This week in Integrated Arts, we focused on Room 13. Room 13 is “an independent art studio project, which the pupils run entirely themselves” (Education Scotland, 2018). Room 13 emphasises the idea of child led learning as the idea involves pupils having a ‘safe space’ where they can be as creative as inventive as they want. I think that schools having a ‘room 13’ is an effective idea as it provides pupils with a creative outlet where they can get as imaginative and messy as they want, however, I understand that they are cost effective and would require funding, space and adult supervision which may be unavailable.
During our art workshop this week we used different materials to create out own ‘paintbrush’ and used this to paint a picture. My paint brush was made from cut down sticks and tied together by a piece of string on top of a larger, thicker stick. This was an interesting task to do as everybody had different views of how they wanted their brush to look and therefore, everyone had different results. I think that pupils would enjoy this task as it involved being inventive and using their own ideas as to how to design their paintbrush. I found this task to be a challenge as I was unsure how to put my creativity into making something I was already familiar with. I struggled trying to distance myself from creating a typical looking paintbrush so tried to use materials that I would not have necessarily thought of as being tools to paint, such as twigs.
When it came to painting, we were given a list of descriptions of what the picture was to look like. I imagined the picture to involve a blue sky with green hills and a loch between them, however, this was fascinating as everybody took these descriptions and imagined something different, so similar to the brushes, no two pictures looked the same. Due to everyone having different painting tool, this created different brush strokes on the page, as some people had used wool, sticks and paper. We were only provided with primary colours to paint with so in order to create the colours we wanted we had to mix them. I believe that this would be an effective lesson to do with an older primary class, especially creating the paintbrush as it allows them to use their thinking skills in order to decide what they want their brush to look like, what materials they are going to use to create it and how they are actually going to do it. I found this part of the task quite fiddly and therefore might be a more appropriate activity to do with an older class. I also think that giving a description of a painting would be an interesting task to do with a class as the results would all be different and personal. In terms of assessment, I think pupils could use ‘think, pair, share’ to discuss their list of instructions to ensure that they are not missing anything significant from the descriptions of the painting.
To begin with, I struggled to understand the purpose of this task, however, it was later made clear when we used it to paint as everyones pictures were different due to interpretation of the picture, the texture, colours and layout. In order to improve I now recognise that I need to stop overthinking everything I do and stop comparing it to the work of people around me, especially in art. I need to let myself use my own creativity, even if the result is different to others.
The drama workshop this week involved looking at historical and controversial issues, such as World War 2, refugees and the ‘Me Too’ movement. These could be important topics to discuss with older pupils, especially through drama as it allows them to get into the mindset of different kinds of people in different situations. However, I think these issues would need to be approached with care, respect and seriousness as they are touchy subjects for many. Similarly to art, it was fascinating to see how groups interpreted the topics into drama as as “drama means different things for different people” (Kitson and Spiby, 1997). It was clear that when discussing World War 2, some groups had similar ideas over the topic but no 2 groups dramas were completely identical.
This week we practised voices in head, mime, monologue and slow motion. These are all techniques that I think would be effective when practising drama within a classroom, however, I think when looking at such serious issues, a prior lesson on what these issues are could be implemented in order to give them more of an understanding as to what is happening and how they might feel.
I feel that both workshops could be modified and effectively used within a classroom. I think that the tasks could be very ‘child led’, rather than teacher lead by allowing them to use their own initiative, thoughts and feelings around the work they were doing. This idea is supported by Kear and Callaway (2000) as they encourage teachers to take a step back and enhance children to take lead of their learning, ultimately empowering pupils to take ownership of their work. Therefore, I understand the importance of allowing pupils to take the lead of their own learning when appropriate.
References
Education Scotland. (2018) Room 13. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/Room%2013 [Accessed: 25 September 2019].
Kear, M. and Callaway, G. (2000) Improving teaching and learning in the arts.London: Falmer Press.
Kitson, N. and Spiby, I. (1997) Drama 7-11: Developing Primary Teaching Skills. London: Routledge.
