Drama – UWS BA ePDPs

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Drama and Dance 21/11/2017

Similar to every week of the Integrated Arts module I have been able to improve, develop and acquire new skills, this weeks focuses where dance and drama.
This week’s inputs started off with a lecture formed on dance in education, from the lecture I was able to gather why dance is important in education, implementation of dance and the role the class teacher. Within the Expressive Arts dance should always underpin creativity, creative dance is the idea of allowing the children to use their imagination to chorography and create a dance, in essences creative dance should not be teacher led in fact a child led activity (Cone, 2009). Creative dance should always be enjoyable, engaging and empowering for all children regardless of dancing ability (Pain et.al 2014). Paine, et.al ( 2014 p.1) elucidates dance as “means of human expressions” hence dance is a form of communication. “It (dance) requires no equipment apart from the body itself (the instrument) and a space in which to move (the medium)” (Paine et.al, p.1). The class teacher plays a fundamental role in children creative development through dance, first and foremost it is imperative that the teacher equally consider ideas and innovations of all children. Likewise, it is important that the teacher provides a safe, engaging and supportive learning environment, teachers should have knowledge in regards to the 10 basic dance skills, this will ensure that all children have a starting level and are able to build upon these 10-basic movement and is a beginning of their creative dance (Cone, 2009). Many would allude that dance is solely concerning physical development, however creative dance develops children social skills which is aspects of the creative skills definition and the creative process (Scottish Government, 2013). Creative dance enables children to make enlightened and analytic judgement, work in partnership with peers, develop thought processes, empowers confident individuals and improves children’s aesthetics awareness (Paine et.al , 2014 ).
During this the dance workshop we were focusing on developing our group routines from the previous week, however the class decided to use the theme of Christmas instead of Halloween, we used the foundation of the previous routines to develop new dance. Student took leadership of the warm-up, cool-down, starter game, 10 basic movements and visual stimulus relating all to the theme of Christmas, this enabled for us to understand what we have acquired over the weeks in regards to dance and our confidence and teaching ability in leading a creative dance lesson. The group I was working with were given visual stimulus we created five pictures as our stimulus of:
• An elf
• A present
• Christmas tree
• Fire place
• Santa

We then proceeded in supplying the picture stimuli to groups and the groups were tasked in developing a 4-count movement to express their stimuli. We continue to build onto our routines by starting off with a whole class dance and then separating into our groups to perform our initial dances. I thoroughly enjoyed this week’s dance inputs as we were all given the opportunity to create our own dance under the guidance of the lecture. Relating this week’s dance inputs with Tallis Habits Pedagogy Wheel I believe I was able to be imaginative due to understanding the 10 basic movements, using this understanding to create a routine and then evaluating what improvement were need.
The drama input was centre around micro-teaching, in which my group presenting our drama lesson. The group I was working with we decided to plan our lesson based on the Children’s story ‘The Three Little Pigs’. We thought it was appropriate to use a video as visual stimulus for our audience, we had serval video options to choose from and our final decision was to go with a video that contained subtitles this meant within a diverse class all children would be able to follow the story along and be included regardless of needs. Throughout the micro-teaching lesson, we used skills and teaching methods that we had acquired throughout the module in order to develop the story as well as the skills of the audience. It was great to see all the audience engaging with our lesson and drama conventions. Considering this experience to the Tallis Habit Pedagogy Wheel I would say I was within the ‘collaborative’ segment as I had to work and co-operate with my group to develop and produce the micro-teaching lesson, likewise I had to present the lesson peer audience and use peer feedback to reflect upon the lesson.
During this week’s inputs I have been able to enlarge my understanding in regards to performing both within drama and dance. Dance is based on communicating through movement where drama is communicating verbally, however linking both drama and dance messages and themes can be conveyed through non-verbal movements and expressions.

