-approval/disapproval).

Evaluative Statements provide only temporary results. Sooner or later a student will find they cannot live up to your assessment. They may try to prove you wrong or, become discouraged, remembering all the times they weren’t “great” or “sweet,” or, feel disappointment any time their pirouettes are not deemed “wonderful.” Children labeled as “good” at something are less likely to discover exactly what their strengths or weaknesses are and therefore cannot build upon these things. Their improvement may slow or stop altogether or, they may focus only on this area, striving for more approval.

Photo by Wesley Fryer

Why Do We Evaluate?

There are many reasons we fall into a cycle of evaluative praise or judgments. One, it’s easy and requires little thought. Another, more subliminal reason is because it creates dependency. It makes our opinions about what is good or bad matter and encourages the student to conform to our ideals, keeping us in a position of authority.

Be More Specific

Professionals in the field of education encourage teachers and parents to be specific when offering praise and, to avoid labeling children. Recognizing that students respond better when the focus is on the effort or work involved, it is presumed that the type of praise, not the amount, affects performance and motivation. “Your pirouettes look great!” is more specific than “Great job, Alison!” “Brooke, you’re spotting really well.” is clearer still. Even more effective, because it focuses on the work involved, might be something like “Hayden, you’ve been working hard on your alignment at the barre. Your pirouettes look wonderful!”

However, consider the power of a statement that avoids evaluating even the skill itself and, instead, simply describes and appreciates their accomplishment. For instance:

EVALUATIVE — “Hayden, you’ve been working hard on your alignment at the barre. Your pirouettes look wonderful!”

DESCRIPTIVE — “Hayden, thank you for working so hard on your alignment at the barre. Your turns have really improved!“

Descriptive and Appreciative Praise may seem unnatural or more cumbersome at first. It is likely that you will occasionally find yourself offering an evaluative statement – don’t be too hard on yourself! As you know, practice is key to forming positive habits and change. Like the comment to Hayden above, many times only a slight change is needed to make a remark more descriptive and less evaluative. It won’t take long until you’ve mastered the technique!

Here are some simple guidelines:

Use “Thank you for…” instead of “Good job.” to show your appreciation for their work/attitude.

Describe specifically what you see, hear, or feel - “Your spotting was really crisp and clear.” vs. “You’re a great turner.” or “Your comment to Jill hurt her feelings.” vs. “What a mean thing to say!”

Stick to the facts about how you feel - “When you talk in class, I feel frustrated that I have to talk over you to be heard. It concerns me that you won’t hear what I have to say.” vs. “It is really rude to talk while I’m talking. You obviously don’t care about your dancing.” (I, I, I instead of you, you, you)

Present a bigger challenge – “Now, try a triple pirouette!” vs. “Excellent double!” This works for a negative, too. If the students are spinning like tops but not maintaining their turnout don’t congratulate them for getting a quadruple, ask “Can you keep your legs turned out and still do the quad?”

Avoid labeling – “Thanks for helping me put away the props!” vs. “You are so sweet!” or “I don’t appreciate your tone.” vs. “Alright, Ms. Attitude, that’s enough!”

Photo by Gemma Longman

With your conscious effort to select words that are encouraging without being controlling, that focus on the deed not the doer, your students will be able to form their own opinions about themselves, their actions, and abilities. By fostering, rather than fashioning their healthy self-esteem, your students can feel secure, capable, and supported and will become more confident and responsible as a result.

Further Reading

Praise That Builds a Child’s Self-Esteem

Why Praise Can Be Bad For Kids

Montessori Classroom – Descriptive and Evaluative Praise

Can Adults Praise Children Too Much? (some alternative opinions presented here)

Practice some Descriptive Praise right now!

List three things that you might want to praise your students for in your next class.

Then, select ways you might state your praise descriptively.

Look for opportunities to use the phrases you’ve prepared/practiced in your next class.

Be sure to list your three phrases below in the comments so that others can see some more great examples!

And, let us know if you use or try this technique in class and share your results or thoughts!

© Nichelle Strzepek for Dance Advantage, 2009. | Permalink | Category: Blog, Competing, Featured, For Classroom, For Parents of Young Children, Health and Wellness, Parenting Dancers, Teaching | Who's talking about this article?

Get free updates PLUS access to additional content, tips, and more. Get Subscriber PLUS.