Creative Process of our Dance 

Over the course of our dance sessions we have been exploring the art of creative dance and gaining ideas that will allow us to teach this art form  in a primary school setting. The initial process of our performance began by learning the ten basic skills of dance. After doing this we then used them to create our own dance within our groups. As we reflected on previous sessions we found that music and dance can be integrated perfectly with each other as music provides us with a rhythm in which we can create movement from. We also agreed that music can influence certain types of movements and actions; for example hip hop and R&B can be used in street dance, whereas classical music can be used in ballet routines. We also found that another way to create dance moves was by using a visual stimulus. For example, in our groups we were asked to think of two objects that remind us of christmas and use them to create a dance move. Once every group had created their moves we put them altogether to create the beginning of our dance sequence.

From a teaching perspective I felt this activity achieved the following experiences and outcomes:

After creating our dance moves within our groups we then had incorporate it all together and perform it as one full dance. Although we had a teacher, the dance was designed solely by us as students. Therefore we were able to express our own ideas rather than having to copy other peoples’. As a result of this, it was interesting to see that we were still able to present a flowing performance without any professional assistance. Our first attempt was videoed to allow us to see our efforts and finalised performance.

Analysis of our Dance 

Once we videoed our dance we were able to watch it back. I felt being able to receive this visual feedback really helped my performance as it enabled me to physically see my strengths and weaknesses. One particular issue was timing, as it became evident that not everyone was performing moves in a synchronised manner. As well as this we were able to point out minor issues such as posture and facial expressions. Therefore by becoming aware of these issues we could improve them to make our dance more aesthetically pleasing.

Dance and music can be very easily linked when creating lesson plans. Creative dance does not need to be seasonally inspired; a dance can be created using any type of music such as music the children have created themselves or a style of music they have been focussing their interests on. It is also a good idea to explore which types of dance flow with different pieces of music, as well as being able to discover music and dances of different cultures. However it is important to understand that teachers are not alone and if they do not feel totally confident in teaching dance to pupils, they can utilise help from outside sources through the use of creative partnerships.

Creative partnerships occur when a wide variety of professionals work together to try and make educational approaches more interesting by stimulating thinking. Staff, non classroom based staff, visiting specialists and parents are all people who can be involved in creative partnerships. Creative partnerships have been used within education to target issues such as attendance and attainment. For example, a parkour project within a secondary school in Kilmarnock solely targeted pupils with poor attendance or social difficulties. It was agreed by the pupils and teaching staff that participation in this project was only allowed to those who fully attended school. As a result of this the pupils’ attendance dramatically improved whilst other pupils benefited from the social, emotional and mental aspects from working in a group (Project Parkour – The Journey, 2015). Thus exemplifying the success and need for creative partnerships within education.

Creative Partnerships in Local Authorities

• STEM
• Arts Development Officers
• GIRFEC Manager
• Numeracy and Literacy Officers
• Creative Learning Networks

References

https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf

Project Parkour – The Journey 2015. (2015).Available at: https://vimeo.com/125287507 [Accessed 28 Nov. 2017].

Our lecture today focused on the concept of creative dance. According to Cone, (2009) creative dance should be fun, safe, meaningful and a child led activity. Safety can be assured through the right preparation such as warming up muscle groups and ensuring the children have a safe space to perform. Also by allowing the children to lead an activity enables them to use their imagination and develop an appreciation for their creativity and ideas. Creative dance should also be recognised as a fun activity that can be used to enhance other subjects such as music and drama. Following this concept, I feel that integrating these expressive arts can help with child development. For example drama and dance can be used within health and wellbeing lessons as children can use these art forms to express emotions and feelings.

According to Smith-Autard, (2002) we as teachers should follow the midway model for dance in schools. The midway model focusses on both the process and the product by combining educational and professional ideas together.

This Can Be Achieved  By:

• Resources
• Visual Stimulus
• An idea of safe and technical dance
• Attending CPDS
• Seeking out those who are employed to deliver dance in your authority for ideas

It is important we deliver dance to children as it is part of the curriculum and can increase the wellbeing of children. As well as this dance can improve children’s self-esteem, confidence and enable them to work cooperatively within a group.

