Integrated Arts Blog 25/09/18

Integrated Arts Blog – 25/09/18
This week really focused putting on different art forms together.

The lecture was based on “using stimuli to engage the arts.” This would be the likes of involving literacy and numeracy within the arts and making them more interesting for the children learning. One thing focused on was the Robert Burns poem “Tam O’Shanter” and the different ways it has been adapted to make it more interesting to learn. Composer, Malcolm Arnold, had a different take on the poem and remastered it by animating the poem and adding music to it. This can make the literature more interesting and intriguing to study and it also lets the pupils add their own twist onto it and their own perspective on the poem. The music helps tell a story that the pupils might not see to begin with. It helps children understand the meaning of the literature and the animation helps tell the story of the poem which assists the child to realise that literature is not always the same thing and by adding art and music to the subject it can be a lot more interesting.

The music workshop was related to music telling a story. We listened to several pieces of music and had to write down how it made us feel. This made us think carefully about how different types of music effected our thoughts on things and how we related certain songs to various emotions. After that, we listened to a longer piece of music which varied in pace, sound and feeling. We then got into groups and had to create a story influenced by the music and how the tone and the speed of the music can make the story change instantly and unexpectedly. This could be integrated into a child’s writing as they can do creative story telling just by listening to one piece of music. We found that every group had a different story to present which reflected on how each person heard the music. Using this music can inspire us to think creatively through literacy and art.

In the arts workshop, we learned about Rod Taylor’s “Process, Form, Content and Mood.” We can use this model to help discuss and interrogate art objects with children. We looked at a picture of a white glove with one finger missing and that finger was red. As we did not know the background of the picture, we used Rod Taylor’s model to question the picture more and further our understanding of the art. Some questions asked in the model would be:
• Process – “What skills must the artist have possessed or required to produce such a work?”
• Form – “Does one colour predominate or do two or more have equal significance?”
• Content – “Was the subject matter observed directly, remembered or imagined?”
• Mood – “Does the work affect you, the viewer, in any way?”
These were only some of the questions for each section and it was clear that this model was effective in helping us question a piece of art and making us look for a deeper meaning within the artwork.

Overall, using art forms in the other parts of the curriculum is essential as it can make the learning for the child so much more interesting and pupils within the class will definitely be more engaged when doing literacy or numeracy if the material provided is just that bit different and fun.

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