Week One – 20th September 2016

This was the first week of the Integrated Arts module. Integrated Arts cover art, drama, dance and music within the curriculum. The expressive arts play an important part in a child’s education, placing special emphasis on developing creativity, imagination and encouraging personal response. I have some knowledge on these subjects however more experience in art and dance as I have studied them for longer in the past both at school and outside school. I am looking forward to learning new things within all four subjects and bringing new ideas into schools whilst teaching the arts.

During out first lecture, we had an introduction to the module and we looked at the ten principles of the arts, these take a great deal of time to deal with things, they allow children to help understand the world in a variety of different ways as well give children a voice as they help children learn to say what cannot be said.

    The 10 principles of the arts (Eisner, E, 2002)

The Curriculum for Excellence has many experiences and outcomes referring to the four components of the expressive arts , this allows us as teachers to plan lessons and activities around these to teach the children about the arts in a fun and interesting way. Education Scotland says “Experiences in the expressive arts involve creating and presenting and are practical and experiential. Evaluating and appreciating are used to enhance enjoyment and develop knowledge and understanding”. Expressive arts in the curriculum is used to help enhance, accompany and enhance the child’s learning. All aspects of learning in expressive arts include opportunities to present and perform, for example through preparation of artwork for display, presentation of a short improvised drama to members of the class or performance of dance or music to parents or in the community.  (Education Scotland, 2009)

For children their learning in through and about the expressive arts will:

• enable them to experience the inspiration and power of the arts

• recognise and nurture their creative and aesthetic talents

• allow them to develop skills and techniques that are relevant to specific art forms and across the four capacities

• provide opportunities for them to deepen their understanding of culture in Scotland and the wider world

• are enhanced and enriched through partnerships with professional arts companies, creative adults and cultural organisations.

(Education Scotland, 2009)

Throughout previous experiences in schools I have saw some aspects of the arts being taught for example art activities using a variety of materials for example paint, collages, pens and paper mache, music lessons and film making which involved drama inputs. I am looking forward to this module to be able to learn and explore more about the arts so I am therefore able to take them into schools and put them into practice.

Integrating arts into other subjects makes learning come alive, Art has long been recognised as an important part of a well-rounded education — but when it comes down to setting budgets, the arts are rarely at the top. Many public schools saw their visual, performing and musical arts programs cut completely during the last recession, despite the many studies showing that exposure to the arts can help with academics too. A few schools are taking the research further, putting the arts into everything they do and finding that the approach not only boosts academic achievement but also promotes creativity, self-confidence and school pride (Schwartz, K).

‘Arts integration seems to be the best form of differentiation out there because it taps into so many different interests and abilities and forms of learning” (Schwartz, K).

Music – 20th September 2016

This was our first week of music today. From previous experience I have the least knowledge and experience in music from the other components of the arts, I have never learnt to play an instrument except from first and second year music at school where I played keyboard but not to a great extent. I enjoy listening to music and feel relaxed whilst listening to it, however I have never been musically talented and always thought I couldn’t study music further as I did not know how to play an instrument. Listening to music is proven to be good for you as not only does it instantly put you in a good mood and feel relaxed, it always brings other health benefits such as it can help ease pain, can help you focus, it elevates workout performance, it cheers you up and can keep you calm (Ward, P).

The Curriculum for Excellence talks about music by saying “Through music, learners have rich opportunities to be creative and to experience inspiration and enjoyment. Performing and creating music will be the prominent activities for all learners. Through these activities they develop their vocal and instrumental skills, explore sounds and musical concepts, and use their imagination and skills to create musical ideas and compositions. They can further develop their understanding and capacity to enjoy music through listening to musical performances and commenting on them. They use ICT to realise or enhance their composition and performance, and to promote their understanding of how music works” (Education Scotland, 2009).

Throughout my current placement I have saw a variety of different music activities being taught. The main one being children learning song lyrics for their upcoming school show. In the school handbook it speaks about music saying “Music is an important part of our social culture. Music can enrich the lives of individual children and promote their personal, intellectual and social growth. From Pl to P7 all children are provided with opportunities to explore music using the voice and instruments and to create and present music in some way. We have recently adopted the excellent Sounds of Music Scheme to support our music curriculum and it is in use throughout the establishment”.

