Elise Martin UWS

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].

The topic of this week’s learning was the importance of visual arts and music in the Scottish curriculum and how it can help with children’s cognitive development. During today’s sessions, it was highlighted that many teachers are anxious and nervous about teaching visual arts and music. It is also believed that other subjects within the curriculum are regarded more highly.

During today’s visual arts workshop, we discussed the stages of visual arts.

• Age two to four – the scribbling stage
• Age four to seven – the pre-schematic stage
• Age seven to nine – schematic stage
• Age nine to twelve – gang stage

(McAullife, 2007)

We were then shown different pieces of artwork from children throughout all stages. Firstly, I looked at artwork from the scribbling stage, in particular a picture of art that was described as being a ‘floating house’. We discussed that children in the scribbling stage have a lot of imagination and create their own artwork. We then moved on to look at children’s artwork from the gang stage. From this, I was able to see that these pieces of artwork were mostly copied from other artwork. This was most likely to be displayed by the teacher and the pupils were to copy the displayed piece of artwork. This reduces individualism and does not allow learners to use their imagination. Thus, meaning that children are losing their imagination and uniqueness throughout their education.

In our second session, we discussed music in the curriculum and some of the benefits of teaching music to children. Some of the benefits we discussed included:

• Music develops individuals confidence
• Music sparks creativity
• Can help to relieve stress
• Can help to improve hand and eye co-ordination
• Helps learners to understand instruction and direction

It is clear that music can be beneficial to young learners in many ways and it is vital that is taught to them continually throughout their education. We also discussed “The Mozart Effect”. This is when the practitioner plays classical music for the children in their class ten minutes before they study mathematics. Research suggests that the children perform better in mathematics after hearing classical music than they would without it.

Lastly, we explored rhythm and beats through an online resource. We were given beaters or drumsticks and we had to play along to the rhythm or beats in front of us. We used the words “circle” or “square” at first to understand fully what we were doing. I will definitely be taking this part of today’s session into my teaching practice as it was clear to visualise children taking part in an activity similar to this.

References

McAuliffe, D. (2007)Foundation and Primary Settings. In Teaching Art and Design 3-11. London: Continuum.