Month: October 2019

During week 8 of our integrated arts course, in our final visual arts input we were all given an artistic photograph that could be interpreted in different ways and could include many emotions.  Our photograph, when glanced at looked like multiple lamps sitting on a small table.  However, after looking deeper into the picture it was clear that the picture meant much more than what met the eyes.  Through our photograph we felt like the lamps were portrayed as being scary and creepy as the artist had painted two dots on each which made it look like eyes.  The first thing we thought of after seeing this was when you are in a dark forest or area and animals such as cats or birds are staring from the darkness.  I believe this would be an effective way to encourage children to understand how there can be many meaning behind art.  As every pair had a different picture it was interesting to see how others interpreted your picture and vice versa. By doing an activity like this within a class can allow children to meet this benchmark: ‘Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and
feelings through activities within art and design. EXA 0-05a / EXA 1-05a / EXA 2-05a’ (Education Scotland, 2019).  Children can discuss with classmates their interpretation and can listen and develop an understanding of the others.  This encourages good listening and communication skills between pupils.

Within out music input we were focusing on different websites we could use to assist in our teaching of music within a school.  One of the websites we looked at was Charanga, in my opinion this is a very impressive and helpful tool as it has a huge array of musical teaching ideas.  As I have never been very musical I believe this would be a huge help when teaching music lessons.  It included rhythms, beats and pulses etc whilst breaking it down into easy chunks to allow children to fully understand how music is created whilst allowing you as the teacher to feel confident in teaching music.

Both these inputs allowed me to see how by breaking down parts of a picture or part of musical notation allows for children to fully understand and interpret.

References:

Education Scotland. (2019). curriculum for excellence: expressive arts experiences and outcomes. [online] Available at: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf [Accessed 30 Oct. 2019].

 

During the beginning of the week I have been fortunate enough to be able to spend time with four Norwegian exchange students.  In our integrated arts lecture we were lucky enough to hear from the exchange students about their university experience and how different their course is to ours.  One of the main facts they told us that varies from our course is that during their placement they have a school take over experience which is when all the staff within their placement school leaves and they run the school.

Throughout our visual arts input we looked into creating art in the natural environment.  We looked into different artists that focus on creating art outdoors such as Andy Goldsworthy.  From speaking to the exchange students it is clear that in Norway they try to use the outdoors in most of their lessons whether it be Maths or English.  We were given the task of creating an art piece out of the natural environment without damaging it, as we were joined by the exchange students our group decided to make a replica of the Norwegian flag out of a leaf, sticks and red berries.  This activity was thoroughly enjoyable as there were many resources you could use as well as allowing for creativity in you art work.  Education Scotland (2010) shown the importance of using outdoor areas during a learning experience as they allow the children to be challenged but also to appreciate the environments they have surrounding them.

During our music input we focused on making music from different apps and resources, the main one we looked into was the GarageBand app.  I had never used this before however it was relatively easy to use and had many different instruments to allow a wide range of sounds.  I worked in a pair and we used many different backing tracks and instruments to try and make an autumnal piece of music.  Overall I found it were interesting and fun as you could duplicate and delete parts if needed however if I was to do this in a class I would use headphones if available as it was quite hard to hear your own music over everyone else playing theirs.  By completing this activity this benchmark was met: ‘Inspired by a range of stimuli, and working on my own and/or with others, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through musical activities. EXA 0-18a / EXA 1-18a / EXA 2-18a.’ (Education Scotland, 2019).  Allowing children to work together and discuss their experiences can promote good relationships and effective work results.

Through both these inputs I discovered how outdoor learning can be incorporated within different lessons.  By taking a lesson outside can have various benefits to children and young people, this could be linked into our music workshop as we were required to make an autumnal piece of music.  Although this could be used with different seasons by allowing children to experience the outdoors first-hand gives them a better understanding of different materials and sounds that are available.

References:

Education Scotland. (2019). curriculum for excellence: expressive arts experiences and outcomes. [online] Available at: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf [Accessed 24 Oct. 2019].

Education Scotland. (2010). curriculum for excellence: through outdoor learning. [online]Available at: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/cfe-through-outdoor-learning.pdf [Accessed 24 Oct. 2019].

  

In week 6 of our visual arts input for integrated arts we looked at different slogans and phrases.  In pairs we were asked to make up our own powerful slogan, ours was ‘Together We Make the Difference’. We chose this as it can be interpreted in many ways, looking at it from a practitioner’s point of view it I believe that working together within a school can be very beneficial to both the staff and the pupils.   The General Teaching Council for Scotland (2006) states that collaborative working is an important skill that needs to be used especially when working in schools.  By working together whether it be teachers, pupils or just the general public it can be very beneficial as many opinions and views can be shared as well as gaining knowledge from others.  Furthermore, an activity such as this can be seen as cross-curricular as it can link both literacy and visual arts together.  Within a primary school setting activities such as this could encourage children to be more engaged in their learning.

