Today we finalised our section dance. Due to low attendance, both sections were asked to come together to create a dance to be filmed. This meant that students from both sections had to learn the various steps of each other’s dance; this was an effective way to build our tolerance for ambiguity. Once recorded, we watched the video back and using a ‘three stars and a wish’ method, we evaluated our own individual performances, and one other student’s performance. This is an important part of teaching dance, as not only is it one of the three strands of dance as suggested by Smith-Autard (2002), it is also stated that learners should be given opportunities to develop “their capacity to enjoy dance through evaluating performances and commenting on their work and the work of others.” (Scottish Government, n.d.)
The afternoon’s final music input was to be self-directed due to staff illness, and with technicians needing access to the room to deal with faulty lighting, we were restricted in the amount of time we had to spend working through the material on Moodle. However, as only four of us turned up, we could help and support each other well. We used the material provided in advance by the lecturer, to try out some of the instruments, including the ukulele, guitar and piano. I found this extremely beneficial, as I was able to utilise the knowledge and expertise of my peers to improve my own skills and abilities with these instruments, and increase my knowledge and understanding of music terminology and notation, using the constructive feedback received from my colleagues.
Playing Wham’s “Last Christmas” on the ukelele
The element of peer evaluation and feedback in each of today’s inputs was an effective way to round off the Integrated Arts module. As prospective teachers, it is important that we become familiar with and indeed welcome constructive feedback from our peers and colleagues to inform our own development; the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) require both student and qualified teachers to “evaluate their classroom practice, taking account of feedback from others, in order to enhance teaching and learning” (GTCS, 2012).
REFERENCES
General Teaching Council for Scotland, (2012) The Standards for Registration: Mandatory Requirements for Registration with the General Teaching Council for Scotland [Online] Available: www.gtcs.org.uk/nmsruntime/saveasdialog.aspx?lID=3029&sID=7417 [Accessed: 15 August 2017]
Scottish Government (n.d.) Curriculum for Excellence Edinburgh: Scottish Executive
Smith-Autard, J. (2002) The Art of Dance EducationLondon: A & C Black
We began with music this week, and looking at rhythm and beat. Using only drumsticks or beaters, we learned how to tap out the beat to a number of different songs and genres. Similar to the figure notes system we looked earlier in the module, we used a very basic coded system designed to introduce children slowly to the timings of notes. Using words with the same number of syllables as beats in a note, for example ‘square’ for a crotchet and ‘circle’ for a quaver, even the most musically challenged of us (me!) could pick it up easily. This was then extended to the more common ‘ta’ and ‘te-te’ system of counting out the rhythm. We progressed on to the symbols for each note, and then on to reading traditional music notation, including rests and bars. We practiced playing different songs of varying difficulty within these systems, progressing rapidly through a programme that would usually stretch over a number of terms in primary school, to give us an overview of how much the children would learn and develop over the course of this programme. The final activity shown was an interactive task that enabled children to compose their own beat using the various different notes to produce four-beat bars.
Within the visual arts workshop, we discussed as a cohort, the experiences we had each had on placement within the arts. It was clear that there was a lot of similarities and routinisation in our experiences, with not a lot of originality observed. This led on to consideration of alternative themes to use for art; swapping ‘Christmas’ art for ‘Winter’ art, looking at myths such as the firefox legend surrounding the Northern Lights, and thinking about how these could be used to inspire creativity and originality in ideas. Another idea discussed was the notion of removing one of the senses to cause children to think creatively and extend their imaginations – for example playing a movie clip without showing the visuals and encouraging the children to draw their interpretation of the scene. This activity does not require a lot of resources – a simple pencil drawing would suffice – but gives children a chance to develop the basic skill of drawing. Tim Ingold (2013) tells us that we are educating children out of drawing by placing so much more value on writing, which makes this a highly effective activity to impress upon learners the value of drawing and creative interpretation.
The last point discussed was from an international standpoint. We looked at how the environment can be used in the creation of art, through the use of snow in Finnish schools as a material for art. Whilst we don’t get enough snowfall in Scotland to be able to produce anything close to the scale of snow art in Finland, it is worthwhile considering the opportunities the environment can offer for art – using seasonal materials such as fallen leaves in autumn and colourful flowers in spring and summer allows children to create without the restriction of traditional materials.
The common thread running between both of today’s inputs for me has been the idea of stripping things back to basics, and using minimal resources to get the creative juices flowing. When children are shown that they can compose music with something as simple as two drumsticks, or create sculptures from nature’s materials, they are shown the value of their imagination.