During today’s input in music we looked at what benefits music brings to children as well as the skills children develop from music. The results show conclusively that music education equips students with the foundational abilities to learn, to achieve in other core academic subjects, and to develop the capacities, skills and knowledge essential for lifelong success. Music education prepares students to learn, it enhances fine motor skills, prepares the brain for achievement, fosters superior working memory and cultivates better thinking skills. It also improves recall and retention of verbal information, advances maths achievement and boosts reading and English skills. Music equips students to be creative and supports better study habits and self-esteem.

Children are involved in musical experiences in class, in school and also within the community. They can participate by learning to play an instrument or sing, learn to compose, use ICT in music, learn to perform and learn to listen. Music is such a powerful subject and can help us in our learning and teaching, music education in schools has proven to be an enriching and fundamental part of learning. Research has proven that music training helps the brain to process words in spoken conversation, meaning children with disabilities can improve their reading ability.

Music education is known to boost test scores, it helps you learn as it enhances the process of learning. The systems it nourishes, which include our integrated sensory, attention, cognitive, emotional and motor capacities, are shown to be the driving forces behind all other learning.

There is improved school attendance: Schools that have music programmes have an attendance rate of 93.3% compared to 84.9% in schools without music programmes. There are better classroom vibes: with music instruction in schools, teachers found that students were less aggressive (Barekski, S).

We looked at the International Journal of Music Education by Susan Hallam and had to choose an area of it to focus on to find out the relationship and benefits that music brings to it. I chose to focus on the link with music and numeracy. It has been assumed that there is a strong connection between music and maths. A recent study showed children receiving instruction on rhythm instruments scored higher on part-while maths problems than those receiving piano and singing instruction. Overall the evidence suggests that active engagement with music can improve mathematical performance but the nature of this relationship, the kinds of musical training needed to realise the effect, and the length of time required are not currently understood (Hallam, S).

Our task for today was to listen to a piece of music and come up with a storyboard on what we hear. We had to create the storyboard as a group and share with the class what it was about and what we heard. The piece of music that we listened to before we created our story was Disney Fantasia.

This is the song we listened to for our storyboard. At the end after all groups had shared their storyboard with the class it allowed us to see how everyone interprets music differently as we all had different stories, some things from some groups were similar and had the same theme at some parts of the story and others were opposites, this allowed us to see that there is no right or wrong answer to this but it is how we all interpret music differently from what we hear. I really enjoyed doing this activity as before I was not very confident in music as I never thought I was good at it, so being able to stand up and share my storyboard with the class increased my confidence within music as I knew there was no “wrong” answer. I would use this activity in schools with children as it will also increase their confidence in music and being able to speak infront of their peers and be comfortable with what they have on their storyboard. It was interesting to hear what everyone heard and I feel children would enjoy sharing their story aswell as listening to their peers. An experience and outcome I could use whilst planning  this lesson for children could be “Inspired by a range of stimuli, and working on my own and/or with others, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through musical activities. (EXA 0-18a / EXA 1-18a / EXA 2-18a)”.

Art- 20th September 2016

This was our first input in art, out of all the four components of the arts, art is the one I have had the most experience in and feel most comfortable teaching as throughout school I studied art to a higher level and enjoyed learning new skills and techniques in art. I have experienced painting, sketching, skill life drawings, portraits, paper mache to make a hat to be worn in the school fashion show, collages and many other skills. I enjoy doing art as I find it can be relaxing. Art brings many benefits to children, it promotes creativity, encourages neural connections, builds fine motor skills, scribbling is a precursor to writing – Babies and toddlers begin by scribbling randomly, back and forth. The more they scribble, the more they are able to control the crayon and its movements across the paper. As children learn to control their scribbling, they make a wider variety of shapes, eventually making all the shapes necessary to write the letters of the alphabet, art develops problem solving abilities, it helps kids understand themselves and their world and it helps kids connect (Van’t Hul, J).

The Curriculum for Excellence talks about art by saying “Through art and design, learners have rich opportunities to be creative and to experience inspiration and enjoyment. They explore a wide range of two- and three-dimensional media and technologies through practical activities, and create, express, and communicate ideas. Their studies of the works of artists and designers enhance their enjoyment and deepen their knowledge and understanding” (Education Scotland, 2009).

