The first input was interesting. We were given part of a text and we were to draw over it. We were to draw what the words were saying.
I genuinely found this quite difficult. The article I was given was academically advanced which added to the difficulty, I have never been the type of person that was very good at drawing or even liked to draw. I always preferred colouring in. As the article was an academic article I found it quite difficult to even think of what to draw. Looking back at how I was feeling during this lecture, I am under the impression I was thinking too much into what I was doing rather than just doing it. I eventually got some drawings down on the page, as did everyone else.
I am confident this exercise could be used in a classroom and could be quite successful within a lesson, obviously with an easier bit of text. Instead of an article, a book, song lyrics or poems could even be used. The pupils would be able to turn the words and information they see in front of them into visual images. For some individuals it is easier to visualise something as an image rather than to just look at a bunch of words. It could also be a fun activity for the pupils to participate in, something different than usual. This activity showed me that art can be taught and experienced through literacy.
The art workshop today consisted of using black paint and black pens. This activity was heavily influenced by lesson number three of the ten lesson that the arts teach by Elliot Eisner (2002). Eisner says that children see and interpret the arts in different ways and that they can have multiple different perspectives on one single piece of art. In this activity, we were to put the black paint on our hands, make marks on the paper with our fingers and hands. We were then to focus on the shapes we had created with our hands/fingers and then we were to add details of what we imagined them to be. Every person seemed to have different interpretations of what even a thumb print looked like. This activity proved, even in adults, that every person will have different interpretations of similar things. This workshop made me realise how no two sheets of paper will look the same, even when given the same brief. This task could easily be completed within a primary school. As long as you, as a teacher, prepared for the possible mess it could create. Preparing for this activity could include have news paper pages placed on desks under the paper in which they were painting on, to avoid paint getting on the desks. Also, to make sure that all the pupils had aprons on so that they paint would not get onto their school uniform.
After the drama workshop, I noticed improvements confidence-wise in everyone. Everyone that participated seemed a lot more confident in performing. My desire is for the pupils in my class to grow in confidence day by day, activity by activity. Drama is a subject that helps to build confidence and self-esteem all the children have an opportunity to work in groups, speak independently by expressing opinions and ideas and present themselves in a play or by improvisation (Bytdrama, 2018).
Eisner, E. (2002) The Arts and the Creation of Mind. Conneticut: Yale University Press.
Bytdrama (2018) Benefits of Drama [Online] Available: https://www.bytdrama.com/benefits-of-drama/ [Accessed 28 October 2019]
