Monthly Archives: October 2019

Session 6: 15th October 2019 – Interdisciplinary-learning

Music, Visual Art

The three core curricular areas identified by Education Scotland (2019) are numeracy, literacy and health and wellbeing. As such, the fundamental need for teachers to cover syllabuses and curricula, particularly in these three areas, mean there is a lack of focus on expressive arts education in Scottish schools and many teachers say time constraints are the primary reason that they do not teach lessons in that expressive arts regularly (Hay, 2004). This is an issue I identified after the first input of this module. One of the easiest ways to overcome this problem is by making very explicit links between the arts and other curricular areas. Fleming (2012) puts forward the view that integrated lessons between art and other curricular areas can enhance both attainment and pedagogy while Marshall (2014, p. 104) believes art could be “a pedagogy of fusion”. In conjunction with the GTCS (2012) Standards for Registration, both today’s music and visual arts inputs provided ample opportunities for inter-disciplinary learning.

Music
In this week’s music input, we focused on teaching children about basic music theory. This included differentiating between beats and pulses and learning about written musical notes. We looked at lessons that could be used at early, first and second level.

For early and first year pupils, we used the song ‘The Wee Man from Skye’ to teach children to ‘keep the beat’ and basic musical notation. Crotchets represent one beat and quavers represent half a beat. We can use the syllables in words to allow children to hear the difference between how these notes will sound in music. For example, the word ‘square’ has one syllable and the word ‘circle’ has two. The use of shapes and words in this lesson links expressive arts to mathematics and literacy.

Children first ‘keep the beat’ by chanting aloud the shapes that they see, then clapping along to the beat before finally using drumsticks to play the music. As children progress through lessons, musical notation can be introduced alongside the shapes. Eventually, when children enter second level, the shapes can be taken away entirely. This progression can be seen below.

When children reach second level, more complex musical notation is introduced. This includes rests, repetition signs and varied time signatures as well as additional note values. The introduction of these additional values means connections can be made to aspects of mathematics, e.g. fractions. Fraction tables are effective ways of teaching children the concept of equivalence. Tables of this style can be created using music notes (see below). For example, a crotchet is played for one beat, a quaver is played for half a beat, therefore two quavers are equal to one crotchet. I would expect children to readily make connections between these concepts. This estimation can be supported by Silverstein and Layne (2010) who claim the concepts taught in one subject can be reinforced in another.

I haven’t studied music in four years and thus, my knowledge of musical notation is very limited. Going through this process in today’s input allowed me to revise my own knowledge as well as giving me ideas as to how music could be taught in the classroom. As a practitioner, I believe this process is a very effective way of teaching musical notation. The process is easy to follow and has a very clear progression from stage to stage.

I believe children will engage well with these lessons. The lessons are very practical but also develop written skills, allowing children to increase their knowledge of written music while actively playing along. When I was in primary school, the use of musical instruments in lessons was always exciting. Thus, the excitement that comes along with actively playing music can be challenging to deal with as a practitioner. Children must be reminded of the responsibility they have to behave sensibly and use instruments appropriately.

Visual Arts
In this week’s arts lesson we focused on the process of print making and studied the work of contemporary artist Bob and Roberta Smith. In the classroom, children will respond well to the use of contemporary artists in arts lessons as they can relate to them and the issues raised through their work. Modern artists and modern art will explore modern issues. Bob and Roberta Smith is an activist who uses his art to make bold statements about current, topical socio-economic and political issues. Some examples of his work can be seen to the right. We then created some inspirational quotes of our own in the style of Bob and Roberta Smith. Many groups, including my own, focused on creating a quote that would inspire and positively influence our pupils (see below). This can be linked to the UWS (2018) Graduate Attribute of being influential. Working with other members of the cohort also allowed us to develop our collaborative working skills.

