Drama
Micro-teaching is a great way of letting us experience what it’s like to plan and execute a lesson. This week 2 groups performed their 20 minute drama micro-teaching activity, including my group. We based our micro-teaching on the Gruffalo and the conventions we used were: role on the wall, vox pop, mime, freeze frame and thought tunnel. Our micro-teaching seemed to go quite well, and the class were reasonably interested in the activities. The only down side to out micro-teaching was that we ran over the time limit. Rather than being 20 minutes long like we had planned, we ended up being nearly 35 minutes. At first we thought this was fine, but after speaking to some peers, the consensus was that is became a little boring because it ran on too long.
The skills developed throughout this input are as follows:
- Presenting
- Planning
- Confidence
- Public Speaking
Next steps from this input would be to work on time management when planning and executing activities, either as a short lesson or one off activity.
Music
This week was by far the best so far. We had a group of visiting pupils from Greenmill Primary School, who have an incredible music programme where the students are taught to play string instruments. For the workshop they brought in violins, violas, cellos and double bass’. Each UWS student was to pair up with a Greenmill pupil, and this pupil taught the student how to play their instrument. I chose to sit with a cello player because I have always dreamed of playing the cello and honestly, it was the best decision I’d made all day. The pupils are fantastic teachers and you can really tell that the music programme has changed them all for the better. The results are astounding, their communication skills are fantastic and they have all developed in other areas of the curriculum.
The skills developed throughout this input are as follows:
- Listening
- Practical
- Communication
Next steps from this input would be to look into other music programmes like Greenmill’s from across the country, and the benefits they have as I think they will be useful for the assignment.
The Link
The way in which you present you present yourself in front of a class and a group of your peers has to be varied to accommodate for the age of the audience. This week’s inputs showed me that when you’re communicating with a group of your peers you have to be professional and assertive. But when you’re communicating with a group of children, for example the Greenmill pupils, you have to use more age appropriate language and differ your tone and intonation.
Teaching Drama
Teaching drama in the format we experienced this week could be a good activity to use in a classroom. By getting the children to teach activities to their fellow students, it teaches them responsibility. It can also boost their confidence and their sense of respect for each other.
By giving the children the opportunity to carry out micro-teaching activities, there are a lot of benefits. But, it could be quite difficult to organise and the children would have to spend a lot of time planning and preparing for their activities. I would maybe use this in upper school as the children will have to have a reasonable amount of knowledge about drama and the conventions withing so as to teach their peers.
Teaching Music
Giving children the ability to teach their skills to others can be incredibly beneficial. It increases their confidence, communication skills, social skills and gives them pride because they are teaching someone something that individual knows nothing – very little about. This shows that giving children the opportunity to participate in music lets them gain skills and abilities that they can’t get from any other subject area.
Issues
The biggest issue with teaching the arts in this format would be securing funding for the instruments and finding time and space to carry it out. Over the past 30 years, arts education has been slipping further and further down the list of important curricular areas. Recently the mantra of ‘No Child Left Behind’ has come into place, bringing pressures to raise test scores and attainment. Because of this, the classroom time devoted to the arts and almost every other subject that is not maths and literacy has decreased. Tight budgets and growing government mandates have resulted in the image that the “arts are lovely, but not essential” (Smith, 2009, non-paginated).
References
Smith, F. (2009) Why Arts Education Is Crucial and Who’s Doing It Best. [Module Resource] Available: https://www.edutopia.org/arts-music-curriculum-child-development [Accessed: 15 December].