REFERENCES
Ingold, T. (2013) Thinking Dangerously in Teacher Education Conference Keynote Speech 34.03 mins. [Online] Available: https://vimeo.com/77119799 [Accessed: 5 October 2017]
This week we began the micro-teaching inputs for drama. Our group started with a drama lesson based on Julia Donaldson’s children’s book The Gruffalo (1999). Using a number of drama conventions introduced previously in this module, we planned and delivered a 30-minute lesson the rest of our section. The initial brief was to plan a twenty-minute lesson, however during the activity the cohort was so engaged in the drama that we decided, with the lecturer’s consent, to allow their creativity to flow and not interrupt just to stick rigidly to the plan. Dewey (1938, cited in Eisner, 2004) calls this “flexible purposing”, which Eisner (2004) tells us is the antithesis to rigid adherence to the lesson plan. This notion could however, have been developed further. Due to lack of confidence, and perhaps the fact that we read the story in sections throughout our lesson, our group failed to deviate from the original storyline of the book. Upon seeing the next group’s take on their lesson, it was clear to see that the activities could be much more engaging and fun if the lesson is allowed to follow the direction of the participants, regardless of whether this was the expected outcome of the ‘teacher’.
In the afternoon input, pupils from Greenhill Primary School Orchestra brought in their string instruments to demonstrate how they are played. The pupils showed us how to hold the instruments properly, how to control the bow, the names of the strings, and some chords. They then demonstrated how to play a song they have learnt, and confidently helped us to have a try. The confidence the children have was astounding, something that Bloomfield and Childs (2002) attribute to learning to play an instrument.
The idea of children leading the learning was further developed through both inputs this week. By handing over leadership of the lesson in the drama workshop, the lecturer enabled us students to see how our primary school pupils may feel when asked to take ownership of their learning. This was then observed in practice with the Greenmill pupils leading the learning in the music inputs. The impact this had on the confidence and self-esteem of the children was clear to see, and reinforced to me the importance of arts education in the curriculum.
REFERENCES
Bloomfield, A. and Childs, J. (2002) Teaching Integrated Arts in the Primary School. London: David Fulton Publishers.
Donaldson, J. (1999) The Gruffalo London: MacMillan
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
This week’s inputs looked at the different ways we can give children ownership and control of their learning. In contrast to last week’s structured framework for dance and drama, this week focused on allowing children almost complete control. Giving children the opportunity to have a say in their learning shows respect for their abilities and that their creativity is valued by the teacher.
In drama, we explored some more techniques and conventions including flash forward, flash back, narration, slow motion and forum theatre. Forum theatre is the brainchild of Augusto Boal, and the idea is that members of the audience are invited to stop and participate in the drama by taking the place of an actor of their choosing, and acting out an improvised, alternative version of the drama (Farmer, 2014). This is an excellent way to allow children to take a directive approach to their learning, however research by Killen and Cooney (2017) reveals that teachers lack confidence in allowing learners to take control of the lesson, so this is something that I will keep in mind and try to develop my own confidence in.
In the music input, we looked first at the voice. As prospective teachers, our voices are one of the most important tools of our trade. Constant use of the voice, often in noisy environments, coupled with dry air conditions in classrooms, can put teachers at greater risk of voice and throat problems. The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) have issued guidance for teachers and student teachers, including examples of good practice and strategies to protect and care for the voice (GTCS, 2003). One of the recommendations suggests using vocal exercises to warm up your voice. We tried out some of these vocal exercises in the music seminar, looking at some resources that can be used in the classroom to allow children to warm up their own voices before any singing activity. One of the resources we looked at is ChoonBaboon, a singing programme developed by Alan Penman, aimed at first and second level Curriculum for Excellence. ChoonBaboon is an interesting and engaging resource that is indispensable for teachers who lack confidence teaching music (ChoonBaboon, 2017).
We then moved on to looking at graphic scores. This is a musical score, composed through the use of symbols on a grid. Creating a firework themed score within our section, we composed and then played the score using various instruments from chimes and bells, to castanets. We then had the opportunity to work within small groups to choose a theme, and compose a graphic score to play using any of the instruments to represent sounds related to our theme. This was a fantastic activity and each of us really engaged with our creative abilities. I would definitely use this activity in the classroom, as it is a simple activity that does not require a lot in terms of planning and resources, but can have a huge impact on children’s confidence when they actively compose and play their very own piece of music, having complete control over their chosen theme, sounds and final piece.
