Dance
As this was our first week of dance, I was very nervous and apprehensive about starting this part of the module, as I would not consider myself to be a very skillful dancer or very confident performing in front of others. However as the workshop went on I found myself to be relaxing and enjoying it. I was putting a lot of energy and effort into the tasks we were given. During the class we were shown several interactive dance games and starter tasks which I found very useful as I will be able to use these within the classroom/ gym hall setting when I become a teacher. Some of the tasks were icebreakers to ease the class into dancing and build confidence and therefore would be good to use in a if children felt uneasy about dancing like I did. We played tig and movement activites relating to Scotland which would tie in with a class project on this. Thus giving the dance activity meaning and a context for learning . Furthermore it would deepen the children’s understanding of Scotland and hopefully be a meaningful way of learning . The dance activites could relate to the interdisciplinary learning (IDL) project the class were working on, a the class novel, or any situation that needed dealt with from a social side to include everyone. In addition we played ‘follow the leader ‘ with a difference, whenever the music changed the leader had to change the dance moves which we had to follow.
One of the tasks was to split into groups of about five and draw round the body of the smallest person in the group. After we had drawn around the person we were to mark and label several different muscles, bones and organs to make us think about the different parts of the body we were using through our dance session. I felt that this was an excellent task to use in the classroom because it links learning to other areas of the curriculum . In particular here to science and health and well being outcomes about the skeleton and body parts. Here you could easily assess the children’s understanding of body parts and decide what needs reinforced within the next lesson . There are many experiences and outcomes that would related here- ‘ I am developing my understanding of the human body and can use this knowledge to maintain and improve my well being and health. HWB 0-15a – HWB 2-15a’ (Scottish Executive 2004 pg 82).
Furthermore this activity could be used by providing printed labels for the children to use and differentiation could be shown by children writing their own labels or researching the body parts and their functions. This shows that dance has an extremely creative side and can link to many other areas across the curriculum providing relevance and context to learning.
The picture shown is the finished task from my group of drawing round the body and filling it in with names of muscles, bones and organs.
To finish we used a variety of rich movement related vocabulary and we had to produce movements relating to the words . For example slide, balance, twist and reach to name a few. We then collated all of this into a group dance where we worked collaboratively as a group . This was a super way of bonding and working together and it could be used as an assessment tool to look for rhythm , collaboration and creativeness. In the second level the Outcome and Experience from Dance is ‘I can explore and choose movements to create and present dance, developing my skills and techniques. EXA 2-08’ (Scottish Executive 2004 p 63). These skills would be covered in the previously discussed activites.
Music
Our second workshop of the day was the theory aspect to music and looking at making lesson plans on how we as trainee teachers could bring music into varying aspects of the children’s learning such as literacy, maths or relate music to the IDL project the class are working on and various other curricular areas. Within the theory aspect of music we looked at music notation, durations of notes, melodies, tone and pitch of the music. We looked at many varying aspects of music such as using the voice, instruments, technology, composing pieces of music and the mood that music can create. Music is also a way of children unwinding and using the instruments as a form of escapism, letting themselves get lost in the music.
During the lesson we looked at a paper called “The Power of Music: its impact on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people” by Susan Hallam. This paper revealed to me that music in the classroom is an essential part to a child’s learning. From an early age music has benefits to a child’s learning especially in phonological skills and thus develops better reading skills as suggested by Hallam, 2010. Whilst on work experience I remember the teacher clapping out the rhythms of the syllables within words and in particular the class clapped out their names and this helped the children to sound out their phonics words and identify syllables within these words thus enhancing their reading skills. In addition Hallam suggests from studies that numeracy skills are enhanced by active participation in music especially reasoning. Therefore engagement with music in childhood has several benefits to the children’s learning and in other areas of the curriculum. Music is an excellent way of developing these learning skills.
My group chose to look at how to access religion through music. Our group came up with several ideas. Within, for example Christianity, the children could learn different types of hymns and listen to various all male, gospel, rock band choirs / groups from different churches or extend it to other religions. They could listen to church organs, or create simple verses to their own songs about – Diwali, Christmas or any religious festival . Possibly arranging a trip to several different religious buildings in the area. The music could be used as a stimulus for discussion on how it makes you feel . In churches quite often it is calming or makes you feel reflective which could lead on to discussions about the mood of music and how to create this possibly in groups. I was quite surprised with how many ideas we came up with to use music as a basis for many types of learning across the curriculum.
From today’s workshops I have discovered that with both dance and music there are many opportunities for contextualised learning across the curriculum. This makes learning for the children real and therefore engaging. One off stand alone lesson also have their place but I see the significant value of linking the lessons to other curricular areas.
References
Hallam, S (2010) The power of music: It’s impact on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people, International Journal of Music Education [Online] pp.269-289. Available: http://ijm.sage.pub.com/content/28/3/269 [Accessed: 29 October 2017]
Scottish Executive, (2004). Curriculum for Excellence [Online] Available: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf [Accessed: 2 November 2017]
