1/8/2017
Topic:
Students With Disabilities
Amanda Aubry
|
About 5 years ago I had a student with down syndrome in my dance class. I always had him stand near the front of the room during class time. If he was having trouble with movement I would have my more advanced students take him aside and help explain the steps more in depth. It was a great way to get the advanced kids more of a leadership role and it gave him extra time to really understand the movement. At the end of the year we do a choreography unit. There are a number of lessons involved where they create short movement phrases based on parameters that I set. I had him work with a partner for these assignments. The final assignment is creating a full dance. He came to me and asked if he could work on it alone and I, feeling hopeful, let him do a solo piece. I have never been so proud in my years of teaching as I was when he made his final presentation. His dance met all the parameters set and was truly inspirational. He brought me to tears and I will never forget that amazing moment! |
1/29/2017
Topic:
Tools And Strategies
Amanda Aubry
|
Option 1: The first strategy I believe would be extremely helpful in my classroom is peer partners. I actually have already done this in the past when I had a student with Down's Syndrome. It helped the student remain on task because he had constant help and reinforcement. This is something that I still use and will continue to use. Not only is it helpful for the student who is disabled but it is also helpful for the partner. It gives my higher level learners more of a leadership role. The other strategy that I find very helpful is differentiated assignments. For a final project my students perform choreographed pieces on stage. When we create the dances they're performing I will often separate them into groups based on their level. Each group will be assigned movement to either create or learn for the dance. Assignment 1 may be learning a dance phrase that has already been created. Assignment 2 may be just simply taking a list (that i give them) of steps they have learned and creating a phrase by putting them in their own order. Assignment 3 may be create a phrase based on the steps we have learned in class (this group will not have a list of steps and will have to recall what they know). Assignment 4 may be create dance phrase based off of the following effort actions: glide, flick, and wring. |
1/29/2017
Topic:
Assessment Of Learning
Amanda Aubry
|
For my dance classes each time we learn a certain amount of new movements I will put them together in a combination. This combination becomes their performance assessment for that particular unit. There are two parts to this assessment, their actual performance of the combination and a self-critique where they identify what they did correct, what they need to improve on, and what they can do in order to improve. This is very helpful when it comes to students with physical disabilities. It allows me to see if they understand the steps and the dance technique even though they may have difficulty performing them. |