Teaching Principles That Will Help Students Succeed

Four phases to teaching—one each week

1. Introduce/Preparation for learning (initial teach)
   • People learn by doing.
     • Do it right the first time.

       • Do everything in your power to be sure they do it right the first time.
       • Demonstrate, a great approach for some calls.
       • Show on black board, a great approach for some other calls.

     • Try very hard not to let them do it wrong, even once.

   • People do not like to get embarrassed. When they get embarrassed, they do not feel good about themselves, and therefore they do not like the caller!

2. Teach
   • Do not test them to see how many remember from the previous week.
   • Re-teach the call as if no one had ever heard of it before.

3. Review
   • The third week that you use a new call, give it a quick verbal review before using it.

4. Use
   • During the fourth week, be sure to use calls you have been teaching and reviewing.
     • This is necessary to set the call into memory properly.

• Use a list with four columns, so you can check off each phase.

  • This reminds you not to forget any.

Goals of teaching

• To train dancers to be able to comfortably enter the local square dance activity.

  • They should be able to respond properly to calls that they will hear, from the formations and arrangements that they are most likely to hear them from.

  • They should not get embarrassed.

• Choose a teaching order that will:

  • Teach basic formations early.

  • Allow dancers to move from one formation to another easily.

  • Teach harder calls as early as possible. This allows as much practice as possible before graduation.

  • Save the easier calls for the end, since they do not require as much practice time.

  • Do not teach calls with similar names, similar actions, or similar starting positions close together. Leave at least four weeks space if at all possible.

    • This lets dancers learn one action for one name, without anything to confuse it with.

    • When the similar call is eventually taught, dancers will not have to choose between two partially learned and possibly choose the wrong one.

  • Calls that are frequently used together should be taught separately.

    • This insures that each call is learned, not just the pattern of the combined call.

    • Examples of patterns to avoid (until calls are learned individually):

      • Flutter Wheel, Sweep 1/4
      • Lead Right, Circle to a Line
      • Pass Thru, Wheel and Deal, Double Pass Thru, first couple go left, next go right
      • Swing Thru, Men Run

    • Once the calls are learned, individually, use them together in the common patterns so that dancers are familiar with common usage.

• Do not teach all variations of the more difficult calls.

  • Teach the most common formations first
    • i.e. the ones they will need most to survive after graduation.

  • As time permits, teach additional variations.

  • Be sure to word each definition generally enough so that when you teach a new variation, you will not be contradicting yourself.

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