Category Archives: Roles

Everyone’s A Critic – Scottish Chamber Orchestra

September 21, 2010 User deactivated Leave a comment

ABOUT

SCO Connect worked with staff and S5 and S6 pupils in Firrhill High School and Forrester High School in Edinburgh. Everyone’s a Critic takes a look at what it means to write about music and examines the ideas underpinning critical writing about the arts.

Over 3 months, students worked with a professional music critic and were given opportunities to attend concerts and write their own reviews with professional advice and feedback.

The project looked at the following ideas:

– critical analysis of the experience of attending a concert, not the music
– developing critical skills – listening and writing
– experience of live concerts
– engaging with the expressive arts and literacy experiences and outcomes

Everyone’s a Critic was not seeking to work through a deep and detailed musical analysis, rather, the project was about exploring the skills of writing about the experience of attending a live music concert.

Students attended an SCO concerts and wrote practice reviews. These reviews were read by a journalist who then provided each student with suggestions for improvement before they wrote a final review of a different concert.

The project introduced students to a specialist type of journalism, stressing the importance of working to tight deadlines. This gave students an opportunity to access the expertise of professional journalists and learn from the experience.

Click here to read Firrhill High School Students’ reviews

Click here to read Forrester High School students’ reviews

PURPOSE

The project was developed to encourage Higher Music and English students to listen critically to music, and develop the skills to write about a specialised subject. The design of the project was intended that the critical writing skills developed in response to listening to music and attending live concerts should be transferrable to other artforms and situations. The project also brought students to a series of concerts around Edinburgh featuring different repertoire and in different venues.

The project involved:

– 20 Higher Music and English students
– 3 teachers (2 x music and 1 x English)
– 1 workshop leader and full orchestra
– 1 professional journalist

Everyone’s A Critic was designed to link to the following Experiences and Outcomes:

– EXA 3-91a, EXA 4-19a
– LIT 3-02a, LIT 4-02a, LIT 3-05a/LIT 4-05a
– ENG 3-27a/ENG 4-27a
– LIT 3-28a, LIT 4-28a

NEXT STEPS

Scottish Chamber Orchestra plans to develop a resource for teachers on how to write critically about music. This resource will be available from the SCO Connect website. The resource should enable a wider audience to benefit from the aims of Everyone’s A Critic, not just those in the Edinburgh area.

SCO Connect is also investigating the possibility of any school in Scotland entering reviews of concerts to be submitted on the SCO website with possible feedback from a journalist giving suggestions for improvement.

SCO Connect is also exploring the possibility of offering Everyone’s A Critic through Glow.

OTHER

Partners:

– SCO Connect
– City of Edinburgh Council

Levels and stages:

– Senior Phase
– S5 and S6

Funding:

– SCO Connect Core budget
– City of Edinburgh Council

For more information contact:

Lucy Lowe, SCO Connect Director on 0131 478 8355 or email lucy.lowe@sco.org.uk

Links:

http://www.sco.org.uk/education-home

Expressive Arts, Secondary

Music Factory and Masterworks – Scottish Chamber Orchestra

September 15, 2010 User deactivated Leave a comment

ABOUT

66 Advanced Higher Music pupils from 22 schools across six local authorities participated in Music Factory. Students worked on the creation of individual compositions inspired by musical concepts from the ‘Masterworks’ repertoire. The students composed new work for a trio of Scottish Chamber Orchestra musicians with support and guidance from a professional composer. The composers lead workshops in schools over a 3 month period and at the final session, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra made an informal recording of the work. Each student and their teacher received a copy of the recording.

Music Factory involved:

– 66 Advanced Higher music students
– 6 local authority areas
– 10 teachers
– 2 professional composers
– 10 Scottish Chamber Orchestra musicians

The project schedule is available through Glow.

PURPOSE

SCO Connect’s flagship ‘Masterworks’ project for standard and higher grade students has reached many hundreds of pupils and has proved incredibly popular. Masterworks was so successful that it raised the question ‘what can you do for us now’?’ from teachers, pupils and parents, resulting in the development of Music Factory.

