Uncategorized | Matthew Pound Integrated Arts blog

I recently received my first input on dance and was focused around what the 10 essential skills are to facilitate a successful dance session. One activity I found useful was the Chinese whispers dance game. In this game two lines were formed with all facing one direction except the two standing at the front of the line. The two people facing the teacher would copy their short dance and show it to the person behind them who would do likewise until the end of the line was reached. This activity would test children’s dancing skills whilst also making them rely on their memory skills. Dance also empowers pupils and gives them opportunity to discover their own feelings, thoughts and ideas (Cone, 2009). The other activity required me to work in a group in assigning all the body parts to their correct place in a body outline we draw.

List of assignable body parts

We created the outline of the body and assigned all of them with relative ease. From recent past experiences in a primary school where the focus was the human body I had a strong knowledge base to draw from this task. As a result we were able to finish first and check our answers against an iPad with a detailed outline of the different body parts.

Completed body with all parts assigned

I found this activity interesting and thought it could be excellent in teaching cross curricularly with biology.

I also attended an art session and whilst I always enjoyed art throughout my life I have never been particularly gifted. However in this session it was revealed that art isn’t about your skill level at drawing or painting but is instead about allowing the child to express themselves in an enjoyable way. By doing this they can express through art what they cannot say in words(Eisner, 2002).

During this session we were instructed to coat a wooden board in black paint and use our fingers or other objects such as lego bricks to make marks on an A3 sheet of paper. Initially I started creating a smily face with the edge of my hand being smeared in paint but the teacher removed it when he realised I was trying to draw rather than simply mark make. This was justified as the focus of the session was about how children enjoyed the feeling of drawing from other senses in art such as the feel of the paper and smell of the paint. I then proceeded to simply mark make before being rotated round to another group where we were then instructed to draw shapes and objects using the marks made by the person on the paper. One line looked like the pole of a fishing rod and I drew around it as such to make it look more like one. It was impressive to see the diverse range of shapes that was available from simply using your hand as the mode of putting paint on paper. I enjoyed this session even though I had no impressive artwork to show for it and found that mark making can be a meaningful experience that allows children to express their emotions and ideas in a more effective way than perhaps any other medium.

References

Cone, T.P. (2009) Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. Journal of Dance Education. [Online] Vol.9(3), pp.81-89. [Available: Taylor & Francis. Accessed 2 January 2017].

Eisner, E. (2002) The Arts and the Creation of Mind, In Chapter 4, What the Arts Teach. London: Yale University Press. Available: Integrated Arts module on Moodle. [Accessed 5 January 2017].

Today I began the Integrated Arts module and we were informed on how classes would be presented throughout the module. I found the subject matter of what we would be learning interesting but peculiar. This week the inputs I received were for Art and Music.

During the Art workshop we explored a portfolio of art collected from children from a wide range of different ages and background. I was able to see how their ability develops and what it reflects for them as a learner as a result. According to Lowenfield et al. a children’s piece of art can fit into one of the following stages called the scribbling, pre-schematic, schematic and the gang stage (Lowenfield et al., 1987 cited in McAuliffe, 2007). However, these stages are argued to be less useful due to the considerable psychological factors that must be take into consideration and must therefore be used instead as a guide on informing opinions on pupils work (Green et al., 1997). The first set of drawings I was able to look at would fit in the scribbling stage, occurring from ages 2-4 years old, and were difficult to decipher. They still depicted the most prevalent qualities of the object they were drawing well though. This emphasised what a child notices most and also demonstrated the enormous amount of creativity that can be used at their disposal. This creativity stems from the lack of responsibility they have as a result of this age and should be used to allow them to be as expressive as possible to develop them most effectively. It is also important to note how vital it is for children to be able to make marks at this age as it gives them enjoyment and allows them to reflect upon them at a later point (The National Strategies, 2008). The quality of art in terms of conventional aesthetics improved considerably as the age of the child increased with some pieces being truly spectacular in the schematic stage where children are approximately 7-9 years old. Allowing children to create art will allow them to work collaboratively with their peers and develop social skills that just isn’t possible to the same extent with other areas of the curriculum.

Scribbling stage drawing

Pre-schematic stage drawing

Schematic stage drawing

I also attended a music workshop that focused on how teaching music in expressive arts can be beneficial to the pupils. We were given an interesting task of creating a storyboard based on a piece of classical music we heard. Our storyboard was very eccentric telling the tale of an adventurer who had whilst searching for a treasure had his map stolen by a griffin. The contrast between the fast paced chase like musical sections and quiet suspense filled sections were interesting to try and create a story around. Afterwards we were showed what Disney had created with the same music and was pleasantly surprised how similar the structure matched our own. This task could be fantastic to carry out with pupils as it would allow them to use their imagination greatly and work in a team to create the storyboard. I would most likely use it with the later stages of primary however so that teamwork is smoother even with clashing ideas. This task like the paintings in the other workshop would be enjoyable for the pupils to perform and therefore improve their school experience. A considerable benefit regarding this task in particular is the multitude of outcomes that are covered such as literacy and art outcomes.

However with both the music and art workshop I reached the conclusion that they both improve the pupils abilities in other outcomes and in fact can be taught cross-curricularly. Marshall states that the benefits of teaching interdisciplinary are excellent in contextualising the subject more effectively granting pupils a more meaningful learning experience (Marhsall, 2014). An example of this would be in the art workshop you could create a task that would require the children to create a repeating pattern such as bathroom tiles. This would test their creativity skills whilst teaching about tessellation in maths at the same time. This boon of teaching other outcomes as a secondary element whilst already improving their other unique skills shows how crucial it is to teach expressive arts in schools.

Reference

Green, L., Mitchell, R. (1997) Art 7-11 Developing Primary Teaching Skills. London:Routledge

McAuliffe, D. (2007) Foundation and Primary Settings. In Teaching Art and design 3-11 (Edited by Sue Cox, Robert Watts, Judy Grahame, Steve Herne and Diarmuid McAuliffe) London: Continuum. Available: Integrated Arts module on Moodle. [Accessed 5 January 2017].

Marshall, J. (2014) Transdisciplinarity and Art Integration: Toward a new understanding of Art-Based Learning Across the Curriculum. Journal of Issues and Research.Vol.55(2), pp.104-127. Available: Integrated Arts module on Moodle. [Accessed 6 January 2017].

The National Strategies (2008) Mark Making Matters – Young children making meaning in all areas of learning and development. [Online] Available: www.babcock-education.co.uk/ldp/do_download.asp?did=300754 [Accessed 5 January 2017].

Session 2 – 27/09/16

Session 1 – 20/09/16

A summary of development as a result of the Integrated Arts module