Why should dance teachers use a lesson plan?

 

Dance teachers often fall into two camps when it comes to their dance lesson plans – there are those who take the “do it on the fly” approach and those who are the “write every word out” types. I’ve definitely been on both sides when it comes to my own planning. As an experienced teacher, I can “wing it” when needed. But in my experience, a good dance lesson plan is the most effective way to ensure that my students are progressing all year long. When I take the time to plan lessons in advance, I ensure that I have clear learning goals for the year and an efficient path to reach them.

There are many companies that offer dance lesson plans for purchase, but believe that it is important for dance teachers to create their own dance lesson plans. As a dance teacher, your dance lesson plans should  be unique and authentic to you: your knowledge, your dance teaching style, your dance students’ goals, and your shared vision for holistic growth in dance technique, artistry, and overall wellbeing. After all, you know your strengths and weaknesses as a dance teacher better than  anyone else – and you know your students best, too!

In this blog post, I will outline some essential things to remember when creating your dance lesson plans, as well as some tips for making the lesson planning process easier.

 

How do you make a dance lesson plan?

 

I recommend starting your dance lesson plans by looking at your learning goals for the entire year. To keep your students progressing, you need to think ahead: Where do you want your students to be at the end of your dance season?

Work backwards to figure out what skills, concepts, habits and values you have to include in your dance lesson plans. This will become your class curriculum – the list of learning goals for your students to meet by the end of the term. For more information on curriculum building, check out The Holistic Guide to Dance Lesson Planning – it makes the process easy!

Once you have your learning goals for the year outlined, you are ready to craft dance lesson plans that help students meet all of their learning goals.

 

What should you include in your dance lesson plans?

Themes to tie the learning together

 

Learning is all about making connections and synthesizing material – and dance learning is no different. We can help dance students make connections by organizing our dance lesson plans by theme. Having a theme or through line for your classes can help students make those important connections among the skills they are learning.

 

Effective dance class routines

 

To help students learn, you’ll need an effective dance class routine. Some dance forms have codified class sequences built in, such as ballet: barre, center practice, turns, and allegro. But, you don’t have to be tied to tradition! Develop a class sequence that works for you and your learning goals, then try to stick with it. Most students thrive with a consistent routine, and consistency makes the lesson planning process easier for you, too!

 

Activities that go beyond dance technique

 

As dance teachers, we want to move! It feels good to get students learning new dance steps, progressions, and combinations. But we also know that there is much more to dance than just technique. Too often, we focus our dance lesson plans on technique alone, and let the rest of the learning happen by chance. It is critical that we actively build artistry and social-emotional development in our dance lesson plans, to help our students grow into well-rounded dancers and empowered individuals. Here are my suggestions for which skills to include – and how to fit them into your lesson:

• For a list of foundational technique skills that are important for dancers in nearly every dance genre and style, check out this blog post.
• My favorite ways to teach artistry in class, including creativity and performance quality, can be found here!
• To read about the social and emotional skills you need to include in your dance lesson plans, check out this post

 

Input from your students

 

Okay, so you may be reading this and think … if I asked my students what we should do in class, we’d be making TikTok videos and playing freeze dance all day! I get it, and of course I don’t think that you should let your students dictate everything you do in class. However, when you know students’ interests, goals, and histories, you can use that information to create more effective dance lesson plans. Tailor aspects of your dance lesson plans to connect with their responses, and you’ll see a difference in their engagement and enthusiasm all year long!

• Help your students set and achieve new goals for the dance season with The Holistic Guide to Goal Setting for Dance Students. This guide includes a brainstorming tool to help you easily lead your students through the goal-setting process, and ready-to-use worksheets to help your students organize and share their goals.

 

How many dance lesson plans do you need for an academic year?

 

Many dance teachers try to come up with elaborate new lessons and fancy combos each week. While it is good to keep students on their toes with some variety, the reality is that creating a brand new class every week isn’t necessary. In fact, it can actually be detrimental to dance students’ learning. The Holistic Guide to Dance Lesson Planning includes a unique process for easily and effectively including more variety in you dance lesson plans without starting from scratch all the time. By using creative ways to build on and vary your exercises and combos throughout a 6-8 week unit, you can simplify your lesson planning process and create the balance of repetition and novelty that students need to learn.

 

How can I create my own dance lesson plans?

 

The Holistic Guide to Dance Lesson Planning guides you through the entire process of creating your dance learning goals for the year, dividing them into themed units, and creating unique and highly effective class lesson plans. This comprehensive 68-page guide and free workbook helps you easily create a year’s worth of engaging and effective lessons – without reinventing the wheel each week!  In addition, The Dance Technique Skills Lists offers recommendations of movement skills to teach at the beginning, intermediate, advanced intermediate, and advanced levels in 6 different dance styles!

 

Let’s connect!

• What are some of your favorite dance lesson planning strategies? I’d love to learn from you … share your thoughts and ideas in the comments!
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