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.
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]
