Tag: drama

Week 5 – Feelings and emotions through the arts

This week we began our learning for music, an area I haven’t had a lot of experience with of recent. Leading to not much confidence in this topic area, which I put down to my earliest experiences in primary, where I didn’t get chosen for doing things like the violin. However, I do want to learn key skills to include music in lessons and hopefully make children feel like they can play music even if they may not believe in themselves like myself at their age.

To start with it was vital we were opened up to why music matters. Identifying music in how it makes us feel and how we connect with it. Pondering the way, it makes us feel inside through our listening. The emotions and connections made can create and open up keen interests in areas of music. Seeing the different varieties of how music relates to us can aid the development of being creative in creating our own pieces but also in our cross-curricular work.

Linking to the way that listening to music can create different images and ideas within our minds, leading to writing a story or visualising images. Using this piece from fantasia, we created our own creative writings, which even within my group of five we had different ideas. I enjoyed doing this and letting my mind be evaporated into the piece of music.

“Children and young people will develop, enhance and apply skills gained in the expressive arts in a very broad range of activities…” (Education Scotland, Date)

Putting our ideas together we added the visuals of a storyboard, bringing to life a piece of music, we had only just heard. As well as using tools in collaborative workings and also being enabled through literacy and visual arts.

Music is a stimulus, to other areas of the curriculum, but also the power of our minds. Music can be enjoyed through playing but more so through listening and engaging our thoughts.

“As music and language are cultural products, it’s important to let students speak the truth of their native musical and literary cultures…” (Glauser, H.A., 2019)

This week in drama was our final week, and I can see the transitions through emotions and thoughts I’ve made. From an environment I haven’t had experience with to an area I feel I can value in multiple ways of my classroom. This final input led me to be in the children’s minds as our peers micro-taught us. Being in their shoes last week I could relate to the feelings, and I wanted to be able to engage with the tasks they set as best I could so they could explore their skillset in teaching drama.

Being able to embody myself in a multitude of emotions and connecting with the scenes. As well as exploring deeper the conventions we have done in the inputs we have had.

“…we need to extend our own experience of creative and artistic activity and be willing to step inside such contexts with our learners, demonstrating our own imaginative engagement in the process.” (Grainger, 2003, P. 46)

Microteaching can aid in creative confidence as well as enrich our competence within educating children on drama.

Finally, we explored a new convention of role on the wall this week, explored the way drama doesn’t have to be a specific part of the day it can be incorporated into multiple topics of the curriculum. Here we can see the connections and individual can make to a character or person. They can create a picture of words on how the person is seen or judged by others and how they feel on the inside. As Baldwin explored how doing drama in classrooms can enable connections to be made between the picture’s children see and the feelings that would have been felt.

These “imaging experiences are none the less felt and integrated cognitive, affective and aesthetic experiences.” (Baldwin, 2012)

With this, you can create a future picture and to how these may have changed over time or through a specific event occurring.

I can respond to the experience of drama by discussing my thoughts and feelings. I can give and accept constructive comments on my own and others’ work.

EXA 0-15a / EXA 1-15a / EXA 2-15a / EXA 3-15a (Education Scotland,

Through these sessions, I can link to the feelings and emotions the arts can bring through our engagement. Being able to see how this resonates on the inside to how they are portrayed on the outside. Through musical sounds, words out of a mouth or images on a storyboard, individuals are able to create a picture of emotions in the mind and reiterate these in their own form.

 

References

Scottish Government (n.d.) Curriculum for excellence: expressive arts. Experiences and Outcomes[Online] available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf [accessed on: 12/10/2019]

 

Teresa Grainger (2003) Creative teachers and the language arts: Possibilities and potential, Education 3-13: International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education, 31:1, 43-47

 

Glauser, A.H., (2019) Why Music [online] available: https://www.kent.edu/tags/hugh-glauser-school-music?page=3 [accessed: 12/10/2019]

Baldwin, P (2012) With Drama in Mind: Real learning in Imagined worlds continuum: London

 

 

 

 

Week 4 – The power of words

Hearing the word microteaching opened a lot of nervous energy at first but once I started working on it, it let me be a critical, creative thinker to develop a lesson plan. Plus getting to use collaborative skills with my team enabled me to not only develop a lesson but develop myself. Microteaching is a key aspect of being able to gain confidence which is vital in teaching children drama.

 ‘achieve an understanding of the inherent principles that inform their best practice and, through self and peer analysis, discover how to extend their own abilities.’ (Bloomfield, 2000)

Teaching drama is something I have never considered or experienced before. We had partaken in these as students but this time we had to use our teacher knowledge to convey them to the “children.”

Choosing a storybook, we identified with teacher in role, thought tunnel and monologue. We used these to enable the children to connect with the book and explore their own feelings in these situations of the difficult themes within. We also felt that the children would connect with the idea of animals and them having a party in the jungle.

It was important to use our skills and choices to engage the children in the drama. While linking into the e’s and o’s that lead our teaching practice. Identifying this area of them in relation to this particular drama lesson.

Exploring real and imaginary situations helps learners to understand and share their world.