Music Factory was developed to support teachers in an aspect of the music curriculum often cited as being one in which they feel least comfortable. It also offers young composers the chance to engage with professional players and composers, thus understanding the reality of composing new music for players.

The project was designed to offer senior pupils and the more advanced ‘Masterworks’ participants an opportunity to further hone their grasp of the musical concepts and techniques they had been studying, by putting them into practice.

The purpose of Music Factory is:

– To support and complement composition in Advanced Higher Music
– To offer teachers and pupils the opportunity to engage with professional musicians and composers
– To inspire young musicians through the work of contemporary orchestral masterpieces
– To nurture young composers’ skills and confidence
– To develop young composers’ understanding of musical techniques and concepts by putting them into practice

CHALLENGES

Teachers were strongly encouraged to attend sessions along with their pupils, in order to understand the process and be able to support the young composers as they worked on pieces in school between workshops sessions.

In practice it proved difficult for many staff to get themselves released from timetable to do so, however the design of the project enabled teachers to use the material produced by the composer with lower level classes.

“I have used the material with a lower level higher class. The results have been excellent.” (teacher)

Those teachers who did attend found the experience useful as good CPD and have gone on to apply the experience with other classes.

“It was good to ‘force’ the pupils to compose without their instruments or a computer programme. As a teacher, I also found the sessions extremely valuable as it reminded me that there is more than one way to approach composition. Thank you.” (teacher)

Funding agreements were reached with each of the local authorities involved in order to ensure schools could participate.

IMPACTS

Young composers reported that they had been challenged and encouraged to expand their creative thinking and practice:

“I used to hate composition, but the workshops showed me I can actually do it, they game me much more confidence and more enthusiasm to compose more music. Thanks!” (Young composer)

“I liked getting to work with professional orchestral players and communicate with other musicians” (Young composer)

Teachers responded positively:

“Would love to have this opportunity again – really inspiring and refreshing’ (teacher)

“It was interesting to observe the pupils being taken out of their comfort zone and getting to work with instruments they were not familiar with.” (teacher)

OTHER

Partners:

– Scottish Chamber Orchestra Connect
– 6 local authorities

Levels and Stages:

– Senior phase
– S6

Funding:

– SCO core budget (via Scottish Government)
– Participating local authorities
– SCO ‘250’ Society
– Scott Davidson Charitable Trust
– Educational Institute of Scotland

Experiences and Outcomes:

The project specifically linked to the experiences and outcomes as follows:

EXA 4 71a, 17b, 18a and 19a

For More information contact:

Lucy Lowe, SCO Connect Director on 0131 478 8355 or email lucy.lowe@sco.org.uk

or visit http://www.sco.org.uk/education-home

CPD, Health and Wellbeing, Outdoor Learning, Secondary, Social Studies

Operation Blackboard – Bringing WWII to Life

September 15, 2010 User deactivated Leave a comment

ABOUT

A normal school day was transformed into a World War II army boot camp using actors in role, activities, 1940s film footage and military vehicles. Over 1,000 pupils met Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill taking part in training exercises during curriculum time. Led by actors in character, French Resistance members, boffins from Militray Intelligence and Sergeant majors screaming orders, pupils participated in drill, cartography, sciences and code-breaking.

Pupils were ‘conscripted’ into the infantry, organised into sections, platoons and companies and were issued with identity cards. They were taken through the rigours of military discipline – some were granted ranks of Corporal and Lance Corporal with responsibility for their section of troops. The rank system allowed many pupils, normally perceived as disruptive, to seize responsibility and gain confidence.

Operation Blackboard involved:

– over 1,000 pupils
– from 3 academies (S1 and S2)
– and 13 primary schools (P6 and P7)
– nearly 100 teachers
– up to 6 artists per day of delivery

Interdisciplinary working through the arts, made coherent several curriculum areas all within the context of Operation Blackboard. Examples include a Sergeant taking the privates through code breaking exercises, both de-cyphering and encrypting messages of their own. In costume, US paratrooper experts took a 1940 Jeep and troop carrier used in the D-Day operation to schools, explaining how the vehicles would have been used. A miliarty boffin demonstrated the workings and purpose of gas masks, discussed escape techniques and communication tools if captured. All of this and more, provided a context for developing linguistic and mathematical understanding, integtated with history, geography, PE and sciences, in ways that clearly engaged pupils:

“Doing this project made me feel more interested in World War 2 and think more about what happened back then.” (pupil)

“I learnt that the World War 2 was much more interesting that I thought.” (pupil)

PURPOSE

The development of Operation Blackboard grew from the idea of integrating the arts into the very heart of an educational topic. It was also an opportunity to explore an under used element of drama in learning and teaching.

