For the final week of this module we had our last dance and music workshops. We rounded off both arts with a performance of our choreography and a performance of Last Christmas on the Ukulele.

In dance, after rehearsing our group routines and full section choreography, we filmed our dance. I believe this went well but was a nerve-wrecking experience for most of the class. With my dance background, I did not have trouble with the routine or the performance but I understand why this could be a difficult thing to do for the pupils in my class. Performing dance is part of the curriculum and should be enjoyable but this aspect of dance can bring a lot of nerves, especially for the pupils in my class that have not performed before.

After performing, we learned how to evaluate dance and how this could be done in school. We used the three stars and a wish method of evaluation to note down three things we think we had done well and one thing we could improve upon. Evaluating is important as it allows you to be self-aware of things that went well and how to progress and improve (Cassady, 2004). Choreographic devices used and musicality are two of the things that could be the focus of our evaluations.

In music, we concluded our learning of instruments with the ukulele. After learning the history of the instrument, we got a chance to learn 6 chords and play along to a few little songs. We then played the four chords required to play along to Last Christmas.

This was an enjoyable experience and I can see how this could be done in schools. As a ukulele is a similar price to a good quality recorder it can be an alternative for the class instrument. After finding an interest in the ukulele, I will continue with my playing of and improve myself in the hopes of playing with my class and teaching them through resources like Charanga.

This module has been extremely insightful and has changed my perspective of the arts in Scottish education. I believe they should be valued as much as Maths and English currently are and not pushed aside. I will aim to ensure my class get to experience, practice and enjoy the expressive arts at school as much as I have had the opportunity to during this module. I will also strive to ensure my pupils get to experience creativity as creativity is a skill of great importance and one that can be developed in schools through teaching the expressive arts (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996).

Cassady H. (2004) Experiencing evaluation: a case study of girls’ dance. Journal of Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy.  [Abstract, Online] Vol.9(1), Available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1740898042000208106 [Accessed: 26 November 2019].

This week’s lecture focused on creativity in dance. We talked about the importance of letting our class lead the learning as well as the benefits dance brings. When teaching dance, it is not a bad thing to let the more experienced in dance child in the class teach the warm up, or getting help from a primary 7 who is known for their dancing, but it is important that we learn from these people to help better ourselves as teachers and improve our own dance teaching skills. As a teacher of dance, my role would be to never discourage a child’s idea or try to limit their creativity, this could be damaging and lead to them not believing in themselves and a lack of confidence (PRCVIR, n.d.). Dance brings many health benefits like improved mental and physical well-being. Dance also brings benefits within the classroom. In one evaluation, teachers said dance brought her class together and the pupils became more cooperative and collaborative (Robinson and Aronica, 2018).

Dance in primary schools should be fun and creative and pupils should be able to compose and perform, in order to appreciate dance (Smith-Autard, 2002). This Curriculum for Excellence also views these components to be of value when teaching dance in schools (Education Scotland, n.d.).

We were introduced to the midway model for dance in schools (Smith-Autard, 2002) which connects the professional dance aspects with the creative educational approach. This is something I will continue to look at as a teacher and ensure I am teaching dance with close reference to this model.

In dance, we continued working on our choreography and created a full section routine with the theme of Scotland featuring the 10 movements. We added choreographic devices into our group dances to add depth and technique.

In the music workshop, we continued our work on the glockenspiel and reading music. We played a handful of songs which included nearly all the notes on a stave. This was a difficult task for me at first as I do not currently play a musical instrument but the workshop last week instilled confidence in me about my music reading skills. Progressing on to this notation taught me the importance of working up to something which is a valuable life skill in itself. With children, this could be a very rewarding experience as, like myself, working up from having no musical ability to being able to read sheet music and perform is an achievement and something to be proud of. We also completed an improvisation task individually using a pentatonic scale. This scale is a 5 note per octave scale in which all the notes play well together, meaning no matter what note is played it will sound in place. This was a great experience as each of us got to play the ‘verse’ of Hit The Road Jack.

