Monthly Archives: December 2016

6/12/16 Art

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In todays art input, we were introduced to Room 13.  Room 13 is an art studio/business run by primary school students in  Fort William. It had originally started out as a spare room which was turned into  creative place where children could have the freedom to create any kind of art they want, , rather than following a teachers step by step instructions, which is unfortunately the way most art lessons are these days. Room 13 encourages independent learning and creative expression.

“Room 13 offers young people a platform from which to speak, and as a result of their experiences, there are areas of life about which they may speak with some authority.” (Gibb, 2012)

What had started out as a small project turned into an international network of studios, after the success of the original room 13.

We then went on to discuss some of the images produced in room 13. This was the image my group had:

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The caption on it reads “Room 13 allows time to question. It is good to question whats going on, the reasons for things.” We spoke about how it is good for children to question, as it encourages them to become independent thinkers. Curiosity can also inspire creativity. Questioning also helps them to have a better understanding of the world around them, questioning shows that they want to learn. This fits in with a quote from Gibb about room 13, “students are introduced to a broad spectrum of ideas concerning not just arts, but political, social and environmental issues, timeless philosophical and international questions. They disseminate this information in a multitude of ways, and become adept at articulating responses and posing pertinent questions.” (Gibb, 2012)

Overall I feel that Room 13 promotes aspects of children’s learning in many areas, not just within the arts. The freedom they have in room 13 allows them to become creative and confident individuals, and independent learners. I think it is a great idea that all schools could benefit from and it shows how important the arts can be in the development of a child.

References

Gibb, C. (2012) Room13: The movement and the International Network. Blackwell Publishing LTD

6/12/16 Music

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In our last music input we learned about Figure notes. Figure notes are an alternative way of reading music, instead of reading notes off a stave you read the coloured shapes which represent notes.  Many people can struggle with learning to read music, and for people with additional support needs or learning difficulties it can be too much for them to compute. This is why I think figure notes are a great tool to use, as it can break down barriers for people who struggle with reading music and allows anyone to have the joy of playing an instrument.

“Music is communication. Music is play. And most importantly, music is for us of us, not just the specialists.” (Page, 1995). This quote reiterates the point that anyone can learn to play an instrument if they have the right resources and the right support.

This also gives children who cannot read music the opportunity to be a part of a band or orchestra and play alongside children who do read conventional music, with a feeling of equality. Opportunities to play as part of a musical group can also develop the child’s team work skills and develop their confidence.

They can also then progress on to reading conventional sheet music, after building up their confidence and a base of music knowledge through the figure notes.

As someone who has read music from a young age, I found the figure notes quite strange at first, but after seeing how quickly some of my non-musical friends picked it up and managed to play a short piece on the keyboard or glockenspiel, I could clearly see that this is a great tool to start anyone off on learning an instrument.

References

Drake Music Scotland (2016) Figure Notes. [Online] Available: http://www.drakemusicscotland.org/figurenotes/ [Accessed 28 December 2016]

Page, N. (1995) Music as a way of knowing. Maine: Stenhouse Publishers

 

29/11/16 Drama

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In this weeks drama lesson, it was my groups turn to do our micro teaching task of creating a drama lesson on a children’s book of our choice. A picture book can offer a good framework for a drama lesson to be built on and be used a stimulus to create new scenes (Baldwin, 2008).

The book we had chosen was “A squash and a squeeze” which tells the tale of an old woman who complains that her house is too small, so she takes advice from a wise old man who tells her to fill up her house with farm animals, so that when she removes the animals she will see that she has more room than she realises. I think the message behind this book is that you should always be grateful and appreciate what you’ve got, rather than complaining about what you could have instead.

After reading the book to class, the first activity we got the class to do was a freeze frame of what the groups would image her house to look like whilst it was full of all the farm animals.

The next activity we got the class to do was a thought tunnel and we asked the class to shout out one word to describe the old woman. Some shouted words like “Lonely” others shouted words like “bitter” and “ungrateful”.

The last activity we got the class to do was a role on the wall where we asked them to write down how the old woman saw herself on the inside, and what the old man thought about her on the outside.  Most people used words like “alone” to describe how she saw herself and words like “childish” and “naive” from the man’s perspective.

After some self evaluation at the end, overall we thought it went well. However if we were going to do it again we would possibly replace one of the last two tasks with something different as the answers for the last two tasks were very similar and a bit repetitive. We could replace one with  hot seating and get someone in the class to play the old woman or the wise old man, or get the class to do a short improvisation scene of the conversation between the two.

 

After completing this micro teaching task, it made me realise how much easier it was to construct a drama lesson having learned the various activities. Before studying this module I had never been taught any of these at school myself. When I did drama at school it was simple reading lines from a script, which was why I did not enjoy it. Whereas, these activities can make the lesson far more interesting and engaging for the pupils. I would definitely now have the confidence to teach drama lessons to classes in the future.

References

Baldwin, P. (2008) The Practical Primary Drama Handbook. Sage publications LTD

29/11/16 Music

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“The benefits of learning to play an instrument include the development of social skills; gaining a love and enjoyment of music; developing team-work; developing a sense of achievement, confidence and self-discipline; and developing physical co-ordination” (Hallam & Prince, 2000).