Throughout my current placement I have saw a variety of art activities taking place using a variety of resources and materials. The school has an art cupboard which is full of different materials teachers can use for activities for example paint, paper, pipe cleaners, ribbon, polystyrene, crafts and glue. I have saw a variety of activities from topic crafts which take one lesson to paintings which take several lessons. The school handbook talks about art by saying ” Art and design activities are planned for each stage to promote discovery and stimulate creativity as wells as encouraging children to express ideas, thoughts and feelings visually. Techniques and skills are taught using a variety of media e.g. paint, pencil, crayon, chalk, clay. The school has devised programmes of study and lessons for each stage, P1 to P7, to provide a progressive experience for all children”.

During today’s input we looked at lots of pieces of art work done in three different age groups within school – lower, middle and upper. We discussed how the children were all at different stages and compared pieces of work from different age groups for example the lower group had stick men as people compared to the upper which had portraits of people. We got to see that all kids have different abilities. We looked at the art work and chose our favourite from each group and discussed why we liked it. On the back of the work there was a label telling us the child’s age and what the work was of and more information on it. Throughout these pieces of work different artists were inspired. An artist which I focused on a lot in great detail at school was Van Gough, in particular his painting “Starry Night” and we got to recreate this painting in school.  Van Gough “Starry Night”

This allows children to learn about artists’ and can relate their work through their inspiration of artists who inspire them. Looking at these art work pieces allowed me to think of new ideas and activities I could take into school to make art as fun and interesting as I can to gain the children’s interest and allow them to enjoy art.

 

 

 

 

  

Above are photos of my favourite pieces of work from all age groups, it compares the first image of “people” to the last images where they are from upper primary and shows the portraits they have drawn. It also includes a poster about Zambia which is considered as art work, this made me think of how I can relate art to other topics like this poster and showed me all the different techniques and materials I can take into the classroom.

It made me think that there is no right or wrong pieces of art work, each child sees things in different views and interpret it differently so therefore each piece of work is unique and individual. This made me understand whilst out on placement that children’s drawings will be different and shouldn’t look like the teachers as they should be individual and show the child’s creativity. Through a rich curriculum and responsive teaching, children should learn more about themselves and their world through art and design as well as learning about art and design.

References

Barekski, S. (2016). The Power of Music Education. Available: https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2016/01/the-power-of-music-education.html. Last accessed 23rd September 2016.

Eisner, E. (2002) The Arts and the Creation of Mind. In Chapter 4, What the Arts Teach. London. Yale University Press.

Hallam, S. (2010). International Journal of Music Education. Available: http://moodle.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/715660/mod_resource/content/2/International%20Journal%20of%20Music%20Education-2010-Hallam-269-89.pdf. Last accessed 23rd September 2016.

Education Scotland(2009).Expressive arts: Experiences and outcomes. Available at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/expressive_arts_experiences_outcomes_tcm4-539863.pdf. Last accessed 23rd September 2016.

Schwartz, K. (2015).How Integrating Arts Into Other Subjects Makes Learning Come Alive. Available: https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/01/13/how-integrating-arts-into-other-subjects-makes-learning-come-alive/. Last accessed 23rd September 2016.

Van’t Hul, J. (2013). The Benefits of Art for Kids. Available: https://artfulparent.com/2016/01/the-benefits-of-art-for-kids.html. Last accessed 23rd September 2016.

Ward, P. (2014). 5 Science-Backed Reasons Why Music is Good for You. Available: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/science-backed-reasons-music-good/story?id=26898060#5. Last accessed 23rd September 2016.

Week Two 

Art – 27th September 2016

In today’s art input we rolled black paint on a board and then used our hands and fingers to create art work. By using our finger print we then looked at what we could turn the finger print into. This showed us how children could see different images and draw different pictures.

   Rolling the black paint.

Above is a video to download of me finger printing using the paint.

   Prints using black paint.

From the prints above we used a black pen to make these prints into something that we saw. This was interesting as everyone saw different things on the paper from what I did, I had to keep turning the paper round to see what I could see and find something to make it into.