This task has very clear links to two other curricular areas: literacy and social subjects. In teaching about the process of print making, children can also learn about the print press, i.e. mass production of books and newspapers. It is the concept of the print press that has made the world literate. Linking to social subjects, children can explore the socio-economic issues surrounding illiteracy and how, although it exists to a lesser extent in the UK nowadays, the issue persists, particularly in the developing world. Furthermore, teachers can use Bob and Roberta Smith’s work to initiate conversations with children surrounding current social issues and deal with these sensitively.

Overall, these inputs demonstrated the ease with which the arts can be connected to core curricular areas. They can be used to enhance and reinforce knowledge gained in other subjects as well as providing children with a creative outlet. As such, teachers cannot claim to “have no time” for the arts as they can be used very effectively in conjunction with core curricular areas and give many opportunities for inter-disciplinary learning.

Reference List
Education Scotland. (2019) What is Curriculum for Excellence? [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers/cfe-(building-from-the-statement-appendix-incl-btc1-5)/What%20is%20Curriculum%20for%20Excellence [Accessed: 20 October 2019]

Fleming, M. (2012) The Arts in Education: An introduction to aesthetics, theory and pedagogy. London: Routledge.

General Teaching Council for Scotland, The (GTCS). (2012) The Standards for Registration: mandatory requirements for Registration with the General Teaching Council for Scotland. [Online] Available: http://www.gtcs.org.uk/web/FILES/the-standards/standards-for-registration-1212.pdf [Accessed: 20 October 2019]

Hay, S. (2004) Generalists or Specialists for the P4 Expressive Arts Curriculum: A Comparative Study of Models of Delivery. [Online] Available: www.gtcs.org.uk/web/FILES/FormUploads/generalists-or-specialists-for-the-p4-expressive-arts-curriculum1778_339.pdf [Accessed: 20 October 2019]

Marshall, J. (2014) Transdisciplinarity and Art Integration: Toward a New Understanding of Art-Based Learning Across the Curriculum. Studies in Art Education. [Online] Vol.55(2), pp. 104-127. Available: Education Source. [Accessed: 20 October 2019]

Silverstein, L.B. and Layne, S. (2010) What is arts integration? Washington, DC: The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Session 5: 8th October 2019 – Emotions

Drama, Music

In this week’s input, we explored the use of both music and drama as a means of expressing emotions.

Music
Music has a unique ability to stimulate thoughts and emotions that are not directly related to memories (Mohana, 2018). In our music workshop, we took time to listen to pieces of music and jot down one word to describe how they made us feel. We then used the emotions provoked by ‘Piano Concerto No. 2’ by Dmitri Shostakovich to make up our own stories. We listened to the piece once on our own to reflect on our personal emotions and responses to the music. Then, we split up into groups and came up with our own story boards based on the stories we had created in response to the music. I found this extremely interesting as although the music provoked very similar emotions from each individual, all of the stories were completely different! In conjunction with the UWS Graduate Attributes, this task allowed us to develop our collaborative working skills (UWS, 2018).

Children would thoroughly enjoy the creative freedom of this task. Not only does it allow them to develop their appreciation of and connections with music, it also, simultaneously, gives them the opportunity to explore aspects of visual arts and creative writing. Children would also love comparing their stories to their classmates’ and the short film ‘The Steadfast Tin Soldier’ created by Disney artists which is based on the same piece of music (see below).

Drama
In this week’s drama input, we saw the last of our section’s micro-teaching lessons. Similarly to last week’s input, the majority of these lessons used children’s storybooks as a stimulus for what was being taught. One group’s lesson involved the book ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ (Daywalt, 2014). The book tells the story of a box of crayons writing letters to their owner, Duncan, to explain that some colours are tired and overused, whilst others are bored because they have not been used in months. At the end of the book, the letters have inspired Duncan to create a very colourful and creative drawing that uses every colour in his crayon box (see below). As such, this book would be a very effective classroom tool for encouraging children to be creative in their use of colour.

