Beth Stobo UWS ITE ePDP

In our drama input we had our microteaching task where we worked as a group to provide a drama lesson for the class based on a story of our choice.  My group chose to use the story of the ‘3 Little Pigs’ as it is a story that the majority of people are aware of and familiar with.  We began by summarising the story before starting off with our first convention which was teacher in role.  We then went on to make use of three further conventions: flashback, thought tunnel and hot seat. The class were highly engaged and participated really well with our microteaching lesson which was extremely beneficial to myself and my group as we were able to become more confident and ease off our nerves. Overall, this task helped me reflect on how I would like to teach drama in the future and allowed me to experience and practice the various conventions that I could implement into a drama lesson within the classroom to enhance the engagement of my prospective pupils.

Within our dance input today, we worked in line with the dance analysis set out by Cone (2009) to create routines specific to the theme of Christmas.  We utilised the 10 basic dance moves that we had studied in the previous dance inputs and Zara encouraged us to consider what costumes or props that we might use within this kind of lesson.  This activity allowed me to experience the benefits of putting pupils in charge of their own learning by allowing them to have the opportunities to increase their confidence and creativity within the arts as well as being able to better their physical and mental wellbeing.

The inputs I took part in today allowed me to gain further knowledge and understanding of how the Expressive Arts may be taught within a primary school.  Within both workshops there was a lot of emphasis on the importance of collaborative working and the benefits that this kind of working can provide such as the increase of confidence and engagement of pupils within a classroom.

References

Cone, T. (2009) Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. Journal of Dance Education. 9(3), pp. 81-89.

Todays music workshop involved us exploring rhythm and pulse. We began with tapping the beat of a tune on our laps with a set of drumsticks. We then looked at how each note can be represented and we used squares to represent one note, also known as a crotchet and circles to represent a half beat, also known as a quaver.  By taking this on board, we used this knowledge to practice playing along to the beat of a song.  Each song that we played got progressively harder and we then worked on gradually removing the circles and squares and replacing them with quavers and crotchets to allow us to properly understand and read sheet music.  Despite this activity being completed in the workshop so quickly, this activity could be highly beneficial to children if we split the learning over a number of lessons.  By gradually building up the process of reading sheet music, children will gain more confidence in their music abilities as this process is much better suited to children.

Having looked at rhythm, we then moved on to use tuned percussion instruments such as xylophones and glockenspiels to practice note change and pitch.  We learned about notes through the acronym ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Football’ and ‘FACE’.  Despite playing the trombone and piano when I was younger, I was discouraged when it came to reading sheet music.  Therefore, I found these methods of reading music to be extremely helpful as I was able to visualise the notes in order to know what one to play next.  By allowing children within a classroom to visualise the notes that they read through acronyms and symbols, they would have a better understanding of reading music and will be more likely to engage in their music inputs within the classroom.

In the visual art input, we discussed and were able to explore our experiences of the arts on placement.  From the discussion within the workshop, Section 2 had a wide range of responses with some students experiencing a very little amount of the arts whilst on placement whilst others had engaged in various activities involving the arts within the curriculum.  Reflection is essential in deciding how we can move forward with the arts and look back on the challenges that have been faced (Burnard, 2006).  By reflecting on my own experiences with the arts whilst on placement alongside taking into consideration the experiences of my peers, I was able to share ideas and identify lessons that I could incorporate into my future teaching.  Alongside this, I was able to determine techniques that  I would not use within my teaching such as giving pupils demonstrations as this  may lead them to become less imaginative.

In conjunction with this discussion, we reflected upon the various art lessons carried out in Finland.  I was able to discover that Finnish teaching is very different to Scottish teaching as in Finland they use fully natural resources to build and create art.  For example, due to the unlimited supply of snow in Finland, children are able to experience art lessons outdoors where they can create and explore their creativity within their natural environment. Csikszentmihalyi (1996) stated that creative environments including the outdoors can provide children with the room for ideas to generate.

References

Burnard, P. (2006) Rethinking the Imperatives for Reflective Practices in Arts Education. In: Burnard, P. and Hennessy, S. (eds.) Reflecive Practices in the Arts Series:  Landscapes:  The Arts, Aesthetics and Education. Dordrecht: Springer, pp.3-12.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: Harper Collins.

