Month: December 2018

Integrated Arts – 16/10/18
This week was the first week of the drama input. Drama is a subject not everyone was as confident in however the lecturer made it fun and interesting which made us all feel at ease.

We looked at experiences and outcomes in Expressive Arts, which should be involved in any lesson, so teachers are able to follow the curriculum guidelines. These experiences and outcomes are helpful to teachers who do not have a lot of confidence or background in drama and allow them to build their lessons off what the children are expected to experience. It was illustrated to us the importance of Expressive Arts in drama, as well as in music, dance and visual arts. “The inspiration and power of the arts play a vital role in enabling our children and young people to enhance their creative talent and develop their artistic skills” (Scottish Executive, 2006) This can be said for any Expressive Art, however in drama, children have the opportunity to be so creative and imaginative that they can be pretend to be someone else. This is educational for the pupils as they have a chance to channel something different inside them which they might not have had the opportunity to do before. Drama is all about expressing yourself in a way one did not know was possible, therefore it is important to let children be active and free during a drama lesson, so they can achieve their full potential within the subject.

The lecturer showed us a picture of an old tenement building in Glasgow. The building was tall and had numerous windows, all of which were owned by different people. All these people lived separate lives and not one story was the same. Our task, pretending we were pupils, was to imagine we lived in one of the flats and make up our own story using specific drama techniques. These techniques were; improvisation, thought tracking, still image, flash forward and flash back. As the short drama progressed, in groups, we had to start with either improvisation, thought tracking or still image, and then add in both a flash forward and flash back. This allowed us to be more creative and imaginative, and forced us to work together and listen to everyone’s ideas to allow for the best possible results.
Drama in education is so important. It includes both the teacher and the pupil to be teaching and learning.

For teachers who do not have as much background knowledge as others, it is essential for them to not too feel under pressure when teaching a class. The lecturer gave us lots of ways of being creative and imaginative while teaching a class that can ease any dread or uncomfortable feelings towards teaching the subject. The goal is to be as creative as possible. Children will love the chance to do something different and often, will help you increase your imaginative skills as they will always come up with different ideas that one might not have thought of before. The teacher is always learning, and some activities can be pupil-led, to aid their own creativity.

References
Scottish Executive (2006). A Curriculum for Excellence: Building the Curriculum 3-18 (1) Available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/btc1.pdf [Accessed: 12 December 2018].

Integrated Arts Blog – 9/10/18

The music workshop this week involved primary school pupils teaching us how to play instruments that they are learning in class. The children brought in string instruments like violins, violas, cellos and a bass. Each child had been assigned one of these stringed instruments a few months before and the class had been practising short tunes and songs that they could present at different functions. To start with, the pupils taught us how to hold the instruments properly. With the violin, it is important for it to be held properly as it is so light it can be easy for it to be used wrong. After learning the first step, we learnt how to play the notes A, B, F and G, which were the basis of the songs that the primary children knew. Some of the pupils took to learning a new instrument very well and others even had private tuition in stringed instruments, however the pupil I was paired with has cerebral palsy and so found it difficult to hold his violin properly and sometimes keep up with the rest of the class. It was hard to see him struggling to communicate with others, however he was the best that he could be, and his peers were very supportive in everything he did. I had never even picked up a violin before, never mind played one in a group, so this experience was very intriguing and educational for me. It is something that is fantastic to teach to children and an excellent opportunity to open to primary school children as they can progress throughout school and it lets them find hidden talents, they would not be aware they had if they did not get involved in the arts.

