Benefits:

Fine motor skills

Chance to view the Creative Process

Integration of Art into STEM (STEM —> STEAM)

 

Negatives:

Danger of working with sharp objects, so may only be suitable for upper primary

Rubber tile materials may be costly to fund

 

During this session I learned that print making is a more extensive process than I originally thought. This led me to think about building for progression.

Building for progression allows children to take their time formulating ideas, and strips the pressure of quick-production from the experience.

Children are allowed the invaluable asset of time. Unfortunately, in this day and age, so much is rushed as we expect quick yielding and high results. However, I pose the question of: how can we expect high quality work (from anyone, child or adult) if we do not allow time? If one is not afforded the courtesy of time, they cannot formatively reflect; if one cannot formatively reflect, they stand to gain no beneficial skills and cannot better their work – it becomes a one-shot pass/fail instead of ‘how can I make this better?’

I also considered the print making process as a cross-curricular topic. Print making is also prolifically associated with the printing press and the availability of written language. Therefore, without this art form,we could not appreciate Literacy in the same way. This creates a lesson possibility with a tie between Literacy, Art and History.

After reading the ‘Living Literacy’ chapter (chapter 3) of Slow Print: Literary Radicalism and Late Victorian Print Culture , I further understand the part that Art had to play with making the world literate. Within this chapter, Miller references the community-driven aspect of Literacy, and how print-making had the sole impact on this; without the print making business (founded through and by the Arts), we would not have the printing press and would not have mass Literacy. In this way, the Arts have made a large contribution to making education viable.

There is also the time there objects were pressed on walls, making shapes, that represented a story. This can be seen in caveman hand prints and is another form of Literacy tying in with Art.

 

Reference: Miller, C. (1974) Slow Print: Literary Radicalism and Late Victorian Print Culture [Online] Available: http://stanford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.11126/stanford/9780804784085.001.0001/upso-9780804784085-chapter-4 [Accessed: 04 March 2017].

 

 

This is intended to be printed off and made into a flick book.

For more details, please check the previous blog post.

 

Image found: https://pixabay.com/en/photo-camera-photography-old-retro-219958/

 

 

During this session we looked at the multitude of uses for Animation in the Primary classroom setting; from re-telling of Nursery Rhymes to hands-on action – creating ‘Critical Thinkers’. The focus was on the different mediums of Animation, with later reference to the timelines/history of Animation.

 

I have gained an insight to the cross-curricular link between the Expressive Arts and Technology.

 

I have began consideration into lunch time clubs and how they would be affective for animation lessons. As animation lessons can take a long time to assemble and formulate, I feel that a lunch time/after school club would be exponentially beneficial for many reasons. One reason is that the children will generally have longer to finish their animations and more of a chance to tweak aspects when desired. This is important because the children should feel secure in their creations and should have the ability for formative change and progression of expression. Another reason is that the teacher of the club is not limited by the curriculum, as the club would be extra-curricular/taking place out-with the classroom. One more reason is that the student participants attend these sessions willingly, and are dedicated to the learning that is taking place. This willingness to learn creates a conducive atmosphere which students and teachers can feed off of. It is also worth noting that the teachers of these clubs are also dedicated to this learning, showing their own excitement – this makes for more memorable teachers; teachers who are set apart from the others.

A memorable, unique teacher is what I aspire to be, and helps add a fresh perspective to teaching making them highly sought after and likely to be hired.

Styles of Animation:

• stop motion – clay, paper
• computer generated image
• flick books
• thaumatrope etc

 

I have learned:

• The older styles of animation’s names (i.e. the thaumatrope and the zoetrope – I was familiar with the concepts beforehand)
• How to bring animation to life in the classroom
• The Latin translation of Animation: to make life

 

I have gained:

• Skills for how to set up Animation experiments and activities
• Ideas for how to use animation in placement
• Resourcefulness – I assumed that Animation had to have a Digital context within the classroom, but realised that there’s a great deal to be learned in going back to basics

 

I will consider for next time:

• Techniques to research – including ‘Cutout’ (https://movingimageeducation.org/create-films/animation/cutout) as a potential resource to use within the classroom
• The role that Animation plays in our daily lives, and how affected children are by Animation – I will also look at this considering the recent past, where (for example) computer Animated films were less prolific

 

 

Reference: ‘D fie foe’ and Scottish Film Limited (n.d.) Cutout: Moving image education. Available at: https://movingimageeducation.org/create-films/animation/cutout (Accessed: 4 March 2017).

