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
“Through music, learners have rich opportunities to be creative and to experience inspiration and enjoyment.” (Anon, 2013)
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:
I have the freedom to discover and choose ways to create images and objects using a variety of materials. EXA 0-02a
Music and art can link with each other as teachers could create a lesson plan that would allow pupils to construct a soundtrack to represent their paint brush. This would allow children to explore different genres of music and differentiated sounds of musical instruments and use this to compose a piece of music. This would also provide children with an opportunity to collaborate with music technology as primary schools are able to access music software such as GarageBand.
Having said this, drama could also be integrated with this art lesson as children could be asked to improvise a scene involving their paint brush, or even create a new purpose of the paintbrush during the drama.
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].