The dance workshop linked in well with the music workshop beforehand. Within this workshop, the content was very much “pupil led” as we had to make up our own dance moves instead of the lecturer telling us what to do. The lecturer gave us numbers from 0-9 and we had to make up a different move for each number. This allowed us to be creative and different which was exciting for the whole class. We got into groups from the week previous and all got given these dance moves but in a different order. We had to practise these moves and then add them onto out routine that we had already began to make up the week before. It was clear who was confident with different moves and who was conscious of being different with the people around them. For many in the class, the thought of teaching dance in the future to our own class fill them with dread. “Within the arts dance education has often been given the lowest priority. When not part of the arts, dance has been taught as part of physical education or music education, if at all,” (Gilbert, 2005). However, by having these experiences within university, our job as future primary teachers is to boost our own confidence in dance and make dance more important and highly thought of with in Expressive Arts. It is all about doing something different for the students to make sure their learning is fun and interactive.

References

Gilbert, A. G. (2005). Dance education in the 21st century: A global perspective. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance 76(5): 26–35

Integrated Arts Blog – 2/10/18
This week involved “Room 13”, doing art inspired by Bob and Roberta Smith and the first input of dance.

The lecture focused on a school in Fort William in the north-west of Scotland which had a spare classroom used only for art. The room allowed pupils to be expressive and very creative with their drawings and paintings. Not one of the children’s paintings were the same which meant there was a lot of individuality and there was plenty of space for their own imagination to come through. “Room 13 is a social enterprise model of art education. Where this model exists, socially engaged and enquiry based pedagogical practices flourish.” (McAuliffe,2013). Learners manage their own learning and have ‘creative autonomy in determining the subject, media and direction of their work’ (Adams et al, 2008) The students doing art in this room are in control of their own learning and it can help their creativity flow into other subjects. I feel “Room 13” is very important to have in other schools, it has had clear benefits to the pupils working within this environment. It can let children who have development needs in other aspects of the curriculum, like numeracy and literacy, thrive in this area and improve their confidence. This is very beneficial as it provides extra opportunities for these children who might not have had these experiences before.

Visual arts was the first workshop. We focused on making “Slogan Art” inspired by Bob and Roberta Smith (which is his fictional name, his real name is Patrick Brill). We had to think of inspirational quotes to trace through polystyrene and then paint so it will hopefully in print onto a sheet of cardboard. I chose “Think Outside the Box.”

This could be linked well to the “Room 13” as we could choose any slogan we wanted, choose the colours we wanted and go at our own pace. If a child was given this task, it would enable them to choose exactly what they create and allow them to be creative in both their writing and their artwork which is also integrating arts with other important aspects of the curriculum, therefore making their learning more interesting. This task linked in well with the lecture and with the second workshop.

The second workshop was the first input was dance. The focus of the workshop was knowing the different parts of your body, bones, organs and ligaments which are in use when you do physical exercise. Another part was working in groups and getting a list of types of dance moves, but we were allowed our own specific moves within the types of moves. This allowed us, the learners, to control our own learning and add individuality into each of the different moves. This linked in well again to the “Room 13” lecture and the visual arts workshop as it was, theoretically, “pupil led” and there are lots of opportunities to be creative.

There are clear links between visual arts and dance. Dance could also be considered a visual art as it is all about formation and is seen by an audience. There are lots of different types dance which vary in very different things. Visual arts are the same and no one piece is the same. Both art forms can be original and unique which help people who have deep interests in these arts become more confident and creative.

References
Adams, J (et al) (2008) Teaching Through Contemporary Art: Report on Innovative Practices in the Classroom. London: Tate Publishing
McAuliffe, D (2013) Art and Design Education. In T. Bryce and W. Humes (et al eds.) Scottish Education (4th Edition): Referendum, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Pres

Integrated Arts Blog – 25/09/18
This week really focused putting on different art forms together.

The lecture was based on “using stimuli to engage the arts.” This would be the likes of involving literacy and numeracy within the arts and making them more interesting for the children learning. One thing focused on was the Robert Burns poem “Tam O’Shanter” and the different ways it has been adapted to make it more interesting to learn. Composer, Malcolm Arnold, had a different take on the poem and remastered it by animating the poem and adding music to it. This can make the literature more interesting and intriguing to study and it also lets the pupils add their own twist onto it and their own perspective on the poem. The music helps tell a story that the pupils might not see to begin with. It helps children understand the meaning of the literature and the animation helps tell the story of the poem which assists the child to realise that literature is not always the same thing and by adding art and music to the subject it can be a lot more interesting.