Our Christmas graphic score
REFERENCES
ChoonBaboon (2017) Welcome to Choonbaboon [Online] Available: http://choonbaboon.com/ [Accessed: 31 October 2017]
This week, we experienced the first of the dance inputs in the module. We began with some fun, engaging activities that would be an ideal way to introduce the topic of dance in the classroom: an adaptation of Chinese whispers, using a sequence of dance moves which were passed along a chain of participants, or a follow-the-leader style conga line allows the children to develop confidence in dance by using a format they are already familiar with. These activities can develop skills that are transferrable to other areas – memory retention, following instructions and team work. Other activities, such as the teacher/lecturer directing students to move around the space in a certain way, e.g. skipping, jumping etc, with the aim of getting themselves into a group of whichever number they heard called out and performing a dance move or forming a specific shape, can be integrated into various parts of the curriculum, for example a warm up for a gym class, or outside in the playground for an outdoor health and wellbeing lesson.
The next activity urged us to think about the importance of warming up before dance. By drawing around one student from the group, then labelling the body outline with the various muscles and bones. This highlights the vast range of body parts that are used to create any movement, and is a great cross-curricular activity to do with pupils as it incorporates biology, expands vocabulary, increases spatial awareness and develops knowledge of how the body works. This follows on to a stretching activity which gives children some skills to use to warm up in other areas of physical activity.
The final stage in this input was to develop our own dance routine, based on the 10 principle steps of dance: twist, reach, roll, slide, gesture, hop, jump, kick, turn, and balance. This method of teaching dance gives participants a structure to use, which can be essential to encourage the most rhythmically challenged to participate, whilst still allowing for use of creativity and imagination. Children can use their own interpretation of the steps to develop a meaningful piece of dance, which is an important outlet for them to explore their creativity and express their own thoughts and ideas (Cone, 2009). The 10-step basis for dance is also a key tool for teachers who lack confidence in their own dance skills and knowledge, as the simple structure is easy to apply and demonstrate, lending itself well to child-led learning.
Music
Today’s music session centred around the importance of music in education. We considered why music matters in the lecture, and this was followed up by a look at some of the academic research and theory underpinning the teaching of music. The importance of participation, whether through performing, composing, playing, singing or just listening and evaluating music, was stressed. Music is a valuable instrument (no pun intended) for social development in children – it develops a sense of identity and increases self-esteem, whilst allowing expression of feelings, ideas and memories which aid in developing emotional resilience (Hallam, 2010). Music can also have physical benefits; pain reduction, a drop in stress levels and decreased fatigue are all elements that Jensen (2008) attributes to music.
Music also has a significant impact on other areas of development: experience with music enables learners to develop the ability to discriminate pitch, which is a valuable asset to phonological awareness necessary for learning to read. Learning to read musical notation requires mathematical skills, develops visual and rhythmic skills and encourages print awareness. Music increases memory retention, critical thinking and creativity skills which are then easily transferred to other areas. Overall, students who regularly participate in musical education yielded higher grades than their non-musical counterparts, and, perhaps most notably, there was no discernible damage to pupils’ attainment due to less time in the classroom whilst receiving music tuition (Hallam, 2010). This is a notable finding, as the possible detriment of grades and attainment is one of the issues that teachers face in delivering the arts in education today.
The overarching theme within both inputs today is without a doubt the importance of the arts in other areas of the curriculum. Both music and dance can allow children to develop skills that will be essential in literacy, numeracy and physical development.
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]
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: Sage. [Accessed: 17 October 2017]
Jensen, E. (2008) Brain-based Learning: the new paradigm of teaching California: Corwin
This week, we looked at how we can extend an art activity by reducing our Windows in the West print, and creating a black and white photocopy, which we then used to create a pen drawing extending from the print image. The importance of continuation in art was emphasised, as all too often art is treated as a stand-alone, one-off activity and this can be discouraging to children. By using past work as a stimulus, pupils can see how art can be a progressive activity and this encourages them to develop their imaginative capabilities and allows them to increase their skills (McAuliffe, 2007).
Progression
We looked at this in practice, through the Room 13 initiative in Fort William. Room 13 is an extraordinary example of the brilliance that can emerge from children being taken seriously and allowed autonomy and independence as artists (Gibb, 2012). This aligns with my belief that we can get the best from our pupils, not by trying to hold power over them, but by treating them respectfully as equals in their education.
Music
I found the music seminar really informative today. To begin with, as usual in the music inputs, I felt extremely apprehensive and out of my depth when the lecturer explained the task. Music terminology is something I have tried to increase my knowledge in, but each time it still confuses me and causes much anxiety. However, as the workshop progressed, my determination to at least try proved fruitful and I found my confidence increasing as I navigated the GarageBand app to create a very short backing track. This enabled me to put myself in a child’s shoes, although I would say most school children are much more digitally literate than I am.
