Lesson 2-15: Teaching Preschool Dance Online
Engage Your Students when Teaching Preschool Dance Online
Here are six things you can do in your virtual dance classes to more effectively engage your students.
I’ll give you the short one first:
1. Project more energy and enthusiasm than you normally would. When you’re online, the camera will automatically take 10% of your energy.
Second, know your students. If you’re teaching one 45 minute class each week and no matter what you try, you lose your students’ attention in the last 15 minutes, maybe it’s time to try teaching two 20 to 25 minute classes a week. Divide your 45 minute class plan into two class plans. If you’re losing your students’ attention when you stop to play games or do activities that require students to wait their turn, save those games and activities for another time. However, if your students continue to pay attention and do pretty well waiting turns, then by all means, do activities that allow each student to share individually.
Pay attention to your students’ reactions to things. Pay attention to when you might have lost them. When might class have gone down hill? On the flip side, when did your students light up and engage with you? Were there certain games or activities when every student paid attention eagerly? These are all questions you really should be asking yourself during any class you teach. But I think for many of us, teaching a traditional, in-person class might be comfortable while teaching online feels a little bit different. Some things that may have worked great in the physical classroom may not work so well online in terms of engagement and attention spans.
So number two is:
2. Know your students. Things that worked in person may not work as well in the virtual classroom. And that’s okay. The key is to pay attention to your students and learn what works and what doesn’t for them. Just like in a class at the studio, some groups of students will react differently than others to the exact same class lesson plan or dance activities.
Third—I think regardless of whether your students have long or short attention spans, remember we are focusing on toddlers and preschoolers here. Even those with long preschooler attention spans have quite short attention spans in the grand scheme of things. You need to focus on keeping your class activities moving along in your virtual classes as much as (if not more than) your in person classes.
As for having students take turns for more connection and participation, I think you have to know your class. I’ve found some classes are much better at this than others. I think it depends partly on the students’ temperaments. Personally, I have a time at the beginning of class to connect with my students. I ask them what they’ve done since their last class. I might compliment someone’s outfit. Or I’ll ask them something that relates to the story or theme we’ll be using in class. After that, my class keeps moving through the activities. If I can help it, I don’t stop. If I do any kind of game or activity that requires all of the students to wait on one student, I keep that activity to the very end and I keep it short. It might be something like a game of add-on—where our class creates a dance by letting each student add on a step. This way, here isn’t an extended waiting time. One student chooses a step. We all do that step. The next student chooses a step. We all do the first step followed by the second step, and so on. All of the students are still engaging after each student’s turn. There’s not a long waiting time for anyone.
Connection is definitely still important in a virtual dance class, but know where to place individual student participation within your class plan.
You can also ask questions to your entire class together. Like, “I wonder who can lift their knees really high during marches today?” Or “Can you show me how tall you can stand with your beautiful tiara and necklace on?” (imaginary, of course). When you ask a question and they respond by showing you a movement, they are still responding. It’s still creating communication and connection. For older preschoolers, you can also ask them to count something for you—like how many taps you can do in a piqué, or how many seconds you can balance in a passé. You show them and they count for you. This is a way the entire class can answer you, providing a means of connection and participation without anyone waiting.
To recap number three:
3. Connect with your students, but keep your classes moving! Children seem to have even shorter attention spans for an online class when compared to a class in the studio. Move quickly from one class game or activity to the next. If you’re letting your students take turns, it’s best to make this the first or last activity in your class so you can keep your class flow moving. And don’t linger between students’ turns.
If you know me by now, you may have seen this one coming—use stories and themes throughout your class. Telling a story or using a theme, whether it’s for the entire lesson, a single activity, or a transition, will keep your students engaged. As human beings, we’re automatically wired to wonder what will happen next. If there’s a character involved, we want to know what they’ll do or what will happen next. For children, using stories and themes sparks this same interest.