This task could be completed with early level, as only the notes needed could be distributed on the chime bars, for example. As this task is so broad in age range, any song’s backing track could be found on YouTube to play along with or if my musical skills are advanced enough, played along to myself on the piano.

With reflection on my creativity today, I think I was challenged in both workshops but found them both enjoyable and productive and experienced tasks that I could use in future expressive art lessons.

Education Scotland (n.d.) Curriculum for Excellence: Expressive Arts Principles and Practice. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-pp.pdf [Accessed: 19 November 2019].

Education Scotland (2010) Curriculum for Excellence: Expressive Arts Experiences and Outcomes. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf  [Accessed: 19 November 2019].

How To Be Inspired To Believe In Yourself. (n.d.) [Online] Available: https://prcvir.com/blog/inspiring-to-believe-in-yourself/  [Accessed: 19 November 2019].

Robinson, K. and Aronica, L. (2 April 2018) Why Dance Is Just As Important As Math In School. [Blog, Online] Ted-Ed Blog. Available: https://blog.ed.ted.com/2018/04/02/why-dance-is-just-as-important-as-math-in-school/ [Accessed: 19 November 2019]

Smith-Autard, J. (2002) The Art of Dance in Education. London: Methuen Drama.

The integrated arts lecture today focused on creative partnerships and working with others to increase the learning of our pupils and ourselves. Creative partnerships help bring the creative arts into the ‘typical’ school day and promote the arts’ benefits (National Foundation for Creative Research, 2006) and enhance the learning experience.  These partnerships can not only enrich my class’ arts experience through many opportunities that would not be available without them but also enrich my own teaching skills by Continuing Professional Development courses. Through these CPD courses I can ensure I am furthering my teaching ability and constantly ensuring my class are getting the best education I can give them. Attending workshops and classes to do with the arts will not only raise the knowledge of the subject to improve the lessons being taught but will also increase my awareness of the value of the expressive arts and creativity in schools (Institute of Training and Occupational Learning, n.d.).

Creative partnerships could be at schools or local authority level and could be with parents of children or other school staff members who specialise in a creative art. It could also be area wide attainment challenge officers or arts development officers. Many people can help enhance and enrich the teaching and practise of creative subjects and I will do my best as a teacher to be aware of this. We learned of the Creative Learning Network, in which the Scottish Government gives a small amount of money to help upskill teaching staff in creative subjects. The creative Learning Network helps to make teachers aware of creative opportunities and can also help with funding for creative trips and experiences.

We got to hear about Drake Scotland in the lecture briefly, Drake Scotland is a charity based in Edinburgh that work with children with additional support needs to allow them the experience of working with music. Later in the workshop, we got to try the teaching technique Drake focus on which is figurenotes. Figurenotes is a notation of music which is easier to teach to those who need support or just need an easier way into playing and reading music. It uses colour and shape to show the information needed to play. Figurenotes can progress  into standard notation of music and can be an easier way of understanding and getting started.

Today, we got to experience playing music with figurenotes on the glockenspiel to a range of songs including some ABBA and Christmas songs.

As a teacher I can see how this could be a much easier way to introduce the reading of music to my class as I found it a lot easier and clearer to understand than standard notation. This is something I hope to use with my class in the future. I have found I enjoy things more when I understand and I believe that if I taught my class using figurenotes more children would have an interest as they can play along without a struggle.

In dance today, we worked on the ten basic movements and joined them together to create a piece of choreography. This task could easily be done in a primary school setting and can even be taught to link in with the class topic. We also looked at a range of warm up cardio games that could be played in school as well as how to link dance into other subject areas, for example, maths. We completed a sheet with 10 equations to give us different answers. Each answer had an associated movement and when following the order of the equation sheet, it gave us another piece of choreography. 

