Kimball

TWS 7
Reflection and Self Evaluation
Most Successful Learning Goal
Of the three learning goals, Learning Goal 1 was the most successful in terms of how
much progress the students experienced and the percentage of students who reached the end
goal. At the beginning of the unit, the students had no understanding of how the spatial concepts
of pathways, directions, and facings were used in dance. By the end of the unit, nearly every
student in the class could confidently identify and apply these spatial concepts. Even the
students who didnt quite meet the learning goal experienced a considerable amount of progress.
The students with learning disabilities and the ELL students understood the content of the unit
and performed well.
One possible reason for the overall success of this learning goal is the instruction that was
given to help students learn. The concepts of the learning goal were embedded into the warmup, technical sequences, improvisation activities, and even the cool-down. The spatial concepts
were being repeated over and over again in various movement activities and throughout each
lesson. The technical movement phrases had clear applications of the spatial concepts and they
layered each quality in a progressive manner that students could follow. As the students learned
each technical sequence, they were informally quizzed on the different spatial concepts being
used. Over time, the students became quicker in giving their responses and they demonstrated
the qualities more clearly in their bodies.
Another possible reason for the students success with this learning goal is the way that
they were assessed. They began the unit with an open ended question about space and how it
applies to dance, which allowed students to seriously consider the possibilities. Their minds

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were ready to learn new material. As the unit progressed, they were quickly given the individual
responsibility to apply the newly learned concepts on their own as they helped cue each other
during the warm-up on day two. Although this activity required more assistance on my part than
I had originally anticipated, it helped the students to quickly take ownership of their learning and
form a sense of leadership and unity in the class. With this type of culture in the studio, the
students were very willing to work together and help each other learn. By the end of the unit,
they took complete ownership of what they were learning as they applied the spatial concepts to
their site-specific compositions. In relation to Blooms Taxonomy, the students concluded their
study of Learning Goal 1 having reached every competence level.

Least Successful Learning Goal

Although the students performed fairly well with each learning goal, the students seemed
to struggle the most with focus, as referenced in Learning Goal 2. From the pre-assessment to
the final assessment there were several students who had a difficult time taking their focus away
from the floor. Looking back, I can see several reasons for why this learning goal was more
difficult for the students to reach.
One possible reason for the difficulty is the short amount of time that students were given
to work on this spatial concept. It wasnt until day three of the unit that the students were
instructed on how to apply focus to their dancing, and from that point they only had a couple of
class days to work on their application of focus. A fair amount of time was given to practicing
Learning Goal 1 in this unit, but that left very little time for students to work on the remaining
learning goals, particularly with focus. In the future, I would extend the unit by a couple of days
in order to give student more time to master the skills and reach the learning goals. My initial

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approach to teaching the Intermediate Dance class had the expectation that I would be able to
cover a lot of material in a short amount of time. My original unit plans offered only about five
days on average to each unit. This Spatial Intelligence unit was the first unit I taught the
Intermediate Dance class, and it was a great learning experience for me. It taught me about what
I can realistically expect from my students within a certain time frame. After getting through this
first unit, I reevaluated my lesson plans and made the necessary adjustments to allow more
appropriate amounts of time to cover the specific learning goals so that students in the future can
experience more success, especially when working on focus.
Another possibly for the challenges in this unit is the personalities of the studentssome
stemming from cultural backgrounds. The Intermediate Dance class has a couple of students
from cultures where the use of the eyes is very meek and submissive for the women. Although
these two students have been in the States for a couple of years and seem to be adjusting well to
the culture, they still have strong inclinations to be more shy and reserved. A few other students
in the class struggle with insecurities that sometimes prevent them from dancing to their fullest
potential. These few students also struggle to make eye contact and use focus in their dancing.
In one technical phrase the students were instructed to direct their focus to their one of their
hands as it arched through the space; yet every time we worked on the phrase, this small group of
students couldnt or wouldnt follow their hand with their eyes. Some of them were eventually
able to bring their focus off the floor, but it continued to be a challenge to have them truly follow
their hands with their focus.
In order to combat this challenge in the future, I could do more activities with the
exploration of focus. Unfortunately, due to the shortage of time in this unit, the students were
expected to quickly apply the use of focus as we added more layers pertaining to focus to

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sequences they already knew. Ironically, this approach didnt allow students to truly focus on
their focus because they were trying to remember other spatial concepts at the same time.
Outside of the set sequences, the students were only given time to explore the use of focus during
the warm-ups. This being the case, the students who struggled the most werent given enough
opportunities to really explore the use of focus and practice using their eyes. In the future, I
would allow time for an improvisation activity based solely on the use of focus. I would even
provide a technical phrase that gives all of the attention to the use of focus.

