During our dance input in Integrated Arts this week we continued to expand and perfect our group dance. We got the chance to practice our group dance before coming together as a section to practice the whole dance. Once I realised we were dancing in our small groups in front of the class as well as getting filmed I immediately got quite nervous. However, after we completed our individual dance I felt so at ease as I realised the whole section were probably feeling the same way. Within a class some children may not be confident with performing in front of others but may be less anxious performing in small groups at the same time. For our whole group dance we were encouraged to make up all the dance moves, in a class I would use this approach as it allows the children to have a sense of achievement as well as ensuring their opinions were valued. Within the curriculum dance is becoming more important as it allows children to use their imagination and create dance moves to perform in front of others which in turn improves their confidence. By allowing children to explore different dance avenues in schools it meets some of the benchmarks such as this “I enjoy creating short dance sequences, using travel, turn, jump, gesture, pause and fall, within safe practice.” EXA 1-08a (Education Scotland, 2017).
During the afternoon in our music input we used the glockenspiels again however we used conventional notation instead of figure notes. We were shown a PowerPoint quite quickly to allow us to get onto playing the instruments but I really struggled with trying to keep up with the notes as I have never been very musical. We played together as a class therefore I did not feel as pressured in case I got some notes wrong. After this we all individually got to play a 16 bar improvisation of ‘Hit the Road Jack’ whilst our lecturer played it on the piano. I was very nervous as I did not want to mess up the notes as the whole class were watching however after completing it I realised how such a simple activity can ensure pupils get a feeling of accomplishment and allow for further understanding of music (McPheson, 2009). As some children would really not enjoy an activity like this due to the pressure or fear of embarrassment, I would put the children in pairs or trios so they were not completely alone and give them time to practice what they were going to perform.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed both the inputs today and I believe they have given me different ideas that I could use within a class to teach both music and dance, which has improved my own confidence in both these subjects as well as the teaching of them.
References:
Education Scotland (2017) Benchmarks Expressive Arts. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/ExpressiveArtsBenchmarksPDF.pdf [Accessed: 21 November 2019].
McPherson, G. (2009). The role of parents in children’s musical development. Psychology of Music, 37(1), pp.91-110.