Personally, I like my classes to revolve around a single story or theme. I love teaching using fairy tales and will take my student through the fairy tale story with the dance class. If I’m not teaching a fairy tale dance class, I’ll use a theme for the entire class. We’ll explore the ocean, travel to rainbows with unicorns, blast off into outer space, or meet dinosaurs from long ago. I do this in part because it helps me to remember my own class lesson plans. I can make it through my entire class without ever looking at my notes. It’s worked really well for marketing and for having something to talk about in emails and on social media. And of course the final benefit is my students have paid way better attention since I started teaching this way.
I’m not saying every class is 100% smooth 100% of the time. You will still have an occasional student who wanders off. You’ll sometimes plan an activity you thought your students would love, but they’ll be over it before you even begin. BUT, if you start using more stories, themes and even images in your classes and activities, you’ll see a much noticeable improvement in your students and classes across the board. Hands down. I have no doubt about it.
So number four is:
4. Teach through stories. Whether it’s setting your entire class plan to a single story or theme, or simply using more stories and themes in your individual activities, we’re wired to pay attention to stories and their characters. This is a great way for keeping your students’ attention during class—especially during a virtual class, when it’s even easier for them to get distracted.
Finally, give yourself some grace. Teaching virtually is new. And there’s a reason why, even after the capability to teach a dance class online has existed for quite some time, we still prefer to teach and take dance class in person. A virtual dance class is different from an in person dance class. Students can still learn, engage, and have fun, but sometimes we need to approach teaching virtual classes a little differently.
5. Give yourself some grace. Period.
Finally—make sure your students are having fun! When they come to class in the studio, they have to be having fun to want to return week after week—especially for this age group. The same goes for a virtual class. If your students are having fun. If they can’t wait until the next class, they’ll return again and again. And they or their parents will even tell their friends about your classes. That’s how studios have been able to grow (or at least remain the same according to student numbers) during this time. The ones who have kept their classes fun and engaging and their students learning, have had the best luck. And those are the ones who are going to come out of our current circumstances the best off.
So my final point -
6. Keep your classes fun and engaging and your students learning. When students have fun and parents see the benefit of learning, that’s when you’re best off—virtually, just like at the studio.
Adapt Your Lesson Plans to Teaching in Small Spaces for Online and Social Distanced Classes
More than once, I’ve had teachers ask me how they are going to teach a class in a small space—whether it’s for an online class or for a social distanced class where each student has their own square to dance in for the class.
If you’re struggling with this, I want to tell you it’s really okay. It’s not ideal to have to suddenly teach in a small space. But it’s doable.
First, take a look at your toddler or preschool dance class lesson plans and pick out the activities and exercises that require moving more than several feet in any direction. I think when you look at it from this perspective, teaching a class in a small space seems more manageable. You don’t really have to rethink your entire class, just those activities that require too much space.
Most likely, if you normally do a traveling activity, you won’t have enough space to do it in a traditional way. Have your students do the steps in their own personal circle or around their social distancing square. Or have your student do fewer of whatever step it is—maybe two gallops to the right, two to the left, two to the right, and two to the left.
If you’re used to doing an obstacle course, some parts of the course may be able to be kept the same. Twirls don’t usually travel. Hop in place or twice forward and twice backward. You can do the same for what would be walking on a balance beam. Have your students walk on an imaginary balance beam forward and then backward. Have your students do an extra big jump or extra big step in place of a leap.
After you adjust any traveling activities, remember to check the flow of your class after you adjust activities. If you end up with several activities that are very similar in terms of how much your students move, you might want to reorder a few things.
Also, remember that traveling activities usually take up more energy for children (in general). So in adjusting your activities for smaller spaces, if your students aren’t traveling nearly as much, you might want to do more jumps and higher energy activities, even if they are stationary.
If you live somewhere with decent weather, you can suggest to your students and their parents that students can practice certain traveling steps outside at home, or down a hallway for a flat, indoor space.
