Assignment 4A Dance Dance Dance

Here I am going to describe a dance lesson for fourth grade, and in fact a dance lesson that I plan on using this upcoming week for my student teaching. I am choosing to write about it because I need to differentiate instruction for the lesson and what better way to see if I understand differentiation by implementing it and reflecting on it afterwards. 

Warm-up:
- Students move throughout the boundaries doing a locomotor skill to music - running, jumping, skipping, fast walking
- When the music turns off students find their own partner
-With their partner students will jump to a count of 4 - 1, 2, 3, 4
-Music starts again and students do a locomotor skill again
-When music turns off students will again find a new parter
-This time students will march to a count of 4
-This is repeated 3 more times - clapping partner, twisting partner, & head bob partner
-After each of the new movements to the count of 4, students will do the previous move(s)
-At the end it will be put all together and students will - head bob, twist, clap, march and jump to a count of 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 - 5, 6, 7, 8

Activity:
-Students begin at “home”
-Students step R, L behind, step R, L together
-Students step L, R behind, step L, R together
-Walk backwards 4 times, R, L, R, tap L
-Rock back and forth, L step, R tap, R step, L tap
-R forward kick turn, do a ¼ turn to the left
-Repeat sequence many times over and over facing a new direction each time
-Once this is done a few times, students will be given the opportunity to listen to the music and practice alone or in a small/large group before performing the entire dance
-Entire dance will be performed 

EL: can hear the music and from previous classes they know when the music is on, movement starts, and when the music is off they freeze for next set of instructions. They can see what locomotor skill the other students are doing and copy that. If the student is not able to find a partner, I will find a partner for them or get involved myself and be their partner for a round. When doing the movement to a count of 4 I will hold up the numbers on my hand so the student can see. If this student has a friend in the class that helps translate they can partner up with them or stay close so instruction is translated correctly for them to understand. 

Special Needs Learner: can also hear the music and from previous classes know that when the music starts, movement starts, when it stops the student freezes and awaits for further instruction. Just like the EL student if the student can't find a partner I will help find one for them, or I will step in and be a partner if numbers are uneven and I need to. 

High Achieving Student: not much adaptation is needed here, the student can add some creativity to their movements and twist different, clap differently or add a twist or different skill to their jump. 

For all students there will be time to practice and each of the steps will be done on their own and slowly added to the next set of steps. Students will be asked to hold their thumb, up-understand the moves and can move onto the next, sideways-need more practice, and down-do not get the moves and need more practice. Once I see this from the entire class I can then keep practicing the steps just explained or move onto the next step. Students will have time to practice in their own groups and within these groups the students have a piece of paper with the set of steps listed above that they can reference. 

I look forward to implementing this lesson and making the adaptations needed to help each of my students to succeed in my class. I also look forward to after the lesson and my own self-reflection and feedback from my master teacher to see what worked and what did not. 

"Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive thoughts" -Willie Nelson