Professional Goals
Although the lessons of this unit went well, there are many areas that need improvement.
Through the completion of this TWS, I can see more clearly where the strengths and weaknesses
are in this unit, but also in my own development as a professional dance instructor. I often feel
comfortable and at ease when teaching, but I recognize that I have a long way to go in my
journey as a developing teacher. A couple of my newly established professional goals pertain to
time management, which I believe will help me as a teacher but also in the process of become a
more refined version of myself.
For one of my professional goals I will be striving to develop unit plans and lesson plans
that are more time sensitive in relation to the students needs. As referred to previously, I
recognize that there needs to be a fine balance between the learning goals presented to the
students but also the amount of time that they are given to reach those goals. Within each lesson
plan there is also a need to direct the flow from one activity to the next in a timely manner. All
good teachers are continuously creating new lesson plans and revising the ones that already exist,
and I know that I have many years of practice ahead of me to work on finding this balance.

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Although I still need a lot more practice with teaching in order to improve in this area, I
have set two specific steps toward reaching this goal. First, I will take time to study the unit and
lesson plans I have received from experienced dance teachers in order to see the ways they
managed time to best help their students reach the learning goals. Using the ideas and concepts I
extract from their lesson plans, I will be able to map out my unit and lesson plans with more
realistic timelines so that my students will be more successful reaching the goals.
Second, I will spend more time studying the national and state standards for dance
education so that I have a better understanding of what realistic expectations I can set for my
students. With my unit plan for Spatial Intelligence, I made sure to reference the state standards
for the Dance 2 level (referred to as Intermediate Dance at my school), but I didnt balance the
learning goals I selected for the unit very well. As I become more familiar with the standards for
dance education I will be able to see more clearly the vision that the state and the nation as a
whole have for the dance students in public schools. This information will help me to create
better learning goals that extend through each lesson, unit, term, semester, and school year.
Another professional goal I have is to manage my time better when I am at school and
also once I leave at the end of the school day. Teachers are known for spending large amounts of
extra time in their classrooms and working overtime. They also wear many different hats outside
of teaching though. Many of them are parents. Some work second jobs. Most of them have
strong connections with their parents, siblings, and other relatives. Some hold major leadership
positions in other organizations. Ultimately, teachers need to make sure that they leave time for
other important areas. As I have reflected on my experience with the time needed to prepare and
teach the Spatial Intelligence unit and also the time needed to assemble the TWS, I recognize that
I need to spend my time at school more diligently so that I can truly focus on the other important

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areas of my life when I leave at the end of the school day. It can be easy to let my mind wander
to other tasks that need to be completed outside of school when I should be focusing more fully
on what I am accomplishing at the school.
One step I have toward reaching this goal is to make sure my friends and family members
understand that when I am at the school I really need to focus on the matters related to my job,
and that I wont be texting or taking phone calls from them (unless it is an emergency). I dont
use my phone too often at school, but sometimes people outside of school try contacting me
about important matters or simply to socialize when I am teaching, and this can be a distraction
during my breaks. By setting these boundaries with my loved ones, I will be able to direct my
energy to school related matters while I am at school. This will allow me to get more work done
when I am there which will also help me to give all of my attention to people and tasks that
matter outside of work.
Another goal I have is to create a small To Do List for myself at the end of each school
day that I can resume the next day when I get to the school. I will then leave the list at school in
a place where I can make reference to it first thing in the morning. By doing this I will hopefully
manage my time better and increase my productivity while I am at the school and relieve any
pressure to take my work home with me.

I really enjoyed working on this unit with my students, and many of the students have
expressed their positive feelings and experiences with studying Spatial Intelligence. During my
time working on this TWS my eyes were opened to more of the critical points that matter when
creating unit plans and learning goals. It also helped me to open my mind to new possibilities as
I continue working and creating my practice as a dance teacher.