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].
