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].
