Monthly Archives: November 2009

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Don’t be a chicken..DANCE

Think you have no time to learn a new dance? Do you have the time but just are too afraid to teach your students for fear of doing it wrong? Well fear no more. JUST MAKE IT UP!

Of course there are many traditional dances out there that require many ornate and exact steps but you do not have to teach a traditional dance to your students. Pick a song according to the culture you are teaching and create the movements yourself. I love to just make up movements myself because I can cater the difficulty of the dance to each class!  I do stay within the style of dance though, Celtic jigs and step are very hard and fast movements, African dance varies from song to song with either slow and connected movement or faster and very grounded. Latin dance is very simple and grounded as well, or you could go as far as Asian with very connected and meaningful story-like motions.  What ever you chose, feel free to just experiment and have fun with it. No one is going to correct you in a classroom (unless you of course have an expert there).

Dance gets students up and moving, which many of them do need during the school day! The more they move around, the more into the lesson they are!

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How to start a lesson plan on World Music

First- Pick a culture! It’s the easiest way to start, when you know what culture  you want to teach then narrow it down. If you are doing a unit plan then choose more than one area of the culture but if it is just one lesson, narrow it down to say a game, song, and maybe a rhythm for the students to play on instruments and sing a song with.

Second- Plan your lesson accordingly, start off with what you need to do first (useful if you are preparing for a general music concert or need to do announcements) and then move on to the fun stuff. Try to do some sort of movement activity first just to get them up and moving around. This helps a lot with their attention when you have to sit them back down and continue your lesson.

Third- Make sure that when you are planning your lesson that you know the history and general background of the activity you are teaching them. Especially if it is a song or dance because the students ARE GOING TO ASK. Even if you have to make up a few facts about it, as long as they get the general truth they are good to go.

Fourth- You can take everyday activities you have used in your classroom before and relate it to world music, you do not have to reinvent the wheel when you are planning a lesson on something new!

Fifth- Be interested in what you are teaching, this interest can come as you research. Also, HAVE FUN. The students are more interested if you are excited about the subject.