The two topics we were focussing on this week were drama and music. I started off in the drama workshop this week.
Workshop 1- Drama
In this week’s drama input we were focussing on some new drama conventions again. These were then implemented in a Halloween theme. We were given the setting of a haunted house where an incident had occurred. We were not told what the incident was which left us room to implement the new learning of the conventions. This was interesting to see as each group had similar ideas but completely different at the same time despite being told the same information about the haunted house.
We also revisited previous drama conventions that we had learned. This included, ‘teacher in role’ and mime. We discussed ‘teacher in role again’. We discussed how this is a very useful technique to set the scene of the drama, but it is also the technique that a lot of teachers may feel uneasy about using because it gives the discussion of the drama room to go in almost any direction. Personally, I do feel a bit uneasy about using this convention, but I think that with practice I will become more confident using it.
We then moved on to looking at some new conventions. Here is the four that we learned.
Flashback– when the characters flashback to point before the drama or to a previous point in the drama.
Flashforward– when the characters move forward to a certain point in the drama or act out a scene which occurs after the drama.
Narration– when someone narrates the drama/ story and tells the audience what is happening.
Slow motion– when a scene or part of a scene is acted out slower that the rest o emphasise the drama.
After learning about these new conventions, we then had the opportunity to engage with them through acting out our own scenes relating to the theme. I enjoyed this part because I felt that by this part of the workshop I felt more comfortable performing short scenes in form of the rest of the class. I actually quite enjoyed it.
The use of the different drama conventions allows a creative opportunity for children as well as the chance to develop social skills through producing a piece of drama as a team. This is due to the activity being mainly child led with a lo of freedom to come up with their own ideas to integrate into the drama.
We also looked at the work of Augustus Boal, who came up with the convention of ‘Forum Theatre’. This is a controversial convention because of the usage of it. The convention is used to allow the audience to suggest ways in which the drama could be changed or improved. Personally, I think that this convention worked well in the class lesson, but I can see how this convention is controversial. It could be hard to implement in the class because of the time factor and more importantly, children may feel that their work is not good enough and knock their because people are wanting to change things about it. Csikszentmihalyi (2013), says that it is important to have certain building blocks in the creative arts which includes; no worry about failing and ensuring that self-consciousness diminishes. Due to this, I probably wouldn’t use this convention, unless I thought it was suitable to the class in particular. I want to ensure that every child in my class feels confident and proud of their work. I also want to promote individual creativity which makes the child keep wanting to participate in drama.
Linking back to the Thomas Tallis Pedagogical wheel, (Thomas Tallis School, 2013), I feel that I have became more reflective in drama as I have been more keen to look at where I could have improved. As well as this, I have been more persistent and kept on trying to engage more with drama which I have been successful with. It is important that I keep persisting in drama as well as improving in the techniques I am using in order to give the learners in my care the best experience possible.
At the end of the lesson, we also talked about next week’s task. We have to plan a 20-minute micro teaching lesson on a children’s book of our choice and teach it to the class. I feel very nervous about this task as this is something I have never done before. However, I know that I will get through it and perform to the best of my ability. I hope that after next week, my confidence will increase even further.
Workshop 2- Music
In this workshop, we started by looking at the importance of the voice in general and for teachers. We learned that the voice is one of the most important aspects of the body and that we as individuals and more importantly, as teachers, need to ensure that we look after our voices as best we can. “The voice has become an increasingly important tool at work. A clear and carrying voice quality at a natural pitch is a pre-requisite for success in communication”
Fritzell (1996) cited by GTCS (2010).
Next, we looked at a resource devised for children and primary schools called ‘Choon Baboon’. The music resource teaches children different songs which can relate to specific topics such as Pirates and The Titanic. This is very useful resource as it fits in well with the expectations and outcomes of Curriculum for Excellence. For example: I can sing and play music from other styles and cultures, showing growing confidence and skill while learning about musical notation and performance directions. EXA 1-16a (Scottish Government,n.d,p9).
I thought that the resource was very easy to use for teachers as it is laid out very well and the video’s do all the teaching. This would be perfect for teachers who do not feel entirely comfortable teaching music or for teaching certain topics as there are songs that are specifically related to certain topics. The resource is also very engaging for children as it is easy to follow, has bright colours, has a simple layout with lots of help throughout and has a humorous tone to the materials. This resource could be used with any age of children but would be great to use with a young primary such as primary 1-3 due to the simplicity of the materials and the clear structure. This is most definitely a resource I would use in the future with any age of class.
Finally, in the last part of the workshop, we looked at the use of graphic scores. This is when we simply draw a grid of boxes. One side (left vertical side) shows the instruments and the horizontal axis shows how many times the instrument will be heard. The group can decide how many beats these instruments will have in each box. We then had the opportunity to devise our own graphic score with any instruments we wanted. Our group chose to go with the theme of Christmas. I found this activity brilliant as it was easy to follow, and with clear explanation and support to pupils, this would be very easy and effective to implement to any age group or to certain topics such as Christmas, animals and many more. This gives children the opportunity to compose music and learn new concepts of music like notes and note values.
Here is our graphic score.
Here is some of the instruments we used.
Overall, this week I really enjoyed the two workshops and I now have more of an understanding and have learned some new strategies which I could use to teach these two curricular areas.
References
Tallis, T. (2013) Tallis Habits Pedagogy Wheel. [Online] Available: http://www.thomastallisschool.com/tallis-pedagogy-wheel-guide.html. [ Accessed 18th December 2017]
The General Teaching Council for Scotland. (2010). Voice and the Teaching Profession. [Online]. Available: http://www.gtcs.org.uk/web/FILES/FormUploads/voice-and-the-teaching-profession1652_214.pdf [Accessed: 18th December 2017].
Scottish Government. (n.d). curriculum for excellence: expressive arts experiences and outcomes. [Online]. Available: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf (Accessed 18th December 2017)
