Category: Integrated Arts in Education

In our final week of integrated arts, we participated in dance and music workshops.

In the music workshop, we learned the basics of playing the ukulele. We started by learning various basic chords including; C, F and G. We then moved on to look at an A minor chord which is more challenging. While studying these chords, it allowed us to start playing a song called “My dog has fleas” which I felt was a great introductory song for playing the ukulele. Following on from this, we progressed to look at and play “Last Christmas.” It was interesting to see how quickly we progressed and started to look at different and more difficult songs. Ukuleles are being used more widely in schools nowadays and it can allow young learners to easily understand different musical chords and allow them to learn other musical instruments including the guitar. Ukuleles are easily accessible, particularly to schools, and they are one of the cheapest musical instruments that are available today. It has been proven that through learning to play the ukulele, children’s levels of motivation and engagement have increased as a result. They are also a newly up to date and modern instrument and can be used to play many of the pop songs that are currently in the charts, which can be particularly motivational for young learners. An experience and outcome that I have chosen that relates to the activities carried out in today’s music session is as follows:

I enjoy singing and playing along to music of different styles and cultures.   EXA 0-16a

During our dance workshop, we were finishing and finalising our Christmas dance. This was then recorded which allowed the cohort to look back and reflect on our efforts. The cohort gathered to watch our final dance and we also had the opportunity to watch the other half of our cohort which allowed us to determine the differences between the two dances. Following on from this, we carried out a self-evaluation in the form of two starts and a wish. Through the use of self-evaluation, it allowed us to reflect on and appreciate the dance that we had created. Creative dance allows individuals to express themselves freely and develop their confidence. This is backed up by (McAullife, 2007) as he believes that the expressive arts help give learners the freedom to express themselves. Through the creative dance workshops, my confidence in being able to teach creative dance has increased dramatically. It has given me a basis to teach dance upon and ideas of lessons which can be led mostly by the learners to increase their engagement. Learners are also able to evaluate their peers and themselves in order to reflect on their practice which relates to the following experience and outcome:

“I can respond to the experience of dance by discussing my thoughts and feelings. I can give and accept constructive comment on my own and others’ work.” EXA 0-11A     EXA 1-11A     EXA 2-11A (Scottish Government, 2018).

Our final Christmas dance – https://player.vimeo.com/video/301866692?fbclid=IwAR34f2DnWSB6iyFcV45qtZigG93hezlzXls6YBBzs9-CtrJNB-lfmaCSXS8

References

McAullife, D. (2007) Foundation and Primary Settings. In Teaching Art and Design 3-11 (Edited by Sue Cox, Robert Watts, Judy Grahame, Steve Herne, and Diarmuid McAuliffe). London: Continuum.

Scottish Government (2018) Experiences and Outcomes[Online] Available from: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf [Accessed: 5 December 2018].

 

The week’s lecture was based on creative dance. Firstly, we were presented with a short video clip on a creative dance project that was carried out in a school. The project aimed to encourage young learners to participate in creative dance. Zara explained that at the start of the project majority of the children had little confidence around the subject of creative dance. However, at the end of the project, all learners were engaged and interested in creative dance. The Curriculum for Excellence emphasies the importance for creative dance as it bellieves“children should have the opportunity to create, present, appreciate and evaluate dance” (CfE, 2018).

Our creative dance workshop began by gathering into our small groups from the previous week and going over the dance which we had created. We were asked to design a picture of the first thing we thought of when the word “Christmas” was said. Myself and my group decided to draw a Christmas tree, which we then swapped with another group. Once we had swapped our pictures, we were asked to create a dance move which related to the picture we had been given. All of the pictures were then collected and we combined all of our dance moves to create the start of our Christmas dance. An experience and outcome that relates to this activity is as follows:

I enjoy creating short dance sequences, using travel, turn, jump, gesture, pause and, fall, within safe practice. EXA 1-08a (Scottish Government, 2018).

During our drama workshop, we carried out our micro-teaching performances. This involved us working in small groups to create a drama lesson and present it to our peers. My group and I decided to plan a lesson based upon vikings. During our micro-teaching, we included several drama conventions including hot seating and role-playing. We used hot seating which involved one person took questions around the subject of vikings from the rest of the cohort. Role playing was incorporated by allowing a peer out-with our group to reenact a scene involving vikings. An experience and outcome that myself and my group  selected that related to this activity is as follows:

I enjoy creating, choosing and accepting roles, using movement, expression and voice. EXA 1-12a (Scottish Government, 2018).

