Thread: class curriculum / outline / lesson plan

I'm looking to the future when I'd like to teach a group class again. when I used to teach them, it was always stressful because I never took the time to come up with a plan. I was always deciding what to teach at the last minute, often while we were warming up. then afterward I would worry that I was giving enough and teaching effectively and efficiently.

so, when I start up again, I want to have a lesson plan or class curriculum ready to go. my question: in the interest of not reinventing the wheel, does anyone know if somebody has already done something like this and made it available to other teachers? do some teachers post their class outlines on their websites? I'd love to see how other people are doing things.

Ha! I'm glad I'm not the only one who's done this! I have a loose curriculum for my beginner's, but my mixed level class is fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants, too. I'd love to see what others have done.

BTW, I know that Bahaia has recently put together a nice curriculm for her beginners - I always like the way she puts stuff together.

For beginners it's easier, but what about with intermediates and mixed-level drop-in classes? How do you keep them cohesive and challenging to the regulars without alienating the true drop-ins?

I have a beginner curriculum pretty much set, but as well when it gets to my beyond basics I am kind of the same way. I would really like to come up with something for them as well. I have a warm-up, followed by shimmy drill, then combos and maybe choreography. I just dont know where to take it with that class.

Warm up
Stuff
Cool down

OK, that's fairly evil, isn't it, but yes, with beyond basics type classes, it tends to go that way. I know with mine, I have a large list of "things I am supposed to teach them" and I will often tailor those "things" to "stuff likely to be in their new choreography" or "stuff they haven't done for a while due to working on a choreography". SO before a class, I might look at my printed forms of "stuff" and pick out X Y Z. That could include a combination or two, or work on a particular movement that is new to the level (but not to all the students), some zills, some veil, some improv. Quite mixed, generally. But then sometimes you do have to fly by the seat of your pants. I might find, in the course of my warmup, that a certain pretty basic movement is looking rough across the board, and decide on the spot that they need to revise that. So that pushes into the original lesson plan and sometimes means the things I intended to include get put back a week or so.

Mind you, as one of my students, who is a teacher of other things, said, you are supposed to "teach the students, not the plan".

I have just came up with it last month, but I've been thinking about it for a long time - I feel so much more organized and confident. Before, I still always got prepared in advance - I didn't feel confident just thinking of something on the spot in front of 15-20 students.

The way I structured it that in the beginner class students learn s1 move per class with 3-4 or more combinations or ways of doing it (different arms, different speed, for example hip drop as normal, as double, combining the two, doing it with a twist, half twist, etc). I teach improvisation so in the end of clas we always improvise, sometimes just with a few moves, sometimes I let them do everything, etc. My whole philosophy is that beginners would learn all or almost all the moves, tranition between them, posture, arms, improvisation in group.

In my Advanced beginner class we learn some moves we didn't in the first class, we do more combinations, also do veil, and most importantly, because it's a much smaller class we start doing impros in solo - just a minute or so, but this way they really get used to it. I get them ready to start doing layering, add drama to their dances and fine tune things. In this class I have more opportunity for one on one attention.

In my Intermediate we'll be doing layering, floorwork and drumsolo, and more focus on impros (3-5 minutes, solo)

I feel comfortable with this, I even typed up a loose plan for the students, what they will learn, what are the prerequisites for the classes (what they need to know, or what classes they had to take), and also approximately how soon they can advance to the next level with regular attendance, practice and serious commitment.

The usual outline of my classes : warmup (up to 10 minutes) technique: review of previous move(s) learned, new move, (go around correcting, across the floor drills) , then different variations / combinations, improvisation, abdominal crunches, cool down and stretch.

cool! keep the comments coming. :) I had a few spare minutes today when my kid was napping and started a list of, as zumarrad put it, "stuff" to teach. just writing things down made it easy to see that I could fill a good six months without thinking too hard about it.

but yes, the big question after solving the relatively easy part of creating a beginners curriculum, is how do you plan in advance things to teach to intermediate and advanced levels? I know most teachers in my area don't even offer advanced level classes - everyone has beginning and intermediate, and the ints are basically just advanced beginners...

