DRAMA

This week in drama was the first  micro-teaching task, three groups picked a book and carried out 2 or 3 drama conventions such as thought-tunnel, freeze frame, role in the wall etc.

The first group choose the book Room on the Broom and they began by reading the book aloud and explaining the storyline. The first drama convention they choose to do was a thought tunnel of what the character would be feeling. This was very engaging and in a primary school class this would be a good choice of book. This allows for children to use their imagination and also to understand the character better.

The second group choose a book about two twin sisters who swapped identities. The first activity carried out was all about improvisation and this was carried out with a partner, This would be a hit or miss as in order for this activity to be effective you would have to ensure that the pupils knew each other quite well. However it was very enjoyable and pupils would engage with this activity.

The first group looked at on of the Harry Potter books. In groups we were to act out a lesson that would in the Harry Potter books. My group acted out a potion experiment where two of the pupils drank the potion resulting in them shrinking. After this activity we then done a freeze frame of when Harry Potter had just been told by Hagrid that he was a wizard. This was very effective as we had to use our creative skills to come up with a scene to present this, In schools children would find this enjoyable as their imagination can go wild.

 

MUSIC

In this session we were in the Mac Lab where we learnt about how to use Garageband, this is a computer software used to compose music. Within this software there is a wide variety of different instruments, style of music such as: pitch, tone, timing etc. This programme is very easy to use and in primary schools this software would be very useful in teaching pupils the different instruments.

I enjoyed using this programme as it let me play with a variety of different instruments which I will probably never get the chance to  get my hands on. I learned how to put music together and create my own sound which I think would be beneficial for children to experience and express their own musical ideas. As the use of technology and ICT skills has significantly increased over the years, this programme allows children to integrate music and ICT together in the curriculum.

Mills (2009) states that “an increasing number of primary schools are obtaining musical software for computers. Some of it effectively converts the computer into a musical instrument which can be played alongside others. With other software, it is more appropriate for the pupils to compose using the computer alone.”

References:

Mills, J. (2009) Music in the Primary School. Oxford: Oxford University Press