One intention was that pupils became extremely familiar with historical figures (they had the opportunity to actually meet Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill) and learn through word of mouth, by sharing and through experiencial learning, a broad range of historical facts and ideas.

It was intended that pupils would develop an increased interest in learning about the topic and for school life in general. Pupils were required to apply their learning in practice throughout the project.

IMPACTS

“It gives me an excellent basis for teaching the World War II topic which we are due to start next year.” (Primary Class Teacher)

“I found the decoding quite hard but I managed to solve it.” (pupil)

There was a clear sense of appropriate challenge throughout the project:

“ I am proud of what I did because some of it was hard.” (pupil)

And worth the effort of working differently:

“They probably learn more from this one day of hands on experience than they do from a whole year in the classroom.” (Deputy Head Teacher)

“It made me feel more confident about things I will do in the future.” (pupil)

“They remember more, and learn more if they enjoy the learning – they’ll remember this alright.” (teacher)

Teaching staff reported that the project engaged many pupils who otherwise might not have shown interest in the topic and improved attitudes towards learning generally.

Features of good practice: Active and experiential learning

Operation Blackboard is one of a range of interactive experiential drama and curriculum days developed by the Cultural Co-ordinator Team. It is a transition topic delivered in primary and secondary and was instrumental in the Council receiving a COSLA Bronze Excellence Award for advancing community wellbeing.

Operation Blackboard takes primary seven pupils on a World War II evacuation experience. At the same time, entire S1 year groups are taken through an army boot camp in role by actors playing Winston Churchill, Neville Chamberlain, naval officers, military intelligence officers and stereotypical sergeant majors. Pupils experienced inter-disciplinary learning within a ‘real world’ context. For example, they decipher codes and plot enemy presence on D-Day landing maps. These activities use and develop their literacy and numeracy skills. Throughout the whole experience, pupils actively learn how decisions can affect situations.

More detailed information is available at www.hmie.gov.uk

CHALLENGES and LEARNING

Ambitious partnership projects are never without challenges, cnd challenges bring learning for everyone. Below are some examples of things think about when undertaking this type of work.

Press

The local paper took great delight in having the children point the original WWII weaponry straight at the camera and then placed the image on the front page above a headline about a gun crime. When dealing with sensitive subjects, such as war and weapons, it is important to keep a very tight control on the images the press get to take. We now insist that a senior member of the team is on hand whenever the press turn up. It is important to be firm as the press will still try to get the picture they want!

Engaging staff

Different personalities will engage with the fictional world being created to different degrees, and can have an important effect on the success of the day. We used two tools to make the most of this opportunity. We provided notional costume pieces for the staff, such as a hat or a jacket, that allowed staff to look the part without needing to fully ‘dress up’. Most were more than happy to do this – one DHT even made her own costume! Secondly the pupils were instructed to address the teaching staff as Sir or Ma’am and the staff were given Officer level ranks whilst the pupils could only advance as far as Corporal. This maintained the school hierarchy (the HT was the General, staff were Captains and Colonels) which is important to discipline, and kept staff within their comfort zone by not actually changing their power relationship with the pupils.

Space

Obviously space is always an issue for these kinds of events. We engineered activities to fit into a classroom where possible, relying upon the actors to make things different. Whole group activities such as meeting Neville Chamberlain or watching the Movietone film footage allowed us to bookend the days in the assembly hall saving on spaces. The need to clear away for the lunch break was something we always had to be aware of, sometimes having to move projection equipment only to move it back. It is vital that the physical needs of the project are made clear right from the start and continually communicated – otherwise you can end up with a running activity being moved to a classroom by staff who don’t understand what is required.

OTHER

Partners