The final week of inputs has arrived, and I feel a more creative and empowered individual as a learner as well as having a bank of skills to use when educating others. This week our first focus involved music, an area I have always noted as being unconfident in and unsure of myself within the class, however this week I could reflect on what had been learnt over the previous inputs and the enjoyment music has given me.

Today our instrument focus was a ukulele, which I have never handled before, but I was excited about it. I was intrigued by the ukulele and enjoyed learning about tuning it and the different order of the strings to its similar instrument of a guitar. It was useful to learn about how a previous resource we had an input in, charanga, was something we could use to go through the process of tuning with the children.

Learning about the ukulele there was simple steps and images we can display to children online such as this image:

This use of numbers can be more representative of children and understanding the strings and notes. With this, stickers on the part of the ukulele we place our fingers, can aid the playing of notes on the fret, these are our base chords.

Benefits that come from the ukulele can include:

• Simple methods for learning notes opening up a huge variety of songs from traditional to pop for any level;
• The Ukulele is tunable and enables students to not only learn pitch but the relative pitch
• Students are learning hand-eye coordination, fine and gross motor skills. (Cahill, n.d)

Working together to get the placement of fingers and learning co-ordination of moving fingers onto different chords can be good skills for learners to acknowledge. As a learner, a key thing I took was the knowledge of fingers that can stay in the same place or the movement to close by stickers. This simple knowledge, helped me adjust and learn how to manipulate my fingers on the strings to play the notes.

A vital thing for children is that it is kept simple as in the note forms or playing the songs that are required. Noted through this video, we can see the way that 4 notes CFG and Am are all that is required in a lot of known pop songs.

Children can relate to these songs and can encourage them to learn and participate in music.

As it was Christmas our final performance as a whole peer group was ‘last Christmas,’ which was an enjoyable experience to play the ukulele at the end of this lesson after struggling with the chord transitions, as I found the more fingers required the more complicated it was.

Next up was our final dance input, which meant it was time for our performance. This final presentation is something children will look forward to but others will be anxious about it, so it is important to manage this as the teacher.

Firstly, we had some practice time as some students had been absent and also altering parts as some struggled with one aspect. This is vital in working collaboratively and adjusting appropriately where appropriate. Next, this would be combined to practice as a whole group to put the timings and parts of the dance together, as well as a refresh before the filming takes place. These stages and a discussion with learners on why we film is vital, as we discuss how we can use these moments to alter before a final performance on stage.

This can be done through the use of 3 stars and a wish about the performance and can be done about yourself or your peers as peer feedback. This can then lead to editing parts the children feel they want to edit of the dance.

Bloomfield (2012) discusses the way of recording dance can link to the critical thinking that can take place as improvement can then occur as children think through their dances and can contemplate their movements.

With this, the teacher needs to demonstrate key words and aspects of dance children need to explore when evaluating the dance. For example, this can look at energy levels or the timing of the group, to focusing on skills or choreographic devices in the routine such as kicks and turns or repetition or formation. These aspects can aid children in being able to reflect on what they have produced but also learn keywords related to dance.

This task identifies with the curriculum through the experience and outcome within the dance of:

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

EXA 0-11a, EXA 1-11a, EXA 2-11a

(Scottish Government, 2017)

This final performance can be daunting and watching yourself back can be something individuals don’t want to do, but it is important to relay to the children the enjoyment that is to be had with this and there is no wrong all expression is personal. These personal pieces of work and creativity will hopefully build confidence in a learner and empower them to know what they can do when they put their minds to it and open up to the arts.

The end of these inputs identifies the way that at first in all these art forms can be daunting and how as an educator they may find it hard. However, through simple steps, the arts can create these wonderful, creative final pieces and build confidence in the learner. With this, I have also had my eyes open to the multitude of ways the arts links into key academic areas of the curriculum, in strong and positive manners. I come away from all these experiences as a more creative, confidence, open-minded learner and educator. This module showed how “creative work grows out of each individual arts discipline and its combination with another” identifying to myself how the processes that emerged are in fact “rooted in the nature of the arts themselves” (Bloomfield,2012)

This shows to me as an educator the vital need for the arts within our primary education settings.