I have found that by participating in the dance workshops has enabled me with the confidence to work with other people because the task is very relaxing and enjoyable. I felt I was able to transfer this over to my micro teaching activity for the next workshop as it involved me speaking to the full class regarding a task I would like them to perform. Therefore, I feel children also deserve to be given the opportunity to use dance to develop their own self-esteem and self confidence. Thus by doing this will enable to transfer these new skills into other curricular subjects through interdisciplinary learning. Our micro teaching activity was based on the story of “Prince Cinders”.

Here Is The Template For Our Lesson Plan

Overall the participation from the rest of the class was excellent, as everyone engaged well with the group activities. However, reflecting on how we delivered our lesson I felt like we need to be assertive when we ask for a task to be completed in silence. Also we need to ensure that our positioning in class is better so that all groups can see us. Despite this, I feeling children would benefit from micro teaching activities as it would allow us, as teachers, to gain a better understanding of how well they have grasped the concept knowledge of a text. As well as this, it enables children to build on their planning and preparation skills as they would be required to prepare the lesson prior to delivering it to the class.

Having participated in both workshops, I feel as a group we are able to make connections that will allow us to create integrated arts programmes. For instance if we wished to expand our micro teaching activity by taking a scene from the book, in which Prince Cinders goes to the a ball, we could ask the students to create a dance that has to be performed at the ball. Taking this into a primary school context, this dance could be performed in a safe space such as the gym hall that would enable the children to move freely. As the children are performing a dance it would also be very easy to incorporate music and drama into this lesson plan; we felt children could build on drama techniques such as improvisation as different styles of music could be played and the children would have to come up with a dance that flows with that music on the spot. Art could also be included in this lesson plan as children could create ball gowns and suits for the ball using a range of materials.

References

Cone, P. (2009) Journal of Dance Education. Following their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. Vol. 9(3), pp.81-89

Smith-Autard, J. M. (2002) The art of dance in education. 2nd ed. London: A. & C. Black.

As part of our drama inputs we had to conduct a micro teaching activity, which involved working in groups to create a drama lesson from a book we had chosen. For this week however I only participated in other groups drama lessons.

The first group based their drama lesson on the story of “The Gruffalo”. Their first task used the drama technique of role on the wall as one group member read a few pages of the book, whilst another gave each group a picture of the mouse and the gruffalo.   We were then asked to write what we thought of the characters by writing words outside of each character and then write what the character thought of themselves by writing words inside each character. As a group we felt this task should have been done later in the story for the character of the gruffalo as this character was not introduced until later in the story.  Another drama technique they incorporated into their lesson was thought tunnel. Two members of the group pretended to be the character of the mouse and the Gruffalo and asked two groups to create a thought tunnel for each of them. We then had to say what we thought of that character as they walked through the thought tunnel. Finally they third technique they used was flash forward. After we finished the book the group asked us to create a flash forward of what would happen next. Our group used a mime to show that the animals of the forrest no longer spoke to the mouse after his cunning behaviour and so the mouse was left lonely.

After the group had conducted their lesson they were asked to reflect on their lesson plan, to which the concluded that the participation was higher than they had expected. However they also agreed that timing was an issue as this was supposed to be a 20 minute lesson but it did not end until 35 minutes past. We were then asked, as teachers of drama, to use this to understand that things will not always go as planned but to ensure this does not put us off from creating these tasks. However I feel this lesson should be remembered in all expressive arts programmes. It is important to understand that great pieces of art take time and effort and so children should never feel rushed to produce something the care for or feel proud of. For example creative dances take a lot of preparation and practice before they can be performed in front of an audience. Also art sometimes requires a lot of time if a lot of detail is required, whilst other tasks such as composing a piece of music requires a great deal of editing that absorbs a lot of time and effort.

