Dance
“Children are recognised for their individual perspectives, learning styles, and abilities to l earn and create dance movements”(Cone and Cone, 2004).
This week was our final session of dance. As a continuation and closure to the previous weeks, we carried on and finished our dance. Today, we put the whole routine together and made a 5 minute dance as a whole class. This involved adding our individual group dances together with the collective class one. In doing this, it gave us a feeling of achievement as we had created this piece ourselves, which I feel children could take great pride in doing. The fact that it would be ‘child-centred ideas’ I feel would be much more effective in a dance session than simply using a routine that had been pre-planned by the teacher because it puts all focus on the child’s imagination and creativity (Fleming, 2012).
As the teacher, this is a flexible project that could be done under a time-constraint of only 3 or 4 sessions and could be linked with any topic that is studied in the classroom. The only work that is really done by the teacher in this situation is supervising and possibly dealing with technical issues like spacing, timing and performance. Then, above all, it is about a child’s cognitive development and to enjoy the learning process as they develop. “It is therefore important that all teachers and educators look for opportunities within their own teaching approaches for interdisciplinary learning and to foster partnerships with professional arts companies, creative adults and cultural organisations” as this experience can bring a whole new light to a child’s learning (Experiences and outcomes – how is the curriculum organised? – learning and teaching, no date). I feel that the dance sessions have really opened my eyes to the prospect of integrating it into the classroom and has made me more confident in leading it.
Music
“Making music involves more than the voice or fingers playing an instrument; a child learning about music has to tap into multiple skill sets, often simultaneously” (jewjd, 2012).
Music this week was introducing instruments and some technical music concepts to do with rhythm. I don’t have much knowledge or experience with music notes, but I found this easy and fun to do. We looked at various music notes including semi- quavers, rests, crotchets and minims . Once we knew how many beats each note was worth, we clapped out the rhythms that the notes made. We then got out the glockenspiels and individually improvised to the song ‘Hit the Road Jack’ using only notes C, D, E, G and A for 30 counts in front of the class. This activity was daunting to do in front of the class but because there was no wrong way to play, I feel that everyone was fairly comfortable which would be good for the classroom. It is definitely becoming more apparent to me since beginning this module that music in school is more than just tapping out a tune on the keyboard, it is developing a whole range of life and cross-curricular skills that you don’t always gain from other subjects.
Cone, T.P. and Cone, S.L. (2004) Teaching children dance. 2nd edn. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Publishers.
Experiences and outcomes – how is the curriculum organised? – learning and teaching (no date) Available at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningandteaching/thecurriculum/howisthecurriculumorganised/experiencesandoutcomes/ (Accessed: 29 October 2016
Fleming, M. (2012) The arts in education: An introduction to aesthetics, theory and pedagogy. London, United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.
jewjd (2012) The benefits of music education. Available at: http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/music-arts/the-benefits-of-music-education/ (Accessed: 5 November 2016).