 

References

 

Scottish Government (2017) Curriculum for excellence: expressive arts. Experiences and Outcomes[Online] available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf [accessed: 9/12/2019]

Bloomfield, A. (2012) Teaching integrated arts in the primary school. Routledge: New York

Cahill, N. (N.D.) Ukulele in Today’s Classroom: How the ukulele can benefit your music education [online] Available: https://nafme.org/ukulele-todays-music-classroom/ [accessed: 09/12/2019]

The axis of awesome (2011) 4 Chords | Music Videos  [online] available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOlDewpCfZQ [accessed: 09/12/2019]

 

 

 

Our penultimate week of arts has arrived, with a bank of knowledge already in the bag and more to learn over 2 weeks. Personally, I can see the creative benefits in my level of confidence in the arts and also as a whole human being.

Our first input of learning focused on creative dance, and the way dance can be promoted in schools. Which the curriculum engages with, in the way they inform practices children should have opportunities to create, perform and appreciate dance. A key informant of dance in the curriculum has been, Cone. (2009) who discusses how “Empowering children to create dances about what is personally meaningful presents them with the responsibility and commitment to bring their vision alive.”

As a practitioner, my role is to engage with the ten basic skills and impart this to children for them to interact with. These skills help a learner embark on skills within collaborative work, key communication and also through self-expression.

For a teacher, to positively portray dance it is vital to engage with it in schools through encouraging a creative process. This can be done through the use of images or videos in the classroom or even visiting places of dance can promote a vision of dance to our learners. These steps will encourage children in participating in the dance lessons, and the 10 basic skills, mentioned in previous blogs, is key to allow children to have meaningful, interdisciplinary lessons with dance. Through the promotion of dance in schools, performances can be created, and it can become a very topical experience for children as they can learn about different countries and cultures through dance. Even in the past few weeks of my engagement of dance I can see the benefits of it and the feeling of enjoyment that can be had in these lessons.

First, today was focused on music, where we looked at playing the glockenspiel and reading the music on the sheets to playing as a whole. I found this input difficult, as I am not a very musical person and find co-ordination of reading and playing the music quite difficult. We focused upon a musical alphabet at first, to make it easier as we understood the notes we were playing. With children this could focus upon a say, clap, play process, so they can begin to understand the rhythm and the beats of the piece of music.

These inputs demonstrated to me the way to break the music down into the layers we read it in, to add a structure to the process and the way we can repeat lines in a piece, but it is the same order within the music. Being able to understand these processes can make it more relatable for a learner in the classroom, as it did for me. This can build confidence in playing the instrument to lead to the final part of the lesson, improvisation.

“Improvisation is a distinguished feature of most music practices and children have been shown to benefit from learning to improvise in experientially different ways” (Larsson, Georgii-Hemmings, 2019)

This focused on the pentatonic scale which is the notes CDEGA. These notes will sound good whatever order they are played in so they are good for children to engage with improvisation and gain skills in performing but also active listening of others and supporting them. After a period of anxiousness before my turn, it was a very enjoyable, engaging experience.

This afternoon’s focus on dance was another fun and engaging one as we as groups took charge of the warm-up games. Each group created a different game that children could engage with, which we focused on the theme of Christmas. Engaging with a game of tig the learners would have catchers, which once an individual was tagged someone would have to wrap tinsel around the Christmas tree to free them. This can be a fun seasonal activity in which children could identify co-operative and teamwork skills. Using this gave us as students a small experience of microteaching within a dance lesson, but also an idea of how we can let children lead the lesson and the activities in dance.

Moving to the main session the focus was building on the previous two inputs of the 10 basic skills and combining to create a dance. The practice was first, as this is vital to give children the chance to work collaboratively and recap on previous learning together. The teacher can make small interventions into the dance through moments like today’s input, to make the dance aesthetically pleasing. This focuses on creating a beginning and an end pose as well as the addition of choreographic devices.