Our second input ties in with our micro teaching activity as we were being taught how to play string instruments from Greenmill Primary pupils. There is evidence to suggest that there is a huge attainment gap within Scottish schools. Research shows that children from areas of low deprivation are almost twice as likely to assess as performing well, or very well, compared to those living in areas of high deprivation (jrf.org.uk, 2014). Therefore this project was created through the Scottish Attainment Challenge to prove that attainment can be raised through creativity. Pupils become involved in this project when they reach p4 and continue playing their instrument to p7. By engaging with this workshop I was able to speak to a child who had been involved in this project for two years. I chose to join a pupil who played they violin and was inspired by his confidence and eagerness to teach me about his instrument. He was able to demonstrate how he held his bow and as I attempted it, he would correct me in a constructive and encouraging manner. The pupil also played each note for me to allow me to listen to the differentiated sounds of each string. The pupil also described and demonstrated games that they play within the classroom to help with their fluency when playing their instruments. I feel the micro teaching activity was a great idea for both us as students and the primary school children as it allows the pupils to share their knowledge and therefore consolidate it. Also by doing this the pupils are becoming more confident individuals as well as gaining skills such as discipline, team work, note reading skills and oral awareness (Greenmill Primary School Strings Project, 2016).

I feel both workshops today could be linked when using them within a classroom setting. For example, the music of the string orchestra could be incorporated into a drama that pupils were creating in the style of a backing track. This would allow all of the children to incorporate their talents and combine them to make one performance. The string orchestra would work well as backing track for the drama as the music could be used to create atmosphere and mood within the performance. This could also create an opportunity to allow the children to compose their own music to go along with the drama. Thus the children will be more enthusiastic as they are creating something themselves. Finally I feel art could also be integrated into this expressive arts programme as the children could use colour and shape to express the tone of the music being played by the orchestra.

References

Greenmill Primary School String Project. (2016). Available at: https://vimeo.com/176221212 [Accessed 16 Nov. 2017].

Jrf.org.uk. (2017). CLOSING THE ATTAINMENT GAP IN SCOTTISH EDUCATION. [online] Available at: https://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/default/files/jrf/migrated/files/education-attainment-scotland-full.pdf [Accessed 28 Nov. 2017].

Prior to beginning our new drama lesson we were reminded that every lesson should link back to previous learning. For example our last drama input involved using different drama techniques to convey the story of “The Dragon”. To recap, we had discovered that the dragon was flying too low over our village and we as villagers felt terrified by this. An idea that we felt could follow our initial encounter with the dragon could be through the style of a literacy lesson, as we could write a letter to the dragon. However I feel this would be an excellent way to incorporate other expressive arts programmes into this lesson as the children could use music to compose a song to welcome the dragon to their village. As well as this, other subjects such as art could be used throughout this lesson as the children could use different materials to design the dragons cave.

As we began our drama lesson it became apparent to me that most drama lessons come from story books. For instance, we were learning new drama techniques today using the story “The tunnel”.

I feel this lesson would achieve the following experiences and outcomes: 

The first technique we learned was Role on the Wall: This involved drawing a character on a piece of paper. We then had to write what we thought of the character around the outskirts of the character, followed by writing what the character thinks of themselves inside the character. For this task we read to a certain point in the story and was then asked to draw the characters of the brother and sister. Initially we wrote that that the brother was tormenting and a bully and the sister felt intimidated and scared. However after reading the rest of the story we returned to this task and were asked to write what we thought of the character now. Through discussion with our groups we had all agreed that our views had changed. It was then apparent by the end of the story that the sister was in fact quite courageous and that the brother was appreciative of his younger sister.

The second technique we learned was Flashback and Flash forward: Which is a technique used in drama to show what has lead up to a particular moment, how it could be resolved or how it could lead up to other challenges (Farmer, 2014).  For instance we used flashback to convey why the brother and sister did not get on and used flash forward to show how their relationship had changed by the end of the story.

The third technique we learned was Mime: This involves displaying an action or emotion without words, using only gesture, expression and movement. It was also highlighted to us that in drama it is very common for people to switch gender roles. I think this would useful to interpret into a drama lesson as it would allow the children to think differently about themselves as that character and could possibly enable them to empathise with each other. We used mime to create a scene of what we thought would happen next in the story. It was very interesting to see how differently people interpreted the book but yet how they all still seemed to tie into the story. We then had a person from the group explain what was happening in our mime.

The fourth technique we used was Thought Tracking: This is usually performed as a still frame where a character steps forward and says how they feel. As well as this, the other character can say an opposing argument. We used this technique to convey the brothers thoughts on his sister whilst another group performed this task from the sisters perspective.

