Integrated Arts in Education – Page 3

In this mornings lecture, we began by listening to Tam O’Shanter, a poem by Robert Burns, and we discussed how this encouraged Malcolm Arnold’s composition. We then discussed what parts of the composition sounded inspired by the poem. We were then shown a website called ‘Ten Pieces’ which is created by the BBC. The website is aimed at children aged 7 to 14 and introduces them to the classical genre and encourages them to make creative responses to the pieces of music.

In this mornings art tutorial, we looked at emotional prompting cards which allows children to use higher order thinking skills. We looked at the image of a glove and discussed the connotations we took from it. The glove was half red and had a missing finger, the overall agreement was that there was disturbing and ambiguous connotations attached to the picture. I particularly enjoyed this activity as it allows you to think outside the box. We were provided with a sheet of scripted questions which allows us to consider the process, form, content and mood of artwork. We also had a look at a colouring book aimed to inspire boys to draw pictures and encourage their creativeness (See pictures attached). The Scaffolding theory, created by Jerome Bruner, is visible through the use of this colouring book. Scaffolding is a temporary support structure (the colouring book), that a child uses to attempt to understand new ideas and complete new tasks (McKoy, 2016). Eventually the support from the educator can be removed as they will not be needed and the child can continue to learn and develop for themselves. With the scaffolding process, the teacher will gradually extend on the activities as they see the child making progress. Eventually the scaffold can be removed and the child has made a clear achievement in their developmental progress thus, the child being creative in their artwork on their own (O’Hagan, Smith, 1999).

In the afternoon session, we referred back to the morning lecture. We were asked to listen to a piece of music and write down key words of how we feel from the music. We then separated into groups of four and used these words to create a 8-picture comic strip. The theme we decided to choose was the stages of a night out how it can be intense, calm, happy etc. I found this lesson to be very fun and will use it in future practice as it allows for children to explore music and art within the one activity.