A common challenge to music education is financial difficulties, highlighted as “those who can play music are those who can pay for music” (Pascoe et al, 2005, in Roy, Baker and Hamilton, 2015, p.17). However, experiencing The String Project whereby pupils in Greenmill Primary School become part of a whole class string orchestra provided a very useful insight into a child’s perspective of acquiring a new skill. Moreover, it was refreshing to see that not all “arts play a relatively minor role in most schools all over the world today” (Ellen, Goldstein and Stephan, 2013, p.27).
Figure 10: Video displaying String Project visit.
Initially, learning to pluck and learning the scale of the violin as well as the parts of the violin provided a useful introduction as to how to teach children the basics. However, this progressed towards playing simple songs which I struggled with as I do not play a musical instrument so found it more difficult than others to play alongside the rest of the class. Moreover, I embraced this session and appreciated the time it takes for children to learn a new skill.
Additionally, this music session successfully illustrates Silverstein’s point of “evolving objectives in the arts” as we began by mastering the basics of the violin before progressing to counting the beat on our own and finally attempting to play a piece of music bringing all our skills together. Relating to this, Silverstein (2010) further presents the common issue of the failure to deliver the same quality of evolving objectives across the arts, English and mathematics. Therefore now that I am aware of this, in my own practice, I need to develop effective lessons that challenge and progress children’s performances across the arts.
Within drama, reading and exploring “The Tunnel” provided an insight into the plethora of possibilities for learning, combining literacy and drama as well as how to relate ideas or characters within books to children. This was further experienced through doing a thought tunnel and the importance of allowing children to say “pass” as well as a freeze frame which would aid children in understanding the setting of a story.
Children may also be asked to analyse characters to sympathise with how they are feeling as we were asked to consider how others may view the main characters at the start and end of the book, crossing out wrongly perceived feelings, shown below:
Figure 11: Outline of chosen character including perceived feelings from other characters.
Moreover, “the lack of sufficient time for pre-service educators to adequately explore all five art forms is also an important reason for the inconsistent provision of Arts education” (Roy, Baker and Hamilton, 2015, p.16). However, this session allowed me to see how a literacy lesson may be enhanced using drama which would allow time for the arts which I did not previously consider. Having experienced this session, the value of this approach has enlightened me and will become a feature in my future teaching practice.
References
Ellen, W., Goldstein, T., and Stephan, V (2013) Educational Research and Innovation Art for Art’s Sake? The Impact of Arts [Online] Centre for Educational Research and Innovation publishing. Available: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=YPN_ffgNjr0C&oi=fnd&pg=PA3&dq=unesco+education+integrated+arts&ots=jk_qVk07pW&sig=Uxt1bfILABEc2Dnk7WhCVVf0v2w#v=onepage&q&f=false [Accessed: 22 December 2016].
Roy, D., Baker, W and Hamilton, A (2015) Teaching the Arts: Early Childhood and Primary Education (2nd ed) [Online] Australia: Cambridge University Press. Available: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ZFMQCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA145&dq=blooms+revised+taxonomy+in+the+arts&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjxm6jp8u_QAhXnI8AKHZoWAzwQ6AEIIjAB#v=onepage&q&f=false [Accessed: 12 December 2016].
Silverstein, L and Layne, S (2010) Defining Arts Integration The John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts.