The final drama technique we were introduced to was Vox Pop: This is where the teacher usually plays the role of the interviewer and asks the pupils how they feel while they’re in role.

Our second input involved us going over our dance routine that we had been creating over a series of inputs. Prior to this we were reminded of the importance to stretch our muscles, especially when doing these types of activities with primary school children. To warm up we played games such as highland tig, which is a fun way for children to warm up their bodies without putting too much strain on them. This week involved finding ways to incorporate each groups dance routine into the finalised piece.

I feel drama is an excellent way to introduce dance to pupils as dance can tell as story in the same way that drama can. For example in the story we covered in drama, the brother is turned to stone by witches. Dance could be incorporated in this scene as we could get the pupils to create a dance to follow the incantation of the spell. I could ask the pupils to consider their arm movements and their body stance whilst casting the spell. Finally once the spell is complete and the boy is turned to stone, the witches could perform a victory dance as their spell has worked. This would also allow the children to build on their understanding of the ten basic skills of creative dance.

References

Farmer, D. (2014). Flashbacks and Flash Forwards. [online] Drama Resource. Available at: https://dramaresource.com/flashbacks-and-flash-forwards/ [Accessed 15 Nov. 2017].

Our first task today in music was to read a paper from the International Journal of Music Education, titled “The power of music: it’s impact on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people.” The paper was devised into sections and our group was to look specifically at how music within education improved children’s literacy skills.

This is a mind map of our findings:

From our research we found that (Hallam, 2010) recorded that reading scores proved to be higher with children who had a musical background, as music skills correspond with phonological awareness and reading skills. Music has also shown to improve perception language skills, timing and verbal memory as statistics show that seventeen per cent more of verbal information is remembered by people with musical training (Hallam, 2010). Following this, in a different workshop we were granted the opportunity to be taught how to play string instruments by Greenmill Primary School pupils.

Following up from this activity we then had to produce a lesson plan which linked literacy and music together to encourage cross-curricular learning. Our lesson involved having the children read a short story, use story boards to divide the story into the beginning middle and end and then use garage band to produce a soundtrack to correspond with atmosphere of each section of the story.

Here is an example of what our lesson plan would look like: 

As well as this, our second half of our day consisted of our first dance input. We began with drawing around the smallest member of our group and labelled where we thought particular parts of the body existed on the piece of paper.

Here is my groups attempt at this task: 

We then had to perform a dance using the following moves:

• Grab
• Twist
• Balance
• Turn
• Kick
• Jump
• Gesture
• Slide
• Roll 

After doing this we were then given a number of dance moves, with unusual names, to try to decide what they were and then incorporate them into our dance routine. Overall I felt that this input was beneficial as it allows children an alternative way to exercise whilst allowing them to build on their communication and collaboration skills by working together to produce a dance routine. It also feel it enables children to build on their confidence as this routine can then be performed in front of their peers in their class or during a school assembly.

When teaching children creative dance I feel the following outcomes could be achieved: 

Following up from the previous week, when our task entailed creating a print of a famous Scottish painting, we then had to photocopy our print and extend the image. The photocopy was printed in black and white and to extend the image we drew the rest of the tenement building using a pen. As well as this we used coloured pencils to add colour to the drawing to make it more dynamic. This exercise allowed us to understand that projects don’t need to be disregarded after one lesson; there is always an opportunity to build on a piece of artwork by learning about new techniques and styles. Also, by holding onto children’s work this allows them to feel that their work is valued.

We were also shown examples of types of booklets that can be bought to spark children’s creativeness by giving them a starting point or an initial idea.

We also gained an understanding of how to use musical technology by engaging  with a software called GarageBand on the apple mac. I felt this was an interesting tool that could be used within the classroom as it would enable children to hear the varied styles of music that particular instruments produced. As well as this it would allow children to improve on their problem solving skills by allowing them to collaborate their own piece of music, using different musical instruments. This software is also allows you to insert voice clips, sound effects and animations into your soundtrack; thus making it a good tool to use within presentations produced by the children.