This group used the story to further explore the concept of emotion. Initially, we were split into three groups and each group was given a colour. We were then tasked with using a thought-tunnel to explore the emotions that that colour reminded us of. For example, the colour red has connotations of love and passion but also anger and frustration. We then had to create a freeze frame that depicted one of these emotions.

 

Andrew then taught us a new drama convention named ‘Role in the Wall’ using the storybook ‘The Tunnel’ (Browne, 2008). This involved drawing the outline of a character and writing on the outside of the drawing other people’s thoughts and feelings towards the character and then, inside the drawing writing the character’s personal thoughts and feelings.

 

Under the Curriculum for Excellence the Scottish government have stressed the importance of health and wellbeing as a core curricular area alongside the traditional literacy and numeracy (Education Scotland, 2018). One of the most important aspects of this is emotional literacy. Children must be able to express themselves effectively and articulate their feelings beyond the simple ‘sad’ and ‘happy.’ As such, as a future practitioner, I understand the importance of developing my pupils’ emotional literacy. Through lessons like the ones described above the arts can be connected to this aspect of health and wellbeing. They will allow children to develop the traditional skills associated with dramatic and musical performance as well as building their knowledge of their own thoughts, feelings and emotions and effective ways of expressing these. By thinking about emotions as a whole concept or exploring the feelings of characters that they are playing, children can develop their own emotional wellbeing. Keeping with the UWS Graduate Attributes, in the same way that these tasks can develop children’s mental wellbeing, they also helped us build our emotional intelligence (UWS, 2018).

The primary school where I completed my first year placement was in the process of constructing a new Health and Wellbeing policy that aimed to improve pupils’ emotional literacy. As such, I already knew that many schools had acknowledged the importance of emotional literacy and understood the need for me to ensure I tackled issues surrounding feelings and emotions in my classroom. However, these inputs have given me specific ideas on how to teach this through expressive arts.

Reference List
Browne, A. (2008) The Tunnel. London: Walker.

Daywalt, D. (2014) The Day the Crayons Quit. New York: HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks.

Education Scotland. (2018) What is Curriculum for Excellence? [Online] Available:  https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers/cfe-(building-from-the-statement-appendix-incl-btc1-5)/What%20is%20Curriculum%20for%20Excellence [Accessed: 13 October 2019]

Mohana, M. (2018) Music and How It Impacts Your Brain, Emotions. [Online] Available: https://psychcentral.com/lib/music-how-it-impacts-your-brain-emotions/ [Accessed: 15 October 2019]

University of the West of Scotland (UWS). (2018) UWS Graduate Attributes. [Online] Available: https://www.uws.ac.uk/current-students/your-graduate-attributes/ [Accessed: 15 October 2019]

Session 4: 1st October 2019 – Falling into a Story

Drama, Visual Art

Today’s input highlighted the clear link between storytelling and expressive arts. The arts can be used as a stimulus for stories and stories can act as inspiration for art.

In today’s visual arts input, we aimed to breakdown the divide between image and text. We used the images we had created in last week’s input to create our own illuminated texts. This involved adding pieces of writing to visual art. As the pictures were of a landscape in the Scottish Highlands, we were asked to write a piece of either personal or creative writing based on this setting. Often, creative ideas are adapted and changed as they go through the creative process (QCA, 2004). Today, we also used dry mediums to enhance our paintings. The before and after of my painting can be seen below as well as the final pieces created by other members of the cohort.

Before and After

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the classroom, visuals can often be used to stimulate creative writing. Using practices like those used in our workshops gives children complete creative autonomy. Last week, the images we created were completely unique to us and thus, in the classroom would be completely unique to the children. Their creative writing is then led by these images and as such, is, again, totally individual to them. This provides ample opportunity to use both their creative and imaginative skills. Keeping with Curriculum for Excellence’s Expressive Arts Experiences and Outcomes, this lesson would allow children to harness both their creative and aesthetic skills (Education Scotland, n.d.). This links to the practices used in Room 13 (as discussed in last week’s input). Children enjoy having artistic freedom and being able to create the art that they want, rather than what the teacher would like (Adams et al, 2008). This week, we extended this to other curricular areas, in this case: literacy. As such, I believe these activities would work well in a classroom as children would engage with them more fully as they have chosen what they would like to create.