 

 

 

In this week’s drama inputs we continued to look at some more drama conventions that we could use in the classroom such as:

• Flash Back
• Flash Forward
• Narration
• Slow Motion

Due to the time of the year, we used these various drama conventions and

techniques to the theme of a haunted house where we were split into groups and tasked with acting out a scene.  This was an enjoyable task as it allowed each member of the group to collaborate their own ideas alongside improving our confidence when performing in front of our peers.  As well as this, we looked at the concept of ‘Forum Theatre’ which was founded by Augusto Boal.  This concept is when members of the audience are able to raise their hands and express their own thoughts on the ways in which the drama could be changed or improved.  Despite this approach working well during the workshop with our peers, this may not be suitable to use within a classroom as children may take the feedback as negative criticism.  Therefore, as educators, it is vital that we teach children to be able to receive feedback and use it as a positive to better themselves.  In this case, a forum theatre would be beneficial within a classroom as it allows children to adapt themselves and grow their experience through learning about new ways to do things.  It is important that we as educators let children know that their input and ideas could essentially better themselves as well as their peers.  There are various experiences and outcomes within the Curriculum for Excellence framework that could relate to these tasks such as: “I have developed confidence and skills in creating and presenting drama which explores real and imaginary situations, using improvisation and script. EXA 1-14a” (Scottish Government, 2017).

In the music workshop, we focused our time on the importance of the voice within music.  A teachers voice is one of the most powerful things that they have as it is their primary way of communication therefore it is essential that we look after our voices.  During the input we looked at advice from the British Voice Association regarding how we can take care of our voices.  Whilst looking at this information I found out that it is essential that we take care of our voices and we must ensure that we warm up our voice at the beginning of the day in order to prevent any strains (BVA, 2017). We were then able to take part in various voice warm up exercises using the music resource “Choon Baboon”.  Due to this resource being created in Scotland, it corresponds very well with the framework within the Curriculum for Excellence.  This is a fantastic resource for educators who may not feel confident teaching music as it provides them with all of the guidance and help that they may need.  This lesson could be easily replicated within the classroom as it was interactive and allows all of the children to engage in the activities.

Towards the end of todays music workshop we split up into groups and created our own music through a Graphic Score.  My group chose to make music to the theme of a rain dance.  To do this, we selected our own instruments and created the sounds: bang, trickle, ting, clap and rumble.  The Graphic Score would be a good resource to use within a classroom as it is an easy way for children to follow music as well as compose it themselves without having to have prior knowledge of reading music.

References

The British Voice Association (2017). About the Association. [Online] Available: http://www.britishvoiceassociation.org.uk/about.htm [Accessed: 13 December 2017].

In this week’s drama input we looked at a short story called ‘The Tunnel’ which was based around the relationship between a brother and sister.  Throughout this workshop we looked at various drama conventions such as:

• Role on the Wall
• Mime
• Vox pop
• Thought Tracking
• Voice in head

We read the first couple of pages of the book where we came to the conclusion that the older brother was horrible and mean to his younger sister who was kind, caring and was a victim to her brothers harassment.  We completed a ‘role on the wall’ task where we drew the outline of each of the characters on a plain sheet of a4 paper.  We then worked in groups to write down what the character may think of themselves on the inside of the outline and what others may think of them on the outside.

Within a classroom environment, this activity could be extremely beneficial to children as they could carry out a role on the wall activity at the beginning of reading a new story and refer back to it having completed the story.  This is exactly what we did within our workshop as we revisited our role on the wall sheets after completing ‘The Tunnel’ which helped me to consolidate my learning.  This type of activity would be beneficial to use within a classroom as children will be able to make clear comparisons between their feelings towards characters at the beginning of each story that they read and at the end once they have completed the story.

Having completed the activity of Role on the wall, we were then tasked with acting out the scenario of the tunnel within our various groups. Despite being particularly daunting towards the beginning due to my lack of confidence within drama, I found this experience quite enjoyable.  It is therefore important to myself as a learner and future educator that I immediately take the role of the character and stay within the role when taking part in drama inputs.

This week’s Dance input involved us continuing on from our choreography that we created in our groups last week to the theme of Halloween.  In order to keep children safe and prevent the occurrence of injuries, we discussed the importance of having children take part in a warm up and cool down within every class involving physical activity.

We continued to work in our groups and developed our previous choreography and work on our performance of the routine.  This activity would be useful within a classroom environment as by allowing children to take part in activities over a series of lessons, children are more likely to engage in the lessons and develop upon their previous ideas.