It is sometimes viewed within the education system that the only way to succeed academically is by performing well in English and Mathematics. Thus other subjects, such as the arts, are being pushed to the periphery of the curriculum and children are losing out on educational experiences through the use of creativity. However, it is easy to link the arts with other subjects within the curriculum; for example using music to tell a story or drama to act out a social situation. It is up to us as teachers to incorporate the arts into other parts of the curriculum to engage children in active learning and to allow their learning experiences to be more memorable. It has also become apparent to me that it is the responsibility of the educator, to ensure that children are developing creative skills such as evaluating and synthesising. In response to this Education Scotland, (2013) have published a document, demonstrating different teaching approaches that should be used within the classroom to encourage creative learning. This will enable pupils to become responsible for their own learning, whilst stimulating development of the skills listed above. The document also states that educators should use supportive discussions and coaching techniques to motivate children to use their imagination, whilst coaxing them to reflect on their ideas as they evolve (Education Scotland, 2013). Therefore by doing this, allows children to integrate these skills into other curricular subjects.

References

Scotland, E. (2013). Creativity Across Learning 3-18. [ebook] Education Scotland. Available at: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/cre39-impact-report.pdf [Accessed 11 Dec. 2017].

Fine Scottish Art.co.uk, (2006)

During today’s first lecture we were introduced to a painting called “Windows in the West” by an artist named Avril Paton. The painting is of a tenement building situated in the West End of Glasgow during a winters day. After becoming aquatinted with the painting we were then asked to discuss it using a model which is broken down into four categories which are as follows: process, form, content and mood.

For example if I were a teacher trying to engage a pupil in a discussion about this piece of artwork I would ask questions such as:

Process

• How do you think this painting was made and what materials do you think it was made with?
• What type of skills do you think the artist required to produce this painting?
• How long do you think it took for this piece to evolve? Was it a slow/rapid?
• Do you think the artist used supporting studies like sketches, photographs, stencils or collages?

Form

• What kind of colour scheme has this artist used?
• How has the artist arranged this painting?
• Does the artist use one main overall shape or has she used inter-relating sequences of shapes?

Content

• What is the subject matter of this piece of artwork/ what is it about?
• Do you think the artist observe this subject matter directly or was it remembered or imagined?
• Do you think this painting has been painted representationally or is there deliberate exaggeration, distortion or abstraction?

Mood

• Does this painting affect you in any way?
• Do you think this painting is quiet?noisy/; soothing/disturbing; happy/sad in the mood it projects and the feelings it inspires?
• Does this painting capture a specific mood, feeling or emotion you have already experienced?

Following the lecture, we took inspiration from this art piece by choosing a specific section of the painting and using it to make prints. For example I chose to print the middle section of the building  and did so by drawing it on a piece of polystyrene as shown in the image below:

Once our drawings were complete we began the printing process by rolling paint onto the polystyrene and placing the image face down onto different coloured pieces of paper.

Finally after doing this we then cut out parts of the image we had carved into the polystyrene and rolled over it again with a different colour of paint. We then placed the print on top of the prints we had made previously which gave the finished product a dynamic effect.

We also had our first drama input today where we were tooled with several different techniques to teach drama. Our drama was based on a story called “The Dragon” which entailed villagers being terrified by a dragon flying over their village.  The first technique we were introduced to was Teacher in Role; Andrew used a prop, which in this case was his lanyard, to identify to us that he was in role and no longer the teacher. For this exercise Andrew was the chairman of the meeting held by the villagers and was asking us for ideas on how to steer the dragon away from the village. One of the ideas mentioned was to perform a tribal dance to scare the dragon away from the village. Therefore in groups we then had to create our own tribal dance, where we were then introduced to the second drama technique called Freeze Frame. Once we had choreographed our dance we then had to perform a freeze frame of our actions; as the rest of the group stood still, another pupil told the rest of the class what was happening within the freeze frame. For example, our group tried to mimic the movement of water as we thought this would be what the dragon feared most. After doing this we were introduced to another drama technique known as Process of Drama where we had to create an imaginary situation. In this case we chose to try and find where the dragon lived and so began walking around the room to search for it. As we walked we pretended to wade long grass by cutting it down and pulled our legs from the thick mud.