References
Tallis, T. (2013) Tallis Habits Pedagogy Wheel. [Online] Available: http://www.thomastallisschool.com/tallis-pedagogy-wheel-guide.html. [ Accessed on 30 November 2017]
Cone (2009). Following their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dance. [online] Available: http://moodle.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/109357/mod_resource/content/1/Purcell%20Cone%20%282011%29.pdf. [Accessed: 30 November 2017]
Education Scotland. (2013) Creativity Across Learning 3-18. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/cre39-impact-report.pdf. [Accessed 1 December 2017]
Paine, L and National Dance Teachers Association. (2014) Complete Guide to Primary Dance. 1st ed. Not Stated: Human Kinetics

Music and Drama 7/11/17

This focus of the integrated arts inputs this week was music and drama. During these inputs I believe my confidence and ability within the integrated arts curriculum is developing, the skills that I am acquiring are valuable and relevant, which I would implement within my future practice.
This week the music input was vastly dynamic, as 30 primary school pupils from an East Ayrshire school came into the university, the children were teaching us. The children are part of the string project, the fundamental aim of the project is children from primary 4-7 have the opportunity to learn a string based musical instrument along with their class teacher. Being part of this initiative enables children to thrive within the four capacities (success learner, responsible citizen, confident individual and effective contributor) of the Curriculum Excellence. This was evident to myself when the children taught the university student how to the play their musical instruments. The children were very motivated, engaged, resilient, confident and were a credit to their school. The music instrument I was assigned to was the cello, the children were very helpful at showing the university students to different skills required to play the musical instrument. Initially, I felt rather apprehensive as this was the first I have ever attempted to play a string instrument, but I become more assured as the input progressed. Reflecting on this learning experience using the Tallis Habits Pedagogy Wheel I believe I was within the persisting segment of the wheel whilst learning the skills required, to begin with I felt challenge, but I remain focused and sustained the task, kept repeating the skills and at the end input I reviewed and reflect upon what I achieved during the input. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed and found the input to be insightful, it was a great experience for the children to be ‘teachers’ and I learnt a significant amount in regards to string instruments. The String Project (which is unique to this school) is an excellent project that provides children from all backgrounds the opportunity to play and acquire the skills and understanding necessary to play a string instruments. There are strong collations that music improves children’s behaviour and attainment within education this is heighten by research carried out by the University College London (n.d) that discovered “it (music) has led to curriculum innovation, increased participation and investment, benefiting millions”. Similarly, Nick Gibb (former school minister) (University College London, n.d) denoted that “quality music education improves behaviour, attention and concentration and has a hugely positive effect on numeracy and language skills”. Therefore, this input conveyed the importance of music within primary education and immense empowerment and opportunities children can gain by playing a musical instrument or using voice.
Likewise, this week’s drama input was divergent from the usual, this was due to having the opportunity to micro-teach and participating in students group lessons too. Throughout second year of this degree we are becoming increasingly accustomed to this element of practising teaching. Kalaimathi et.al (p.4, ) defines micro-teaching as “an excellent way to build up skills and confidence, to experience a range of lecturing/ tutoring styles and to learn and practise giving constructive feedback”, likewise adding (p.3, ) “teachers also need appropriate opportunities to practise what they have learnt through stimulated or workshop experience”. During the session it was absorbing to see a range of ways students used to teach their drama lesson one group used a video clip, while another group read from a storybook and likewise a third group created their own story. This allowed the rest of the class to consider the variety of opportunities there are when it comes to teaching drama. In a couple of weeks, the remaining groups will create their own micro-teaching lesson.
Interconnecting both inputs I feel I have been able to develop my confidence and pushed out my comfort zone in array of ways, at particular junctures throughout the day especially when being taught how to play a string instrument and during drama being in a small group propelled myself to take in a larger role when performing. Relating both learning experiences to the Tallis Habit Pedagogy Wheel I would consider that the segments “collaborative and persistent”. As a class we worked collaboratively during drama as we shared our ideas, discussed and explained why those ideas surfaced and received feedback. Likewise, during the music, we worked collaboratively with the primary schools’ pupils as they shared their musical skills with us, similarly explaining and showing us how to play their musical instruments. From my standpoint I believe that my learning experience was “persistent” before the music input I was unsure and apprehensive due to limited knowledge, but I endured the unknowing and continued with the difficulty and remained focused throughout. Overall this week I have been able to develop my understanding and esteem within the integrated arts in particularly music and drama teaching.
References
UCL (2014) Music in Schools: Boosting Achievement, enthusiasm and participation. [Online] Available: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/impact/case-study-repository/music-in-schools [Accessed 12 November 2017]
Kalaimathi, D. and Julius, R. (2015) Micro-Teaching – a way of building up skills. [Online] Available: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=mPtDCwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=microteaching&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjCrpTqiMnXAhXCHxoKHbp1AMMQ6wEILzAB#v=onepage&q=microteaching&f=false. [Accessed 12 November 2017].
Tallis, T. (2013) Tallis Habits Pedagogy Wheel. [Online] Available: http://www.thomastallisschool.com/tallis-pedagogy-wheel-guide.html. [ Accessed on 12 November 2017]

