Throughout the lecture of our second input we focused on how we can make thinking visual. We were given a page each from ‘The Arts in Education (an introduction)’ – Fleming (2012) and were asked to draw over the words in order to make the writing become more visible this can be very beneficial to some children as it may be easier to understand a picture rather than a piece of writing.
During our drama input we were shown a picture of old tenements in Glasgow and asked to act out what we may see if you were an outsider looking through the window. My group decided to act out having dinner around the table. We then used the flash forward and flash back drama conventions to act out different scenarios that may have happened. Along with this we used still image and narration to develop our knowledge of the scenes whilst going round the various groups. I would use this input in my own classroom as it encourages children to think of different scenarios that may happen and helps build on their own imagination. By involving drama within a classroom can ensure sensitive and controversial topics such as abuse (alcohol, drug or physical) and neglect can be touched upon (Orme and Salmon, 2002).
In our visual arts input we got to read “The Dot” by Peter H. Reynolds. This book is about a child who does not believe that they are creative however with the help from their teacher they are encouraged to simply make a mark and see where it takes them. After reading this book we were also encouraged to make a mark with black paint on an A3 piece of paper, after making various marks with our hands we were then asked to look at all the marks and try make a drawing out of them. I believe this is a great activity to do in a classroom as it is very simple yet effective. I thought I would have found this activity hard to not pre-determine a picture before making the marks however the more marks I made the more I realised that they could be joined together and various pictures could be created.
After both these inputs it allowed me to see that by starting off with only one scenario or one simple mark the results can be endless. By not limiting a child’s imagination can show how each child comes to a conclusion and how they work together to create numerous results.
References:
Fleming M, (2012) The Arts in Education: An Introduction to aesthetics, theory and pedagogy. London: Routledge
Orme, J. and Salmon, D. (2002). Child protection drama in primary school – an effective educational approach?. Health Education, 102(4), pp.187-196.
Read and Create. (2014). The Dot by Peter Reynolds. [online] Available at: https://readandcreate.co.uk/the-dot-by-peter-h-reynolds/ [Accessed 20 Sep. 2019].