References

Curriculum for Excellence (2018) Expressive Arts: Principles and Practice [Online] Available from: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-pp.pdf [Accessed: 6 December 2018].

Scottish Government (2018) Experiences and Outcomes[Online] Available from: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf [Accessed: 6 December 2018].

In the visual arts workshop, we discovered the work of Tim Ingold. We had the opportunity to watch a video clip on the topic of drawing and writing in education. He explains that children tend to grow out of drawing which should not be the case as drawing has many benefits to young learners. It was very interesting to hear from his perspective and to understand how drawing can help children throughout their education and not only at the early stages.

During the music workshop, there were several musical instruments around the room that we took turns to explore. This allowed us to get a feel for a lot of different instruments and to evaluate how they can be played and used in the classroom. Following on from this, we had the opportunity to create our own banjos and harmonicas. Firstly, to create the banjo we used two lollipop sticks, straws and, elastic bands. We took one lollipop stick and placed an elastic band around it. Then, we placed straws at each end of the lollipop stick and secured these down with more elastic bands while placing the other lollipop stick on the top. In order to play these harmonicas, you must blow into the gap between the two lollipop sticks. This vibrates and allows noise to come from the harmonica. Next, we created the banjo using a paper plate, elastic bands and,  a wooden stick. We folded the paper plate in half and placed the wooden stick in the middle and secured it down with several elastic bands to create the strings. An experience and outcome that would relate to this activity is as follows:

I have the freedom to discover and choose ways to create images and objects using a variety of materials. EXA 0-02a

 

 

References

Scottish Government (2018) Experiences and Outcomes[Online] Available from: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf [Accessed: 5 December 2018].

During the morning lecture, we explored STEM education and how it has now been expanded by adding the arts to create STEAM education. STEAM education involves science, technology, engineering, arts and, mathematics. The addition of arts into STEM education allows learners to develop their creativity and imagination through many different areas within the curriculum. STEAM education is vital within a learner’s education as it incorporates several aspects of education and allows them to be explored together. The following video shows what STEAM education is and allows for a deeper insight into the subject.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tkAvWWhKf4

Our first workshop was centred around the use of Garageband in a music lesson. The application allows learners to create their own music on a range of different instruments and can develop their creativity and individuality as a result. It also allows learners to explore new sounds and to work with others to come up with different rhythms and beats. While exploring the application Garageband, I created my own piece of music lasting eighteen beats. It allowed me to explore different sounds from a range of musical instruments and to create my own and unique rhythms. However, I felt that it was quite difficult to navigate through the application. As a result of this, if I were to teach and introduce the application to children, I would firstly teach several lessons on how to navigate and understand the application. An experience and outcome that relates to Garageband is as follows:

During our drama workshop, we explored six different conventions within drama. These included role on the wall, monologue, narration, voices in the head, slow motion and mime. Within the cohort, each group was given a specific drama convention and asked to act it out based upon the book “The Tunnel”. My group was asked to present a monologue of the male character at the start of the book. An experience and outcome that relates to this particular activity is as follows:

In today’s music session, the focus was Figure Notes. We started off by exploring the online resource of Figure Notes. This was created by Markku and Kaarlo and it represents colours being used with different musical notes. This allows children to match a colour to a specific musical note and it has been proven to be more effective for young learners who are learning to play an instrument. It has also been proven to be particulary beneficial for children that suffer from Autism Spectrum Disorder (Figure Notes 2018). While exploring Figure Notes, we participated in some activities including using colour coded glockenspiel to play the songs ‘jingle bells, ‘Frera Jacques’ and ‘twinkle twinkle’.

During today’s drama workshop, we studied the five conventions of drama including; vox pop, freeze frame, teacher in role, thought tunnel and hot seat. The first area of drama we explored was hot seat. This is when one person in the class is in the hot seat and others are allowed to ask them questions while in the role of a specific character. Another drama convention that we examined was teacher in role. This is when the teacher makes it clear that they are part of the drama and acts alongside the children. Additionally, vox pop is a drama convention in which one member of the group asks how the others are feeling during an acting scene as part of the performance. Freeze frame is the most critical part in the drama and it is captured by the performers staying still to convey its importance. Another drama convention is a thought tunnel. This is when the character conveys their thoughts and feelings in a specific part of the drama. While studying these five drama conventions we focused on the story of the “Lonely Dragon”. There are several experiences and outcomes that relate to this particular activity and they are listed below”

 

• I have the freedom to choose and explore how I can use my voice, movement, and expression in role play and drama. EXA 0-12
• Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through drama. EXA 0-13a / EXA 1-13a / EXA 2-13a

Overall, today’s workshops have been motivating and intriguing for me. I feel that young learners could benefit from participating in activities similar to these and I would take these experiences into my teaching practice.

