Evocative Object -Session 3

In today’s session we continued with our work from the previous weeks on our evocative object. I am starting to feel more comfortable with the expressive arts and would feel more confident in taking a lesson using the methods over the last three weeks. This week I was specifically working on expanding my concrete poetry around the object – the watch, and making it more meaningful and personal to me. Within this session I spent a lot of time thinking of words that expressed how I felt about my evocative object of my gran’s watch: love, happy memories, goodbye, laughing, hugging, strong, heart-broken, best friend, gran, fuzzy feelings. As discussed last week in the concrete poems I had to think about how I was going to portray these special words on paper. I decided to use the colours red and green. Red to put the words that were happy and positive to remind me of the love I felt and green for the words that were negative and emotive of sadness.  As Aube and Perloff (2017) states that concrete poems can be objects made up of a variety of colours, letters and words and the design and therefore meaning of the poem plays a major role within the space. This is portrayed as can be seen below in my concrete poetry picture. I have used a variety of colours, letters, words, shape and design.

Within the classroom, I could see many opportunities where I would be able to use the concrete poetry pictures. It would be a good starting point for creativity in the lesson. Within these types of lessons, teachers will have ideas in their mind as to what is important and worthwhile for their pupils to achieve. However QCA (2004) suggests that the pupils’ ideas may be different from that of the teachers and therefore a sharing of ideas is crucially important and this will let the teacher see what the pupils deem to be of significance thus taking on the direction of the children. The teacher is the individual that the pupils will go to when they have questions, queries, want to solve problems and have ideas that they want to develop but are unsure of. The challenge for the teacher will be to make sure the pupils’ ideas are valued and at the same time to encourage creativity in doing this (ibid,).

Photo Essays

This week we also briefly discussed photo essays. This is where photographs are used, sometimes with a little  text (not always ), to explain the picture and the photographs are all related, ‘each picture has an interrelationship with the others.’ Moran (1974, p.14-15) The photographs are interpreted by their relationship with each other and thus meaning to the photographic essay should be given. A lot of time and thinking needs to go in to how the pictures can be related together to produce a coherent photo essay. On placement I have seen the children taking photographs with the cameras and the iPads and I think a photo essay would provide purpose and meaning for the children. It could easily be related to the interdisciplinary learning that the children are currently working on. Furthermore it could be used as a stand alone lesson on facial expressions, tartans and healthy foods to mention a few. All children would feel included as using the cameras or iPads is an inclusive activity and not like some areas within maths or language that the children lack confidence with and feel they cannot do.

 

The reading for this week’s seminar was from ‘You’ve Just Got to Learn How to See’: Curriculum Subjects, Young People and Schooled Engagement by Kress. Kress (p.8) states, as educators we should be providing a curriculum with more communication in it. Kress believes within each subject there is a different type of learning happening and we as teachers have to take this on board when we are teaching and preparing lessons that the learning  becomes relevant to the children and useful for them when they leave school to enhance  life long learning. However, Kress feels that the education system has an ‘inability to understand and then to make a link between the school and the society.’ We therefore as educators need to make a difference. One way Kruss suggests is teachers of different subjects  coming together and discussing issues and methods to have a more coherent and communicative education.

 

References

Aube, C and Perloff, N (2017) What Is Concrete Poetry?[Online] Available Blog posthttp://blogs.getty.edu/iris/what-is-concrete-poetry/ [Accessed 21 January 2018]

Kress , G (2001) ‘You’ve Just Got to Learn How to See’: Curriculum Subjects, Young People and Schooled Engagement with the World. London : University of London

QCA. (2004) Creativity: Find it, Promote it. London: QCA Publications.

 

Concrete Poems

This week we were introduced to concept of concrete poems. Concrete poems involve objects which use words, letters, varying type faces, different colours and space to design and portray meaning of a poem. As Aube and Perloff (2017, p.2) state ‘Concrete poets experimented boldly with language, incorporating visuals, verbal, kinetic, and sonic elements.’ Therefore concrete poetry can really take any form or shape. Many examples can be seen at the exhibition at the Getty Research Institute 2017. Two of the main exhibitors that present here are the Scottish poet Ian Hamilton Finlay and the Brazilian poet Augusto de Campos. Concrete poems started round about the nineteen fifties where this poetry portrayed messages sometimes using acronyms, emojis and even single words. Here are some of my favourite pictures from this exhibition.

Cork/Net, Ian Hamilton Finlay. From The Blue and the Brown Poems (New York: Atlantic Richfield Company & Jargon Press, 1968). The Getty Research Institute, 2016.PR.36. By courtesy of the Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay

This picture is an example of ‘wordplay’ where only a few words are used in a variety of ways and in this example using concentric circles with the words cork, net, ring, price, fish and Hamilton has produced the shape of a net cork which is used in fishing and it makes you think about where does the poem start or end?

Open (Abre), 1969, Augusto de Campos and Julio Plaza. From Poemobiles (São Paulo: Ed. de autor, 1974). The Getty Research Institute, 92-B21581. Courtesy Augusto de Campos / Courtesy Anabela Plaza

This concrete poem uses three dimensions where a pop up object is used to give a different dimension and perspective to the poetry of being open and closed because these are two of the main words used.

