Month: October 2019

This week we took part in music and visual arts workshop. Within our art workshop we looked at higher order and visual thinking using emotional learning cards. These cards can be seen in the images below.

We used Tayler’s assessment model of form, content, mood and process to critically analyse the above image. This task made me understand the importance of taking a closer look at an image rather than just making assumptions at a glance. Especially in today’s age as we communicate massively through only the use of pictures, so it clear that we need to equip our young people with the skills to understand these images (Sowerby, 2013). We used the questions to prompt us to think about different aspects of the picture to help use to evaluate and analyse the image. I think that children would find this activity challenging because even I found it challenging.  However, with the information on the back of the cards and Tayler’s model questions it made understanding these tricky pictures easier. Clearly it is important that as teachers we question children’s opinions and give them a chance to share these views while also finding out what makes them think this.  As this allows them to form opinions and express there ideas and feelings which is an important part of the expressive arts (HMIe, 2006).

While in music we were given a tutorial about Charanga a website with many resources to help teacher when teaching music. After having look at this website, I think that I will be an extremely useful resource when teaching music. This is the kind of resource that I feel will encourage lots of teachers to teach music as it provides you with everything you need. It includes lesson plan for each term for each level of the curriculum not only does it provide you with all the resource and lesson plans that you may need it also allows you to make your own lesson plans up to use with children. This website also covers all the E’s and O’s within the curriculum such as “I enjoy singing and playing along to music of different styles and cultures. EXA 0-16a.  and I have the freedom to use my voice, musical instruments and music technology to discover and enjoy playing with sound and rhythm. EXA- 017a ” (Scottish Government, 2017). I think that the activities on Charanga would be engaging and exciting for children and  they would benefit from them. This resource also includes lessons aimed at every stage this means that they would not need to be adapted to meet the Children’s developmental needs.  The video below shows my peers taking part in some of the activities.

 

I think that even after today’s tutorial there are still many areas of Charanga to explore. To deepen my knowledge on this subject I think that I will have to spend more time having a look around the website to ensure that I am able to get the most out of this resource.

References

HMIe (2006) Emerging Good Practices in Promoting Creativity. [Online] Available: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED544590.pdf [Accessed: 3 December 2019].

Matthew Sowerby (2013) Developing Visual Literacy through Participatory Photography. 34.28 mins. [Online] Available: https://vimeo.com/channels/uwsartistteacherliteracy  [Accessed:29 October 2019]

Scottish Government (2017) Benchmarks Expressive Arts. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/…/Documents/ExpressiveArtsBenchmar… [Accessed : 29 October 2019].

This week we had 4 Norwegian students visiting our university, so within our arts workshop our work was inspired by Norway’s landscapes. After the lecture given to us this morning by the Norwegian students it was clear that a lot of their learning is done outdoors. So today we took part in outdoor learning where we channelled landscape artists such as Richard Long and Andy Goldsworthy who both create thought provoking work to inspired us to create a piece of our own.

My group took inspiration from Andy Goldsworthy’s work as he used lots of spiral shapes and gradients to make an impact with his art. We used his use of spirals and gradient to create a circular clock which can be seen below.

This piece was based on climate change. We felt that by using a spiral shape to make our clock it would represent our planet while the clock hands represented the idea that time is running out to save it. We decided to use the gradient of different leave colours to represent the lifecycle of a leave which symbolise the death of the planet as just like a leave it stared out healthy and green it will eventually become dead and brown the same way our planet will be if we don’t make changes soon. We decided based our image on this topic because it is such a relevant topic that is all over the news today and is something that is on our minds due to our sustainable development module. This coupled with the fact that we were using natural resources to make this picture made us think that it would be impactful and really get our message across. After taking part in this activity I feel that I have much better appreciation for natural resources and how these can be incorporated with outdoor learning to successfully teach an art lesson. This lesson also highlighted the ways in which art can be used to express ourselves and our opinion on different topics much better than words often can which is one of the 10 lessons that the arts teach (Eisner,2002). I would use this lesson with a class because not only does it require no resource but those found outside, I think there are many opportunities to make this a cross curricular lesson. As a lack of resources is one of the biggest challenges when teaching the arts this would alleviate this problem (Edwards, 2013). If I was doing this lesson with a class, I would maybe give them a problem to focus on, as by giving the children complete freedom some many find it difficult to choose or even think of a problem to focus on. However, if I only provided them with a problem then it would allow them to still be creative and all come up with different images. This is one of the reasons that I feel children would really engage with this lesson, as it allows them to be autonomous as well as learning in an outdoor environment which is clearly important as within the CFE outdoor learning document implies outdoor environments and surroundings act as a rich stimulus for creative thinking and learning. This affords opportunities for challenge, enquiry, critical thinking and reflection  (Scottish Government, n.d.). It is clear that “Outdoor learning offers many opportunities for learners to deepen and contextualise their understanding within curriculum area” (Scottish Government, p.9).