This week in music we looked at the instruments which would be used in a primary classroom, in particular we look at the ukulele.  I found this to be an interesting choice because when I had class music lessons in primary school it was always either the recorder or glockenspiel. We started off by learning the notes on each string and then went on to learning the 4 chords which make up many songs. After learning the different strumming patterns and fingerings for the different chords, we were able to put all of this together to play ‘Last Christmas’ by wham.

Before todays input, ukulele would not have been an instrument I would’ve thought I could teach to a primary class. After having guitar lessons myself,  I know that chord positions and strumming patterns can be very tricky, and I assumed Ukulele would be too difficult to teach to a full class of primary pupils. However, after seeing how quickly everyone picked it up from watching the ‘Axis of Awesome’ You Tube videos that broke it all down step but step, I have now changed my mind. Having online resources like that are very useful, as it would mean that if the class were struggling with any particular area the teacher could go back to the specific part of the video and go over it again with them until it falls into place. It would also allow children to do their own practice at home if they had access to a ukulele.

I found learning the Ukulele to be an enjoyable experience that I picked up quickly, and would definitely consider using it with a class in the future.

 

References

Axis of Awesome. (2011) 4 Chords | Music Videos | The Axis Of Awesome. [Online] Available:https://youtu.be/oOlDewpCfZQ [Accessed 5 January 2017]

 

Hallam & Prince ( 2000) In: Hallam, S. (2010) The power of music: Its impact on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people. International Journal of Music Education. [Online] Vol. 28(3), pp. 269–289 Available: http://moodle.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/715660/mod_resource/content/2/International%20Journal%20of%20Music%20Education-2010-Hallam-269-89.pdf [Accessed 28 December 2016]

15/11/16 Music

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This week in music we explored the music programme “Charanga” (Charanga, 2016). I had heard of this programme before, as it was used in the school I was in on my first placement and I know the class teacher thought it was a great resource. However this was the first chance I had gotten to explore it myself.

It is a website with an incredible amount of online resources for music teachers, it provides them with everything to prepare a music lesson for any stage in the curriculum. There are full lesson plans, which follow a week by week programme making it easy for teachers to track the children’s progression. This is great  support for new teachers or teachers who are not confident with music.

It has various interactive activities, sheet music which can be downloaded and printed out for many different instruments and backing tracks for songs. This is practical as the teacher does not have to accompany the children in singing lessons.

Within the vast bank of songs, there is music relating to other areas of the curriculum such as Times Table songs and numeracy songs. This is an interesting way of integrating music into the other curricular areas and it is a great way of engaging children in other subjects. Personally I find putting something into song helps me to remember it better, therefore with the likes of the timetables song, these activities could aid children who are struggling to remember them.

Charanga also has section dedicated to the BBC’s ten pieces programme (BBC, 2015) which I had not been familiar until now. The purpose of the 10 pieces programme is to introduce children to classical music in an exciting and engaging way by getting them to create their own response to the pieces through the arts, whether it be a composition of their own, a dance or digital art. Charanga provides a whole lesson plan and a tool kit full of activities for each of the 10 pieces. Again this is incredibly helpful for teachers who do not have an in-depth knowledge on classical music but would still like their class to take part in this interesting programme.

Overall I thought that charanga was a great resource for all teachers, no matter what their music ability and it is definitely something that I would consider using in the future. I hope that programmes like this encourage teachers who are not confident in music to give these preprepared lessons a try, and allow more music into the classroom.

References 

BBC (2015) 10 Pieces. [Online] Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01vs08w  [Accessed 6 January]

Charanga (2016) Charanga music school. [Online] Available at: http://www.charangascotland.co.uk [Accessed 3 January 2017].

15/11/16 Art

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In this weeks art session we looked at the painting ‘Windows in the West’ by the Scottish artist, Avril Paton. For me this painting always brings back fond memories of when I was younger and enjoyed  going to Kelvin Grove art galleries with my Grandpa, who was an architect and very much encouraged and inspired my in interest in the arts. This particular painting was one that we would always come back to and discuss, it was a favourite of mine in the gallery. Each different window tells its own story and there are so many tiny details, I always found it incredibly interesting. Although the average person only looks at a painting for a few seconds, I always felt this was a painting I could look time and time again and always find something new. “Through the arts we learn to see things we had not noticed, to feel what we had not felt and to employ forms of thinking that are indigenous to the arts” (Eisner, 2002 p.12)

Because of my personal connection with this painting I found it throughly interesting to hear what the artist had to say about the painting herself:

 

 

We used inspiration from Windows in the West to create our own prints. We focused on a specific area of the painting in detail, rather than the whole image, and then drew the outline onto polystyrene. By covering the polystyrene in ink we were then able to use this as a stamp to create interesting prints onto coloured paper. We also discussed how different colour combinations of the coloured inks and the coloured paper can give the print a whole new dynamic. I chose to use red and green to give it a christmas feel.

Overall I felt like it was a fairly straightforward task, that was enjoyable and could be integrated into any topic or subject.

References

Eisner, E. (2002) The Arts and the Creation of the Mind. Yale University Press/ New Haven & London

Glasgow museums (2011) Avril Paton on “Windows in the West” at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow. [Online] Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVDRL6wsQYU&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 3 January 2017]