Week four we were to prepare a drama lesson for the rest of the class covering any conventions we desired. This week I was able to watch other groups present their lessons. Two groups used the basis of their lesson on a child’s book “We are going on a bare hunt” this was interesting to see as although both lessons were based on the same book, the activities were very different due to the groups touching on different conventions. This shows that there are innumerable ways of teaching a lesson and in order for it to be interactive and fun, it requires creativity. Being able to see other groups deliver their lessons first was good because I was able to take points that I thought they done well, for example at the end of their lesson one of the groups asked the rest of the class to show  from a fist of five how much they enjoyed a lesson, one being not at all and five being very much. This form of feedback was good as it allowed the class to express their thoughts on the lesson. However, Andrew pointed out that although “fist of five”  is a good form of feedback it is not qualitative. Continuously asking for fist of five after a lesson can come across as just ticking a box, and not really getting information from children about what they think. Instead it is useful to occasionally ask children if they enjoyed the lesson and why? This allows children to think back in a reflective manner which gives the teacher a better understanding of whether the lesson was effective and successful.

During the visual arts workshop we developed our paintings from last week. We were given a variety of chalk, colored pencils and charcoal to add to our paintings. We were asked to think back to a time we had experienced the Scottish Highlands and write words or phrases that came to our heads into the paintings. At first, I was unsure and hesitant to add writing into my painting. Diarmuid explained that children may have same feelings and the pressure to not ruin their painting can impede their creative attempts and bettering the painting. He explained to overcome this hurdle, teachers should photo-copy children’s work and allow them to continue on that. This means that if the painting is not what the child is happy with, the original painting will remain intact, and knowing this can take away their fear and allow them to do what they want. This lesson was effective as it subtly integrated literacy in art, allowing children to incorporate literacy into their work in a creative way.