 

 

 

[Please find above my initial completed response to the emotive description that was asked of us on the first session of the module].

 

During this session, we were required to bring an evocative object for discussion.

The discussion that ensued was inspiring, as we had all brought very distinctive and unique objects with strong, personally emotive histories.

This allowed me to realise that an evocative object could be anything, from anywhere, as anything that we have encountered is bound to evoke a memory – be it positive, negative or neutral; all memories are bound to emotional links.

This above quotation (Duarte, 2012) demonstrates the usual path that learning governs in Primary Schools. Children are too often reminded of what is incorrect, and not praised for what they have done well. Through Evocative Art, there are no incorrect answers. This is the kind of teacher that I want to be; I want to be a teacher who allows children to reach their full potential, through expression.

We then discussed the possibilities of artistic projects created from evocative objects. I had never realised how easily accessible, and how cheaply resourced materials could be. There will always be some form of material or resource in a classroom for children to create an evocative art piece from. And, if there is not availability of materials within the school, teachers must learn to be resourceful; one can always find materials in local surroundings – this can be large cardboard boxes that shops throw away or partially damaged goods that shops plan to throw away because they’re in an unsaleable condition. Sourcing from the local environment can also lead to using natural resources such as leaves, twigs, grass etc, which are an inexhaustible material.

I had also never considered that the evocative piece would not be limited to Art and Design, but could also be interpreted through animation (making links to digital technology use, to make the topic cross-curricular), a piece of music could be created, and an interpretative dance or drama skit could be created – all from one object.

These multi-modal platforms lend themselves to evocative art, and allows the child to access the curriculum to its fullest, and creates a contextually more stimulating and relevant lesson (or series of lessons) as children begin to see the links between their subjects – evocative art creation helps children make sense of their feelings and the world around them. The cross-curricular nature of this task also helps teachers plan more efficiently, creating more exciting and unique lessons.

 

I also found the following table, in p. 80 of:

The Arts in Education: An Introduction to Aesthetics, Theory and Pedagogy

This has given me insight into which terminology to select, and how the Arts (integrated across the curriculum) allows for a progressive regime, and allows the pupil to progress; there are less/no limits of rules and ‘conformity’ – the pupil is allowed to express themselves in a secure environment, leading to a more self-confident and self-aware individual.

 

References:

Fleming, M. (2012) The Arts in Education: An Introduction to Aesthetics, Theory and Pedagogy. [Online] Available:  https://www.dawsonera.com/readonline/9780203126240 [Accessed: 04 March 2017].

 

Duarte, E. (2012) Being and Learning: a Poetic Phenomenology of Education. [Online] Available: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-94-6091-948-0 [Accessed: 05 March 2017].

 

During one of our Drama sessions, we were asked to create a short lesson based around a chosen play/book. Our group chose the novel George’s Marvellous Medicine. Unfortunately, as most members of our group didn’t show up for the session, we were unable to give our lesson. However, we would have went over:

• Hot Seating
• Freeze frames
• Teacher in role

These techniques would have given the ‘children’ (in this case, fellow student teachers) the chance to see the story from both George’s point of view as well as the Grandma’s point of view. In theory, this would widen the child’s emotional range and their ability to look at situations subjectively.

We planned to give the extension task of splitting the ‘children’ into 3 groups, allocating 3 different chapters of at-home reading to each group (thus incorporating Literacy elements into a Drama module), then – the following week – asking the 3 groups to perform short interpretations of the scenarios in their chapters. We believed that this would help children’s imaginations and team-working skills.

 

Image found at: http://www.atgtickets.com/shows/georges-marvellous-medicine/opera-house-manchester/