Why you need lesson plans for dance
Lesson plans for dance are maps for dance teachers, studio owners and dancers.
Have you ever driven home and then realized for the last 10 minutes of your journey you literally couldn’t remember being behind the wheel? It’s scary right? Then why teach like this? Make lesson plans for dance classes and never feel like this again.
Teaching dance classes without lesson plans is exactly this. Driving on autopilot; you’ve taught this age group 100 times before. You know what they need. Well, I’m here to give you a bit of the gears and say that walking into a room of 7-year-old kids and saying to yourself they need to learn chasses is a lot different than KNOWING what they need to learn from you over the course of an entire year and mapping it out for every lesson. Take that and multiply it by 10 – the number of years they will dance with you, and if you don’t have a plan, you are literally driving blind. It’s kind of crazy when you think about it like that!
Why you need the Method Dance Program
At the Method Dance Program we love planning, but we have taken lesson planning for dance to a whole new level. Our program has been meticulously planned from end to beginning and then from beginning to end with our big picture goals our laser focus. Get it here and create consistent training at your studio. Learn more about the program and who we are!
How do our lesson plans work together with the syllabus?
Why studio owners need lesson plans
For studio owners, lesson plans are a great way for you to ensure the instruction your teachers are providing is consistent with your vision. You can see progress, or lack of progress. You can make adjustments if you see them moving in a direction you don’t like, and you have something tangible to show parents to demonstrate value.
How are you connecting syllabus to lesson plans?
You can have a syllabus, and teach the exercises, and hopefully your students will be ready by exams, but every instructor is going to get there in their own way and some may never get there. Some instructors will be consistent, and some will waver, the pathways will change, but the theory is, they will all get the same result – right? Oh how wrong!
Unless you are planning out every lesson for every week, you are going to have inconsistencies. Dance is an art, it is fluid and ever changing, a teacher who has been teaching for 10 years is very different from one who is in their first year. There needs to be a common thread between them to truly get consistent results.
Make a plan – make lots of plans!
The only way of getting to the end of the year, knowing that what you have taught them is enough for them to pass to the next year, is by having lessons planned out and then by executing those lesson plans. Throw in an examination and you will know for sure you have done your job. Your boss and the parents will know too.
If I could give only one piece of advice to you, it would be to make lesson plans! Don’t just plan lesson by lesson, plan your entire year. That is how your students become consistent and you become consistent as an instructor. It is also how you will see results. We have all heard the 10,000-hour theory from Malcom Gladwell, and as dancers you know there’s a lot of merit to it. If we know that practice and repetition works; why not teach like you know? Lesson plans for dance are magical things – use them to your advantage!
Repetition and consistency really work!
Lesson plans for dance help you make the best use of repetition, consistency, goal setting. They are these beautiful and extremely powerful tools that when used in combination can produce unexpected and astonishing results. Dance is a beautiful way to teach kids this theory, because if they work on it, they will physically see the results. It’s magic to them, and honestly, it’s still kind of magical to me too. Kids are like sponges and their bodies are so moldable that when they begin to understand dance, their skill level sky rockets. The real life, tangible achievements they can achieve solidify in their young minds, that if they want to achieve something, they simply need to set a goal, make a plan, and execute the plan.