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Week 2

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Thinking is Sculpting is all about making thinking visible. We were given a section of reading to analyse, draw out any metaphors and draw/doodle over the page how it made us feel and what we thought about the text. We were to make what we read on the page ‘visible’.

This is a better way of communicating as it easier to see what children take from a text by what they draw than have them try to articulate it. From the piece that I read there was a dance professor who encouraged her pupils to express their feelings towards their learning, even if it was not an expression that she did not like, she felt like she could not say anything about it. (Fleming, 2012)

In the Visual Arts workshop we read a book called ‘The Dot’ about a young girl who did not think she could draw but starting from a small dot was able to create a whole world of amazing artwork.

People are always less embarrassed to say they cannot draw than cannot write, I think that this is because writing is drummed into us from a young age, so we usually feel more confident doing that than drawing. Creativity is innate in all of us, but everyone has different experiences. Anyone can draw, if you encourage creativity and challenge imagination using basic materials, it could start from something as simple as a dot and be transformed into something magical. Teacher’s always avoid doing art because they think it is messy and unpredictable but if you are organised there is no reason for it to be. A teachers lack of confidence can often put them off teaching the arts, if they have had a bad experience with the subject or feel like they are not good at it. (Schiller, 1998)  Have aprons available for the children to use, but more importantly build up a tolerance for mess. Mess can be cleaned, and the children will have more fun if they are given the opportunity to be creative. We did an activity where we dipped our hands in black ink and printed marks on to white paper.

A simple activity using simple materials, colour can complicate things, this activity was more about creating something out of ‘nothing’. Using our imagination and rotating the page we transformed the marks we made on the paper into something more creative. Children need to be given more opportunity to be creative, I think this would be a good activity for them to do so as they will all make different marks and imagine different pictures around the marks. We should observe their work with an open mind, making the effort to understand and discover the child’s meanings. (Griffiths, 2010) Do no just assume to know what the child is trying to communicate. Ask open questions. This links to visual thinking as we were drawing what we thought we could see from the marks and our imagination.

In our drama workshop we also explored visual thinking. We looked at pictures and based our dramas around them, imagining what we thought might be happening. We were shown an old picture of a tenement in Glasgow, we used still image and thought tracking to act out a scenario.

My groups still image was a dad and his family at home, it is Christmas Eve, the dad has just announced he has lost his job, we used thought tracking to describe how he was feeling. Someone (the mum) stepped out of the role play and said the dad was feeling ashamed as he has let his family down. These drama conventions would be good for quieter pupils who are self-conscious about speaking out in front of people. It is better to give children options, so they can all participate in a way they feel comfortable. We then acted out a scenario using improvisation. An umbrella term for unscripted acting out which can include role play. In groups we decided on a plot, assigned roles accordingly and acted it out to the class. Our drama was about an engagement. It is better to focus on positive scenarios and make it fun, drama is not just a vehicle for fixing world problems. Role play challenges children’s imagination and creativity because pupils can make up their own ideas. (http://www.wearecca.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Benefits-of-Drama-Education.pdf) It also helps to develop their team working skills as they have to decide together who will play each role and may have conflicting ideas about what role they should play and have to come to an agreement. We took our role play and used flash back and flash forward, where the children go forward or back in time and create what could have happened in the story. We used narration throughout the activities in this workshop, when a child or teacher tells the story of the drama, either as someone looking on who is not involved or a character within the drama.

Thinking is Sculpting linked today’s workshops together in the sense that we were saying what we were feeling based on texts we read and pictures we saw. Children enjoy expressing themselves and being creative and they need to be given more opportunity to do so.

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].

Fleming, M. (2012) The Arts in Education, Chapter 1: Justifying the Arts London:Routledge

Griffiths, F. (2010) Supporting Children’s Creativity Through Music, Dance, Drama and Art, Creative Conversations in the Early Years, London: Routledge

Reynolds, P.  The Dot  [online] www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqf7EKuNHMs [Accessed on: 17th September 2019]

Schiller, W. (1998) Issues in Expressive Arts, Curriculum for Early Childhood, Gordon and Breach Publisher.