Hot Seat: Hot seating is where a character is questioned by the rest of the group involved about their background, motivation and behaviour. For example in a classroom a child can be seated in front of a group or pairs in which they are then questioned by their peers. This can be particularly useful when trying to develop a role in a drama lesson. Finally we used a technique called Hot Seating to question the dragon’s reasoning for it’s actions. By doing this we were able to understand that the dragon’s intensions were not ill willed and so we were able to communicate with the dragon a solution to the problem.

The following drama techniques can be defined as follows:

Freeze Frame: Freeze framing a technique used in drama when an action in a play or scene is frozen. This particularly useful when pupils want to highlight a pinnacle scene.

Teacher in Role: Teacher in role is when the teacher uses a particular object, such as a prop or a costume piece, to show that they are in role.

Improvisation: This is a technique used to create a performance spontaneously or without preparation.

Thought Tunnel: A thought tunnel is used when a character faces a dilemma and the children need to provide advice. It can also be when a character walks through a thought tunnel and the children can reflect their feelings towards the character. The thought tunnel is created when the class forms two lines facing each other and the character walks between them and each person speaks to the character.

Process of Drama: This is when the teacher and pupils work together to create an imaginary world or situation. For example the scene where we were villagers trying to scare away a dragon that was terrorising our village.

Throughout this module it has been continuously instilled into me that in order to become a successful teacher we must allow ourselves to abandon the need for practicality at times; more importantly we must occupy a tolerance for mess.  Having a space where children can express their creative talents has proven to be beneficial, such as Room 13 international.  Room 13 international is a network of student-run art studios in schools, which provides children with a creative space to indulge in their own creativity. As well as this, local artists are also invited to come and work with children to teach them different artistic techniques and styles. A case report was published by Room 13 International, (2006) which proved that children who worked in this room showed excellent communication skills; the childrens’ language was complex, elaborated and the volume at which they spoke was in depth and in paragraphs. This research is remarkable when comparing it to research founded by DfEE, (1998) which highlighted that during the literacy hour only ten percent of childrens’ responses observed consisted of more than three words. This case study also showed that children who use Room 13 are hugely independent. As this is vastly a pupil run project, the children conveyed skill sets that exceeded the expectations of a conventional child of this age. Children were responsible for issues such as responding to emails, writing real cheques and ordering materials for their shop (Room 13 International, 2006). Therefore this emphasises that our role as future educators should ensure that we are not limiting children, whilst aiming to encourage them to be self-sufficient when engaging in an expressive arts programme.

Art and drama can be linked as both of these expressive arts can be used to tell a story. Therefore a lesson plan could involve the children creating an image using different materials. After this, the children could follow that lesson by performing a drama to explain the story of the image. This could be created using techniques such as freeze frame and mime. As result of this, we as educators can allow children to develop creative skills such as critical thinking, synthesising, innovation and collaboration (Harris, 2016), by allowing them to engage in expressive arts programmes.

References

Fine Scottish Art.co.uk. (2006). [online] Available at: http://www.finescottishart.co.uk/Windows_in_The_West.php [Accessed 16 Oct. 2017].

Harris, A. (2016). Creativity and Education: Creativity, Education and the Arts. Springer, 2016, pp.42-43.

Figurenotes, (2013)

During the first half of our music lesson our class were shown an alternative way to teach music; this was by using FigureNotes rather than using conventional notation. When using FigureNotes each musical note is represented by a coloured symbol as shown in the image above.

This is an example of using FigureNotes to teach the song “Twinkle Twinkle” on the glockenspiel. In the video above I am performing the song for the first time and despite having never played the glockenspiel, I am still able to make a reasonable first attempt. Whereas I would have struggled more to produce something of a similar standard had I been given conventional notation. There are many benefits to using FigureNotes in the classroom such as: children can start playing music instantaneously, children who cannot read music can learn this way much faster than conventional methods and children with additional support needs and special educational needs and disability can be involved in the same educational experiences as the rest of the class  (Figurenotes, 2013).

This is a video of my group discussing the benefits of using FigureNotes to teach music in the classroom

I was also introduced to a website called Charango during this lesson. This is a great tool for teachers, who may not have a musical background, to use when teaching music in the classroom. Premade step-by-step lesson plans can be found on the website which already have existing links to the curriculum for excellence. As well as this Charanga can also be used to include music in topic-based learning as it provides several songs for a huge genre of age appropriate topics.