Within our music session today we began looking at different software that can be used to allow children to compose different music pieces. Garage Band is a software that is very versatile and allows you to add your own voice, instrumental pieces and upload different sound affects to create different pieces of music. Our session today was all about us getting used to using this software and learning about the different ways that it can be used.  To do this we created out own piece that was to sound like a autumn walk I used different piano pieces and layered it with sound effects.

After using this software, I think that it is easy to use once you get the hang of it and that there would be many different ways to use this within the classroom not only just in a music lesson. This would be great follow on from last week’s lesson using beats and rhythms. It would allow them to compose and play with their own pieces of music using different beats, pitches and rhythms which is one of the CFE Learning outcomes (Scottish Government, 2017). One of the most interesting ways to use garage band is for bringing a story to life. Personally, I feel that this is a great way to bring both literacy and music into one lesson. This would be a great way to depend children’s understanding of a book while also teaching music. This software would allow children to make a book interactive and add sound effects while you could have the teacher voice reading the story. Using this for a book such as are going on a bear hunt would be effective and engage children in the story. Garage band is different a resource that I would use with a class as I would allow children to express themselves and really become interactive in a lesson.

References

Edwards, J. (2013) Teaching Primary Art. [Online] Available:https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Bb63AwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=teaching+art+in+primary+schools&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjbn8mhrp7mAhUHQ8AKHTicDIcQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=teaching%20art%20in%20primary%20schools&f=false [Accessed: 22 October 2019].

Scottish Government (2017). Benchmarks Expressive Arts. [Online] Available:https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/ExpressiveArtsBenchmarksPDF.pdf [Accessed: 22 October 2019].

Scottish Government (n.d) [Online] curriculum for excellence
through outdoor learning. Available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/cfe-through-outdoor-learning.pdf [Accessed: 22 October 2019].

 

 

During today’s art inputs we took part in a music and art workshop. During both of our workshops looked at aspects of literacy and how it is intertwined within the arts. Our music input, looked at teaching of rhythm and how we could teach this to both early, first and second level. We were introduced to two different PowerPoints that provided a comprehensive lesson plan for teaching rhythm. This resource used shapes to help children learn the difference between a crotchet and Quavers. The number of syllables in a shapes name was the number of beats that we taped out. This is demonstrated in the diagram below.

This was extremely effective and made it much easier to tap the beat with the drumsticks or beater shown below.

Using these strategies rather than introducing rhythm and notation at the same time made it much easier for me to understand and I can also see how this would make it much simpler for children. Using these strategies, we also played along to music this really help to motivate me as you could see that you were doing it right. This is something that I feel that the children would really engage in as they are really accomplishing something. Although we jumped straight into playing the music and rhythm with children, I would implement the say, clap, play method that although the children to develop there understanding of rhythm before they begin playing.

As a teacher I think this will be a great resource as it provides teachers with everything, they would need to teach children about rhythm while also beginning to teach them about notation.  Personally, I think that these PowerPoint’s would also really help teachers to get over their hesitation and negative opinions of music a they make teaching music easier. Gregerson et al (2013) implies that if a teacher holds a negative opinion of expressive arts then this will be transfer on to their pupils, this shows the importance of being positive when teaching music.

During our art session we looked at print making with a focus on how we can use prints to get a written message across effectively. During this session we took inspiration from Bob and Roberta Smith a famous print maker that uses bold colours and fonts. This showed that when print is used effectively it can have a huge impact. As the maker in this situation I found print making to be a great way to almost create a poster but with more impact. As you must come up with a short and sweet slogan that really coveys the point you are trying to make. These are the prints that we made.

