Drama
Acting in public can be a daunting task, and for out first drama input I was particularly nervous. In a group of close friends I feel comfortable pretending to be someone I’m not, but in front of the whole class who I do not know as closely as my friends, I was honestly petrified. We looked at four different conventions that were used for different activities based around the story of a dragon who kept flying too low over a village. The conventions used were: freeze frame, hot seating, teacher in role and mime. This was my first experience in taking part in drama as it was not offered as a class or extra-curricular at my school. I really enjoyed it even though I was very nervous to begin with.
The skills developed throughout this input are as follows:
- Listening
- Imagination
- Collaboration
Next steps from this input would be get to know more people in my class so I feel more confident when acting in front of them. I should also look at theme resources to help me to learn the difference between the conventions we covered today and how I can use these in a class.
Visual Art
Printing is an activity that I have only had the opportunity to participate in once in my time at school, but i greatly enjoy it. For this input we used polystyrene tiles and printing ink to create our representation of Avril Paton’s ‘Windows in the West’. We were to create a series of four prints using different colours of ink. I enjoyed this activity and even though we were wearing aprons I still managed to get ink all over the place.
Skills developed throughout this theme are as follows:
- Practical
- Sharing
Next steps from this input would be to look into different ways in which print making can be carried out, and specifically a less messy technique for use in the classroom. Some mess is absolutely fine and encouraged, but we should try and keep the space in reasonable cleanliness.
The Link
In both the drama and art inputs, we were looking at a situation/object and from it we were to create something of our own. For example, in drama we were looking at a situation where the dragon was flying too low and destroying the village. We had to come up with a dance freeze frame to communicate with the dragon. Every group except one, decided on an angry dance to scare the dragon away but the other group decided on a welcoming dance for the dragon. This shows that people have different perspectives. In art, we looked at a painting and had to recreate it in our own style. Almost all the prints were different and this also shows that people have different perspectives when faced with a situation. Thus, this weeks link is perspective differences.
Teaching Drama
Teaching drama can be so much fun and children can gain so much from participating in it. The activities that we carried would be perfect to do as an introduction to drama as they were simple, fun and interesting. Using a story like that of the dragon, is engaging for children and I think that they would love it. Drama is also a great tool to use to approach important topics that can be difficult to explain to children. For example, bullying, hidden issues (e.g loneliness like the dragon) and perspectives.
I think that the main barrier to teaching drama would be finding the space, especially if the classroom is too small to perform in. If there was not a space available there is the idea to move tables and chairs to the sides of the classroom, leaving a reasonable sized space in the middle of the room.
Teaching Visual Art
Teaching children to print make is great fun but a messy affair. We used a painting as inspiration for our prints but you could remove that aspect as it might stifle some children’s creativity. Instead you could base your print making on a topic e.g. seasons, the Titanic, or the Romans. The good thing with printing is that the printing tiles can be used again and again and with each print the colour of the print changes (if you’re using different colours of ink). Children love getting messy and playing with paint so this is a great activity for them.
Barriers to teaching print making are time and teachers views. Print making is a time consuming process especially for children. To overcome this you could take one lesson to create the tiles and another lesson to actually print using the tiles. Some teachers have a fear of mess and this activity can be particularly messy. Teachers must not fear mess as a lot of the time that’s how children learn best, using memorable experiences and mess is one such thing that children remember. Teachers can reduce the amount of mess produced by letting the children wear painting shirts or aprons, and putting newspaper or plastic mats on the tables to avoid getting them dirty.
Issues
Over the last few years those involved in the arts have faced obstacles because of politically driven agendas that focus on gaps in attainment (Burnard, 2006). This means that governments are not putting as much funding into the arts and other ‘less important’ areas of the curriculum. Therefore, schools do not have the funds to buy resources for their arts programmes.
References
Burnard, P. (2006) Rethinking the Imperatives for Reflective Practices in Arts Education. [Module Resource] Available: http://moodle.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/109340/mod_resource/content/1/Rethinking%20the%20imperatives%20for%20reflective%20practices%20in%20arts%20education%20P%20Burnard-2.pdf [Accessed: 12 December 2017].