Holly Foster’s Concrete Poetry

In today’s workshop, I started to create a concrete poem using my evocative object from last week, which is my gran’s watch that I was left after she passed away. I wanted to portray a feeling of love but also sadness at the same time. I had a choice of wallpapers and I chose a white and red one to symbolise love with the red and white reminded me of emptiness and sadness. I found this task quite tricky as I don’t think of myself as very artistic or creative but we were reminded by Diarmuid that it was completely personal and there was no wrong way of doing it. This  reminded me that when I am teaching  I should provide the learners with many and varied opportunities to be creative. My role is to provide the materials as a starting point and be a guide for the children but let them lead the lesson in the way in which they intend. As Eisner (2002) and Harris (2016) agree that there are always several answers to the activity within the arts. Therefore pupils can feel more at ease, be willing to take more risks if they realise their answer is one of many and there is no right or wrong. This is a definite way of building self –esteem and confidence within children especially those who have a fear of answering in case of failure and it will encourage a growth mindset. Within the arts there are a lot more of opinions and ideas rather than having prescriptive rules. Therefore this would promote participation from all students and encourage them to be active learners.

Today’s workshop has given me a multitude of ideas that I could use in a classroom setting.  These lessons would focus around the listening and talking and the writing poetry outcomes as well as art from CfE.

 

References

 

The Getty Research Institute [Online] Available http://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/exhibitions/concrete_poetry/index.html [Accessed 21 January 2018]

Scottish Executive (2004) Curriculum for Excellence. Edinburgh

Eisner, E. (2002) The Arts and the Creation of Mind. chapter 4 10 Lessons Arts Teach. Virginia: Integrated Publishing Solutions.

Harris , A. (2016) Creativity and Education. London: Macmillan.

Aube, C and Perloff, N (2017) What Is Concrete Poetry?[Online] Available Blog posthttp://blogs.getty.edu/iris/what-is-concrete-poetry/ [Accessed 21 January 2018]

 

 

 

 Evocative Objects

“Evocative objects bring together…the inseparability of thought and feeling in our relationship to things.” Turkle, (2012, p5)

Today was the first session in the Expressive Arts and Culture module. I was really looking forward to it as I gained a lot of insight, information and enjoyment last year on the module to do with creativity and the expressive arts. I particularly enjoy music and playing the piano and therefore would consider myself to be quite creative and thus was looking forward to this session as my confidence has certainly grown.

During today’s input we were mainly looking at the potential of using evocative objects within a classroom setting to develop teaching and learning. We were asked to bring an object which was evocative to us personally and share as to why this was the object we chose. I was surprised at the variety of objects that were brought in. For example there was a picture of a wedding, a necklace that was given to the person at birth, sketch books where this person put down their feelings into the pad, a ring and a watch. Every object had a great significance to the person and had its own meaningful story behind it. Everyone had a strong connection to the object and I was impressed with how these objects produced emotive feelings from the individual and as Hesse, Doug, et al (2012, p325) agree that “Objects are rich sources of inquiry; they invite us to observe closely, pose questions, forge connections, and anchor ideas in the concrete.” There was a great deal of discussion around each object.

I brought in for my own evocative object my gran’s watch that I was left after she passed away last February. I have to admit I did find it very hard to talk about this watch as it brought back many happy memories of my gran but also it gave me a feeling of sadness as it reminded me of the times we had together  that I really miss now. I remember my gran wearing this watch often and I used to always tell her how much I loved it and although my gran is not here anymore when I wear this watch strangely it makes me feel closer to her as I try to focus and think about the happy times. Turkle, (2011, p5) puts it succinctly as she says, “We think with the objects we love; we love the objects we think with.” This certainly is the case with my gran’s watch as when I wear it I think about her and although it makes me sad I still have her memories and that is why I love wearing it. Turkle states further that these emotive objects provide ‘universal powers of evocation.’

Within the classroom setting evocative objects could provide many foundations for several lessons. The discussion alone that would be provided from a classroom of children would develop the HOT skills (Higher Order Thinking) as the children would discuss the what, when, how, where, analysing, applying, evaluating and this would enhance their critical thinking through the use of Blooms Taxonomy Skills (1956).

As the objects are very evocative it would be a super way to provide inspirations for pieces of writing from the learners. They could write a poem or a personal piece of writing on their emotions and how the object makes them feel. Furthermore this could  be transferred over into a piece of art and the children could make, draw or design something related to their object. This would be hopefully straight forward for each child as they would all have their own individual objects and therefore have their own specific starting points and could take their creativity in any direction that they wanted. As Cone (2011, p. 89) suggests that children should be ‘creators of their own ideas’ and as teachers this ‘is one of the most powerful lessons we can teach.’

Using evocative objects within the classroom could be used right from primary one though to primary seven as even in the primary one class when I was on work experience I remember the children bringing in an object that was special to them to show at their ‘Show and Ask’ sessions. The differentiation could be shown as children in middle school could prepare short presentations for their peers on their evocative objects and as the children move into upper school some of the ideas I have mentioned in the previous paragraph to do with personal writing and art could be completed.

We finished off the session today using pipe cleaners and we were asked to be creative and make whatever we wanted. I did find this a lot harder as I wasn’t sure where to start whereas with the evocative object I did have a starting point that I felt comfortable with but as a teacher I realise that ‘Creativity is something that is nurtured,’ Harris (2016, p.55) and as a teacher I need to provide many and varied opportunities for the children to be creative.

 

References

Bloom,B. S.; Engelhart, M D.; Furst, E. J.’ Hill, W. H.; Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York: David McKay Company.

Cone, T. (2011) Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. London: Routledge.

Harris , A. (2016) Creativity and Education. London: Macmillan.

Hesse, Doug, et al. (2012) Reflective on Teaching, Learning and Living in Between.” College English, vol. 74, no. 4, 2012, pp. 325–350.

Turkle, S. (2011). Evocative objects 1st ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.