Integrated Arts: workshop – drama and dance.
Drama: This week in drama was the final micro-teaching lessons, in which other students in the class taught us a Drama lesson. We were given free range of what we could teach, as long as it was based on a book. The main content of each of the lessons taught were different drama techniques such as role on the wall and thought tunnel. Role on the wall is when you write in and around a character outline, words that others see the character as and as the character sees themselves, with words such as brave, frightening and small. Thought tunnel is when one person acts as a character and walks past everyone in the class, whilst they say a word to describe that character. We discussed that when teaching a primary class drama, we need to remind the children that we are acting, and the person playing the role, is not necessarily like the character. For example, if somebody is playing the antagonist, pupils may need reminded that it is all an act. Reflecting on the first drama workshop, I would feel much more confident now teaching my primary class Drama as a subject. Over the past few weeks in our workshops, I have learned different drama techniques and ways that drama can be used across the curriculum. We can use drama to teach lessons such as Literacy and Maths and even subjects like Science.
**I use drama to explore real and imaginary situations, helping me to understand my world.
EXA 0-14a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.66)
Dance: In this weeks Dance workshop, we created a Christmas themed dance. Firstly, we split into groups and were given a task each. This task was either to create a warmup, 3 Christmas themed warm up games, visual moves or 10 moves to correspond with the 10 main dance moves which we learned on the first week, such as jump and slide. My group were given the task of creating the 10 main dance moves. We used Christmas themes to keep with the topic such as star jumps for jump and wrapping a present for roll. This task showed us how easy it would be to teach pupils Dance as they could come up with moves and connect them all together, then show the class. Next, we drew two christmas pictures for another group to create 2 moves. This showed everyones creative sides as we had to decide a dance move to go with pictures like a snowman or a cracker. We then went on to creating a routine which didn’t take too long as each group had already created 2 moves. We connected all the moves together for the main part of the dance. Afterwards, we split into our smaller groups to practise a routine we had created in a previous week, which would then be used in small sections of the new Christmas dance. Dance, at first, seemed like a difficult subject to teach a class, however, I feel more confident now as the 10 main dance moves are quite easy to adapt to go with any topic.
*I am becoming aware of different features of dance and can practise and perform steps, formations and short dance.
EXA 1-10a** (Scottish Government, 2004, p.63)
Reflection
Drama: Teaching children Drama has positive implications, however, when teaching younger children, there are a few things that need to be discussed. Teachers should remind the children that everybody is just playing a character, and that the person playing the character, is not meaning to be nasty. Our lecturer informed us of this due to experience of having children falling out over drama activities. After the workshop and micro-teaching tasks, I have learned how to create a successful Drama lesson which will engage children and most importantly, allow them to share their own ideas and experiences. One issue with teaching Drama would be not knowing how to keep children fully engaged. We discovered ways to do this through the micro-teaching activities. Asking the pupils questions to get ideas is an important part of Drama. Using techniques such as ‘teacher in role’ will ensure the pupils stay included as it will be a new experience for them. As teachers, we just need to be confident and throw ourselves at the task, and hope for the best.
Dance: Splitting into groups to create activities to warm up, was another great way for team building to be involved in our Dance lesson. Throughout the Dance inputs, it has been highlighted that as teachers, we must ensure that children are warming up properly before taking part in not only Dance, but any form of movement. “When children create dances using their ideas, they are empowered to explore their thoughts, feelings, and perspectives” (Cone, 2009, p.81). Allowing children to create their own dance, rather than to copy a dance, creates a sense of pride. Performing their own dance to an audience, would be much more fulfilling than a copied dance. This is due to their own dance showcasing their own ideas and their own creativity.
Link
The link for these workshops would be acceptance. As a teacher, we need to accept the ideas of a child during the Arts, and allow these ideas, in this case, to shape a drama performance and a dance routine. In Drama, we discussed that children will want to create their own characters, and in Dance, we discussed that children need to create their own dance moves to keep them motivated.
References
Cone, Purcell, T. (2009). Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. London: Routledge.
Scottish Government. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence [online] Available: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf [Accessed: 18 December 2017]