I think that print making is an art lesson that I would do with a future class as there are many ways to tie it in with other curricular areas such as literacy. This activity also highlights the way that the arts can allow children to show their full cognition without being limited by their language skills (Eisner, 2002). As you could relate it to a book that your class is reading or even a history lesson. I think that with a history lesson you could make very bold print with eye catching statements on the topic of war for example. I feel that this is a lesson that I would be more likely to do with a first or second level class rather than with early level. This is an activity that children would get involved in as it allows literacy to become more interactive and engaging. While also allowing them to develop their creativity. This is such an important skill for children as it allows them to develop confidence that their own points of view are valid, to interpret and respond to different trends and issues in society such as politics and different technological advances and it even allows children to apply their creativity within subjects other than art. (Scottish Government, 2013).

Overall, both workshops today looked at the way literacy can be used to enhance and be taught through the arts. Within music, this week we were using the syllables within the name of shapes to help children learn and understand rhythm and beats. This clearly shows a link between music and literacy and how the two subjects are intertwined. Baker, 2011; Catterall, 1998 cited in Arts Education Partnerships (2011) clearly agree saying “Students who study music surpass non-music students in assessments of writing, using information resources, reading and responding, and proofreading.” While in art we looked at the way literacy and art can be combined to create a powerful eye catching and thought-provoking prints. These prints deal with hard hitting subjects and topics to say things that words alone cannot say.

References

Arts Education Partnerships (2011) Music Matters: How Music Education
Helps Students Learn, Achieve, and Succeed. [Moodle Resource] Available: Integrated Arts in Education module on moodle. [Accessed: 2 December 2019].

Eisner, E. (2002) The Arts and the Creation of Mind. Yale University Press.

Gregerson, M. et al (eds.) (2013) Teaching Creatively and Teaching Creativity. [Online] Available: SpringerLink. [Accessed: 3 December 2019].

Scottish Government (2013) Creativity Across Learning 3-18. [Online] Available:https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/Creativity/CRE1_WhatAreCreativitySkills/Creativity3to18.pdf . [Accessed:16 October 2019].

 

 

 

 

 

During this week’s session we took part in a drama and music workshop, this week being our first music session. We began by discussing the importance of music education and the benefits that it can have. For me, music is never a subject that I have really loved, although it is a talent and subject that I appreciate the importance of. I was aware of some of the benefits that music education can have however, I did not realise the broad range of skills that music education helps children to learn. For example, music helps our pupils develop their thinking skills through the activation and synchronisation of the neutral brain firing patterns which allows us to increases our brain efficiency and effectiveness (Paul Reeves, 2009). Music education also helps us to become sustained self directed learners (ibid). This highlights the importance of music education. As a future teacher I now realise it is imperative that I provide children with music education.

While in the music workshop we looked at the way in which different music affects our moods as well as the way in which everyone perceives a piece of music and how this can be different. This lesson taught me the important of music and how it can be used to inspire us to think creatively in other mediums such as literacy and art as  and how they can apply their creativity skills within other curricular areas (Education Scotland, 2013).

We started by listening to a piece of music while taking notes on how the piece made us feel or any thought we had on it. We then got into group and created a story board based on the music piece we had just listened to. What shocked me the most about this was that every single person in my group had pictured a different story although we all listened to the same music piece.

This has highlighted the importance of allowing children to be creative and the also tied in with the concept of child based learning in room 13. As it allowed children to be creative, decide how they felt about the piece of music and what it made them think of. This task allowed us to be creative and although we all started with the same music we came up with very different stories. This task is something that I would try in a class of my own, as it think it is a great way to get children thinking about music, how it makes them feel while allowing them to develop their creatively and collaborative working skills. However, depending on the stage that I was teaching this lesson to I may have to chose a more appropriate piece of music. As the piece we listened to was seven minutes long this would work for a primary 6 or 7 class but maybe not a primary 2 or 3 class. So in order to make it appropriate to their stage I could chose a shorter piece to base the lesson on.