Combining these elements together involves focus upon key skills in collaboration and timings, within our groups as we pitched ideas together and figured out what worked within our routine. The next step was performing altogether and putting the whole dance together with all parts. This focused upon transitions and still within the theme of Scotland to link in our positions and movement. All this came from the learners’ work and ideas, which is easy to use within a class and can empower children.

Today’s art forms linked together in the way they can be broken into small elements or layers of the art form. This identified to me the methods we can use as educators to integrate the arts into our classrooms and build confidence within a child. As within the classroom the creative process is made prominent through the link of these workshops as they are “investigating a problem or issue, exploring multiple viewpoints and options, generating and testing out ideas, developing, refining and communicating solutions and evaluating whether or not they have worked.” (Education Scotland, 2013)

They can build up in steps to then create a final piece at the end of the process, that they can enjoy and feel empowered from.

References

Education Scotland (2013) Creativity Across Learning 3-18 [online] available: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/Creativity/CRE1_WhatAreCreativitySkills/Creativity3to18.pdf[Accessed:

Cone, T.P. (2009) Following their lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for creating dances, Journal of Dance education, Vol 9(3), pp. 81-89

Larsson, C., Georgii-Hemmings, E. (2019) Improvisation in General Music Education – a Literature Review British Journal of Music Education, Vol 36(1), pp. 49-67

 

 

As this module is growing to a close, I can identify the confidence growing within and feeling more creative when it comes to thinking of new ideas within each art form. With that, it is also empowering me as a teacher with techniques and approaches to use in my own classroom environment in the future.

The second week of dance was an enjoyable experience in which we could collaboratively build on the previous weeks start. Working together and putting order to the ten basic skills we had learnt the previous week, as we put together our combinations, we used different skills to do so together.

Firstly, we went through the process of a warm-up, as this is a vital part when we are teaching physical movement. Even if at first as a teacher you do not feel confident in doing a warm-up, a resource such as this video can assist you in the classroom.

 

The main part of the input was the choreography being put together, which was our first involvement in thinking collaborative and questioning the flow of our moves as a collection. This enquiry-based process as a team built confidence within and taking leads in counting the beats of the moves. The final piece of this was to perform to the audience of our peers, which feels nervous at first but as a group, this can ease this process. Once I did it I realised the enjoyment and joy that could be felt from performance-based arts and knowledge that it was all our own production.

The next stage of this input we explored a cross-curricular activity called the phone number game, focusing on any dance style and creating a movement for numbers 0 to 9. This was everyone in the section, but I felt confident after the first half to contribute a move, which I wouldn’t have done at the start of the dance inputs. These moves were put in order and then we worked out maths equations, to give us numbers 0-9, then 2 of these were allocated to you to add on to your dance routine, for your group.

Students working with academic skills and social skills through dance and the use of  collaboration can be effective in increasing self-esteem, retention, achievement, and attitudes toward school as a whole (Bennett, Rollheiser and strevahn, 1991)

 

These inputs seem individual in part but in fact are all sections of a mass dance, which will be created by the learners. For this, we needed a beginning, to which in our groups we were given two pictures of famous Scottish landmarks, from Edinburgh Castle to the kelpies. This part involved a creative side to choosing a move, but also to learn about Scottish landmarks in a lesson could be part of it.

The children used all their collaborative skills to design and create, with little teacher input. This emphasises how to dance. Can be incorporated into functioning themes in the classroom with not a lot of extra teaching required. Tina Bruce (2004) stated this as cultivating creativity, as the role of teachers was supporting rather than imposing on their learning and allows for creativity to emerge.

In music this week the focus was on the figure notes resources, which is a website resource to create a notation system for children to engage with. The musical notes are represented by coloured symbols, meaning if you are able to match the colour symbols on the instruments to the piece, you can play. This method makes it a very accessible resource for all learners as well as being a good resource for building confidence in our learners within a musical education environment. The biggest barrier within music is normally the part of reading music, and especially with autistic children, as they struggle as they are more visual learners. Figure notes can be very intuitive to them as learners can read music and play it the same as people who read music in its’ notation form.

