Shapes and Skips

On Thursday, February 16, I taught a lesson about shapes and skips. We began in a circle on the floor to learn the basic shape forms. I think this worked well for the students because they all seemed to be very focused and I actually saw some very creative shapes even though we were sitting on the floor. The exploration also went very well. We practiced the locomotor steps and combined shape forms. For example, I asked them to walk with a curved or twisted spine. This was clear to them and they showed it clearly with their bodies. Next, I tried to break down a skip because last time quite a few students weren't clearly understanding what a skip was. Someone had mentioned it as a locomotor so we tried it but it was never broken down. It did not work well to have them all facing me, mirroring me, and doing the movement slowly. Some wanted to do it quickly and it was difficult to see who was really getting it and who wasn't. Also, I didn't know how to work with just one person. We tried skips with the upper body in different shapes going across the floor in 4 lines and it worked pretty well once they figured out the procedure of going across the floor. I struggle with drumming and giving feedback at the same time, but it is getting better. The create/perform section of the lesson was probably the worst. The students did not understand that they needed to combine the shapes with 1 skip at a time so their dances were very unclear. I think it was difficult for them to make decisions in their groups of 5-6 each. I felt like the way I had them perform was effective though. The 4 groups lined up on one side of the gym and went across 1 group at a time, then back the other way 1 group at a time. I decided after this lesson that the students needed some help it working together in groups. Some of them are very "me" oriented as Ms. Rossiter mentioned to me.