Charanga also encourages cross-curricular learning as it provides a selection of songs that could be included in other subject tasks such as science, literacy and mathematics. For example this song could help children in early/first level to count to ten. By using this as a lesson plan this allows the children to engage in the subject through active learning and the learning is more likely to be memorable through this experience.

Charanga is a great source to have as it also has an area labelled as “my workspace”. This allows you to add and easily access useful resources as well as being able to save lesson plans. This enables me as a teacher to be organised and well informed in the music lessons I will be teaching, despite music being a subject I feel less confident teaching. A final benefit to using Charanga is that it motivates children to become more involved in music as children can personalise their own login space and create avatars which they can then personalise by gaining points every time the log in.

During the art lesson we were required to make our own paintbrush  as exemplified in the image above. I felt this was a fun activity to do with children as it would allow them to reflect their own individuality and creativity by having the freedom to design something in their own image. If every child is given the same tool then there is pressure for the children to produce the same work and a level of expectation is created. However, if a child is allowed to paint with something of their own design this removes this necessity for precision and intricacy. Thus by removing these limitations children can just enjoy the process of creating without feeling self-concious about the finished product. Articles.extension.org, (2015) states the importance of valuing a child’s creativity because by doing this we raise their self-esteem and help them feel appreciated as people.

We were then asked to recreate a painting but in place of physically looking at the painting it was described to us audibly instead. By doing this it removed the desire just to copy and allowed us to produce the image that we had generated from our imaginations. As well as this we were only given set colours such as blue, yellow, white and red and if you required a colour like brown you create it yourself by mixing the set colours together. This enhances the creative process for children as they are utilising their problem solving skills in a practical context.

I felt this lesson achieved the following experiences and outcomes:

References 

Anon, (2013). [online] Available at: https://www.charangascotland.co.uk/wp-content/themes/charanga_2013/assets/pdfs/Curriculum-For-Excellence-and-CMS.pdf [Accessed 8 Oct. 2017].

Articles.extension.org. (2015). Creative Art Helps Children Develop across Many Domains – eXtension. [online] Available at: http://articles.extension.org/pages/25680/creative-art-helps-children-develop-across-many-domains [Accessed 8 Oct. 2017].

Education.gov.scot. (n.d.). Cite a Website – Cite This For Me. [online] Available at: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf [Accessed 6 Dec. 2017].

Figurenotes. (2013). What is Figurenotes? – Figurenotes. [online] Available at: https://www.figurenotes.org/what-is-figurenotes/ [Accessed 2 Oct. 2017].

Figurenotes. (2013). Classroom Teachers – Figurenotes. [online] Available at: https://www.figurenotes.org/classroom-teachers/ [Accessed 8 Oct. 2017].

During a workshop, I had the opportunity to view a selection of artwork produced by children within a primary school classroom; ranging from early level, first level and second level.

Early Level/ First Level

When a child is introduced to art in the classroom they begin by drawing exploratory scribbles and mark making. I would argue that this is when a child is at the peak of their creative ability as they are able to produce artwork from their own imagination and allowed at this point to make their own connections with concepts such as colour and shape.

Research from (Matthew’s 1997; 1999) highlights that children as young as under four can show development in their representational abilities and have shown a natural fascination with shape, movement and location of objects. For example, in this painting this child shows a clear understanding of location of objects. They have done so by placing the house on the grass near the bottom of the page and painted the sun at the top of the page to show it is in the sky .

Therefore as a future teacher it is important to encourage children’s continuous development and so what may look to an adult as scribbles – to a child may contain emotions and meaning. Thus it is important that artwork produced by a child should not be interfered with the child must always be able to explain their artwork so that they know their work is valued.