 

References

Education Scotland (2018) Experiences and Outcomes Available from: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf [Accessed: 30 October 2018].

Figure Notes (2018) What is Figure Notes? [Online] Available from: https://www.figurenotes.org/what-is-figurenotes/ [Accessed: 29 October 2018].

During today’s lecture, we looked into to the Creativity across Scotland document. This document explains what creativity is and how it can be improved. Creativity can be described as ideas that are important to an individual. This places a clear emphasis on how important it is to allow young learners to explore creativity in the classroom and this can be done through expressive arts.

During our visual arts workshop, we created our own prints. We created these using A3 paper and black ink. We used our fingers and hands to print onto the page with the blank ink and then drew what we thought the print represented onto the paper. This part of the lesson was very interesting as it gave us an insight into how to individualise visual arts and make it enjoyable for learners. In the second part of the workshop, we were given a second piece of paper and also a box with pieces of lego and toys. We had the opportunity to be creative and design our own art on the page using the toys and the black ink. An experience and outcome that relates to this activity is as follows:

In our drama workshop, we started off by discussing the anxiety and worry behind teaching drama. Many of my cohort, as well as myself, stated that they lacked confidence in the subject of drama and would not feel comfortable teaching it in schools. As drama is not a particularly structured subject, individuals feel that it may not work out how they pictured or planned. This can cause worry and stress and is one of the many reasons why drama is not implemented as much as it should be in the curriculum. We then moved on to discuss what drama is defined as. Some of the suggestions that myself and my group came up with was; pretending to be someone else and it can allow individuals to feel and relate to others in different situations or circumstances to themselves. Allow drama is not a part of everyday life as such, children are involved in playing games which include drama and this can be helpful when teaching drama to children by relating it to their everyday lives. Drama can also be taught in a specific way which allows certain issues to be highlighted, for example, racism and bullying. Following on from this, we looked at a painting “Windows of the West”. It describes a tenement building in the West End of Glasgow. In our groups, we had to act out a scene to describe what we imagined the life of some of the people living in the building would be and present it to the rest of the cohort. While acting out our scenes, we were asked to incorporate six conventions of drama which included; flashback, flashforward, thought tracking, improvisation, still image and role play. These conventions should be incorporated into all performances in drama and are a good starting point for teaching drama to young learners. An experience and outcome that relates to this activity is as follows:

The focus of this week’s lecture was creative partnerships. This is a programme that intended to target the attainment problems within the Scottish education system through the use of integrated arts. Our dance lecturer, Zara, informed us that she carried out a project based around Parkour called the ‘Parkour Project’. This project aimed to target young males in order to raise their attainment in school. The project was extremely successful as it raised young males attainment by making it mandatory to attend classes in order to have access to the Parkour Project. According to Creative Scotland (2018), the project aspires to increase young learner’s confidence and develop their skills for later life.

Today’s dance workshop was centred around the theme of Halloween. Firstly, we carried out various warmup routines based on Halloween. For example, we played the game of ‘zombie tig’ along to Halloween music. Following on from this, we went into our groups from the previous week and we were asked to add to the dance routine that we had created. We put new actions into our routines using the ‘maths dance’ that we created as a cohort. This incorporated numbers 0-9 being represented by a different dance move. In our small groups, we worked out ten sums to find out the order that the maths dance would be when adding it into our original dance routine.

During our music session, pupils from a local primary school came into our workshop to teach our cohort how to play the violin. The pupils receive violin lessons during their class time and they all seemed very enthusiastic about the subject of music. Each university student was paired with a school pupil and we were taught the basics of how to play the violin. During this session, we played a music number notes game in which we were split into two teams and the teacher held up a combination of music notes. The aim of the game was to say what the added value of all of the musical notes was. The first team to raise their hand would be able to guess the answer. The workshop was led by the pupils for the majority of the session.

To conclude, both workshops were highly interesting and engaging. Throughout both sessions, there was a clear link to mathematics. This shows that mathematics can be easily incorporated into the curriculum through integrated arts.

 

References

Creative Scorland. (2018). Creative Learning Networks. [Online] Available from: https://www.creativescotland.com/what-we-do/major-projects/creative-learning-and-young-people/creative-learning-networks [Accessed: 20 October 2018].