We discussed the possibilities of this resource and how easy it is for children to use and create their own tracks, the opportunities for enterprise, literacy, citizenship and arts. We also had a go at creating a sound effect track for a short video clip. I was really engaged in this task and found it thoroughly enjoyable, feeling extremely proud of my end result. This is certainly an activity I will use in the classroom. This was the first time I truly considered that music in the classroom does not necessarily need to be just learning do-ray-me and wishing you were talented enough to play an instrument. The digital nature of our modern world extends into the music business too, and it is important to remember that as teachers, we will be educating the workforce of tomorrow. Introducing this type of software to pupils also gives those children who do not like to be in the limelight, a chance to be actively involved in the sound engineering aspect of music production, so digital music is definitely something I would like to make use of within my future classroom.
Both of today’s inputs focused on using prior learning and work to expand skills and repertoire, and thinking about the importance of giving children “experience of more specialised equipment” to further their skills (McAuliffe, 2007 p.28)
REFERENCES
Gibb, C. (2012) Room 13: The Movement and International Network. Oxford:Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
McAuliffe, D. (2007) Foundation and Primary Settings In: Cox, S., Watts, R., Grahame, J., Herne, S. and McAuliffe, D. (eds) Teaching Art and Design 3-11 London: Continuum pp.31-83
Today we looked at the figure notes system of reading music. Julie explained that the system was developed in Finland as an educational tool that creates a more inclusive way of learning to play an instrument. A combination of symbols and colours are used to identify individual notes. Using this simple yet effective system, we each learnt to play Twinkle Twinkle, Frere Jacques and Jingle Bells on the glockenspiel. This enabled me to see how easy this system is, and how it opens up the world of music to everybody. This is a very effective way of boosting an individual’s confidence in music, and the system is designed to make progression to traditional notation easy.
Using our short experience with the figure notes system, Julie then explained how to use a pentatonic scale. By using only five notes, CDEGA, and taking away, quite literally, the F and B notes, we had to improvise a 16-bar section of the song “Hit the Road Jack”. This was quite daunting at first, however once we got into it, it sounded quite good and wasn’t anywhere near as bad as anticipated. This is an effective way to increase learners confidence, as you are taking away any possibility of making a mistake, increasing the likelihood of participation. This shows learners that there is no right or wrong answer or combination of notes, there are infact a mutitude of possible solutions, which Eisner (2002) states is an important lesson we can learn through the arts.
The visual arts input had us begin by creating our own paint brushes to use later in the class. We had a variety of materials to choose from, from an assortment of colours and thickness of wool, string, cotton and polyester fibre stuffing, to feathers, foam shapes, paper and wooden sticks. This in itself was an enjoyable activity that really got our imaginations going, and is something I will definitely be using in the classroom. It served to ensure from the start, that there was no expectation to produce “perfection” in our artwork, but rather emphasised the individuality and uniqueness in our work, with the focus on the process.
Step OnePaintbrush
The second part of this input was to paint a picture. The method Diarmuid used of ‘reading’ the painting to us, definitely developed my tolerance for ambiguity. Far from just a painting lesson, this was a lesson that required good listening skills, imagination, confidence and a willingness to just give it a go, some skills and abilities that us adults can often lack. This gave us a chance to experience what a primary school pupil may feel when asked to replicate a specific image that they do not possess the skills for. This willingness to have a go, to risk being wrong, is an important attribute in this modern, ideas-driven society, and it is an attribute that is being dismissed and transformed into fear of making mistakes, by our current education system and the hierarchy of subjects putting arts at the bottom (Robinson, 2006).
Blank canvasA work in progressThe finished article
Both of this week’s inputs can be related development of a number of the TALLIS Habits (Tallis Pedagogy Wheel Guide, 2017). They developed my ability to be persistent, to stick with difficulty, tolerate uncertainty and take risks. My imaginative and inquisitive skills were extended, through experimentation with materials and ideas to create my paintbrush, playing with possibilities for the different notes for the improvisation, challenging my own assumptions on what makes a good painting and the notion that there is not one single way to create a painting. I also learnt to be disciplined in my artwork, through refining and developing my painting and finally reflecting critically on my progress in the module so far, in this week’s inputs and the processes involved.
REFERENCES
Eisner, E. (2002) The Arts and the Creation of Mind. London: Yale University Press.
Robinson, K. (2006) Do Schools Kill Creativity? 19.24 mins. [Online] Available: https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity [Accessed: 21 September 2017].
Weeks one and two of the Integrated Arts module focused on music and visual art.