I can sing and play music from other styles and cultures, showing growing confidence and skill while learning about musical notation and performance directions. (Scottish Government, 2017)

For my experience with this, I can relate to the way it built confidence within myself, after not being a very strong musical individual. We used xylophones to create our music and interact with the symbols, which was enjoyable and working in pairs meant, problem-solving could be done collaboratively.

Figurenotes is an “intuitive way of reading music helps you to play almost instantly, increasing confidence and motivation.” (Figurenotes, n.d)

With this comes practicing individually and then putting together as a whole with your other peers. These processes assist in giving children time to get their heads around the process and the matching, plus learning the rhythms and beats of the songs.

I felt this can be an engaging experience for the learner through collaborative working but also being able to adapt and learn in a simpler fashion. Which can open up children to have positive engagements with music to build on.

In this weeks’ inputs I link the two art forms in the way children can learn about expressive arts they may describe as being difficult to learn from or to partake with at first, however through simplified methods, learners can engage with them positively. For example, with the 10 basic skills for dancing and having relatable coloured shapes, to read and play music on an instrument. Learning these simplified methods in these forms can build skills in a child as they are overcome with new confidence from their succession. They can then feel more comfortable and they begin to build upon these skills in future dance or music inputs. Now the pressures off they work collaboratively and input ideas together and create a final production, that they may or not expected at the first mention of dance or music. Each individual gets, to play their part in a whole production, which can make them develop as a learner in the academic world.

References

Figurenotes(n.d) Figurenotes [online] available: https://www.figurenotes.org/what-is-figurenotes/[accessed: 15/11/2019]

Scottish Government (n.d.) Curriculum for excellence: expressive arts. Experiences and Outcomes[Online] available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf [accessed: 15/11/2019]

Bruce, T. (2004) Cultivating Creativity in Babies, Toddlers and Young Children. London: Hodder and Stoughton Educational.

 

Today I got my first experience of dance, learning about its use within a classroom was an exciting opportunity to get. Firstly, nerves of peers watching began to filter in, my confidence levels were low leading me to become unsure of ways to incorporate it into school-based learning.

Identifying how dance can be incorporated into interdisciplinary learning as we can link it in our classroom to multiple areas of the curriculum. This is key in engaging children in movements and creating meaningful links to learning through maths or literacy. Connections can be furthered in our teaching of dance through providing topical education through the medium of dance and being able to experience this myself I feel this can make it a more interactive and enjoyable experience, especially for children. Such as focusing on seasons through winter movements, through events such as creating a Halloween dance or to countries, where learning about India the class can create an Indian themed dance. These can be fun and engaging experiences don’t have to distract from a vast amount of time in class, these don’t have to be dedicated time but more to incorporate them into our lessons.

Back to my experience in the workshop which expands on the focus of theming and linking into the pedagogy of the time, creating our focus of Scotland as we were around st. Andrews day. This is a good link to make as there are lots of Scottish dance experiences for children and also the sights that we explore can be familiar to lots of children. Beginning with a key part of the dance, a warm-up, through the Incorporation of games allowing children to engage with movements. As education discusses the links this can have on their physical education and wellbeing within the school, teachers can embrace this in their teaching. (Scottish Government, 2017)

I also valued the learning of being about to warm up through stretches and how there may be children within my class that does dance already and could possibly take the warm-up part, which can empower students and encourage confidence within them. It was also vital to engage with knowledge of our bodies and parts of the body we are going to use, this can be an active part of teaching about health and wellbeing to children.

To begin our involvement we focused on the 10 basic dance skills that are all that is needed for individuals to engage in dance. These were identified as: balance, jump, kick, reach, hop, roll, slide, turn and twist.

“One of the most powerful experiences dance educators can offer children is the opportunity to create a dance that reflects their ideas.” (Cone, 2009)

As we covered these in groups, it quickly became clear how we could link these and come up with many ideas for each skill. This enabled confidence to grow within as we collaborated to choose one idea for each skill. I can identify how children can feel empowered through these dance skills and being able to work collaboratively can encourage them as they share ideas. Lots of children in the classroom can be unconfident in the academic environment but being able to identify with dance and build confidence can encourage them to achieve.

