Looking at another children’s story, based around a single event involving a brother and sister who didn’t get on, we were introduced to a further five drama conventions: Role on the wall, VoxPop, Mime, Thought tracking and Voice in head. This topic felt much more prescribed, and restrictive, compared to the previous drama input based on the Dragon tale. By using a book as a stimulus, albeit a digital version of the book, there was a different atmosphere and I felt after the freedom of previous session, this method was more rigid. However, I can see how taking a more structured approach to drama can aid the teacher in leading the children to a deliberate learning outcome, which is sometimes necessary to ensure the children are getting something from the lesson.
The second input this week was our second dance session. The focus today was on consolidating the skills and steps developed in the last session, through refining our group routine and adding in some steps to create a whole class performance.
To warm up, we formed a large circle and agreed upon 10 different dance moves, each assigned a number from 0-9. These moves were all Halloween related, given that this is the week leading up to Halloween. We had various moves, from a swooping Dracula twirl, to the zap of a fairy wand. We were then given a sheet of maths questions, and in our smaller groups we had to work out the answers (funnily enough, all corresponding to the dance moves) and perform the correlating dance moves in that order. This was a fantastic example of how dance can be integrated into other curricular areas, and develop skills that can be used across all areas of a child’s life, using team work, initiative, cooperation and taking responsibility for their part. It also develops memory and retention.
We then moved on to another task, in which each group was given a different printed image. All of the images were again Halloween related, although this task could easily be adapted to any topic by using images related to the chosen topic. In this way, this would be an ideal way to integrate dance into an IDL topic in the classroom. Our group was given an image of a haunted house, and we came up with a dance move that we felt represented that image. We then came back together as a section, and each group demonstrated their move for the other groups to imitate. Lastly, we put all the moves together in a choreographed, timed structure and rehearsed this a number of times. This would be the beginning of our whole section dance, which will incorporate our group dances in turn. We also developed an opening sequence, similar to a Mexican wave, and created entrance and exit dances for each group, finishing up with a finale step. Our dance will be filmed in a couple of weeks.
Two key points I have taken from today’s inputs, are the importance of giving learners time to think, and the use of structure within the arts. In order to extract the creativity from learners, giving them adequate time to formulate their thoughts and ideas, whether through creating dance moves, or planning a short drama scene, is essential (Eisner, 2004). Rushing learners to come up with an answer can impact on their confidence if they do not feel they have been able to get their idea across accurately.
Providing structure to a lesson, giving the children a framework to use to come up with their ideas can be a useful way to introduce a topic within the arts to children. It is an essential skill of a teacher to be able to judge how much structure, and time, to provide learners. A careful balance is needed to allow creativity to flourish. Cone (2009) stresses the importance of allowing children to develop their learning, with the teacher being able to step back and refrain from interferring with the creative process.
REFERENCES
Cone, Theresa Purcell. (2009) Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas For Creating Dances Journal Of Dance Education [Online] Vol.9(3), pp.81-89. Available: EBSCOhost. [Accessed: 17 October 2017]
Eisner, E. (2004) What Can Education Learn from the Arts about the Practice of Education? International Journal of Education & the Arts Vol.5(4) pp.1-13