The music workshop was related to music telling a story. We listened to several pieces of music and had to write down how it made us feel. This made us think carefully about how different types of music effected our thoughts on things and how we related certain songs to various emotions. After that, we listened to a longer piece of music which varied in pace, sound and feeling. We then got into groups and had to create a story influenced by the music and how the tone and the speed of the music can make the story change instantly and unexpectedly. This could be integrated into a child’s writing as they can do creative story telling just by listening to one piece of music. We found that every group had a different story to present which reflected on how each person heard the music. Using this music can inspire us to think creatively through literacy and art.

In the arts workshop, we learned about Rod Taylor’s “Process, Form, Content and Mood.” We can use this model to help discuss and interrogate art objects with children. We looked at a picture of a white glove with one finger missing and that finger was red. As we did not know the background of the picture, we used Rod Taylor’s model to question the picture more and further our understanding of the art. Some questions asked in the model would be:
• Process – “What skills must the artist have possessed or required to produce such a work?”
• Form – “Does one colour predominate or do two or more have equal significance?”
• Content – “Was the subject matter observed directly, remembered or imagined?”
• Mood – “Does the work affect you, the viewer, in any way?”
These were only some of the questions for each section and it was clear that this model was effective in helping us question a piece of art and making us look for a deeper meaning within the artwork.

Overall, using art forms in the other parts of the curriculum is essential as it can make the learning for the child so much more interesting and pupils within the class will definitely be more engaged when doing literacy or numeracy if the material provided is just that bit different and fun.

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Integrated Arts Blog 18/09/18

Creativity is something that is vital within the curriculum. It can be used in any subject and offers huge benefits to a child’s learning as it allows them to add their own personality and view on things which lets there be some individuality added to all aspects of their education.

This lecture was based around “Creativity Across Learning 3-18”. Various things were looked at during the lecture in terms of creativity however one thing mentioned was psychologist Csikszentmihalyi views on the topic. “So, the first step towards a more creative life is the cultivation of curiosity and interest” Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity – Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, New York: Harper Collins. If a child wants to be successful while being creative, there should be an initial want to be different and to step away from the ordinary. This linked in well with our first workshop of the day which was music.

In this workshop, we were shown a music website for schools called Charanga. (https://charanga.com/site/) This website provides different teachings of music for each level of school and comes with different activities and instructions to help give pupils the best learning. After this we were all given glockenspiels and were told to do an improvisation solo for 32 counts. This meant we had to be creative. This linked in well with the theme of the lecture and Csikszentmihalyi’s quote. There was curiosity towards the task and interest to make your own solo different compared to everyone else’s. The task made everyone a bit apprehensive to performing individually in front of the full class but nevertheless, it was a chance to be creative and add some individuality to the song.

This also linked well the art workshop we had afterwards. In this workshop, we created our own paintbrushes with various materials like wool and straw. This could be a very creative task to do with primary aged pupils as it allows them to do anything they want to an originally very basic item. The next activity was painting with the brush we had just made. We were told a scene and had to paint it how we imagined it in our minds using only 4 colours; red, blue, yellow and white. This meant we could make a variety of colours with just a small selection to begin with. The task also meant we had to be imaginative and creative which led to everyone’s paintings to be very different. Individuality and creativity were key parts of the lecture and both the workshops and provided a different perspective on how to teach children the arts. Everything does not need to be restricted to black and white and the rules do not always need to be followed, especially when teaching such a diverse subject. However, it is important that other subjects receive the same amount of creativity as it will aid the children’s learning and help them become more interested in education.

 

References

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity – Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, New York: Harper Collins.

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