Week 5
Today we were introduced to music and why it is important to use it in the classroom. “All pupils have an equal right to an appropriate music education.” (Mills, 2009, p.2) There are simple things you can do with music in class such as playing quiet music in class while children do their work. I found this worked well in a previous school I worked in. We used classical music to relax the children. Studies show that music helps the wider achievements such as literacy, numeracy, creativity etc.
“Music helps you think by activating and synchronizing neural firing patterns that connect multiple brain sites.” (Jensen, 2001)
We should try to give children plenty of musical experience in school in order to tap into this side of the brain and allow the children to be creative and build up confidence. “Introducing music in the early childhood years can help foster a positive attitude toward learning and curiosity. Artistic education develops the whole brain and develops a child’s imagination.” (https://nafme.org/20-important-benefits-of-music-in-our-schools/) They can also discover music by going to concerts, watching videos on YouTube etc. “Music expresses feelings that cannot be said.” (Hugo, 2007) In our workshop, we listened to different pieces of music and described using one word how it made us feel. This would be beneficial to open up discussion about how children are feeling. Music is also good as there is no right or wrong answer, it is totally based on thoughts and feelings and children will have different opinions on how it makes them feel. We as teachers must not pass our musical experiences on to our pupils if they are negative by choosing not to teach it. Children should be given the opportunity to explore it for themselves, the more they listen, the more they will discover new things and be able to be more creative with it. We completed an activity where we listened to a piece of music and created a story from it. When the music got louder or faster it suggested a change in the story, that maybe something scary had happened or someone was being chased. Attached below is the story board my group created.
My team-working skills were developed when doing this activity discussing what would happen in our story. This activity would be good for children to be creative and bring literacy and music together. Depending on the age group I may use a shorter or longer piece of music.
In today’s drama workshop the remaining groups did their micro-teaching. Each group chose to explore different conventions, so we got the chance to work with them all. I particularly liked the lesson using the film ‘Inside Out’ as it explores emotions which I think would be good to teach to children as they are familiar with it and it will allow them to explore their own feelings and emotions. “Pretend play and drama games allow students to express a range of emotions.” (http://www.wearecca.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Benefits-of-Drama-Education.pdf) We also started story ‘The Tunnel’ and learned about drama convention ‘Role on the Wall’. A simple outline of a character is drawn on a large sheet of paper, around the outside of the body the children write words or phrases that others think of the character. On the inside of the body children write what the character may be thinking or feeling about themselves.
This again gives children the opportunity to explore their emotions and how things make them feel.
References
Drama Education Network (2005) [online] The Benefits of Drama Education Available: http://www.wearecca.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Benefits-of-Drama-Education.pdf [Accessed on: 14th December 2019].
Hugo, V. (2007) Hugo’s Works: William Shakespeare, Wildside Press.
Jensen, E. (2001) Arts with the Brain in Mind, United States of America: ASCD.
Mills, J. (2009) Music in the Primary School, 3rd ed. Oxford: University Press.
National Association for Music Education (2014) [online] 20 Important Benefits of Music in our Schools Available: https://nafme.org/20-important-benefits-of-music-in-our-schools/ [Accessed on: 14th December 2019].