Due to it being Halloween, we focused many of our warm-ups and activities on the theme of halloween.  We created dance moves relating to the theme of halloween to the numbers 0-9 and created a routine using a member of the groups mobile number which essentially made every groups routine unique to one another. We then used visual aids and were tasked with the challenge of creating a dance move using inspiration from the picture we were provided with.  I found this to be very beneficial to my own learning as I was able to develop my confidence as a future educator in adapting lessons to relate to various themes which could be very enjoyable to children within the classroom.

 

The workshop for music this week involved less practical activities than previous weeks as it was more theory based.  We focused the session on reading a paper published in the International Journal of Music Education by Susan Hallam entitled “The Power of Music: its impact on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people”.   We were split into groups within the class and each group was given a section of the paper to look into in more depth and we were instructed to make a poster in the form of a mind map to demonstrate the main points within our section.  My group looked at Physical Development within music and I was surprised to find that programmes involving rhythm can improve skills such as throwing, catching, jumping and leaping.  I also discovered that singing has various benefits to Health and Wellbeing as it can improve breathing, posture and mood which, in turn can lead to the reduction of stress.

Taking part in this activity allowed me to make valid connections and helps me to expand my knowledge and understanding of the importance of integrating music into a child’s education.  As student teachers, we were able to collaborate and share our findings for each of the topic areas.  I found this activity to be effective to my learning as a future educator as it allowed me to recognise and understand  each of the features of music that can benefit children.

As an avid dancer myself, I was thoroughly looking forward to beginning the Dance aspect of this module.  I have been dancing for over 18 years and am currently on the Team Scotland dance team competing at the world championships next year therefore I feel confident in the prospect of teaching dance to children and young people.  Due to my experience, I am very aware of the importance of dance to the development of a physical lifestyle for children through health and wellbeing alongside the providing opportunities for children to be creative within the arts.

Confidence is an extremely important factor when it comes to learning and teaching the art of dance.  Therefore we began the input with various ice breaker activities to allow us to feel comfortable and confident with our peers. “Through dance, they bring their inner self to the surface where they can express their dreams, fears, needs and joys” (Cone, 2009, p.81).  As future educators it is essential that we allow children to develop their confidence and express themselves through the arts and dance can allow people to communicate with one another to improve confidence and encourage creativity.  There are various experiences and outcomes within the dance section of the Curriculum for Excellence framework that would be relevant such as “Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express my ideas, thoughts and feelings through creative work in dance.  EXA 1-09a” (Scottish Government, 2017).

Having completed our ice breaker activities, we looked at the ten essential skills within dance which were:

• Balance
• Turn
• Kick
• Jump
• Twist
• Hop
• Gesture
• Slide
• Reach
• Roll

We were then split into groups and tasked with creating our own section of choreography using each of the ten essential skills.  Due to my experience in coaching dance, I enjoyed this activity and was able to collaborate my ideas with the other members of my group to develop a dance routine that fit the criteria provided.  Team work is an extremely important skill within dance and working alongside one another provides the opportunity for each member to add something different which can essentially create the most imaginative piece possible.  I would feel confident providing this type of lesson to children of any age as it can allow them to enhance their skills in dance alongside providing them with the opportunities to be creative and work as a team.

I found the inputs this week very insightful as I have been able to take into consideration the influence and the power that music has within education alongside the importance of music to the development and achievements to a child’s learning experience.  Likewise, I have been able to further develop my knowledge of the importance of dance within the curriculum in order to allow children to explore their creativity and work well alongside their peers.

 

References

Cone, T. (2009)  Following Their Lead:  Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances.  Journal of Dance Education, 9(3), pp. 81-89

Scottish Government. (2017)  Benchmarks: Expressive Arts. [Online]  Available:  https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/ExpressiveArtsBenchmarksPDF.pdf  [Accessed 2nd December 2017].

In today’s visual arts workshop we added to our print work from last week’s ‘Windows in the West’ input.  We chose one of our prints from the previous week and had it photocopied smaller in black and white onto an A4 sheet of paper.  As our photocopy was smaller, we were then left with a large amount of blank space  on the paper.  We were instructed to use our own imagination to complete the picture using a ballpoint pen and coloured pencils to enhance the picture.  This activity would be a great extension task as unlike the first task which was based on the artists’ painting, this task allows the children to develop their own perspective on the painting by using their imagination.

