Running head: Action Research Project

Action Research Project Caitlin Klipp EDUC 526 Professor Courduff

Running head: Action Research Project Abstract Classroom management is extremely important in a dance class setting just like

within a physical education class. My study will be on how to improve behavior in a dance class. Currently my problem lies in my dance classes with the boys in them, I believe due to the nature of the classroom setting; the students find it easier to mess around and to chat with one another. Have a couple of ideas I will be testing on how to improve this behavior in these specific classes.

Running head: Action Research Project Introduction: My action research project will be how to create a better classroom management plan for my classroom. I have difficulties with the boys in my dance 1 class, knowing when to stop talking and listen. I currently take participation points off for bad behavior, but it is not making enough of an impact. I have plans to bring

in an outside male dance teacher to help them respect the dance class a bit more and see a professional male dancer in action, I also got a whistle from our athletics department to now use when it gets too noisy like a coach in the sports these boys play, I am letting them choose their consequence of being the noisy one in class, and lastly, I was told I could get a hands free mic to use in class to help project my voice. It is important to be preactive rather than reactive in establishing effective management strategies in the dance class. (Clark 2007) This means I need to make sure a way to help on my end to keep good management is make sure my planning of each class is fully ready in each class. Some of the most common student behaviors in the dance class involve noise, echo effect, commotions, requests to use the restroom, traffic jams, distractions, loss of focus and refusal to participate. Very social classes may need one or two minutes for socializing. Social time may also be used as a reward for successfully completing a specific number of minutes on task. (Kassing 2003) This could also be used a tool to get my class to be more quiet. My research is going to be on control the excessive noise in my classrooms. I will measure this by how many times I have to stop class in order to keep the class quiet. The less I have to stop class for behavior the more I will be able to focus on

Running head: Action Research Project teaching. Before I start this research I will count how many times I have to wait for the class to quiet down. This number will be the start of my research, as I try

different tasks to keep the class quiet, I will count how many times I have to wait for the class to quiet down, which will hopefully be less. The goal is to decrease the number of times I have to stop and wait for the class to settle down to move on to the next task. Section 2: To carry out my Action Research Plan I set up a couple strategies and plan to help me with my classroom management in my dance 1 class. I have a very high ratio of boys to girls in my dance 1 class, and since this is a very new environment for the boys that they may not typically understand their behavior tends to be a bit rambunctious and wild. Since dance classes are not your typical type of classroom, I think this also forms a difficult part of why the classroom behavior is what it is. The steps I have decided to address to help fix this problem is to Bring in a guest male teacher to see how a professional male dancer behaves Use a whistle in class when the sound is too much I had the class decide their punishment for when I have to singularly call out one student multiple times. o They picked that they would have to freestyle a solo, and if they didnt do it they would have to go to the deans office Lastly I could use hands free mic that would better project my voice over the class, and give me more authority. Section 3:

Running head: Action Research Project I think for me to choose this for my action research could have potentially been one of the worst times to do this study. When the study was supposed to begin I really only saw my classes a couple days. Then it was the week before

finals, and all the arts classes got cancelled. So I did not see my class until we got back after winter break. Since being back from break, this is actually not a typical time in my class both because our dance show is this month, and there is a high focus on the show and not normal instruction. It is a time of reviewing dances, schedules, costumes, etc. My students during this time have still been noisy, but they also know the importance of the show, so they have been more focused on the class. I was able to implement my strategy of bringing a male dancer into the class to guest teach. The students were well behaved for him, and he ran the class in drills. If there was talking, he would have the class as a whole do push-ups. It was a nice surprise for the students, and I think it helped them appreciate my style of teaching more. There was also an instance that I sent a student to the deans office, and I think it helped my students realize that I would actually follow through with the discipline. I know I have a problem being too lenient at times, and I think this was a good indicator to the students that I would actually send students to the deans.

Running head: Action Research Project Date Times I had to ask it to be quiet 12/4 12/5 7 1 (Male teacher) 12/6 1/8 1/9 6 5 4 1/10 1/13 5 3 1/14 3 1/15 3

6 1/16 3

Section 4: In conclusion, I think that I was not able to get the results I wanted or could really implement the strategies I wanted to because of my time constraints. I think that given more time I could have a better chance of using this plan to really change the climate of my classroom. I think that I will be trying these strategies once the dance show is over to see what will continue to help with the classroom management. I have also discussed with many colleagues their best practices. I think that I just need to start really digging into participation points with the students, and I will be less reactionary and just learn to wait. I think as students realize the wait time and their loss of points, students will start to learn to manage their behavior. It is tough with a class like mine, because I do want students to feel comfortable in my class, but I also want them to get the chance to truly learn and appreciate dance. I will continue to work on fine-tuning my classroom management plan.

Running head: Action Research Project Bibliography Clark, D. (2007). Classroom Management Challenges in the Dance Class. JOPERD. 78 (2). Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ794525.pdf

Kassing, G. , & Mary Jay, D. (2003). Dance Teaching Methods and Curriculum Design. Illinois: Human Kinetics.