We then got a piece of lego and got to print using the lego block to create pictures.

 Using lego to print.

This activity was very fun to do. For children who say they “can’t draw” this activity is good to show them that there is no correct outcome of a drawing and everyone’s drawings are different and all correct. This activity gives children more confidence and allows them to be comfortable in making these prints into whatever they want using their imagination. Writing and marks can also be seen as drawing. A simple dot on the page can be used to create a drawing and something unique. I will look forward to using this activity in schools as it allows children to create anything using only one resource and you can add in things like lego to make it more interesting. Children enjoy mess and will enjoy using their hand prints to make pictures rather than always using paintbrushes. A experience and outcome that can be used for this task may be “I have the freedom to discover and choose ways to create images and objects using a variety of materials (EXA 0-02a)”. This task we done allows me as a teacher to have the tolerance for ambiguity and to allow me to know that there is no correct outcome of a drawing.

 

Dance – 27th September 2016

This was our first dance input, I feel comfortable with this component of the arts as I used to go to dancing for many years when I was younger. I feel I have already learnt some basic steps and moves that I can now bring forward and use in this module. According to Cone 2009 creative dance leaves the vision of the dance to young people. It is is the teacher’s role in creative dance to believe in the validity of the children’s creativity and ideas, value the process, support a safe environment for learning and assist when required to provide structure and stimulus to encourage creativity. Dance should be fun, safe, meaningful and a child led activity. “One of the most powerful experiences dance educators can offer children is the opportunity to create a dance that reflects their ideas” (Cone, 2009).

As a student teacher I should be encouraging dance as it increases confidence, increases physical well-being, increases in mental and psychosocial well-being, allows the ability to communicate and work in groups, improves self-esteem which can be carried over to  other curricular area activities. It can also bring to life and provide a meaningful experience for topics. I can achieve this by using resources, visual stimulus, attend CPDs, seek out those who are employed to deliver dance in my authority for ideas and have a basic idea of safe technical dance practice.

The Curriculum for Excellence talks about dance by saying “Through dance, learners have rich opportunities to be creative and to experience inspiration and enjoyment. Creating and performing will be the core activities for all learners, and taking part in dance contributes to their physical education and physical activity. Learners develop their technical skills and the quality of their movement, and use their imagination and skills to create and choreograph dance sequences. They further develop their knowledge and understanding and their capacity to enjoy dance through evaluating performances and commenting on their work and the work of others” (Education Scotland, 2009). An experience and outcome in which I could use for these activities are “I am becoming aware of different features of dance and can practise and perform steps, formations and short dance (EXA 1-10a)”.

During my current placement, I have saw dance being taught for a school show the children were performing, the children learnt dance routines individually and in groups to perform infront of an audience. In the school handbook it talks about dance saying “Dance allows children to explore ways of moving rhythmically, expressively and playfully and to discover how to control their bodies and use space and resources creatively. Lessons will help children become aware of different features of dances from a range of styles and cultures”.

Throughout these dance sessions I hope to learn a variety of new skills and games I can take into schools to use with kids to make dance fun and enjoyable for everyone participate in.

In today’s session we learnt the ten basic steps of dance. These steps were balance, kick, reach, turn, slide, gesture, roll, jump, hop and twist. We looked at how dance can be used in the classroom from social dancing to school shows. To start with we created a circle with everyone and created our own moves for these ten steps, we then went into smaller groups and made up our own moves for these steps to show the class at the end. This at first felt embarrassing dancing infront of your peers, however the more we done it infront of everyone the more comfortable I became. We now had our own ten basic steps of dance and could create a routine using them. I look forward to taking these basic steps into teaching children in schools as this will therefore allow them to create their own routines. We then looked at the human body and got into smaller groups to draw around the outline of a peer and then had a list of words in which we had to place in the correct part of the body. This was challenging at some points as I didn’t know where some parts went, however we knew some so placed they ones first. At the end we went over where everything is and this allowed to me learn the ones I didn’t know.

To finish the session off we learnt some dancing games which we could use in schools. These games included people to people this was done with a partner and we had to go back to back, elbow to elbow and so on. This got everyone comfortable with each other and brought the class together. These games were fun and children would enjoy doing them as they are active, all games were linked in with the ten basic steps of dance. I found these games interesting and very useful to take into schools to use with children and relate dance through topic work to make it more interesting. “Children should be able to compose, perform and appreciate dance” (Smith – Autard 2002).

