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.
