A healthy assessment

When thinking about my feelings of being assessed when I was studying, and how I want my students to feel when I assess them…

I moved through the Dance Examinations route, before going onto study at Northern School of Contemporary Dance. With it came intense critique and criticism and when we got those notes from the Examiner and our grade it was damning to read. It was like the things you least like about your technique was given to you as proof and finalized. Not great for ones confidence!

We did have a wonderful, funny, extremely hard working, very successful teacher both as a dance in her career, and as a teacher and choreographer, and knew how to push you to your limits and get the best from you. We were never pitted against one another, and we knew clearly that each student had their unique body type and with that came strengths and limitations.

I am very careful to promote a healthy body image to my students in the classroom. I teach them to be strong and healthy not about weight. I feel it is important to let them know that each body is different and I ask them to gather round and show them my corrections, have them make corrections on each other to really see and feel how the body moves, how to improve technique and what they need to work on.

I teach in an Elementary School. Students who choose to study Dance can continue until the International Baccalaureate as a senior in High School.

  They start from Kindergarten with me and can dance for 12 years in the School. It’s a system I created, and I’m very proud of it. I wanted Dance to be available within School not just in Private Dance Schools.

I am learning that assessment and grades at the end of the year can be damaging and lower self-esteem. I overheard students very disheartened with an 85/100 for example. My aim was to encourage them to work harder and apply themselves and come to me for feedback on what they could do to raise their grade. But instead they were disheartened and wanted 100/100 like their friend and felt inadequate.

So now I speak with them regularly both as a group and individually about how I assess their progress, what I’m looking for, let them know their current grades, so they can work on it until the end of the year. We use videos, choreography projects, group work, they teach each other small sections of the class so they have to come prepared with for example a warm up, and I give feedback to the whole group on positive work as it happens. Watching one another and working with one another is a great learning tool, opposed to always following teacher, do as he/she does.

If I feel a student is not applying him or herself, I will speak to them, the student counsellor, form tutor if necessary, to find a solution to help this student have a positive experience and if they are blocked emotionally we try to turn these feelings into strengths in their creative journey.