While in drama this week we took part in different groups micro teaching tasks. After taking part in the other groups micro teaching tasks I found that I preferred teaching to taking part, as I did not feel as confident when performing our drama to the rest of the class. This allowed me to empathise with how some children may feel when asked to perform so this is something I would consider when doing a lesson like this maybe allowing them to perform to a smaller group of people.  However, I feel that after taking part and watching the other groups teaching I have picked up some lesson ideas and skill that I would implement in a drama lesson in the future. Especially the group that based their micro teaching task on the movie Inside Out. I feel that this would be a great lesson to help children understand their emotions and those of others. This lesson could potentially tie in nicely with a health and wellbeing lesson. I think that most children would enjoy this lesson as they would be quite familiar with the film. At the end of all three groups micro-teaching tasks they did a quick assessment of how the class felt it went for example using fist to five to see if the class understood what they were trying to teach. This would be something that I would include in my future lesson plans.

Overall, this week in both our drama and music workshops we looked at the ways in which interpret what is being presented. In music this was the way that the music piece made us feel and the story that we created based on the music. While in drama was the way we interpreted the different tasks in the different groups micro-teaching lessons and came up with different drama pieces although we all had the same tasks.

References

Education Scotland (2013) Creativity Across Learning 3-18. [Online] Available:https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/Creativity/CRE1_WhatAreCreativitySkills/Creativity3to18.pdf [Accessed: 10 October 2019].

Paul Reeves (2009) Music Advocacy Presentation. 4.37 mins. [Online] Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1njTXx47vHs [Accessed: 10 October 2019].

 

In today’s art workshop we continued on from our work last week with a very child centred approach being used again. We used the picture that we created last week and were asked to add ether a poem, song lyric or just words that you felt described your highland picture. It was emphasised that we should try to follow the shapes and curves of our picture when writing on it.

This task highlighted the importance of words and visuals and how they are connected as well as the way that we can use words to bring images to life and vise versa (Eisner, 2002). This also shows the was that creativity can be taught through all curricular areas and the was that can be used to enhance another lesson (HMIe, 2006). This could be as task that some children will struggle with while others might love. So, I feel that being able to use a poem rather than having to come up with a idea on your own would make children feel much more comfortable and less daunted by the task. If I was ever do this sort of task with a class this is an option I would give them. Overall, I feel that the purpose of this task was not as clear to me as it had been in previous weeks. However, after taking part in the activity I began to see that everyone sees something different within a piece of art and the way we perceive it can be completely different although we all are looking at the same picture. Although there are many different ways to do this we used words to help highlight the key points of our paintings by giving it personal characteristics such to help convey the emotions different parts of our picture uncovered.

During today’s drama workshop we took part in a micro-teaching exercise. This involved us in groups teaching a mini drama lesson to the rest of our peers. We decided to base our lesson on the storybook ‘Were Going on a Bear Hunt’ to teach the class about 3 different drama conventions: Flash back, Still image and Monologue.

Personally, I found this task really worthwhile and helpful because it was the first time we have had the chance to plan and deliver a short lesson. This task also helped me to feel more confident in planning a proper lesson in the future and to more gain experience. Although this task was worthwhile I think that because we were delivering our lesson to our peers we were very conscious of not patronising them by treating them like primary school children that this lesson was originally aimed at. For this reason we altered our lesson to make it more age appropriate.

If I was to deliver the exact same lesson to a class as to my peers I feel that the children may be disinterested and engaged because they may not have known the story and therefore not really want to get involved. So, if I was actually delivering this lesson to children I think that I would start by actually reading the story to the children rather than just describe what happens within the book. I would also get them to act out all the different action’s within the book because this would engage children in the lesson. As the QCA (2004) that using a stimulus such as a story helps children to develop creativity and  understand the subject. Even though these are small changes I think that it would make the lesson much more effective.

Overall, it is apparent that both classes looked at ways in which different mediums of art can be brought to life in the sense of adding words to our drawings in art and using a storybook during our microteaching in drama to bring the story and its characters to life. It is clear that is it an import part of a art as in (Eisner, 2002) 10 lessons the arts teach that he sees art as a way for children to say what cannot be said. While he also believes that when a child is asked to show a piece that makes them feels some sort of emotion they have to use their poetic capabilities to help them find the words that describe how they feel.

References

Eisner, E. (2002) The Arts and Creation of Mind. Yale University Press.

HMIe (2006) Emerging Good Practices in Promoting Creativity. [Online] Available: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED544590.pdf [Accessed: 2 October 2019].

Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (2004) Creativity: find it, promote it. [Online] Available:http://archive.teachfind.com/qcda/www.qcda.gov.uk/resources/publication560a.html [Accessed: 2 December 2019].