My beginners learn to lift, drop & slide their hips & ribcages. Over the course of three 6-week sessions, they do figure 8s horizontally, a few very basic travelling steps, 3-step turns, snake arms, and simple veilwork. Big circles, small cicles & omi's. I start undulations at this level, and occasionally vertical 8s, depends on the class. Oh, and shimmies of course! Piston & Egyptian.


Level 2 students start learning zills & rhythms, more traveling steps, vertical 8s & mayas, undulations & reverse undulations, more traveling steps, more veil handling, and cane. I start working on correcting technique more at this level, and begin stressing posture & nice arm carriage.

Level 3 students begin to layer shimmies. They do more intense cane handling, some spins & turns, a bit more traveling, and really get into learning about the different styles of dance -- tribal, amcab, Egyptian (beledi/sharki/saiidi), Turkish. We also start doing more 3-dimensional moves (i.e. the Jewel). I think I'll start introducing some improv activities and more musicality at this level as well.

Level 4 students are learning the choreos we use for performance. Sword balancing, wings, more intense layering. Solo skills and improv skills. Musicality (rhythms, instruments, etc.)

I only had two levels until January, so I'm still working out the finer points of all this!

I keep a list of what I consider basic moves, warm ups, and isolations exersizes. I print them out on a table with 8 boxes next to each move since my sessions are 8 weeks long. I then write the date of the class that we go over each move along with abreviations like bk (breakdown), wlk (walking for any move that can be done standing or traveling), st (standing), frw/bck (forward or backward), that sort of thing.
This way I can keep track of what we did the week before since I have "sometimers", sometimes I remember, sometimes I don't ..l;, It also helps me keep the three beginner classes consistant and all three classes doing approximately the same thing each session.
I typically will have a few basic moves that I teach every time and then I go down the list and add in others for a session to really focus on, circles for example, or another time it might be shimmies, or traveling moves. By keeping the lists from the past sessions I can cycle through them and not keep repeating the same thing for session after session. Keeps things organised and interesting for both me and my students too.

There was a great thread on here a while back on what to teach intermediates - it will have some excellent ideas.

I like to create a rough plan for each class at the start of the term, which outlines the moves and 'topics' (such as veil, a choreo, rhythms or saiidi steps ) that I intend to work on that term. I have a fairly solid outline for beginners, but lots of different topics that I can pick and chose from for more advanced levels. For these classes, I'll usually pick a handful of new moves, plus 1-2 additional topics to work on.

Then before class each week I write down the specific things I'll do that week. At the end of class I tick off or add things I actually did. Then I like to write what I should do next week straight away. That's because, during the class I'll think "Oh, those figure 8's need more work" or "hmm, I'll add reversing directions next week"...but if I don't write it down right away, I'll forget before the next class. This way, come next week, when I pull out my class plan, most of my work's already done for me. And if not, I've got my overall outline to guide me.

I must admit, my classes are very structured and I always have a lesson plan that I stick to. Everything builds towards a 16 step combination (level 2) or a choreography (beginners and level 3) at the end of the class.

Beginners have a simple choreo to Hips Don't Lie which they do in every class. It includes every basic move (hip drops, shimmies, eights, circles, omis, hip hits - the lot!) and I teach all those basic moves in every beginners class. They love Hips don't Lie because they all know it and they have a sense of achievement in actually dancing something even after one class.

For level 2, after the warm up, I do isolations and a couple of regular drills (circles/eights, percussive hip work or 3/4 shimmies) Then I teach the technique which I'll be using later in a longish combination. Finally I pull the technique together and teach them the combination. Oh and of course a cool down and stretch at the very end. I change the combinations every two weeks (second week I get them adding arms and polishing their moves) so the class is always fresh and challenging and the fact that I always have that new combination to teach keeps my mind on what technique they need. It also creates a feeling of momentum to the class.