This is a model given to show how you can discuss a child’s artwork with them in a positive and encouraging way:

Second Level 

As a child’s creative development progresses Green and Mitchell (1997) explains that children show a deeper understanding of shape modification as well as placement and size of shapes. Also in this stage children’s artwork becomes more detailed and contains more features. However it is believed that children become more self conscious about their artwork and creative ability; this could be due to the fact that the view within education is that the end result of a child’s development is “visual realism” as stated by Matthews (2003) and Cox (2005). I would agree with this view for after looking at the progression of artwork throughout primary education it became apparent to me that there is a greater expectation for detail and specificity from second level artwork. For many art lessons within schools the outcome for the children is not about trying to stimulate creativity and innovativeness. Instead children are encouraged to produce generic pieces of artwork using the same tools and materials and so art becomes less about creativity and more about conformity. Therefore I feel this would deter children who do not possess specific creative skills from participating in art lessons because they then form the opinion that art is a subject only for the “gifted”.  Now having gained this perspective I now have an understanding of the importance of letting children express their creativeness throughout their entire primary education.

It is said that there are many pre-existing obstacles that remain for teachers, when attempting to implement an expressive arts programme. The Australian Society for Education through Arts, (1995) highlights that one of the most common challenges to successful arts teaching within primary schools is a lack of confidence among teachers. This is integrated with (or resulting from) a feeling or attitude that they themselves are not artistic. This causes implications for teachers when they are planning expressive arts programmes for they may feel they lack the imagination to create unique, yet stimulating art lessons. Therefore they are more likely to become reliant on the ideas of other artists and use them as a visual stimulus. This was demonstrated to me during this art workshop as was shown an example of a child’s imitation of Picasso’s “The Weeping Woman”:

Recalling from the previous week, I have began to consider how the integration of the expressive arts can encourage a child’s development throughout their education. For instance, last week we were asked to listen to pieces of music and describe how that made us feel verbally. However emotions can easily be expressed through visual forms as well. Therefore a lesson plan could include placing children in groups and giving each group a piece of music to listen to, then paint the emotion or feeling it captures and paint it onto a canvas.

References

Cox, S. (2005), ‘Intention and Meaning in Young Children’s Drawing’. in international journal of Art and Design Education, 24(2): 115-25

Green, L. and Mitchell, R. (1997), Art 7-11 Developing Primary Teaching Skills. London: Routledge.

The Australian Society for Education through Arts in The Report by the Senate Environment, Recreation, Communications and the Arts References Committee:  Arts Education (October 1995). Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia.

The Integrated Arts module consists of four main aspects which are art, music, drama and dance. However during our introduction to this module, it became apparent to me that the expressive arts are being treated peripherally in order to favour “core” subjects such as literacy and mathematics. Prior to this module as a future teacher I would’ve also ranked other subjects, like literacy and maths, at the forefront of a child’s learning. Although, after reading E, Eisner (2002), it was highlighted to me that the arts enable children to understand the possibility of a problem having more than one solution and questions having more than one right answer; a skill which may be hard to develop in subjects such as maths. As well as this the arts encourage children to embrace the idea that the world can be seen in multiple perspectives and allows them to grow to become more open minded individuals (E, Eisner, 2002).

Upon our introduction to the musical aspect of our integrated arts module we were asked to listen to several pieces of music. We were then asked to describe in one word how each clip of music made us feel to give us an understanding of how music can affect us emotionally. After completing this exercise we listened to a different piece of music and had to create a story board which followed the flow of the music.

Picture 1

The music is soft and pleasant as our story begins with a beautiful princess walking through a forrest.

Picture 2

The music begins to sound deeper and darker as the princess picks flowers from the darker side of the forrest.

Picture 3 

The music suddenly explodes as the princess is confronted by an evil witch whom the flowers belong to.

Picture 4 

The music speeds up as the princess is chased uphill by the evil witch.

Picture 5 

The music calms again as the evil witch gets stuck in a tree and the princess runs free to find the good witches cottage and ask her for help.

Picture 6

The music erupts again as the evil witch returns to attack the princess and the good witch.

Picture 7 

The music bounces back and fourth as the good witch battles the evil witch to protect the princess.

Picture 8

The music becomes pleasant again as the good witch prevails and turns the evil witch good and they live happily ever after.

After completing this task it proved how easily it is to include music in cross curricular learning with other subjects such as literacy. It also would potentially make it a more enjoyable learning experience for children as it enables them to be creative and use images as well as words to create an imaginary story. Furthermore it also educates children in how the use of different tones can create different moods and emotions. Overall it has become apparent to me that the arts is a vital subject that must be taught in the classroom so that children are able to express themselves as individuals.