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: Moodle. Last accessed: 29th September 2016.

Education Scotland (2009).Expressive arts: Experiences and outcomes. Available at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/expressive_arts_experiences_outcomes_tcm4-539863.pdf. Last accessed: 29th September 2016.

Smith-Autard, J. M. (2002). The art of dance in education. 2nd ed. London: A. & C. Black.

Week Three

Dance – 4th October 2016

Today’s session was about dance in the context of topics. The topic for us this week was Halloween, we started off by using the ten basic steps again. There was the ten moves placed around the walls in the room and in groups we had to go around creating moves for each step to show the rest of the class at the end. This again made me feel more comfortable in showing the class as the more we were doing these activities, the more confident I felt. This allows me to know when teaching it in schools the more they do something, the more comfortable they will feel. We were then in groups given a Halloween picture, our group photo was trees, we had to create a dance move from the photo and show the class. After all moves were shown for each photo we placed them all the wall and as a big group done all the moves in that order to the Halloween song “Ghostbusters”.  At the end of the song we had created a class routine by putting all the groups moves together to the song. This was interesting and I enjoyed doing it as it showed me that dance can be linked to other curricular areas and you can use it to introduce new topics or events for example Halloween.

We looked at how we can link dance into topic work. We looked at linking dance with maths. This was something I had never thought about but after completing the activity, I am comfortable in linking dance with topics including maths and carry out activities with the children. We were given a maths sheet with questions on it which we had to solve and the number of the answer would be one of the ten basic steps, we decided as a class which step would be which number. We then after completing the questions had a routine made in our own order as all sheets were different. We had to perform our result to the class and they had to try and guess what number we had. This was a very fun activity for all ages as it can be adapted to suit all levels as the questions can be changed to suit the level and help with problem solving skills. I think using dance linked within maths, allows the children to forget about the maths as they are having fun dancing and being active but still completing maths questions at the same time compared to sitting down with a jotter and pen for maths.

This experience and outcome “I enjoy creating short dance sequences, using travel, turn, jump, gesture, pause and fall, within safe practice (EXA 1-08a) can be used in creating lessons for children relating to dance and the sequences they can create. As i now feel comfortable in teaching these ten basic steps I will be able to link them into topic work and make it as engaging and interesting as possible for the children.

We again finished this session off by learning some more games including warm up games to do with the children before the lesson. The games included the beans game, there was different types of beans for example jelly beans and bakes beans and when one was shouted out there was an action to do for it. This was a fun game which children would enjoy and I will take these into schools to use with children.

Drama – 4th October 2016 

This was our first input in drama. I have no previous in drama so I felt less confident in this component as I had no previous knowledge. However after spending time learning about drama terms I am excited to take it into schools and teach. Firstly we spoke about what drama was for example performing and singing. We spoke about how children may not be comfortable doing drama so should have the class rules whilst doing drama within the classroom for example you should invite children if they wish to take part in the main roles, children should not laugh at each other, the children are allowed to say “pass” and all children should take it in turns to have the main role and not the same person all the time. We as teachers need to nurture and support the pupils’ capacity to make believe. Research has shown that primary teachers lack confidence and subject knowledge in teaching drama” “Drama means different things for different people” (Kitson and Spiby 1997). Participation is key in drama “There is value in teachers experiencing drama as participants in order to better understand it as learners and teachers” (Baldwin, P, 2009). Quality classroom drama does not involve acting out what has already been decided, but focuses instead upon discovering the unknown, risking uncertainty, lbing with ambiguity, exploring new ideas and creating new meanings (Winston, J 1998). Classroom drama is ” to do with the child experiencing rather than the child performing” (Neelands, J. 1990).

 The Curriculum for Excellence says ” Through drama, learners have rich opportunities to be creative and to experience inspiration and enjoyment. Creating and presenting are prominent activities for all learners. Their acting and presenting skills are developed through participating in scripted or improvised drama. Exploring real and imaginary situations helps learners to understand and share their world. They develop their capacity to enjoy drama and their knowledge and understanding through evaluating technical aspects and scripts, and commenting on their work and the work of others”.

