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].
