PDFE 11

I observed Berry College’s Survey of Dance class on November 11, 2010. The class was taught by Dr. Jeanne Schul in the Cage Center and it is a 50 minute 3 day a week college level class. I assessed the class on activity which I classified as actively learning, considering the class was a dance class. When the participants were practicing or performing I rated it as activity. I also assessed the class on instruction (teaching), management (partner, dance, or formation changes), and waiting time.
Activity: 65%
Instruction: 19%
Management: 12.5%
Waiting: 3.5%
The activity level of the class could be considered kind of low however when the students were learning and the teacher was instructing many of the students took this as an opportunity to practice. I however marked the fifteen second increments with an I for instruction if the teacher was teaching over the class practicing on their own as activity. Watching the class to me was extremely effective compared to the numbers. Seeing the numbers surprised me because I could see the students not only practicing skills that they had learned previously but also working on new skills.