Expressive Arts not only benefit from community involvement but also, provide effective environments for building communities between participants. This week, we discussed Creative Partnerships and arts communities and how these can improve lessons in the arts. We then worked collaboratively in our dance and music workshops which helped build a sense of community within the section and allowed us to develop our collaborative working skills.

Creative Partnerships
As previously discussed, teachers often lack confidence in teaching creative subjects (Mills, 2008; Russell-Bowie, 2013). This problem can be overcoming by building partnerships with other members of the school/educational community who are more proficient in creative subjects. Teachers can invite parents, other staff members or visiting specialists into their classrooms and utilise their expertise of creative subjects to improve the quality of lessons in the arts and develop the skills of less-confident practitioners. Research has found that collaborative programmes and arts-integrated curricula can be strong and purposeful learning opportunities for children (Strand, 2006).

Many effective creative partnerships have been set up across Ayrshire to improve educational, social and wellbeing outcomes for children. East Ayrshire Council have created a Creative Minds Team made up of creative practitioners. These professionals work together to arrange networking events, inspire and upskill teachers and avoid side-lining of the arts in education. In response to the Scottish Attainment Challenge, the Creative Minds Team have overseen a Parkour Project. This involved teaching parkour to individuals who showcased behavioural or learning difficulties in school. This enriched the lives of young people and built their social wellbeing by building a community and offering them experiences they would not otherwise have been given. The project has been found to reduce crime and increase attainment. The video below provides more details (Prancing Jack Productions, 2016).

Dance
In today’s dance workshop, we worked in groups to choreograph dance routines. Last week, Zara taught us the ten basic dance conventions. We then worked in groups to come up with dance routines that included ten moves (one from each convention). This week, we practiced our routines and then presented them to the class (see below). This will help me as a teacher as I now have a more substantial understanding of dance theory which I had a very limited knowledge of before this session.

We then used pictures of famous Scottish landmarks as stimuli for creating choreography. In our groups we were tasked with coming up with a dance move for each landmark. Then, as a section we combined these together to create the first part of our final dance routine (see below).

As with last week’s session, all participants thoroughly enjoyed the session and left in high spirits. Although we largely worked in friendship groups throughout the session, there were also many opportunities for us to work collectively as a whole section. We played various warm-up games together, created our final dance together and presented our group dance routines to the whole section. When performing our dances, everyone gave masses of support and encouragement to other teams. This helped to build a sense of community throughout the cohort. Despite nerves or minor embarrassment, all participants gained skills and enjoyed the shared experience.

I believe many children would enjoy lessons like this. These types of dance lessons are pupil-led and give them the freedom to be creative and create the dances that they want. Children who do not thrive in written, academic subjects may excel in these activities. This will boost their confidence and develop their love of school. However, for many children, dance may bring feelings of embarrassment and self-consciousness. Dance is a fantastic way to build self-confidence but as practitioners we must ensure we develop confidence in a way that does not make children feel uncomfortable.

Music
In this week’s music workshop we looked at FigureNotes, a non-traditional way of reading music. It uses colours and shapes to create music notation in a ‘play it as you see it’ fashion. Firstly, children will play using written notation similar to that pictured on the right and coloured stickers placed on their instruments. During the second stage, children will play music from figure notes placed onto staves. They will then follow conventional notation that is coloured in the same colours used in figure notes, then the colours are removed entirely.

Figure Notes is the ultimate differentiated resource. Children can use different stages of Figure Notes at the same time, allowing beginners (using stage 1) and children who are already confident using written notation (using stage 4) to play the exact same piece of music at the same time. The resource is a great progression for all children to learn how to play an instrument, however it is particularly effective in ASN schools.

Many children who consider themselves “not musical” may disengage during music lessons as they feel music is too difficult and they will never be able to play the same music as their musical counterparts. I believe FigureNotes will alleviate this feeling as the resource accounts for beginners and confident musicians, thus, everyone can play the same music. This allows all pupils to progress and develop their musical ability without feeling that other people are way ahead of them. As practitioners, this allows for us to teach whole class music lessons whilst ensuring we effectively differentiate learning and challenge pupils of all abilities. I have some knowledge of musical notation, as such I personally could use a resource like FigureNotes to develop my knowledge.

Overall, this input demonstrated the positive effect that communities can have on the arts and the positive effect the arts can have on building communities. These inputs highlighted the positive impact that the communities built through the arts can have on attainment, the effectiveness of lessons and the personal lives of the people involved. Furthermore, as a cohort we enjoyed working collectively during the workshops and appreciated the sense of community gained.

Reference List
Mills, J. (2008) The Generalist Primary Teacher of Music: a Problem of Confidence. British Journal of Music Education. [Online] Vol.6(2), pp. 125-138. Available: Cambridge University Press. [Accessed: 6 November 2019]

Prancing Jack Productions. (2016) Project Parkour 2016. 5.03 mins. [Online] Available: https://vimeo.com/161844391 [Accessed: 13 November 2019]

Russell-Bowie, D. E. (2013) A Tale of Five Countries: Background and Confidence in Preservice Primary Teachers in Drama Education across Five Countries. Australian Journal of Teacher Education. [Online] Vol.38(7), pp. 59-74. Available: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1016005.pdf [Accessed: 25 September 2019]

Strand, K. (2006) The Heart and the Journey: Case Studies of Collaboration for Arts Integrated Curricula. Arts Education Policy Review. Vol.108(1), pp. 29-40. Available: Taylor and Francis Online. [Accessed: 15 November 2019]