 

Moving on from this in our music input we got the chance to read and play music as a class.  Firstly, we looked at musical notations and the variety of notes and what they stood for.  We dissected parts of the music and practised before eventually playing the whole song.  To make it easier for everyone in the class we changed the notes to shapes, colours or words, this allowed us to fully understand how the music was meant to sound as not many of the class had a musical background.  Within a class I believe this would be a simple way to incorporate music especially if you are not confident in teaching it.  For example instead of using drumsticks and reading the music, as this may not be suitable for younger children, getting them to clap their hands or tap the table to a tune could be a good introduction.   However, by doing the original activity of reading the written music off the board it could be linked to literacy as well as the children will be required to read and interpret the music from the board.

Both these inputs showed how inter-disciplinary learning can be incorporated.  These inputs both used some form of literacy within them.  During our art we focused on slogans and within our music workshop we learnt to read and understand written notation.

References:

General Teaching Council Scotland (2006) Standards for Initial Teacher Education. [Online] Available:http://www.gtcs.org.uk/web/FILES/the-standards/the-standard-for-initial-teacher-education.pdf [Accessed: 16 October 2019].

 

Micro-teaching  

Within this week we had our final drama input, this consisted of my group performing our micro-teaching lesson.  We used The BFG as a stimulus and created a short PowerPoint and performed in front of our section.  We drained the colour from pictures of The BFG that we had, to try and make him look scarier than he was, and encouraged the class to say what their initial thoughts were by using a thought tunnel as the drama convention.  I believe this worked extremely well as it allowed the class to become more confident in speaking their thoughts therefore I would definitely use this within my own class one day.  We then used different drama conventions such as narration and teacher in role to act out different parts from the book.  I believe our teaching went relatively well, our main message was to not stereotype. Although The BFG looked huge and scary he was in fact friendly and wanted to help which we re-iterated at the end of the lesson.  Most of the group do not have a drama background and are not completely confident performing and teaching drama however participating in these drama inputs have hugely increased my own confidence which allows me to collect ideas for when I have my own classroom.

After this we looked at one more drama convention which was role on the wall, we re-visited the story from the week before.  We drew an outline of a character, we chose the girl, and were to write what she sees herself as within her body and then what her brother thinks of her outside her body.  We continued to read the rest of the story and then completed this task at the end to see if their views had changed.

During the lecture and in the afternoon we were given our first music input, it focused on the importance of music within a school and how it can be beneficial to all children.  Music can enhance fine motor skills, develop thinking skills and improves recall of information for all children and young people (How Music Education Helps Students Learn, Achieve, and Succeed, 2011).

Within the input we were played five different short pieces of music and were asked to write down one word we associated with each piece.  After sharing with the class most people felt the same with each piece of music which shows how music can have huge impacts on people’s moods and feelings.  After this we then listened to a piece of music, we were to think of the different pulses and rhythms etc and asked to make a story board by making a story that we felt was fitting with the music.  This exercise can be made simple or harder by using different lengths of music, I believe I will use this in a class as it can also encourage their imagination and feelings.

References:

Music Matters: How Music Education Helps Students Learn, Achieve, and Succeed. (2011). Arts Education Partnership. Washington

Previously in our Visual Arts input we made our own interpretation of what we believed the Scottish Highlands looked like based on a reading of a picture.  However this week we were given the pictures back and asked to enhance them using oil pastels, crayons and pens.  After adapting our paintings using these materials we were then asked to research for a poem about the Scottish Highlands and write on top of our drawings, I chose one written by Robert Burns.  We were encouraged to write in different fonts, sizes, colours and directions to ensure the writing went with the flow of the painting.  After finishing this we were then able to walk round and view others to see the variety of paintings and poems.  This was very beneficial as it allowed me to see how others interpreted the picture and easily shown the variety of poems that were used.  This activity would allow for children to improve on their fine motor skills, decision making skills and inventiveness.  As a teacher, by describing a photo instead of showing the children can encourage creativity and imagination (Hwang Lynch, n.d.).

During our drama input half of the class performed their micro-teaching lessons which included some of the drama conventions that we had been focusing on previously such as still image, freeze frame and hot seating.  I thought all the micro-teaching lessons were executed well and allowed us to use various examples given to take into the classroom eventually.  After this, we focused on another drama convention which was mime, after being read part of “The Tunnel” by Anthony Browne we were encouraged to all as a collective group act as if we were in a forest and act out how the forest might sound.  The majority of the class pretended to be trees and others acted as wolves and owls.

Over the past 4 weeks this Integrated Arts module has given me many ideas and teaching styles that I can take to my own classroom eventually.  It has allowed me to understand that there are no right or wrong answers in drama and visual arts as everyone has different ways of interpreting stimuli and objects that they are given.

References:

Hwang Lynch, G. (n.d.). The Importance of Art in Child Development.