 

In this morning’s lecture, we focused on the learning environment in which visual arts are carried out in. We also discussed how the working environment can lead to the success of young learner’s artwork. We examined Room 13 in depth during the lecture. This is in a particular school in which an empty classroom was transformed into an arts studio. This allowed children to become more creative and have a different working environment for the arts which allows for increased engagement. The arts studio minimises the need for a space available in the classroom to carry out the expressive arts. The class teacher must still have a tolerance for mess however, it can be decreased as the art studio allows children to express themselves freely in a space dedicated to the arts.

During the dance workshop, we started off by playing several warm-up games including “follow the leader”. The cohort walked around the room individually and one person led the first part of the warm-up. The leader would dance around the room in a specific way and the rest of the cohort would copy their actions. This continued until everyone in the cohort had the chance to become the leader. This warm-up game allows for an element of creativity as the individual named as the leader can make up their own action entirely to suit them and make it unique to them. Following on from this, we were introduced to the ten actions of dance: balance, gesture, twist, turn, jump, hop, kick, reach, roll and slide. These ten actions are incorporated in all areas of creative dance and are the first thing that should be taught to learners. We were put into groups and each group created a short dance routine solely made up of these ten dance actions. This activity allowed each group to create their own dance routine which was unique to them and each group had to be creative in order to create their own dance routine. An experience and outcome that relates to this activity is as follows:

“I enjoy creating short dance sequences, using travel, turn, jump, gesture, pause and fall, within safe practice.”          EXA 1-08a (Scottish Government, 2018).

In today’s visual arts workshop, we started off by looking into the work of Bob and Roberta Smith. Following on from this, we created artwork inspired by his work. Myself and my group decided to come together to create one piece of artwork which included the statement “Art – breath of life, food for soul.” To create this piece of artwork, we each created our own pieces by using A4 paper and drawing our particular word. We then stenciled this using polystyrene. We then painted over the stencil using paint and we joined our artwork together to create our final piece.

To conclude, I found today’s activities to be highly beneficial. I will take these experiences into my teaching practice to use with young learners.

References

Education Scotland (2018) Experiences and Outcomes Available from: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf [Accessed: 30 October 2018].

In today’s lecture, we started by listening to “Tam O’Shanter” by Robert Burns. Following on from this, we then listened to Malcolm Arnold’s composition which was inspired by “Tam O’Shanter”. While listening to this, we were asked to think of parts of the composition which sounded like specific parts of the poem. We were then shown the website “BBC Ten Pieces” which introduces young learners to classical music. I believe that it is used widely by teachers.

During today’s visual arts session, we explored emotion prompt cards. These were designed to allow learners to think outside of the box and to spark creativity. The emotion prompt cards show a piece of artwork and it asks questions to allow the learner to look into the image more deeply and allow them to ask themselves questions that they would perhaps not have considered previously. Firstly, we looked at a piece of artwork featuring a glove which was missing a finger. We then discussed as a group, what we thought the image represented. We discussed that the artwork connoted loss and disturbance. We then moved on to look at process, form, content and, mood through a list of questions that we had been given. These allowed us to think more deeply about the questions we could ask ourselves and our peers about different pieces of artwork. An experience and outcome that relates to today’s activities is as follows:

Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through activities within art and design.

The focus of today’s session was exploring different ways to create artwork and exploring the Charanga music online tool.

Firstly, during our visual arts workshop, we created our own paintbrush using various materials. I created my paintbrush using wool, string and, part of a broomstick. Once we had all created our paintbrushes, Diarmuid then described a landscape to us and we had to remember this and paint it using our own paintbrush that we created. To create the landscape, we were only given red, blue and yellow paint. Therefore, allowing us to be creative to try and create greens, greys and, browns to more our landscape more realistic. This workshop was very interesting and engaging for me. I would definitely use this in my future practice as it allows learners to be very creative and their work turns out to be individual to them and unique. An experience and outcome that relates to this activity is as follows:

In today’s music session, we explored the online music site Charanga. Through Charanga, we continued on from the previous week by learning about rhythm and beats. To do so, the song “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi was played and we clapped to the tune. Continuing on from this, we then got a glockenspiel and played along with the rhythm that Julie was playing on the piano.

To conclude, both sessions were highly beneficial to me and I enjoyed them both. They have both given me great ideas to take into my practice.

References

Education Scotland  (2018) Experiences and Outcomes Available from: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf [Accessed: 22 October 2018].