Tag: Integrated Arts

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

During this weeks lecture and seminar we took an insight into the idea of creativity and why it should be involved in classrooms. Creativity is a major part of the curriculum but it is not noticed as this. When teaching a core subject such as maths or literacy, the teacher needs to integrate some creative activities throughout the lesson to keep the children engaged and participating. Piaget explains and expands on this by stating ‘The principle goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done – men who are creative, inventive and discovers.’ Analysing this statement from Piaget examines that using creative resources and teaching lessons with a creative angle makes it new and fresh therefore engaging the children.

Ken Robinson questions during his TED talk, “Are schools killing creativity?”. This question is one that I have reflected on many times since it was brought up in the lecture. As a student teacher developing I would make extra time to allow creativity in the classroom after having these topic based discussions in our sessions. Children should be allowed to express their learning through different types of text whether that be visual or audio. They should have the freedom to express their learning outcomes into an art piece of a drawing or painting etc.

Children need to express themselves and they should be allowed to achieve this in the school environment. As teachers we should show support and help towards the pupils that are creative and want to do it in a different way and not the structure way that us as teachers may want. If teachers are continuing to be structured and not allow children to express themselves through being creative then we encounter the problem of engagement from the children but also respect.

There were connections between our music seminar and our visual arts tutorial class and these links emphasised my point. In music we were given the opportunity to do an improvisation which allowed us to each have a different rhythms from the others around us. Being able to be free and creative with the instruments we had gave us a sense of achievement and allowed us to feel like we had achieved something. This improvisation led us to be creative in our own ways. The connection into the visual art class was then proven by the lecturer allowing us to be creative individually by giving us the oppurtunity to make our own paintbrush and then being able to paint with them. Shown from the picture above this went well with the students and each of the paintbrushes were different due to allowing freedom of creativity. This I believe is what we should be doing in class and aiding our children to be unique and different with their studies.

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Integrated Arts Week 1

 

Today’s classes were mainly an introductory session to the module as it was our first day. During this we spoke about the importance of the arts such as visual arts and music in education and how it is often brushed over. This gave us the insight into why we were doing this module and the types of things we will be learning about in the coming weeks. The arts are often avoided in primary schools as they can take awhile for the children to start to get the hang of it and it can take several weeks for there to be a piece of work completed in these areas. Also, it can be because the teacher doesn’t feel comfortable or confident in these areas so choose not to teach it in depth. Another reason can be because they don’t see it in as much of an importance as other subjects such as mathematics and literacy, so they choose to spend most of their teaching time focused on them.

The first workshop we had was on why music matters. We discussed some of the ways we thought music is beneficial to children. One being that some children may not excel in areas of school such as maths, but they may come to discover by learning about music that their strong point is music, and this can improve their concentration and their confidence in the class. It can also lead them onto making music part of their life and make a career out of it in the future. As a result, teachers that choose to brush over music as a subject in school rather than a fun afternoon playing around with the instruments may result in a child missing out finding their calling in school and after. We also spoke about some of the experiences and outcomes liked to music education such as “I can use my voice, musical instruments and music technology, to experiment with sound, pitch, melody, rhythm, timbre and dynamics” EXA 2-17a. We also tried an exercise ourselves that could be used to introduce pulse and rhythm to early years children that included using the shapes circle and square to instruct the children whether to use one beat or two.

The second workshop we had today focussed on art in education. This was very similar to the music in the reasons why it isn’t taught in schools and the reasons why it should be. Children may find they excel in art but don’t get the chance to in school. We looked at pieces of art work from early years, middle school and upper school so we could compare the levels children are at in art at different stages. I noticed that in the early year’s children were mainly free to draw whatever they wanted and let their imagination go free whereas when you get further up the school we noticed that the art work seemed to be more of an add on to other subjects and very teacher lead. For example, most of the art work linked to a topic they would have been doing in class at that time. I Have attached pictures at the bottom to show this and show the progress children make throughout the years in terms of their art work. Even though you can see a link between the stage and the progression every child’s art is different and some progress quicker than others which is why they must constantly be encouraged to keep their confidence up. Although children helping one another is incredibly beneficial to them, in some circumstances some children may compare their work and become dissatisfied in their own work and lose confidence in their art abilities (McAuliffe, 2007). This extract explains why and shows the importance of encouragement while doing art in classes. Another link between the music and visual arts was the creativity that the children can adopt while participating in these subjects which can engage the children further and you can see an increased concentration within the classroom when children enjoy what they are doing.

Overall there are many links between all the arts in school such as creativity and engagement. But also, in the reasons why teachers don’t tend to have a focus on them in their lesson plans and why this should change.

References

• McAuliffe, D (2007) Foundation and Primary Settings. In Teaching Art and Design 3-11 (Edited by Sue Cox, Robert Watts, Judy Grahame, Steven Herne and Diarmuid McAuliffe) London: Continuum.
• Education Scotland (2009) Curriculum for Excellence. [Online] https://education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf [Accessed: 11 September]

 

In the introductory session that we participated in today, we centred around the importance of music and visual arts within a classroom setting. This enlightened individuals to the reality that Expressive Arts are not a common factor within the planning of a teacher. We plan around Numeracy and Literacy as these, in todays society, are the core foundations of a primary curriculum. This, as we learned, is not the case. Expressive Arts allows children to show creativity, build confidence and enhances team work throughout the classroom.

Earlier this morning, I enhanced my own knowledge by learning more about the Mozart Effect. This allows the teacher to play 10 minutes of classical music before any academic lesson such as mathematics or English. This allows children to perform better, problem solve easier and open up their young minds to release stress.

In the afternoon, we were able to look at work from primary children varying over a period of time. Some of this work was dated back to 1940’s. We were presented with early level, middle school and the upper school this gave us a clear view of art developing throughout the school and different abilities of the children as they develop.