Week 4

Patty Cake Polka

My goal for this lesson was to give the class more of a connection with the pioneers by sharing a story about my great great great grandpa.   My hope is that they will be able to see the pioneers as real individuals. I am also hoping that they can learn how information and traditions are passed down through generations. After the story, I began teaching them a dance that the Utah pioneers used to dance called the Patty Cake Polka. In order for the students to learn this dance more easily, I decided to make some modifications to the dance by taking out the partner polka, and teaching the dance in a line instead of a circle.  This ended up being a great way to teach the students. They were able to concentrate on the dance steps without having to also concern themselves with staying in the more complicated circle formation.  I have learned while teaching this class that they learn more easily by seeing the dance performed before they actually do any dancing. It seems to help them understand and retain the dance steps more efficiently. Also, when they are sitting down and facing me, it is easier for them to attend to new information. This is how we continued to learn. I would teach   

something new, and then we would reset our formation and they would begin dancing. When they were ready to move onto something new, I learned the best way to get their attention wasn’t to talk louder, but to change their formation (ie. turn to face me, or sit back down to watch the next section).We got through less material than I had hoped, but the students learned more effectively, and we had an enjoyable time with the dance.