Grade 9 Movement (Dance)

Prescribed Learning Outcomes

It is expected that students will:

• apply movement skills and concepts to create movement sequences, with or without music
  
• create, choreograph, and perform dances for self and others in a variety of dance forms
  
• apply the principles of mechanics to improve performance in dance activities

To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Movement (Dance) in other grades click on an icon below.

Suggested Instructional Strategies

Through a variety of dance forms (e.g., multicultural, contemporary, ballroom) students perform basic movement patterns to music. Students become familiar with the concepts of time, rhythm, spatial awareness, and sequencing. These concepts will be applied in individual, couple, and group formations.

Strategies

• Have students perform various dance steps (e.g., Slap Leather, waltz, Jiffy Mixer) individually by patterning teacher or peer demonstrations.
  
• Have students perform dance steps in specific formations (e.g., couple, circle, line).
  
• Discuss appropriate social etiquette for dances from a variety of cultures.
  
• Have students research dances from various cultures (e.g., Indo-Canadian, Japanese, South America, Aboriginal) and prepare a presentation to the class.
  
• Use music of different cultures to have students explore locomotor and non-locomotor movements (e.g., turns, hand movements, body percussions) and basic folk dance steps.
  
• Have students work with a partner or in small groups to create a dance. (Select music, make up a name, select a formation, and create the steps.)
  
• Have students work in groups of three to five to practise Tinikling steps and create one new step of their own.
  
• Have students select an object (e.g., fan, cane, hat, tambourine) and use it in a dance sequence.
  
• Use poetry, pictures, or themes (e.g., sports, nature, animals) as a stimulus for dance sequences.

Suggested Assessment Strategies

Teachers may wish to use the Student Responsibility Scale (see Appendix D) to assess these aspects of student development.

• Students work with a partner or in small groups to choose a theme based on an emotion, situation, or concept. Using a dance they have learned, students change some elements in order to convey their theme. Work with the students to develop assessment criteria such as the following:
  
  • Design--modification and original elements flow smoothly, movements are challenging, dance is within skill level of performers, movements fit tempo and rhythm, dance reflects intended theme.
    
  • Performance control--confident; interpretive; in unison, if relevant; in tempo and on beat.
    
• Students write a report showing evidence of their understanding of movement skills and body mechanics by analysing their own dance performance. For example, have them respond to the following:
  
  • Identify a dance movement that is easy for you to perform with a high degree of control. Explain why in terms of movement skills and body mechanics (balance, motion, force, levers).
    
  • Identify a dance movement that is difficult for you. Explain why in terms of movement skills and body mechanics (balance, motion, force, levers).
    
• Assess student responses using criteria such as:
  
  • accurate understanding of the concepts involved
    
  • relevance of the information included
    
  • logical explanation of the effect of mechanics on performance
    
  • clarity and comprehensiveness of the explanation

Recommended Learning Resources

Print Material

• Assessing Attitudes in Physical Education: A Collection of Assessment Tools
  
• Quality Lesson Plans for Secondary Physical Education

• Teaching Beginning Dance Improvisation

• Steps to Success
  
• Upper Elementary Children: Moving and Learning

Table of Contents

Province of British Columbia
Ministry of Education
Curriculum Branch © 1995 Copyright

Maintained by: Physical Education Coordinator

Revised: January 27, 1999

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