During my current placement, I have saw drama being led as the school are learning to perform a school show “Oliver”. This allows me to see what all goes on behind the scenes and how everything gets put together to create a school show. This included individual drama and drama in groups. I enjoyed helping out with this activity and being able to see the end show which showed all the hard work the children put into creating it. In the school handbook it says “Most children will come to school with extensive experience of imaginative play through which they will have begun to explore aspects of the world and characteristics of the people around them. In drama, this familiar way of learning is used to give children opportunities to develop their knowledge and understanding of themselves and their relationships with others and to real life events. Lessons encourage children to explore movement, expression and voice in different kinds of role play and drama. Our children are also given opportunities to perform at concerts and assemblies”.

For today’s input we were split into groups to work together, we started off as a class listening to the “Dragon Story” by Andrew. This allowed us to show how us as student teachers can come in and out of character. The teacher will do something for example wear a hat or a certain badge so the children can identify when the teacher is acting. We had a discussion about how to get everyone involved in drama and not just the confident children in the class and how to rotate the roles and give everyone a turn of being the main role. We looked at some drama conventions and explained the meanings of these, the ones we looked at today were process drama, freeze frame and teacher in role. In the dragon story the teacher was the town leader and the class were villagers, in groups we had to discuss how our village reacts to a dragon coming to it and in groups we had to act this out. We then acted out how we would plan to catch the dragon. Then finished off with a freeze frame of how the town celebrated.

After our first input in drama I now feel more comfortable in being able to carry out a drama lesson within the class. I realise the importance of taking it seriously and not to laugh as this allows you to experience drama fully aswell as listening to everyone in the class and taking part at all times possible. It allows our imagination to think and create scenes that we can act out and improvise on to create our own drama.

  

Above is a list of drama conventions which we have started to learn and will continue to learn them all so we can take these terms and activities into the classroom to allow us to teach drama. I can plan my lessons using a variety of the Expressive Arts Experience and Outcomes for example “I enjoy creating, choosing and accepting roles, using movement, expression and voice” (EXA 1-12a).

References

Baldwin, P (2009) School Improvement Through Drama A Creative whole class, whole school approach Network Continuum.

Education Scotland (2009).Expressive arts: Experiences and outcomes. Available at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/expressive_arts_experiences_outcomes_tcm4-539863.pdf. Last accessed: 4th October 2016.

Kitson,N.&Spiby,I.(1997)Drama7‐11:Developingprimaryteachingskills.London: Routledge

Neelands, J. (1990). Making Sense of Classroom Drama: A guide to classroom practice. Heinemann Educational Books.

Winston, J. (1998). Drama, Narrative and Moral Education. London: Falmer Press.

Week Four

Art – 11th October 2016

Today we were using stimulus as inspiration for creation in a child centered approach in Arts. We spoke about the concept of individuality and moving away from conformity which means following a set of rules. We looked at how children could use a paintbrush that they have made so they are not constricted to the limitations of one that has been provided.

At the beginning of the lesson we looked at a PowerPoint and discussed different objects that might act as a stimulus to children. We discussed how important individuality and uniqueness is when it comes to art. It is important as student teachers we allow children to be creative and use their own ideas rather than just “copying” what we have this builds their confidence in the subject and allows them to express themselves fully using art.

For the task we were chose a homemade paint brush made from sponges, string and twigs, everyone had a different paintbrush with different texture so therefore each painting was unique. We then using the primary colours red, blue and yellow had to create a palette, however the palette was on our paper. We were then described a picture and we had to use our imagination and paint what we thought it looked like using our homemade paintbrush and mixing the three colours to get the colour we needed. At the end we looked at how all work should be individual to that certain child as people all interpret things differently. Art is a place where children express themselves and this activity allowed me to experience that.

I thoroughly enjoyed this activity as I had never done it before, it made me realise about how important my imagination is in allowing me to be creative when I don’t have the painting infront of me. This would be good to introduce children to primary and secondary colours and how they can make different colours using only blue, red and yellow. This activity also allows everyone to create something unique and there are no restrictions.