In the music workshop we explored the music application GarageBand.  This is an application that allows you to experiment with and create your own sounds and tunes to produce a piece of music.  This is a great app as is allows children to explore their interest in music and express themselves.  In this workshop we produced an 8 bar piece of music by exploring and using a variety of different musical instruments, sounds and beats.

Having developed our knowledge of how to work GarageBand, we then used an animation and created a piece of music using sounds and beats that would be appropriate to it.  I believe this would be a great activity for children to be able to link sounds and emotions to imagery.  This activity can link to various experiences and outcomes within the Curriculum for Excellence such as:

I can use my voice, musical instruments and music technology to experiment with sounds, pitch, melody, rhythm, timbre and dynamics. EXA 2-17a

Inspired by a range of stimuli, and working on my own and/or with others, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through musical activities. EXA 0-18a/EXA 1-18a/EXA 2-18a

In conclusion, both of the workshops today allowed me to be able to express myself through the arts and have the confidence in teaching them.  Having been shown a number of different resources that I could use within the classroom environment, I feel a lot more positive about the prospective of teaching the arts to primary children.

References

Scottish Government (2017). Curriculum for Excellence: Expressive Arts.  Available at: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf  [Accessed 30 October 2017]

During this week’s inputs we looked at the visual arts and drama.  In the lecture we were introduced to a painting entitled ‘Windows in the West’ by Scottish artist Avril Paton.  It is a watercolour painting which is currently on display at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow.

 

In the visual arts input we were each given an A5 piece of polystyrene and were asked to either draw or trace a section of the painting from the photocopied handout we were provided with.

Having completed the drawing, we then were asked to choose 4 different pieces of A4 sized coloured paper and fold them in half to create a card shape.  We then selected a colour of paint and used a roller to cover our polystyrene in our chosen colour before placing the piece of paper on top of the paint and peeling it back to reveal

our print.

Once we had completed our prints on all four pieces of paper, we then used pens to remove sections of the polystyrene before selecting another colour of paint and reprinting.  I found this process to be very beneficial to myself as it allowed me to be creative and due to everyone choosing different sections of the painting to print, it related very well to Eisner’s lesson that the arts celebrate a variety of perspectives from his ’10 Lessons the Arts Teach’ (Eisner, 2002).

Having reflected on this lesson, this process was particularly messy and may need to be completed over a number of lessons within a classroom setting.  Many teachers are put off implementing the arts into their teaching due to the mess it can create therefore it is really important for us to enter these types of lessons with an open mind.  This type of lesson could be implemented into cross-curricular learning, such as for a social studies project or to make Christmas or special occasion cards that could be sold at a School Fayre.

The second input was Drama.  We were introduced to this theme by first discussing our own experiences with drama as well as our thoughts on teaching the subject to a prospective class.  The majority of the class felt negative towards the topic and uncomfortable with the thought of teaching a class, however we were all willing to go into this with an open mind and the intention to improve our confidence in the subject.

The seminar immediately made me feel at ease.  We discussed the story of a dragon flying above a village and explored techniques such as Freeze Frame and Teacher in Role to act out our emotions and reactions in various sections of the story.  I found the Teacher in Role technique to be very useful when teaching Drama.  This is when the teacher can use a prop such as a scarf to indicate to the children that they are no longer a teacher but are now an actor in the specific story.  By using this technique we were also able to explore another technique known as Hot Seating where the teacher (or a child within the class) is interviewed by the class on their choice of actions within the story.

When I looked over the experiences and outcomes of Expressive Arts in the Curriculum for Excellence framework I was able to see how the activities performed in the input could be replicated within a classroom environment.  For example:

I enjoy creating, choosing and accepting roles, using movement, expression and voice.  EXA 1-12a.

In conclusion, I feel that confidence is key in teaching the Arts as it is so important for a teacher to feel confident in being able to allow children to be creative. Alongside this, a teacher should strive to develop their prior knowledge and familiarise themselves with the various teaching methods rather than having to resort to the traditional textbook methods.  This will, in turn, be a more enjoyable experience for the children as well as the teacher.

References

Eisner, E. W. (2002) The Arts and the Creation of Mind. London: Yale University Press.

Scottish Government (2017). Curriculum for Excellence: Expressive Arts. [Online]. Accessible: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf [Accessed: 20 October 2017].