Lecture
In today’s lecture we spoke about how a painting should be discussed and explored within a classroom setting. We looked at artist Avril Paton’s “Windowns of the west” . The painting has a tenement building at the west end of Glasgow. The residents of the building can be seen carrying out various activities. During the lecture, we discussed about how a painting like this can be linked into other curricular areas. For example, children can be asked to write a story about the different people living inside this building and what may have happened during the time this painting was painted. The painting can also be linked to a drama activity; Children can act out the roles of different individuals staying in this building and have a discussion what different residents are doing.
Visual arts
In the first workshop we did print making. This involved me choosing a part of the “Windows of the west” painting and drawing it in a polystyrene tile.
The steps that i took to create this work of art is shown below:
From a range of different colours, I chose the above papers to make print. I folded each of the above papers to make it into a card. In a classroom setting, children should also get a variety of choices from which they can be creative.
To create our own unique art, we were firstly asked to choose a section of the building (as shown in the painting above) to draw in a polystyrene tile. I chose to draw right section of the painting.
We were given the option to either trace or copy part of the painting which we preferred. I chose to copy instead of tracing it as i felt copying could make my piece of art more unique.
I then coloured my tile in red paint and put the tile in top of my card to transfer the design from my tile into my card. i did this for all four of my cards.
To further develop our prints, we were given the opportunity to add another colour onto our tiles and also add or take out any parts of our drawing.
The end result of this activity is shown in the above picture. The first three prints were done with one paint whereas the last one was done with two.
Overall, I feel that from all the workshops I have been involved in the integrated Arts module, this activity has been the messiest. However. this was the first time i was doing print making and it has certainly been a good experience. Having taken part in this activity, I have now gained more experience, confidence and knowledge to carry out a print making experience within my own classroom. In schools, this activity can be done during a festive time and the cards can be sold to raise money for charities.
Drama
The second workshop was where we had our first input in drama. Taking part in drama allows children to be creative and be involved. Whilst in school, drama had never been a subject which i enjoyed and from the drama inputs we have in the integrated Arts module, I hope to gain more knowledge, interest and confidence to plan and implement a drama activity within a classroom.
During the workshop, We spoke about five drama conventions which are Freeze Frame,Teacher in Role, Hot seating,Thought Tunnel and Improvisation. We focused on a story about a lonely dragon who are creating problems to the villagers.The students were playing the role of the villagers and the lecturer was involved in carrying out the role of the dragon. As the activity proceeded, we found out that the dragon was not a bad person and that it just wanted to be friends with the villagers.
Whilst doing a activity like this in schools, children can be asked many questions such as “how would you describe the dragon”, “why do you think people are afraid of the dragon?”. Although the teacher does not always need to have the main role within the drama (in this case the role of the dragon) the teacher should still have some control of the lesson and be able to get the children’s attention when he/she needs to.