In music, we focused on the emotional aspect of music: how different pieces of music can affect a person’s mood and feelings, but also how a certain piece of music can produce diverse feelings in different individuals. Five different samples of music were used, and although there was a general consensus within the group of how we reacted to each piece, there were also some differences – for example, whilst most people found piece number four to bring about a reflective and thoughtful mood, I found it quite depressing.
The second task in the music input was to discover how music can inspire us to think creatively through literacy and art. We listened to a piece of classical music three times, and devised a story based on the imagery inspired by the music. The piece was Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Our group found the music brought about a sense of excited urgency, putting us in mind of a Christmas film with elves busily preparing for the big night of December 24th. Our storyboard, pictured below, detailed the various blips we imagined these elves running into during the piece of music, from a clogged conveyor belt, chasing a Grinch-like villain, to a thundery snowstorm almost blowing Santa Claus off course before he delivers the presents just in the nick of time:
Christmas Eve!
It was interesting to see a common theme across the whole class, of the idea of a chase of some sort occurring. This is a clear example of how the tone, volume and tempo of a piece of music can be used to convey an idea without any words or pictures. This storyboard activity is definitely something I will take into my teaching practice as it is such a great way to show how music can be used as a form of literacy to convey meaning and tell a story.
The drawing inputs carried over from week one into week two, beginning with the notion of learning to tolerate ambiguity when it comes to the arts, the notion of being ok with not knowing. This is quite an important point, particularly when we consider the drawings and art work produced by very young children, as often to us adults, their productions can seem like nothing more than scribbles. However, when a child is given the chance to talk about their artwork, very often you find that the piece has a very specific meaning, and the child can see quite clearly what they have created.
Looking at through the Primary Art Archive in week two, it was clear to see that there was definite progression in the children’s ability to add detail as they got older, however taking another perspective, I felt there was also a deterioration in the artistic imagination of the children as their age increased. This could be due to children becoming self-conscious of their work as they get older (McAuliffe, 2007). The middle primary portion of the archive felt very prescriptive to me; I felt that the majority of the artwork seemed to be the result of a task related to topical work, specified by the teacher – for example, the collection of partner portraits, and the numerous Scotland flags made with scrunched up tissue paper. Comparing this to the youngest section of the archive, there was a lot more freedom of expression and imagination present in the younger children’s artwork.
Partner PortraitsFlag from scrunched tissue paper
A common theme through each of the stages in the archive, was the presence of the child’s environment in their artwork. It was clear to see that children draw what is around them – they use drawing and painting as a way to make sense of the world around them. There was a lot of pictures of people and important items such as teddy bears and pets present in the youngest section, lots of football games and extended families in the middle section, whilst the older primary section contained a lot of pop culture artworks, alongside historical representations such as world war two.
Early stageMiddle stageUpper Stage
The piece that stood out the most for me from the archive was “Dog under the machine”. Given the estimated age of the child from the section the picture was included in, the detail in this picture is amazing. I would imagine that were the child asked to write out the story of this image, it would be beyond the child’s capabilities at that age, yet through the medium of drawing, the child was perfectly able to get the story of this dog under the machine across. For me, this is the perfect example of how art enables an individual to express themselves and get their ideas across in a way that they can make most sense with. The notion that we know more than we can say (Polanyi, 1967, cited in Eisner, 2004) is shown perfectly in this piece.
Dog hiding under machine
The most prominent aspect of this week, for me, has been the task from the lecture input where we were asked to draw on a photocopied page of an article. The criteria was to draw out whatever came to mind upon reading the text, a visual expression of the words if you will. I found this task extremely uncomfortable; I sat staring at the page for a good 4 or 5 minutes, completely out of my comfort zone. In the end, I sketched out my perception of a Matisse painting that was described in the text. I still feel that this was not perhaps the intended outcome of the task, however I reminded myself of the need to tolerate ambiguity, be ok with not knowing if this was the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer, or in fact if there even exists a right or wrong answer to this task. The point of this activity however, only came to me later when I was writing out my notes from the first two weeks of this module. Without really realising it, I began to doodle on my notes. I realised, after drawing some leafy vines extending from the letter of the word “life”, that the intention of the earlier input had not been lost, and that actually using visuals to represent the meaning in my notes was a useful and helpful tool. This activity is another which I will definitely be using in my teaching practice!
Matisse – an interpretation!
References
Eisner, E. (2004) What Can Education Learn form the Arts about the Practice of Education? International Journal of Education & the Arts Vol.5(4) pp.1-13
McAuliffe, D. (2007) Foundation and Primary Settings In: Cox, S., Watts, R., Grahame, J., Herne, S. and McAuliffe, D. (eds) Teaching Art and Design 3-11 London: Continuum pp.31-83
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