Next, we took inspiration from Scottish landmark pictures (as we have been focusing on the topic of Scotland) to create a movement. My group were given the Forth Rail Bridge and the Duke of Wellington statue.

We chose to do a move to represent a train and to gallop like a horse with our hands above our heads in a triangle like the cone. This was an enjoyable experience which could also be linked with other subjects like art. Children could create a piece of artwork of the landmark and then take inspiration from that art for the dance moves.

I learned a lot today about helping further the understanding and knowledge of the arts in my pupils and how I could do that through my own teaching as well as making the most of people’s skills who are willing and able to help me teach the creative arts.

Institute of Training and Occupational Learning (n.d.) Continuing Professional Development. [Online] Available: https://www.itol.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/ITOL-GUIDE-to-CPD.pdf [Accessed: 12 November 2019].

National Foundation for Creative Research (2006) National Evaluation of Creative Partnerships.  [Online] Available: https://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/CPS01/CPS01.pdf [Accessed: 12 November 2019].

In  integrated arts today, we had our first dance workshop with Zara. This was a very practical lesson and had the whole section moving! In music today, we were joined by Primary 7 from a local primary school. The pupils taught us how to play their string instruments. Today has been the most practical and hands on day of integrated arts so far, it was extremely enjoyable and I learned a lot about teaching the subjects of dance and music in schools.

With Zara, we first discussed the role dance has in primary schools. It is an important part of the curriculum and has experience and outcomes at all levels. Dance in primary schools focuses mostly on creating and performing as well as improving physical fitness. Dance allows pupils to experience inspiration and creativity as well as developing their technical skills and quality of movements as well as developing their imagination (Scottish Government, 2010).

We talked about how dance can be incorporated into other subject areas. For example, if the class topic is India, some Bollywood dance moves could be taught, this could link into experience and outcome EXA 2-10a : “I have taken part in dance from a range of styles and cultures, demonstrating my awareness of the dance features.”

After discussing where important organs, muscles and bones were and indicating where these were on a drawn body,

we moved on to warming up the important muscles the children would use in a dance lesson at school. We also learned that it was important to do cardio before warming up the muscles, this could be through a game of tig. This is important for me to remember as a teacher to ensure no muscles are pulled in my class. We also looked at the 10 key components of movement in dance in primary schools and in groups made up our own variations of the moves. I performed our moves in the video below.

Having the chance to play the cello and learn from a primary 7 was very insightful and a great opportunity. The children are involved in an East Ayrshire program along with 18 other primary schools. The program teaches every child in the class to play an instrument from primary 4 until leaving in primary 7. Not only does this give the children knowledge of music and playing an instrument, but it has also been said to improve the health of the pupils. Studies show that music can have a positive impact on mental and physical health (Mandel el al., 2007). The pupil I learned from performed a song on his cello for me.

Overall, I learned a lot of teaching points from today. It is important to not forget about music and dance when I qualify as all subject areas are just as important. I also learned today that music and dance can be incorporated into other subjects like maths and social studies. Learning from these pupils today inspired me as they were all enthusiastic and seemed to be enjoying their opportunity to learn an instrument. It is important for teachers to encourage their pupils’ creativity in class and ensure the class is given opportunities to explore the creative process (Sharp, 2004).

Education Scotland (2010) Curriculum for Excellence: Expressive Arts Experiences and Outcomes. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf  [Accessed: 5 November 2019].

Mandel S.E., Hanser S.B., Secic M., Davis, B.A. (2007) Effects of Music Therapy on Health-Related Outcomes in Cardiac Rehabilitation: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Music Therapy. [Abstract, Online] Vol.44(3), pp.176-197. Available: https://academic.oup.com/jmt/article-abstract/44/3/176/954996 [Accessed: 5 November 2019].

Sharp, C. (2004) Developing Young Children’s Creativity: What Can We Learn From Research? National Foundation for Educational Research. Vol.32. [Online] Available: https://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/55502/55502.pdf [Accessed: 5 November 2019].