Tag Archives: Week 5

Week 5 – Drama

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We continued with “the Lonely Dragon” story from last week’s session. As with last week, we discussed some additional techniques that we could implement within the classroom.  Discussion of thought tunnels, improvisation and hot seating are all useful tools to use within school.

Hot seating was practiced first. This is where one of the students would take on the role of the dragon, and the rest would ask them questions. This allows children to come up with their own creative ideas, and lets them express their ideas with the group.

Once this was discussed, we then done some additional freeze frames and were asked to describe the thoughts and feelings of the villagers or the dragon. This gives better insight to others, and helps give people ideas if they are struggling to come up with anything.

Improvisation was the last aspect that was covered this week. We talked through the story so far and came up with ideas for the next part of the plot. This included things like talking to the dragon, the journey to the mountain where it lived and how the dragon would react. A good literacy idea would be to get the pupils to write a letter to the dragon, or perhaps writing a story of the dragons past. Through drama, children’s imagination will have improved and their literacy skills may develop.

Week 5 – Art

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After the lecture in the morning where we were introduced to Isobel Laird from South Lanarkshire Council, we were then given an arts lesson in which she instructed us to create a washing line, a background and a wall. We started with the washing line. We were told to draw a washing line with clothes on it without lifting our pen off of the paper, which Isobel demonstrated to the whole class. We were all given the same size of white paper in which to draw this washing line, which we were to complete using watercolour paints supplied by Isobel. After the completion of the first task, we were then informed that we would now be making a background.

We did this by using the watercolour paints again, but this time we were to simply choose any colours and cover the piece of A4 white paper completely so that no white was left. While that was drying, we started our last task. As a group we were given a picture of some type of brick work, e.g. a wall or a building. We were instructed to concentrate on the contrasting colours and shapes of the bricks which we would be replicating.

I used a variety of shades and shapes to create my wall, as did my peers. Although we all had the same materials, we all produced slightly different pieces of art. I think it would be more beneficial if we were given more freedom of creativity, therefore stepping away from the uniformity of art in the classroom.

As teachers, we should always strive to have a tolerance for ambiguity. It is important that we do not force children to produce the exact same outcome as their peers within the arts, as it can impact on their confidence if they feel like they have not done as well as their peers. We should also accept their mistakes and allow them the opportunity to learn from them.