OBJECTIVES:
1. To enhance teaching skills for undergraduate college/university courses.
2. To engage in serious reflection about teaching in general and one’s own teaching in particular.
EDUCATIONAL BELIEFS THAT RELATE TO THIS COURSE:
1. There is no single correct answer to the question of how one ought to teach dance.
2. Becoming a good teacher is an ongoing, career-long process.
3. An important part of teaching is modeling.
4. Teaching and learning are complementary activities, with responsibilities for both teacher and learner.
5. Knowledge is constructed by students, not just handed down by teachers.
Course Calendar:
Tuesday, January 9. Introduction
Assignment 1: collect teaching materials (videotapes, how-to books, newsletters, magazine) and bring to class on January 16.
Thursday, January 11. Library day
Tuesday, January 16. Look at teaching tools and materials. Talk about course projects and calendar.
Assignment 2: Select a book on teaching technique, improvisation, or choreography and begin reading.
Assignment 3: Get a journal/ portfolio for collecting your thoughts, observations, and course materials. Begin by adding your readings.
Assignment 4: Begin collecting observations of and materials about technique, improvisation, and choreography teaching. Look carefully at what is being taught and how, by thinking about the syllabi you have from your teachers, the sense of the structure of the course, their ways of relaying information, interacting with students, and assigning grades. Keep a daily log of what strikes you in class.
Thursday, January 18. An initial look. What makes a good dance teacher?
Tuesday, January 23 and Thursday, January 25. Continue observations, no class. Observe other technique, choreography, and improv courses in action. Be sure to ask the permission of the instructor. Collect observation notes in your teaching journal/portfolio.
Tuesday, January 30: guest speakers
Thursday, February 1: more observations
Tuesday, February 6: class meeting, updates. Syllabi: similarities, differences. "Contemporary Dance Levels Criteria," handout.
Thursday, February 8:.
Work on the following:
Assignment 5: Read for February 15 and 20 sessions
Assignment 6: Write a statement of teaching philosophy. What are your core beliefs about the purpose of teaching dance technique? (about 2 pages)
Assignment 7: From your collected materials, fashion an annotated syllabus for a beginning, fifteen week technique class. What are your goals for beginning dancers? How will you grade them? What are your expectations of yourself and of them?
Assignment 8: Fashion a lesson plan for a single day. What do you expect the students to learn from this class? How exactly will you develop materials?
Tuesday, February 13: Guest speaker
Thursday, February 15:
Discuss readings:
Excerpts from Teaching to Transgress, bell hooks, New York: Routledge, 1994.
"Teaching for Minority Student Retention" from ERIC Digest, ERIC Clearning House on Higher Education, the George Washington University, Washington, DC.
"Taking Student Diversity into Account," Nancy Chism, from Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research and Theory for College and University Teaching, 9th edition, Lexington, MA: DC Heath, 223-237.
"A Paradigm for Multicultural Course Change: Examining Course Components and Levels of Transformation"
Handout.
Tuesday, February 20:
Discuss readings:
"Identifying Student-Centeredness in Learning" from newsletter, National Society for Internships and Experiential Education.
"Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities" Handout
"Students Expectations of Professors," The Teaching Professor, April 1996, p. 3- 4.
"What Research Says about Improving Undergraduate Education," AAHE Bulletin, April 1996, 5-8.
"Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education," by Arthur W. Chickering and Zelda F. Gamson. AAHE Bulletin, March 1987.
"Problem Situations and Problem Students (There's Almost Always at Least One!), from Teaching Tips.
Thursday, February 22, Tuesday, February 27, Thursday, March 1.
Reports: what I’ve learned about teaching dance technique: theory and practice.
Present highlights of your statement of teaching philosophy, discussion of the resources you used and what you found valuable in them, highlights of your annotated syllabus and class plan. You may speak from the front of the classroom or in the round.
Be ready to show your written materials, especially the syllabus and class plan, to the class.
Turn in written materials – your journal, syllabus, and class plan – on March 1.
Tuesday, March 6 - Thursday, March 8. Spring Break
Tuesday, March 13: Observe choreography class
Thursday, March 15: test grading.
Tuesday, March 20 and Thursday, March 22.
Assignment 9: Fault Lines residency is this week. Pedagogy Workshops: March 20 and 22, 3:30- 5:30, 3:30 to 5:00. (Faculty Center) or attend any two events.
Tuesday, March 27 and Thursday, March 29: Teaching choreography.
Discuss reading: "Standing Aside and Making Space: Mentoring Student Choreographers," Larry Lavender and Judith Predock-Linnell, Impulse: The International Journal for Dance Science, Medicine, and Education, 4, 235-252.
Assignment 10:
Learn to use Larry Lavender's ORDER approach. Discussion leader will prepare a handout and teach the rest of us to use the system. From Dancers Talking Dance: Critical Evaluation in the Choreography Class, Larry Lavender, Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, c1996.
Learn to use Liz Lerman's Critical Response Theory. Discussion leader will prepare a handout and teach the rest of us to use the system.
Thursday, March 29: View tapes of student choreography. Compare and discuss our evaluations. Refine parameters.
Thursday, April 5: Teaching improvisation.
Tuesday, April 10 and Thursday, April 12: Teaching academic courses: Introduction and readings discussion:
Assignment 11: During this section, we will read selections from most sections of the book Teaching Tips: Students will select articles and lead discussion.
Tuesday, April 17 and Thursday, April 19: guest speakers and continued readings discussions.
Tuesday, April 24 and Thursday, April 26: observe Dance Appreciation (Tuesday/Thursday 9:30-10:45) or Dance History II (Tuesday/Thursday 3:30-5:00). Do at least two observations.
Tuesday, May 1: course conclusion
EXAM: Sat., May 5 3:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.: adventures in pedagogy.
Assessment/ Grading:
Assignment 1: Survey of teaching materials. No points assigned.
Assignment 2: Book on teaching some aspect of dance. Graded as part of report.
Assignment 3 and Assignment 4: Get a journal/ portfolio for collecting your thoughts, observations, and course materials. Begin by adding your readings. Begin collecting observations of and materials about technique, improvisation, and choreography teaching. Look carefully at what is being taught and how, by thinking about the syllabi you have from your teachers, the sense of the structure of the course, their ways of relaying information, interacting with students, and assigning grades. Keep a daily log of what strikes you in class. Graded at midterm and final. 10%
Assignment 5 and Assignment 11: Discussion leadership. 20%
Assignments 6, 7, and 8:
Write a statement of teaching philosophy. What are your core beliefs about the purpose of teaching dance technique? (about 2 pages)
From your collected materials, fashion an annotated syllabus for a beginning, fifteen week technique class. What are your goals for beginning dancers? How will you grade them? What are your expectations of yourself and of them?
Fashion a lesson plan for a single day. What do you expect the students to learn from this class? How exactly will you develop materials?
Ann will grade written materials: 30%
Class will grade presentations: 20%
Assignment 9: Fault Lines residency is this week. Pedagogy Workshops: March 20 and 22, 3:30- 5:30, 3:30 to 5:00. (Faculty Center) or attend any two events. No points assigned.
Assignment 10:
Learn to use Larry Lavender's ORDER approach. Discussion leader will prepare a handout and teach the rest of us to use the system. From Dancers Talking Dance: Critical Evaluation in the Choreography Class, Larry Lavender, Champaign, IL : Human Kinetics, c1996.
Learn to use Liz Lerman's Critical Response Theory. Discussion leader will prepare a handout and teach the rest of us to use the system.
Class will grade on presentation:
Assignment 12: Adventures in Pedagogy: class graded 10: