- Type
- Collection
- Author
- Barry Clasper (barry@clasper.ca)
- Last Update
- 2022-11-02 14:34:53
- Description
-
When planning for a class, regardless of program, one of the earliest decisions is to determine the order in which calls will be taught. Most experienced callers have their own ideas on this but even they will seek guidance when preparing to teach a program they haven't done before. Having a planned and well documented teaching order is also very helpful when several callers are teaching the same program and want to offer their students "part-way" dances at various points during the teaching season. CALLERLAB has created recommended teaching orders for all programs from Basic to A2. CALLERLAB has not done the same for Challenge, but a number of teaching orders used by a variety of callers have been documented.
It is not uncommon that local circumstances or caller preferences make it necessary to depart from suggested teaching orders. When designing a new teaching order it is important to adhere to some overall principles. The first two documents in the collection below outline these general principles. The other items point to various teaching orders published by CALLERLAB or individual callers.
NOTE: Many of the items below were created prior to recent shifts in the Basic and Mainstream lists and may not reflect the current contents of those programs with complete accuracy.
- Teaching Order Design Principles
- These documents outline some general design principles for creating custom teaching orders:
There have also been some CALLERLAB Convention interest sessions dealing with custom teaching orders:
- Alternative Teaching Orders (2005) Moderator Dick Mazziotti, and Panelists, Don Beck and Tim Marriner
- Teaching Order Design Principles (2008) Moderator Dottie Welch and Panelist Don Beck
- CALLERLAB Recommended Teaching Orders
- The following teaching orders are the recommended CALLERLAB teaching orders for the programs indicated. The links point to the Checklist documents which provide not only the teaching order but also a way to track when calls are introduced and reinforced during the teaching cycle.
- Basic Checklist (2021-09-01)
- SSD Teaching Guide (Full teaching guide which includes a checklist)
- Mainstream Checklist (2019-11-02)
- Condensed Teaching Method (Full teaching guide which includes a checklist)
- Plus Checklist (2018-09-22)
- A1 Checklist (2022-07-09)
- A2 Checklist (2012-09-13)
Note that a big advantage of staying close to the CALLERLAB recommended teaching orders is that a great deal of helpful documentation and choreography has been created predicated on those teaching orders. For example:
- CALLERLAB Online Teaching Resource provides patter and singing call choreography in teaching order.
- Dottie Welch's Singing Call Figures includes singing call figures for Basic through A2, mostly organized in teaching order.
- Cal Campbell's Singing Call Figures includes singing call figures for Basic and Mainstream organized in teaching order.
A further note: Occasionally changes to the program call lists may alter the recommended teaching order, and the resources cited above may lag behind such updates. It is important to check their dates of last update against the most recent changes in the lists.
- Challenge Teaching Orders
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- Collected By CALLERLAB This document contains several Challenge teaching orders that CALLERLAB collected from members.
- Midnight Squares 2014 C1 Syllabus This document contains the syllabus given to their 2014 C1 class, which includes the teaching order and other useful information. Note: The document contains URL references to the CALLERLAB C1 List and Definitions which have changed since the document was created. For current list and definition information click here.
- Hans Gietl's C1 Teaching Order Hans is a well known Challenge caller in the Munich area.
- Interlocked Squares C1 Teaching Order for 2021-2022 Interlocked Squares dances in Sunnyvale, CA.
- Tech Squares Teaching Order
- Tech Squares is a club at MIT that teaches square dancing as part of the physical education curriculum. They teach zero to Plus in a semester.
- Rich Reel's Teaching Order
- Rich Reel has compiled a great deal of useful information on his website. He has posted his teaching orders for Basic, Mainstream, and Plus, along with a large number of singing call figures sorted by those teaching orders.
- Lawrence Johnstone's Teaching Order
- Lawrence Johnstone posted this teaching order he uses for his classes.