Drama
This week, the rest of the groups performed their micro-teaching activities, and the following books were their inspiration: Little Red Riding Hood, Matilda, Three pigs and Room. The group used a variety of the conventions that we have covered over the past few weeks. All the groups were excellent and they made me realise a number of things. I never thought that you could do so many activities from such a simple story as the Three Pigs. One thing that were told was to remember to tell the children that it’s only pretending and anything that has been said isn’t real. You have to remember to do this so the children don’t take anything out into the playground and fall out with with other children.
The skills developed throughout this input are as follows:
- Listening
- Performing
- Collaborating
Next steps from this input would be to look at simple stories (Little Red Riding Hood, Three Little Pigs etc.) and look at the activities that can come from them. Also, reflect on my teaching techniques and how I can improve these.
Dance
“One of the most powerful experiences dance educators can offer children is the opportunity to create a dance that reflects their ideas” (Cone, 2009, p.81). Thus, creative dance is the perfect way for children to express themselves, and this week we were learning all about it. We also used Christmas as this week’s theme and created new steps using Christmas themed visual stimuli. Also in this weeks input was the opportunity for each group to lead part of the lesson: warm-up games, stretches, visual stimuli and 10 key movements. This gave us the opportunity to do a mini micro-teaching exercise.
The skills developed throughout this input are as follows:
- Practical
- Public Speaking
- Confidence
- Collaboration
Next steps from this input are to practice the new steps as they will be recorded in the next dance input and continue to go over the original dance previously created.
The Link
This weeks link was micro-teaching and the reflections from it. After carrying out my micro-teaching last week and getting feedback from the group, it allowed me to alter some of the techniques I used in the mini micro-teaching activity in dance. This weeks inputs also allowed me to reflect on the way that I would present to and teach a class.
Teaching Drama
Allowing children to carry out micro-teaching activities will build their confidence, communication skills, social skills and respect for one another. It also means that they will get to know the conventions well.
Barriers to teaching drama would be finding space for the children to perform in and finding the time for the children to prepare their drama.
Teaching Dance
Giving children the responsibility of creating activities to teach their peers is a fantastic idea that I will definitely use in the classroom. I think it would only be practical to use once the children have a good knowledge base of the subject. The teacher will of course still have to supervise and make sure that everyone is warming up, stretching and moving safely.
Barriers to teaching dance in this format would be space, and knowledge. The class need plenty of space to move around so they don’t injure one another, so a gym hall would be the perfect place. Lack of knowledge would be a barrier to this type of activity, because if the children don’t know enough about the subject and the activities they can do within it then the micro-teaching will fail.
Issues
“The expressive arts are rich and stimulating, with the capacity to engage and fascinate learners of all ages, interests and levels of skill and achievement” (Scottish Government, 2004, p.55). This shows that children should be exposed to the arts as they have many benefits. The biggest issue with this is that a lot of teachers don’t have the knowledge and confidence or experience to carry out an arts lesson. To combat this, teachers should take the opportunity to foster relationships with professional arts companies, creative adults and cultural organisations (Scottish Government, 2004).
References
Cone, T. (2011) Following Their Lead Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances [Module Resource] Available: http://moodle.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/109357/mod_resource/content/1/Purcell%20Cone%20%282011%29.pdf [Accessed: 17 December].
Scottish Government. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence: Experiences and Outcomes. [Online] Available: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf [Accessed: 16 December 2017].