In this week’s drama input, we saw the first of our micro-teaching lessons. Two of these lessons were centred around books and stories: one lesson was based around the children’s book ‘The Huge Bag of Worries’ (Ironside, 2011) and another involved fairy tales. Through these lessons, we learned about several drama conventions, including freeze frame, improvisation, thought tunnels and teacher in role.

Following these lessons, Andrew then used the story ‘The Tunnel’ (Browne, 2008) to inspire a dramatic scene. The aim of this lesson was to realise the setting and atmosphere described in the story. In this particular scene, one of our characters finds herself in a dark, frightening forest. Andrew had us take on the role of the trees and mimic their movements. The use of music and lighting helped to convey the atmosphere alluded to in the story.

These lessons were enjoyed by all of the participants and research has shown that children also respond well to inputs like this. One child linked drama to being inside a storybook and noted, “the words do not just lie there; they come alive and walk with us” (Miller and Saxon, 2004). These lessons illustrated that stories can also inspire creative arts. They brought the stories to life and allowed us to explore both the stories and the characters in more depth.

Reflections on Micro-Teaching Task
In my group’s micro-teaching task, we focused on the theme of Titanic. We began by introducing the topic, discussing previous knowledge and sharing a few facts and figures. The two drama conventions that we decided to focus on were freeze frame and flashforward/flashback. Thanks to our previous drama inputs, we understood the importance of allowing participants to have a choice in the aspects they choose to explore. Thus, we allowed each group to choose which group of people they wanted to play (e.g. first class passengers, third class passengers or crew members). We then used the freeze frame convention to show what each group of people would be doing at the time of the sinking. Then, teams had to either flashforward or back in time and act out what the lead up to or aftermath of the sinking would look like for their characters.

I believe our micro-teaching input was successful. The cohort seemed engaged and enjoyed the lesson. Preparation for this input highlighted how important it is to thoroughly plan lessons in advance. There were eight people in my group and as such, it would have been easy for some people to get lost in such a large group and not have the opportunity to speak. However, we avoided this issue by arranging beforehand what everyone was going to say so that everyone could be involved. To improve our future inputs, we could use some visual aids to support our lessons. I enjoyed delivering our micro-teaching input as, although I have delivered small lessons and run games and activities with children, I have never done so collaboratively. This gave me the opportunity to do so and developed my teamwork and collaborative skills, in conjunction with the UWS Graduate Attributes (UWS, 2018).

Overall, this input highlighted clear connections between storytelling and expressive arts. One can be used to inspire the other and research has shown that integrated literacy and expressive arts lessons are extremely effective in the classroom and are enjoyed greatly in the classroom.

Reference List
Adams et al. (2008) Teaching Through Contemporary Art: Report on Innovative Practices in the Classroom. London: Tate Publishing.

Browne, A. (2008) The Tunnel. London: Walker.

Education Scotland. (n.d.) Curriculum for Excellence: Expressive Arts – Experiences and Outcomes. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf [Accessed: 1 October 2019]

Ironside, V. (2011) The Huge Bag of Worries. London: Hodder Children’s Books.

Miller, C. S. and Saxon, J. (2004) Into the Story: Language in Action Through Drama. New Hampshire: Heinemann Educational Books.

Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA). (2004) Creativity: find it, promote it. London: QCA Publications.

University of the West of Scotland (UWS). (2018) UWS Graduate Attributes. [Online] Available: https://www.uws.ac.uk/current-students/your-graduate-attributes/ [Accessed: 11 October 2019]