Learn Continuing Development Basic Teaching Skills - Unit 0
| Basic Teaching Skills - Unit 0 |
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This is best described as a course for those who are already leading/teaching, or about to take on a group, but who do not wish to sit the RSCDS teaching exams. Attendance on the course will result in a “Record of Completion of a course in basic SCD Teaching skills”. All of the elements listed below are useful skills for any teacher. Those seeking to study Unit 0 may not require all of them in the same depth, so the most relevant can be selected for delivery, depending on the needs of the course members. Elements:
Outline of the Elements The needs of your class. Classes vary greatly in nature, age group and skill levels. Often a class will contain dancers of varying age and experience. Try to assess what their needs are, what level of technical challenge or dance complexity they can cope with and what their physical, social and emotional needs may be. Try to vary your lessons within these parameters. A mixture of challenge may be necessary to satisfy everyone. A beginners’ class of university students will require a different programme and a different approach from a class of more mature and experienced dancers. Some groups may regard themselves as a social class, but even that gives opportunity for teaching and learning. Consider what your class wants and needs and reflect that in your choice of teaching materials and in your approach to teaching.
Whichever dances are chosen for a class, dance analysis will clarify many aspects of the lesson planning, such as steps, skills exercises, main formations, tricky transitions, teaching points and arrangement of dancers on the floor. Dance analysis can operate at several levels. At its most rigorous, it will comprise:
At its most basic level it is about identifying the places in a dance where mistakes or bad dancing are likely to occur. Once these places have been identified, careful lesson planning and inclusion of relevant teaching points will enable the teacher to pre-empt any confusion.
Many different templates are available. A variety should be discussed. The most important point is that, whatever the format, the document must be easy for the individual teacher to use and the content must be relevant to the class members being taught.
Different parts of the lesson will require different arrangements of dancers on the floor. If step practice is the norm, a variety of orientations and groupings add interest to the teaching. During steps and skills, aim to keep as many people moving as possible. For example, two-couple formations should be practised in two-couple sets before moving to 3 couple sets to build the whole dance. During the teaching of dances, the teacher is best placed to encourage mixing, sociability and ensuring no-one is left-out, or dances at the foot of the hall all evening
The voice must be clear and audible, which can be difficult in some spaces. Practising voice projection will add to teaching skills. The voice is particularly important in rhythmic counting, rhythmic coaching and in transmitting pace and enthusiasm. Rhythmic counting is not as hard as it first appears and is a great help to dancers when there is no live music.
Concise and fluent re-capping, rather than reading the instructions from the book, keeps the pace of the lesson going and is much more readily absorbed by the dancers.
Teachers/leaders of groups may often find themselves, creating dance programmes and acting as MC for a ball or social dance. The ability to select a programme, give re-caps, manage a room full of dancers and relate to a band are some of the required skills.
If the original tune for a dance is not available, teachers need to be able to select an appropriate replacement from their CD library. Consideration must be given to the style of the dance and the nature of the original tune. It would be inappropriate to use a slow air for really strong strathspeys, e.g. ‘Bonnie Ina Campbell’, or ‘The Moment of Truth.’
Many teachers who use recorded music have no experience of working with a musician and have to learn how to cue the music…”Ready…and” and how to use the music more frequently than one can with recorded music. Using only eight bars of music at a time and being able to vary the tempo are some of the other benefits.
Teachers at every level need a sound knowledge of the basic principles of warming up and cooling down in order to avoid injury to the dancers. Teachers need to be able to deliver appropriate exercises in correct alignment.
Basic foot positions and rhythmic coaching with suitable words, e.g. ‘hop, step, close, step’ should be explored for the five main steps.
Practice in rhythmic coaching with suitable words, which aid the phrasing of the main formations, should be undertaken.
The basic concepts of dealing with main formations and tricky transitions first then “walk and talk” method, building up the dance at a pace appropriate for your particular class.
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