Integrated Arts Week 9 – 7th November 2017

This week we began the micro-teaching inputs for drama. Our group started with a drama lesson based on Julia Donaldson’s children’s book The Gruffalo (1999). Using a number of drama conventions introduced previously in this module, we planned and delivered a 30-minute lesson the rest of our section. The initial brief was to plan a …

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Drama and Music 31/10/2017

This week’s integrated arts inputs and workshops where based on music and drama. Similar to every week I feel I have been able to take useful theory that I will be utilise in my teaching practise in the future.
During this week’s music input we explored voice in an array of ways for teaching purposes and voice in music. Teachers principle tool of communication is their voice, teachers use their voice constantly often over a loud classroom and school environment. Voice is important for teacher as it allows them to address their pupils, teach their pupil, manage the general classroom and behaviour management. It is therefore vital for teachers to maintain a heathy voice throughout their career, this is conveyed in a GTCS document (Voice and the Teaching Profession, n.d, p.6) that states “teachers are at particular risk of developing voice problems”. The GTCS likewise established that in recent years problems relating to voice have become increasingly prevailing within the profession. A growing number of teachers are seeking advice from speech therapist due to the “majority of (teachers) had problems arising for chronic abuse/ misuse of voice and stress” (GTCS, n.d, p.6). If a teacher develops a significant problem with their voice this could impact on their work leading to absence, stress and impacting on their pupils learning (GTCS, n.d). There are range of circumstances that can cause voice problems/ damage for instance hoarseness (caused by change in weather), the common cold or flu etc. However, in order to reduce strain in voice there is a variety of ways in which teacher can control and maintain their voice.
• Using a different method to get pupils attention in place of voice for example clapping/ singing a tune that pupils must repeat back, facial expressions, gesture (raising hand, hands on hip, give me five).
• Warm voice up, gradually eases into speaking, use a range of tones.
Also, this week in the music input we looked in-depth to singing and the enjoyment that children can get from this aspect of music. There are a range of resources out there for teachers to use, which I am glad, as I am not the most confident singer. The most interesting segment of the input was using music instruments to create and perform a short topic/theme. The lecture provided the class with a range of musical and in groups we created a short piece of music of 4 bars. I would definitely implement this approach to music in the classroom as it would allow children the freedom the choose a topic and use their creativity to express the topic. Bloomfield (2000, p.77) denotes the importance for children trying and testing musical instrument “providing children with access to a broad spectrum of instruments will extend their aural vocabulary and foster the thrill of sound, especially through sound combinations”