Week 1

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The Expressive Arts are an important part of the curriculum, but they are often forgotten about because people see subjects such as maths and language as being more important. “Pressures to attain set targets and reach certain objectives have concerned parents and teachers, sometimes to the detriment of the enjoyment of learning.” (Griffiths, 2010) We as teachers should try to embrace the mess and have a tolerance for ambiguity when it comes to the arts. Children should be given the opportunity to express themselves and be creative by providing them with an environment where they can explore and discover, be challenged and supported, take risks and learn from both success and failure. The arts are one of the most inclusive subjects as there is no right or wrong answer and children may find it more enjoyable. You can make lessons cross curricular, combining maths and art in one lesson.

My first workshop was Visual Arts. We explored children’s art work that ranged from early years to P5/6.

In the early years stages I feel like their artwork is more personal and meaning making and can be explored. Young children use drawing to express their emotions and communicate with others, so you can find out a lot about what is happening in a child’s life and how they are feeling based on their drawings. (McAuliffe, 2007) As children get older they may become more self-conscious about their artwork and start comparing themselves to others. By the end of primary school children will draw something of relative proportion rather than from their own head, they do not feel that they have the skill set to continue with their own art so start to copy. It is also important to think about the material you are giving the children to use, for example, give them a pencil they will rub it out and rub it out until it is “perfect” so better to stay away from pencils. We as teachers must talk more about children’s artwork to make it more meaningful for them. (McAuliffe, 2007) If you get excited about it then so will they, they will enjoy engaging in the arts and will want to get more creative with it.

The piece of artwork which excited me most was the flower painting, painted by an early year’s child. You could tell a lot about how this picture was created just by looking at it, for example, that a thick, maybe a household paint brush was used, the child would have been standing up while painting it based on the drips of paint down the page and a large sheet of paper was used to give the children plenty of space to work.

“Drama is the act of crossing into a world of story… Storying provides students with a natural human process for finding essential meanings in the experiences of themselves and others.” (Booth, 1995)

I think drama is a good way for children to express themselves, they enjoy pretending to be someone else. I personally did not have much experience doing drama in school except shows at Christmas, which not everyone took part in. I think this has made me feel less confident about doing drama and think it should be used a lot more. We explored a story about a dragon attacking a village in today’s workshop and used these drama conventions:

  • Thought Tunnel A double line of children who speak the thoughts and feelings of the character who is walking between the double lines. The “dragon” walked through the tunnel and the “villagers” said how they felt towards it e.g. scared, rude, selfish.
  • Freeze Frame When the children stopped, not moving or speaking representing a critical moment in their drama. The “villagers” were getting on with their day when a “dragon” flew towards them. The freeze frame moment was our reaction when we saw the dragon.
  • Teacher in Role When the teacher takes part in the drama alongside the children. The lecturer started the session off by acting as a villager and telling us that there was a dragon attacking the village and destroying houses. As the teacher you need to make a clear separation from yourself and your character. You could do this by just putting on a hat or a scarf, but it is important to still stay as a figure of authority.
  • Hot Seating A child or an adult sits in the ‘Hot Seat’ becoming a character who is related to the drama. The rest of the class ask that character questions. We put the lecturer in the hot seat as the dragon and asked him questions to find out why it was here and why it was destroying our village.
  • Improvisation An umbrella term for unscripted acting out which can include role play. We used this just to start off the story about the dragon. We worked in groups and acted out different scenarios about how we were feeling and acting towards the dragon.

 

References

Booth, D (2009) [online] Theory Into Practice: “Imaginary gardens with real toads”: Reading and drama in education Available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00405848509543172?journalCode=htip20& [Accessed on: 13th December 2019]

Griffiths, F. (2010) Supporting Children’s Creativity Through Music, Dance, Drama and Art, Creative Conversations in the Early Years, London: Routledge

McAuliffe, D (2007) Foundation and Primary Settings in Teaching Art and Design 3-11 (Edited by Sue Cox, Robert Watts, Judy Grahame, Steve Herne and Diarmuid McAuliffe) London: Continuum.