Body Parts

This week I taught my 1st graders about body parts using the format and methods of Anne Green Gilbert. I gave an introduction asking the students what painters use to create their art, what writers use to create their work, and what musicians use to create their music. Then I connected it to what dancers use--their bodies! The students actually had a difficult time coming up with this connection. They responded with things like dancing and movement, but it took some additional hinting from me for one boy to finally say body.

The students were very unfocused today and it was hard to keep them all together. The room is not set up in a very good way for dance class because there is an open area in the front and one in the back but it is hard to use both without having the students going crazy all over the place.

During the exploration portion of the lesson the students did a great job with the "Add-a-Part" activity. For example, I had them begin by poking their arm and then had wiggling hips.

I think the best part of the lesson, which was the part where the students were most focused and most of them were participating, was our developing skills part. I had them all in a line behind me and we were practicing locomotor skills while accenting special body parts. For example, we would jump and make an accent with our elbows. As I gave them additional instructions I continued to lead them walking around the room and I think that was helpful in keeping them engaged.

Connecting body parts with partners and moving together did not work well for this class. I think it would have helped for me to model it while explaining before I let them try it. Also, even though we did shadowing last week, it was not very good this week. It seems hard for them to decide what to do as the leader and hard to understand how to be a shadow. I think that we might need to do some more practice mirroring with me as the leader and the whole class as followers for them to really understand how to lead and follow.

I learned a lesson myself by making a mistake today. I was trying so hard to remember names but there was this one girl who kept choosing not to participate. At the end of class when students were leaving for the day I asked her to remind me of her name. She told me and I said I would be sure to remember it for next time. Then without really thinking I said thanks for working hard today. As soon as I said it I knew it was the wrong thing because it wasn't true. She had not worked hard and she knew it. She responded by saying "I didn't do anything" and walked away. I need to be clearer about knowing explicitly what my expectations are, letting the students know, and motivating the students to meet these expectations. I don't want the students to think that doing nothing will still get them the praise that others get for actually working hard. I think it came out because I had said it to another student earlier who really did work hard, but I can't let things like that happen again. I need to be truthful.

Overall, I think this class needs more structured exploration and clearer instructions from me. I need to constantly remind myself to worry more about teaching the students than teaching dance.