Thursday, March 8, 2012

Evaluating "the dance" in HICP teaching: Part two

In an earlier post, I have linked to a rubric that we use in evaluating the accuracy of a teacher-in-training's haptic pedagogical movement work. The previous post discussed the process of assessing oral performance of students in the classroom "paralinguistically," by observing their bodies moving in synchrony with their speech. The criteria used by the dance program at the University of Oakland to determine student general competence gives us a very nice picture of how to conceptualize movement in our instruction:
Clipart: Clker
A. The dancer demonstrates a clear sense of alignment, center control, flexibility and strength. He/she has a strong sense of musicality and the ability to assimilate corrections. (I have never seen a better description of what we see in the successful learner who is disciplined and stays with the assigned protocols.)
B. The dancer demonstrates a high level of concentration, energy and confidence when executing movement in class. (That could almost be a basic benchmark in development of the basics by the learner.)
C. The dancer demonstrates a high effort of professionalism by arriving to class on time, dressing properly, and being prepared to dance. (That one works with a little metaphorical interpretation of the first two--or as that applies to the instructor!) 
Do a little informal research. Have a colleague rank your students on A and B above and then you relate that to their general intelligibility. You may be surprised with what you find--and ready to dance!

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