The focus of the drama workshop was Halloween, we were initially shown a picture of a large house, this was the bases of our drama. The lecture firstly demonstrated teacher in role and we were informed the house was up for sale, but there had been some circulating that the house was haunted, in groups we were given two minutes to create a drama of going and having a sleep over at the house. When them moved onto the techniques of flashforward/ flashbacks. Dickinson et al (2006) cite that these techniques can be used to help the children focus on outcomes of actions, (flashbacks/ flashforwards) “they encourage reflection and discussion” (p.44). Flashback/ flashforward allow children to think about past events that could lead to future events.
I found this week’s inputs to be insightful and the knowledge I have acquired can be transferred into my future practise.
References
Dickinson, R. Neelands, J. and Shenton Primary School. (2006) Improve Your Primary School Through Drama. Oxon: David Fulton
Bloomfield, A. (2000) Teaching Integrated Arts in the Primary School. Oxon: David Fulton
GTCS (n.d) Voice and the Teaching Profession [online] Available: http://www.gtcs.org.uk/web/FILES/FormUploads/voice-and-the-teaching-profession1652_214.pdf [Accessed: 5th November 2017]

Sustainable Development – Disasters

Middleton (2013, p.467) says “natural hazards should be defined and studied both in terms of the physical processes involved and the human factors affecting the vulnerability of certain groups of people to disasters.” Therefore, natural disasters can be defined as uncontrollable events which have devastating impacts on the lives and environment of the area in … Continue reading Sustainable Development – Disasters

Integrated Arts Week 8 – 31st October 2017

This week’s inputs looked at the different ways we can give children ownership and control of their learning. In contrast to last week’s structured framework for dance and drama, this week focused on allowing children almost complete control. Giving children the opportunity to have a say in their learning shows respect for their abilities and …

