Standards for Dance in Early Childhood
I started looking at Standards for Dance in Early Childhood three years ago, it was a big part of my "learning""
Using the National Standards from the United States and The NDEOs standards, I compared how these standards compare to Piagets Theory of the four stages of development, how dance plays an important part of a childs cognitive development. To help me create a meaningful program to teach to my students, I researched the findings of Anne Green Gilbert, in particular her book "Brain Compatible Dance Education." Gilbert uses the American Standards of Dance in her lesson plans and teaches in a way that starts by waking the brain in the warm up and follows the natural cycle of movement from baby to young child. This type of teaching does not follow the traditional see, hear, do style of teaching (that I experienced a lot as a student) but allows the student to take charge of their learning. I did not want to teach as I was taught.
The school I worked in had no Syllabus or Standards for me to follow, so I really wanted to develop the programme I was teaching, and have some knowledge of how to track, if the children were developing in technique alone, or was dance and movement helping them to solve problems creatively both in the dance class and in the classroom.
Already up and rolling by this time I had a dance club in the primary school, after school dance club in the middle school and dance activities for each child every morning after breakfast. Also annual dance events and festivals in the garden and play areas.
These clubs and activities were not being graded, but children were involved in performing, creativity, interconnecting and communicating. So in a School environment isn't this enough, just dancing for pleasure and leisure and joining together with your friends and having the best time ?
Yes, but I wanted to develop a place and a space where students would continue to dance until they graduated from High School, I wanted my dance programme to be recognised and make students opt to study here because not only academically are we one of the top schools, but I wanted it to have a conservatoire too.
Dance should be available to all students in their education. It shouldn't only be an option for those who can afford to go and attend private dance schools.
Fast forward to today and I have implemented all these changes, worked hard on creating realistic standards that work for my age groups and backgrounds. I am working on my essays and trying to take this learning and show how it manifests in my daily practice. How are you all getting on with this at point?
What I want to ask if have any of you spent time developing a programme such as this, away from typical graded exams in dance? A program that grows with the children and works for girls and boys?
Thank you all for all the great blogs you are sharing.
Using the National Standards from the United States and The NDEOs standards, I compared how these standards compare to Piagets Theory of the four stages of development, how dance plays an important part of a childs cognitive development. To help me create a meaningful program to teach to my students, I researched the findings of Anne Green Gilbert, in particular her book "Brain Compatible Dance Education." Gilbert uses the American Standards of Dance in her lesson plans and teaches in a way that starts by waking the brain in the warm up and follows the natural cycle of movement from baby to young child. This type of teaching does not follow the traditional see, hear, do style of teaching (that I experienced a lot as a student) but allows the student to take charge of their learning. I did not want to teach as I was taught.
The school I worked in had no Syllabus or Standards for me to follow, so I really wanted to develop the programme I was teaching, and have some knowledge of how to track, if the children were developing in technique alone, or was dance and movement helping them to solve problems creatively both in the dance class and in the classroom.
Already up and rolling by this time I had a dance club in the primary school, after school dance club in the middle school and dance activities for each child every morning after breakfast. Also annual dance events and festivals in the garden and play areas.
These clubs and activities were not being graded, but children were involved in performing, creativity, interconnecting and communicating. So in a School environment isn't this enough, just dancing for pleasure and leisure and joining together with your friends and having the best time ?
Yes, but I wanted to develop a place and a space where students would continue to dance until they graduated from High School, I wanted my dance programme to be recognised and make students opt to study here because not only academically are we one of the top schools, but I wanted it to have a conservatoire too.
Dance should be available to all students in their education. It shouldn't only be an option for those who can afford to go and attend private dance schools.
Fast forward to today and I have implemented all these changes, worked hard on creating realistic standards that work for my age groups and backgrounds. I am working on my essays and trying to take this learning and show how it manifests in my daily practice. How are you all getting on with this at point?
What I want to ask if have any of you spent time developing a programme such as this, away from typical graded exams in dance? A program that grows with the children and works for girls and boys?
Thank you all for all the great blogs you are sharing.
Great entry Linda.
ReplyDeleteSome food for thought: I am very interested in knowing the 'trigger' for you to decide to teach in a different way than that experienced by you. A different question that I would like to pose is that of the content of the sessions or put in a different way: are you working with a set vocabulary/technique? and if so, how does your apporach differ from other approaches to teaching dance?