Dance
Today’s workshop included both dance and drama. I didn’t feel nervous or apprehensive about the classes this week due to enjoying them last week and feeling that my self esteem and confidence had been boosted. I would hope that this would be the same with children that as we progress through drama and dance that they would become more confident and look forward to and enjoy these integrated art activities.
The first session was dance and Zara emphasised the importance of having a warmup activity to prepare your body for the session ahead, build up stamina and confidence. Today’s theme was Hallowe’en and we played zombie tig to tie in with this theme. Then we consolidated our dance from last week by practising it to remind ourselves of it and then we built onto it. Children need to have the basic moves of dance before moving on to the routine. Bloomfield (2000, p57) This week Zara was being a facilitator and allowed us the opportunity to create our own dances. She was there to offer support and as Crone, (2011, p81) states that ‘Educators must be able to offer support with out undue interference,’ and she goes onto say that ‘The vision of the dance belongs to the children.’ Therefore as a teacher I must take this on board and realise the significance of being a guide and not dominating the children’s ideas and letting their own creative instincts be reflected.
In our groups we had to create another ten moves from the numbers zero to nine. Numeracy was incorporated here as we used one of our phone numbers to create an extra sequence for our routine. Also you could ask the children 4+3 = and then to answer the children have to do that specific dance move. Therefore again encouraging learning across the curriculum and using numeracy in a meaningful way. Next we were given Hallowe’en symbols; ghost, zombie and this was another way of extending our dance in a creative way relating back to this week’s theme. Then we performed our group dance for our peers this gave us an opportunity to show off our work and take pride in it therefore building our self esteem and confidence to perform in front of others. A worthwhile activity in the classroom could be that each group comments on what they liked about the routine and if anything could be improved thus developing the listening and talking outcomes and the dance outcome ‘I can respond to the experience of dance by discussing my thoughts and feelings. I can give and accept constructive comment on my own and others’ work. EXA 0-11a – EXA 2-11a’ (Scottish Executive 2004 p64).
Drama
Today in drama we looked into ‘Falling into Stories’, where we analysed the character of a brother and a sister with two completely different personalities. The brother was a very outgoing, risk taking person who didn’t follow the rules however his sister was a more anxious, careful girl who didn’t like the idea of stepping into the unknown and preferred to stick to places and surroundings that she was familiar with and so their personalities clashed. The brother was always pushing the girl to do things she was uncomfortable with. Our activity was to draw round the outline of the characters this is known as ‘role on the wall’ Booth (2005), and we wrote down their characteristics and words to describe how the character felt about themselves. This gave me a good insight into how someone else feels, I could put my feet into their shoes for a short time. We then discussed why their personalities clashed and why they were so different. I feel I could use this activity especially if there was an issue with bullying or fall outs or specific problems at home. It would give me as the teacher an insight into how some of the children may be feeling.
After this we acted out in our groups the story, where I was the girl and in the middle of acting it out we paused to hear the thoughts and feelings of the characters and how they were making each other feel. Therefore this would give children an opportunity to say how they feel possible about a real situation that they have been involved in and maybe even provide solutions that they had never even thought of it provides opportunities to express outwardly internal feelings. We went back to our original drawings to see if any of the feelings had changed after the activities. Hopefully they would have in a class situation.
Finally we looked at the relationship drama has with literacy in particular to stories. This is an excellent way of developing a novel and getting into the roles of the characters and this would be very beneficial in class and could be used through interdisciplinary learning and within many other areas across the curriculum.
Today we looked at;
- freeze frames
- improvisation
- thought tunnels
- hot seating
- characterisation
- vox pot
- mime
- voice in the head
- role on the wall
- teacher in role
From today I have learned that it is important that the teacher should take a backseat and be there as a support. I must remember once I have created an activity I must let the children’s creativity and own ideas take over. I feel that I am becoming more confident myself at drama and performing in front of my peers, my self confidence is building and I feel I would be confident teaching drama within a classroom. I would be able to relate to the children who are insecure about dance and drama as I have been in their shoes because of my nervousness. Also using various stimuli is a good way to start a lesson be it a story or symbols like we used in our sessions today.
‘Offering children the opportunity to discover how they can be creators of their own ideas is one of the most powerful lessons we can teach.’ Crone (2011, p89)
References
Bloomfield, A. (2000) Teaching Integrated Arts in the Primary School. Oxon: David Fulton
Booth, D (2005) Story Drama: Creating Stories Through Role Play, Improvising, Reading aloud, 2nd ed. Canada: Stenhouse Publishers
Cone (2009). Following their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dance. [online] Available: http://moodle.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/109357/mod_resource/content/1/Purcell%20Cone%20%282011%29.pdf. [Accessed: 4 November 2017]