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Dance and Drama 24/10/2017

During this week’s integrated arts inputs, we focus on dance and drama. I found both inputs to be enjoyable and extremely engaging. Similarly, to the visual arts and music I feel that each input within this module is enhancing my self-esteem, capacity and knowledge within all aspect that underpin the integrated arts education.
The initial input was dance, this was our second dance input, during the previous week we produced a group dance using the ten principles of creative dance. According to Cone (2009) creative dance for children should be fun, safe, meaningful and most salient creative dance should be a child led activity. It is paramount when teaching children dance to demonstrate the movements, that the children are to incorporate within their routines (making reference to ten principles of creative dance), likewise ensuring that their creative ideas are kept within reason of the learning intention and success criteria. Over the past two weeks of dance I have been able to reflect upon why I should embrace dance as a perspective teacher. Creative dancing provides children with a wealth of opportunities;
• A sense of empowerment and achieving
• Improves physical and mental wellbeing
• Acquiring communication skills and cooperative working with peers
• Increases self-assurance which can be transferable across the curriculum
• Creative dancing enables children to bring their ideas to life and express themselves in a diverse way, rather than the usual teaching conventions.
The principle objective of the dance input was to consolidate and build upon our dance routines from the previous week by using a variety of dance related techniques, we initially practise our routines in order to refresh our minds. Bloomfield (2000, p.49) denotes this method of creative dance as “pure dance”. “Pure dance” emerges solely from the “rhythmic, spatial and dynamic structures of movement” (Bloomfield, 2000, p,49). They are notional in essence and the children’s knowledge of their routine is constructed on their individual capacity to acquire the basic movements of dance (Bloomfield, 2000). Once we improved the fluency of our group dance, we came together with the rest of the class and together we created a further 10 movements (0-9), after we established these movements we went back to our original groups and used one of our phone numbers to create additional sequence to our routine, within the primary setting an interdisciplinary approach can be deployed, for instance I could give each group 11 maths question that they children have to answer in order to find their 11 movements. Again, we refined our routines with the additional movements, also furthering the routines with adding effects such as cannonball, changing place and a beginning/ end. Similarly, the lecture gave each group a different picture (relating to Halloween) when then created a movement for our pictures and can together as a class. We then combined each movement that where inspired from the pictures, this is the beginning sequence of every groups routine. Bloomfield (2000, p57) sums up what we have learnt during the dance inputs nicely; “preparatory experiences when children experiment and build upon their short sequences and phases from which they gain their experience from creating a complete dance. So far, I have found the dance input to be rather stimulating, before the input I did not particular like dancing, but I have gained self-confidence and empowerment by creating dances and performing in front of peers. I feel I have acquired enough understanding to implement creative dance within a primary setting.
The second input was drama, the nucleus was ‘Falling into Stories’. This method of drama is employed by the teacher using a story as stimuli and is when the children think about the story by using drama to create a response to the scenes that occur within in the story. This is language in action using drama. Bloomfield (2000, p.39) establishes the important of the written text “is the representation of a performed work and may be a detailed published text specially written for children, an overview scenario put together by the teacher or children”. When teaching drama, it is vital to bear in mind the subject of drama is fluid and there is no complete lesson plan, as a teacher it is rightly to create a beginning and an end, the middle part of the drama is unknown, there is where the children have the freedom to create their own drama. What I gathered from this input is drama can be anything, as long as the teacher follows the drama convention to lead the learning. During the input we explored the children’s story ‘The Tunnel’ by Anthony Browne, which is about an unfriendly relationship between a brother and sister with very different characters, but a significant event happens and at the end the brother and sister appreciate their relationship. We looked at different drama convention we can use;
• Freeze frame
• Though tunnel
• Improvisation
• Hot seat
• Teacher in Role
• Vox pop
• Role on the wall
• Thought track
• Voice in head
• Mine
Initially the lecturer read the first few pages of the story, we then paused and in groups we considered the two main characters, by using the role on the wall convention of drama teaching. Booth (2005) denotes the role on the wall as the use of a human outline on paper to allow individuals to write and respond to the qualities of the character, during the workshop we use the outer line to record initial thoughts on the character, and at the end the inner outline to record thoughts on the characters at the end of the story/ drama. Booth (2005, p.43) establishes role on the wall as a representation of “collective understanding of the character life and attitude as it develops through the drama”. Likewise, we were introduced to voice in the head, Mason (2008) implies this convention is when characters speak aloud their thoughts and feeling, while the drama scene is a freeze frame. The group in which I was working with we focused on the scene when the brother is about to enter the tunnel the with his friends and he bothering and badgering his sister to join in the fun. During the workshop we only explored a few examples of drama convention and the relation drama can have with stories, it is important as a perspective teacher also as a student teacher to be engaging with children literature, as there are many advantages to this as the children have the ability to explore the story more fully and is a great method of understanding the views of the children in relation to the story and principle characters. Similarly, there are many opportunities to use drama and literacy to create a cross- curricular approaches to learning.
Like any week throughout this module I believe I am developing in confidence, self-esteem but also resilience. I am doing activities I never thought I was cable of completing, for instance acting and dancing in front of peers. This module is building me up to be a more confident individual overall, the confidence and self-assurance I have gained is transferrable to all module and my teaching practise. At times throughout this module I have been definitely been pushed out and beyond my comfort zone, it is a feeling I have never experienced before, but is placing in the perspective of some pupils I will be teaching who may not have the confidence to perform in front of an audience, it is important to be understanding and empathises with pupils, and make adaption to the lessons in order for all pupils to be included in some way.
References
Bloomfield, A. (2000) Teaching Integrated Arts in the Primary School. Oxon: David Fulton
Booth, D (2005) Story Drama: Creating Stories Through Role Play, Improvising, Reading aloud, 2nd ed. Canada: Stenhouse Publishers
Mason, J (2008) Practical Drama for Schools (Level 2- Upper Primary). NS: PACE Theater Company

Cone (2009). Following their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dance. [online] Available: http://moodle.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/109357/mod_resource/content/1/Purcell%20Cone%20%282011%29.pdf. [Accessed: 15 October 2017]

Integrated Arts Week 7

Drama Looking at another children’s story this time, using the book The Tunnel. Based around a single event involving a brother and sister who didn’t get on, we were introduced to a further five drama conventions: Role on the wall, VoxPop, Mime, Thought tracking and Voice in head. This topic felt much more prescribed, and …

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