I have the opportunity and freedom to choose and explore ways that I can move rhythmically, expressively and playfully.

EXA 0-08a

I enjoy creating short dance sequences, using travel, turn, jump, gesture, pause and fall, within safe practice.

EXA 1-08a

Our afternoon workshop involved an exploration of musical instruments however, it was children from a p7 class visiting to in fact become the teacher and show us skills in playing instruments. This was lovely to be able to see the children feeling the way they have been entrusted with this and being able to relay their knowledge and skills. They engage in this program for 40 -50 minutes a week playing string instruments, emphasising the empowerment that I don’t feel I had in music within education and could see first-hand the way these children played their cello’s, violins and violas with pride. Russell-Bowie (2009) discussed the ways in which children who gained a consistent and also higher level of involvement with the instrumental side of music showed higher levels academically, this is proven with the ride of attainment from this program within schools

“who learn to play the violin exhibit a strong sense of personal accomplishment because they realize that if they can learn something as complicated as the violin, they can apply those same principles to others things that seem challenging.” [Revelle Team, 2015]

With, also being able to see the empowerment they felt with their instruments and sharing information. Even giving us a shot under their control, made me feel a little nervous as the children were so good at playing them while also from a perspective of not having held any of these string instruments before I felt intrigued and engaged in the skills I was to use.

Interdisciplinary learning can be encouraged through the idea of a maths game where we used note’s value to work out sums and the importance of beats and rhythm in a child incorporating with syllables. Children being able to learn through beats and instruments the world can become a child’s oyster.

One of the vital things I took from the input from the children was the starting with a small bow to learn the grip of a bow. This can be important and also engages the fine motor skills of a child, which some may struggle with the idea of grip on a pencil, so this can help them in the way they manipulate their fingers when holding an object of creation. They will learn to hold the bow accurately, pluck the strings at times, and place his/her fingers vigilantly to regulate the notes. These activities can help improve bilateral integration using both sides of the body while maintaining coordination. (Woo, 2019)

With this, as we moved onto the big bow and learning the notes on the strings, I felt proud when I created a noise and felt inquisitive to the children about how they play it and how they find it when playing. I put myself in their shoes and enjoyed this new learning but also learning off children I could sense the value this process has for children.

Link of arts today I felt the empowerment the arts can give to children who maybe don’t feel as academically confident as others. They can be empowered through the enjoyments of dance to being able to showcase their musical skills. Both these can aid in enhancing a child’s learning academically through engaging with the arts.

 

References

 

Woo, J. (2019) Fine-tune your motor skills [online] available: https://stagemusiccenter.com/music-school-blog-winchester-ma/2019/9/6/fine-tune-your-motor-skills[accessed: 07/11/2019]

 

Scottish Government (2017) Expressive Arts: Experiences and outcomes[online] available:https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf[accessed: 07/11/2019]

 

Revelle Team (2015) Does Playing a musical Instrument help with motor skills[online] available: https://www.connollymusic.com/stringovation/does-playing-a-musical-instrument-help-with-motor-skills[accessed: 07/11/2019]

 

Cone, T.P. (2009) Following their lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for creating dances, Journal of Dance education, Vol 9(3), pp. 81-89

 

Russell-Bowie, D. (2009) What me? Teach music to my primary class? Challenges to teaching music in primary schools in five countries Music education Research, Vol. 11(1) pp. 23-36

Being half-way through this module, I can see my skills widening and my acknowledgement of the arts within primary schools being a vital area of teaching, becoming more enabled to the interconnections being made through-out, to other areas of the arts but also to the wider curriculum. Sometimes the arts don’t overlap and that is okay, whereas linking them to other areas of the curriculum always seems apparent.

This week I started in drumming within our music workshop, which is something I haven’t overly partaken in even through my own schooling experience. I pondered the idea of being able to keep co-ordination and timing, or even to the gripping of drumsticks.

