I am a firm believer in teaching rhythmic patterns separately in the early years of learning. Nevertheless, I always strive to ensure that this practice is applied to all of the music that they are playing. Before pupils commence these two-part rhythms they have learnt the appropriate time names for most of the rhythmic patterns they will encounter in their music.
After learning these rhythmic patterns in single line rhythms it is time to start learning the time names to use when rhythms are combined between the hands. In this instance, some theoretical knowledge is advantageous as pupils need to understand which patterns are contained in each of the beats of the bar. I have attached an example of some Grade 2 rhythmic patterns that are encountered in the sight-reading examples in the examination.
To provide some variety in the lesson, one example is to ask the pupil to clap one rhythm whilst you clap the other. Some pupils initially find it hard to maintain their own rhythm when there is another rhythm occurring. Emphasis the necessity to maintain the beat and to trust that what they are clapping is correct.
Knowing how these rhythmic patterns will sound in their music gives pupils considerable confidence in learning their music. And, over time they find that their sight-reading ability improves which results in their capability to learn new music with more ease.