  • I can respond to the experience of drama by discussing my thoughts and feelings. I can give and accept constructive comment on my own and others’ work.

EXA 0-15a / EXA 1-15a / EXA 2-15a / EXA 3-15a

(Scottish Government, 2017)

This identified to me the way children can use this storybook to learn about the world. We connected to the way the pupils can use it to explore themes of bullying and inclusion. Being able to convey their thoughts and feelings surrounding these situations, which can be real life for some.

 

In the second part exploring, even more, the way a book can be used to help a child process and create emotional and deep pieces. As it was identified to us, using a mime with no words but adding sound on top can be powerful. Using a story with a forest, we created trees and made the sounds of going through a wood. The silence and darkness, adding in different noises, created a power of silence and connecting with the feelings of the girl in the story, with the fear she might have felt, just like when I heard the word ‘microteaching.’

With visual arts, I didn’t experience the practical due to having to leave campus. However, I discussed with my peers the activities which took place. They explained to me the process of adding lyrics to our images, we painted the previous week. This can be very emotive and brings more out of the picture than the colours and what you see first-hand. Connecting words to our creations can add a deeper level to a personal piece of work. This leads on from the work of last week with words leading to the creation of a painting, to add words on top of the same drawing.

“…learners the chance to interpret, communicate and create meaning for themselves.” (Grainger, 2003, pp. 44)

Being able to express themselves through the arts and the images they have created but connecting words to our creations can add a deeper level to a personal piece of work.

Looking at these two areas I can see the way images and words put together, can create a strong, powerful and creative piece. The words in a storybook can lead to children to open up their own perspectives to the words they hear. As much as viewing an image can lead to the words, we link with them, on top of the picture. Both can create deeper, powerful meanings to these art forms, and also enable a child to express themselves in different but similar manners. Words can express feelings, however mixing them with images, movements or sounds a wider sense of emotions can occur. Seeing the way our curriculum links up is clearly identified in arts this week, with words being central in our art creations.

 

References

Bloomfield, A., Childs, J. (2000) Teaching integrated arts in the primary school. Routledge: New York

Teresa Grainger (2003) Creative teachers and the language arts: Possibilities and potential, Education 3-13: International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education, 31:1, 43-47

Scottish Government (2017) Curriculum for excellence: expressive arts. Experiences and Outcomes[Online] available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf [accessed: 10/10/2019]

Week 2 – Linking to real life

This week’s experience opened my eyes to linking the arts to other areas within the curriculum, having confidence in mark-making, opening up a creative side and being able to explore pieces of art through other aspects of the expressive arts. Thus enabling me to add deeper meaning and individual stories to them.

Firstly, visual arts identified the way in which the arts explored interdisciplinary learning within a classroom, focusing on how literacy can be taught through the arts. Connecting together in class, I could pick out metaphors in a text, creating drawings over the words. This can assist the learning of literacy as this can relate visuals to the written word. Marshall (2014) identified ‘art integration while embracing art objectives, essentially utilizes multimodal arts-based learning to enhance comprehension of academic subjects.’

This focus shows the benefits of using art to linked learning, identifying how these subjects thrive from being learnt through arts. Shaw (2016) discussed in his ted talk how when we draw, we can remember more which can aid children in their academic learning in the way “utilising a multimodal arts-based learning to enhance the comprehension of academic subjects” (Marshall, 2014.)

Bringing literacy to life

Bloomfield (2012) as well discusses the ways children use their creative instincts to explore ideas and interpret information in new ways, helping children conceptualise and overcome an academic area they feel weak in.

Within our visual arts workshop, I felt the fun that children would have in art and also the belief and confidence it can give a child. As I discovered in the lecture about how if a child draws over writing they are more likely to remember more, I can also identify the common road-block being a child saying ‘I can’t draw,’ which I can relate to strongly. However, I discovered that from making a dot a child can begin to believe in their drawing ability, if you can write you can draw, you can make a mark and let the creative juices flow. The arts allow children to ‘celebrate multiple perspectives.’ As Eisner (2002) showed that ‘one of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.’ From this dot as Eisner stated, many children would see it in multiple different forms, from the start of a butterfly to a bud of a flower. Children could make one small mark with the ink and then expand from there, giving them more feeling to say that they can draw and develop their artistic skills.

Mark making

Children learn their own way to interpret a dot in their minds and create an image that they then add to. This workshop opened my eyes and even made me believe I could create multiple different images from this mark. See what you can do, what could you create from this dot below?

Moving onto the drama workshop, I still felt anxious, as it is still a piece of the arts I don’t have much experience or confidence with. This week was looking at five new conventions, thought tracking, still image, narration, flashback then flashforward.

With these conventions, we looked closer at a painting to create drama. The painting was Avril Patons ‘windows in the west,’ identified below.

Windows in the west

With this painting, our minds could wander to what was going on beyond the windows, was there sad news or happy news, a party or a process of grieving. I was a bit reluctant at first as I don’t find myself that creative but as Csikszentmihalyi (2013) discussed creative surroundings can stimulate individuals, which is what the picture could elevate creativity in someone and facilitate interactions and a greater environment of ideas.