Level 3 I do tough drills and BD body conditioning then teach a choreo or challenging combination after teaching them the technique they need for what we're doing. The choreo will often include props.

However, my BIG problem is how I work improvisation into the class. I've never been good at teaching improv. In fact dammit I'm going off to start a thread on just that subject....

Great suggestions here - keep 'em coming!

Hey Joy, I mean Tamrahenna!

Check out: http://www.medancecertification.org/syllabus.html

for a couple of course outlines that people are free to adapt for their own use. They are from my good friends Shadia and Desdemona.

Take care, Rick

Originally Posted by rickfink

Hey Joy, I mean Tamrahenna!

Check out: http://www.medancecertification.org/syllabus.html

for a couple of course outlines that people are free to adapt for their own use. They are from my good friends Shadia and Desdemona.

Take care, Rick

Thanks, Rick - I've used those before and owe a lot of my beginner syllabus to them, thank you for putting that online!

For my raw beginners I sat down and worked out what I thought were basic and safe moves - basically non-tilting isolations of hips, shoulder shimmies and a few travelling steps. Then I worked out the progression eg no point in teaching hip drops until they could rock, no point in teaching hip circles until they could slide, no point in figure 8s until they could slide and twist.

Then I broke up the core into 8 weeks - each week reinforced the previous (eg hip circles one week, smooth hip circles next week, flat hip circles after that) and added at least one new skill; then I added travelling steps, some hand and arm work, threw in a few moves for interest that would not be included in the spiral (head slides, rib work, belly work). Then I picked out suitable music for each exercise.

Overlaying that I picked a range of "cultural" background that I thought was basic eg seeing a range of dancers and styles, ME geography, Arabic language, common dance rhythms etc etc. This got folded into the course and a few tweaks made eg on the day they viewed ME folk dance they had more folk style moves, did some ghawazee style pair should shimmies and were shown how to zhargheret.

The NextStep (after the 8 weeks had finished) was to put the basic moves together in a short choreography.

Once they get past that bit, usually I have a loose plan for 4-8 weeks - but nothing like as laid out (usually). For example, a set of techniques (with progressions and music), a choreography or prop. This can change rapidly if need arises.

In my beginner 2 classes, I teach them how to count out music and write out choreography. Then I tell them to pick one to two mins. of a song they love (it can be anything from any music genre) and give them 4 to 5 weeks to choreograph it. Then they perform their dance for the class and we celebrate their accomplishments.

Warm up, stuff, cool down. Keep to hand a book of ideas for blank moments and a book for confirming what you teach on any given session - then you can refer back to find what you haven't covered recently. Works for tutoring art (yes, warm up and cool downs included!)

Some one on these boards mentioned ones that she uses a jar in which she puts pieces of paper with moves written on them. I thought it was a fantastic idea so I decided to use it.

Yesterday was the first time and we had so much fun with it! I had a pickle jar, decorated with a lot of sparkly stuff :)) and wrote all the names of the moves on pieces of paper. I also did 2 others: travel and everything on toes. These were folded much smaller, and there were a lot of these. I had each student pick 2 pieces of paper and 1 small one. Then I had them improvise with them, they could only use those moves, in combinations. It was great and the ladies loved it. For example one of them got shoulder shimmy and snake arms, on toes. I told her that was probably the most boring and the easiest so she must make it look good, and she got really creative.
This was in my Advanced Beginner class.
Tonight in the Intermediate class I'll do the same thing but have them layer the moves.
I think my classes needed some spicing up.
I also started giving home work to my Beginner students - for example come up with a simple combination on their own with the 2 moves we learned in that class.
In the next class I ask for them to demonstrate it. This gives them a sense of expectations.

My problem before was that I owuld have a lot of students in my classes, but a lot of them of would come and go. We'd always have brand new students and those that have been coming for a few months. I created the Advanced Beginner for those that know most of the moves, but it was still so all over the place. It was hard to teach. I think (hope) my new plans might help retain more students.