Integrated Arts – 13/11/18
This week’s classes focused on drama and dance. In drama, we did a micro-teaching lesson to the rest of the class in groups. In dance, we began to choreograph a dance to Christmas music using some parts of a routine we had learned weeks previous.
Our micro-teaching lesson was based on a book called, “The Wee Lassie That Swallowed A Fly”. One member of the group read the book to class, pretending they were primary aged children and we were teaching them in a drama class. For many, it was one of the first times teaching in front of many people, meaning some were not as prepared as others. As a group, we chose which drama techniques we would use to complement the activities we would do with them. The group used mime, improvisation and voices in the head which all helped deliver the lesson effectively. Much of the class found that using a book to create a drama lesson was very advantageous for planning and delivering the session. This can be helpful for both the teacher and pupil as bringing in a book the class are already doing in literacy may help them have a deeper understanding of the book, the characters and anything else relevant. For the teacher, if the confidence levels are low and it may be hard to find creativity for the lesson, relying on the class book will be helpful and there will be reassurance that the lesson will be educational for the pupils. “Drama fosters literacy because it allows students of any age to become part of the learning process.” (Macro, 2015) Involving literacy in drama broadens the thought process for any child, which can then be applied to any other area of the curriculum.
As it is near Christmas, our dance lecturer decided to make up a dance Christmas themed. This involved including the dance routine we made up in groups a few weeks previous and add in new moves we were creating this week. To make up these certain Christmassy moves, each group got asked to draw a picture of what they think of when Christmas is mentioned. The results of this were varied and the moves we were left to make up were; lights, mistletoe, bells, Christmas trees, angels, penguins and reindeers. This meant our dance would be very different from the other section, which is good as we wanted individuality and creativity. When the full dance was brought together, each group had a chance to perform their own dance in the middle of the class. Again, for many, dancing is not a strong point, and some do not enjoy dancing seriously in front of a big group. However, personally, I have a background in dance for many years to enjoyed performing and helped lead my team through the dance. The finished product of the full class’s dance was a lot of fun and very enjoyable. We had it filmed which is a nice thing to look back on in the future.
Overall, both drama and dance this week involved the full class to be confident enough to deliver in front of a large group of people. Even though some do not enjoy this, doing things like this repeatedly will in turn build confidence and self-belief so that when it comes to teaching our own class, professionally, it will not be as difficult, and we will have more experience to rely on.
References
Macro, K. (2015) Drama as literacy: perceptions of an interactive pedagogy. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. Vol.20(3), pp.337-339.