Creating these stories can be provoking to the child’s mind, as they begin to wonder through the thoughts and feelings and then expressing the emotions that these individuals were experiencing. It sparks difficult interactions of death and abuse to happy interactions such as birthdays and love. The children may not fully interact with the painting but once it comes to life a child can connect with it at a deeper level. As Benjamin Franklin put it ‘Tell me and I will forget, show me and I will remember, involve me and I will understand’

 

I use drama to explore real and imaginary situations, helping me to understand my world.

EXA 0-14a

 

Linking these two workshops together I see links in the visual art of an image and how we can perceive images. Whether it be a full painted picture or a dot made on a page. Our mind can connect with it and lead us to be creative, as I can see by the way ‘windows in the west’ was brought to life in the drama workshop and then the way a dot was added to through our minds. The way our thoughts have all identified different situations and events from still images and added detail and information, all adds dimension to our children and individuals in helping them relate to real life.

 

 

Referencing

 

  • Fleming, M (2012) The arts in education: An introduction to aesthetics, theory and pedagogy. London:Routledge
  • How to draw to remember more – Graham shaw – TEDxVienna [online] available https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=107&v=gj3ZnKlHqxI[accessed: 19/09/2019]
  • Marshall, J. (2014) Transdisciplinarity And Art Integration: Toward A New Understanding Of Art-Based Learning Across The Curriculum, Studies in Art Education, 55:2, 104-127
  • Eisner, E (2002) The Arts and the creation of mind New Haven CT: Yale University Press
  • Csikszentmihalyi, M (2013) Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention New York:Harper Collins

 

Week 1 – Visual Arts and Drama

The arts in schools is an important experience for children, in all aspects as it allows them to be creative, within their thoughts and expressions. These can be produced and created through the use of paper, identifying colours, use of their words, or sometimes just the movement or expression is all that’s needs. Reflecting on my experience today I see how these can be produced and how they can link together.

“The arts are not the flowers, but the roots of education” (Crowther, 1980)

I identified with the child’s perspectives within the aspects of drama and visual arts, especially through drama where insecurities become apparent in an individual’s minds with possibly feeling nervous during a drama lesson or feeling their artwork is dismissed. It is important to further a child’s creativeness through allowing them to be inquisitive to their ideas and pieces of work, asking them questions about what is that you have created or why did you choose these colours. Some children will be able to stand out, but some may need that little bit of time and have that reassurance there that this is ok too.

Visual arts interactions play a key part in a child’s interactions through a creative process in the classroom, learners can gain from their expression and identification of skills. “Visual art education develops an understanding of the creative practice through knowledge, understanding, and production of art in contexts.” (INSEA, 2018)

Reflecting on visual arts today I was able to select this painting of flowers, done by a child within the early stages. Noticing this painting through the colours of the flowers stem and buds to it standing out on the black paper. The precision the child has taken in the colour choice and strokes, amazed me for the early years. McAuliffe (2007) explained how ‘children’s artwork tends to progressively demonstrate closer attention to detail,’ however there is still the common factors for this age and stage, shown through the bigger brush and creating big strokes, or using the larger piece of paper, so the child doesn’t need to be concise and can express themselves fully on a bigger scale.

Education Scotland (2017) states visual arts to look at learners gaining rich opportunities to be creative and to experience inspiration and enjoyment. This was evident at the ways this can be done from seeing a range of work from primary school learners.

Children create these images on paper but with the use of drama, they can make these images become actions or the opposite of being able to make their movements into a still picture. From my experience, today of being involved in various drama conventions such as hot seating, thought tunnel, freeze frame and improvisation. All these enable the children to link their visual thoughts into actions, with the main convention to bring them out being teacher in role. The curriculum experiences and outcomes state how ‘exploring real and imaginary situations help learners to understand and share their world.’ (Education Scotland, n.d.) Both visual arts and drama enable children to do this and connect the two together.

Looking at both these aspects within arts in my practice I want to let the child reach their full capacity of creativeness and not restricting their minds. I would want to display their artwork so they can look back on it but also make connections as they partake in their drama lesson. As a child can hopefully link their learning through drama to creating an image in visual arts, being able to express further than their movements to add colour or an idea of how their idea looks. I want to be open to letting the child use the arts to escape and express to you their ideas

5 year old’s painting
Description of painting

 

References

  • Education Scotland (n.d.) Curriculum for excellence: expressive arts Experiences and Outcomes [online] Available at: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf[Accessed: 10/09/2019]
  • McAuliffe, D. (2007) Foundation and primary settings. In Teaching Art and Design 3-11 (edited by Cox, S., Watts, R., Grahame, J., Herne, S. and McAuliffe, D.)London:Continuum.
  • Crowther (1959) in Crowe S. (2006) Lifelong Learning and the Arts: “The Arts are not the Flowers, But the Roots of Education“. In: Chapman J., Cartwright P., Mcgilp E.J. (eds) Lifelong Learning, Participation and Equity. Lifelong Learning Book Series, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht
  • InSEA (2018) The InSEA Manifesto 2018 [online] available: http://insea.org/InSEA-Manifesto [accessed: 10/09/2019]