Holding the sticks felt weird at first, do I hold them like a pencil? Do I hold them tightly or loosely? As I got to grip with them, we began to look at reading music on the screen. Reading the music, I applied skills of analytical thinking, to work out the beats and the timings, identifying to myself the way reading music can be introduced into a classroom, through using a more familiar image, such as shapes to then translate into musical notes at a later time. Being able to read music is not a key part of the curriculum, however, it enables children to make connections in areas of literacy as they read the music in beats, like letters or to count how many are on the screen.

Inspired by a range of stimuli and working on my own and/or with others, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through musical activities.

EXA 0-18a / EXA 1-18a / EXA 2-18a (Scottish Government, 2017)

As we use these methods in class we can in-fact, use everyday materials around the classroom to play on. Showing how you do not need to have a physical drum in your presence to make drumming part of your lessons in a classroom.

“art enquiry processes to promote a deep and holistic understanding of concepts and ideas that matter to our students…” (Marshall, J. 2014)

Using drums and creating a rhythm, exploring that pulsing beat and link to areas of the curriculum through the idea of syllables as a rhythmic pattern, where this idea of the beats linking to teaching literacy can make it more relatable for children. They can start with physically clapping the beats moving onto using drumming sticks, helping them get used to the music before moving on to creating the pieces of music with physical materials.

Music can also be used in active lessons such as PE to keep beats and using their feet as the drumming tools. The cross-curricular work with music furthers a child’s learning but also looks at the collaborative skills that come into force as they go along with the music in times. You can make each individual child have a role and feel valued as they play the music.

Within Visual arts this week the focus was on printing. Using our own creations and protests to create a bold presentation of our thoughts and words. This focus can also link to literacy and enable children to learn about issues key to them and that they want to shout loudly and express themselves about.

“Print-making activities provide additional opportunities for extending the students range of expression developing awareness of the inter-relationship between shapes and colours…” (NCCA, n.d.)

Working in groups enabled collaborative thinking to have an idea and a focus. Identifying current issues and protesting about what can be done, which we chose the idea of rising sea levels and climate change. Through printing, we are being able to enable children in making thinking visual.

Linking in my own learning with key artists and why printing is a key method in education I examined the history through the book of kells. This is a key-way to begin the topic with children in, linking in their learning through history. This religious book opened up the idea of decorative texts within and making literation bold and in colour with a pattern. This illustrated work of prints enabled the early works of a printing press and a history of the connection of arts to our literacy. The works of printing enabled the world to become more literate.

This history can lead to children being interested and taking up their own pieces of printing. Teaching this can be used as an aid to make children more literate through art lessons, leading to a refresh for teachers as they break out of their routinised ways of teaching.

Identifying key artists to show children the modern ways of printing their keywords and enabling protesting, can be done through Bob and Roberta smith. These artists enable the thinking and creativity that can be used to create statements of protest. Teaching this topic can give children in the class a voice and giving them their agency in the world and to their work. Marshall (2014) points out the way that through different art processes can allow the artist learner to think about the topic more deeply expansively and personally.

This allows them to create responses to their thinking upon the topics they are discussing.

Linking through the art integration process in both these inputs today as we can focus upon literacy and also giving children agency in life. As the music links into the curriculum with PE or literacy, our visual arts can link through literacy of history. These art integrations of today have “reached beyond interpretation of academic topics to explore and interpret life centred issues…” (Marshall, 2014) The powerful and bold inputs of art showed a strong impact from big word printing to make a statement or hitting the drums loudly to explore beats, in making children know their expressions matter.

 

References

Scottish Government (2017) Curriculum for excellence: expressive arts. Experiences and Outcomes[Online] available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf [accessed on: 16/10/2019]

 

Marshall, J (2014) Transdisciplinary and Art Integration: Toward A New Understanding of Art-Based Learning Across the Curriculum, Studies in Art Education Vol. 55(2) pp.104-127

 

NCCA, (n.d.) Visual Arts [online] available:https://www.ncca.ie/en/junior-cycle/subjects-in-development/visual-art [accessed: 16/10.2019]

 

Mind Meets Music (2016) Teaching literacy through music in Grand Rapids[online] available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdZChLRWHJs [accessed:16/10/2019]