     

Dance – 11th October 2016

Creative dance should be fun, meaningful, safe and a child led activity (Cone, 2009). Today we practiced in groups our dance routines using the ten basic skills and we also went over our class Halloween dance which we created last week. We were all in groups given common dance terms for example “hammer time” and we had to create our own dance move from our interpretation of each term. This encourages creativity as we are having to think for ourselves. We then put all moves in a small routine and every groups interpretation was different after given some stimulus. We practiced our whole class routine to the song “Ghostbusters” which related to our Halloween theme. Whilst each group was performing in the centre we had to create poses to make in the background. The dance was made up of our whole class dance at the start and finish and our group work dance in the middle. This activity was very creative and active therefore I really enjoyed it. The teacher didn’t have to do anything as we created our own routine, children will enjoy this as it allows them to feel like “teachers” and be creative. This is a simple activity for children as all they need to know is the ten basic steps and they do not need to be a “dancer” to be able to create a dance. This activity gives everyone the chance to be centre stage and not just the people who are more confident, this therefore increases each child’s confidence in dance.

I really enjoyed this activity as even though having danced in the past, I have never had the opportunity to create my own routine as my classes were always teacher led and we just copied what the teacher done. This allowed me to use my creative skills and have fun whilst doing so. I will look forward to taking this activity into schools as I now feel comfortable in taking a dance lesson and performing infront of others. Whilst planning this activity there are various experiences and outcomes that I can use for example “Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express my ideas, thoughts and feelings through creative work in dance” (EXA 0-09a / EXA 1-09a / EXA 2-09a).

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: Moodle. Last accessed: 11th October 2016.

Education Scotland (2009).Expressive arts: Experiences and outcomes. Available at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/expressive_arts_experiences_outcomes_tcm4-539863.pdf. Last accessed: 11th October 2016.

Week Five

We started off today by having a guest speaker Isabel Laird from South Lanarkshire Council. Isabel started off by showing us various pieces of artwork  from various stages of learning using a variety of materials and resources. This was very interesting to look at as it showed me new ideas of what I can take into schools to use as activities and different parts of the curriculum that these paintings could relate to for example topic work and activities about The Titanic. Isabel told us an art project can take up to 6-8 weeks to complete, it doesn’t have to be a single piece of work or photography merged into one and does not need to be a single lesson in the one day.

Drama – 18th October 2016

In today’s input we discussed various ways to use drama in the classroom. We looked at some more of the drama conventions and activities that we could do for each of the teaching methods.

Today we continued with the lonely dragon story. We had to come up with reasons as to why the dragon was upset and crying and what we could do to help him. We were then introduced to hot seating this is where a child or adult sits in the “Hot Seat” and becomes a character who is related to the drama and the rest of the class ask that character questions, Andrew pretended to be the dragon and we had to ask questions to try and get to know the dragon slightly better. Andrew had to improvise and think of answers on the spot because he didn’t know what we were going to ask. In groups we had to create a still image of how we were going to get to the dragons cave. My group decided that the road up to the cave was long and had mountains which had wet slopes, scary woods and horrible weather to try and stop us from getting to the dragons cave.

We then spoke about the story of boy named Frankie Miller who was coming back to town and that we should be worried. We had to come up with our ideas why this was bad and why we did not want Frankie to come back. As a class we decided to keep the conclusion that we had all been involved in stealing but Frankie got the blame for it and went to jail. We performed a flash back to when this scenario happened and then done a flash forward to Frankie coming back and getting to see him again.

I found this activity very useful as it showed how we can use drama in schools using real life scenarios or improvising. I feel comfortable now after performing an activity for all conventions to take drama forward into schools and teach children the importance of it whilst it builds their confidence and creativity skills. My favourite convention to take part in was hot seating as you did not know what was going to be asked next, it allowed us to find out more information and this can be used outside drama and can be done on other issues in the school and also the teacher can be in role to save the children being pushed to be the main part. These conventions can be used with any group, age or topic and can be adapted to suit all levels of the curriculum. Thought tunnels are also a very effective activity as it can be used in different ways and for different subjects. Children who may struggle to show feelings or thoughts will be able to show feelings through these styles of drama conventions. Drama is new to me however I engaged fully in these conventions and had audience participation which is important whilst carrying out drama.

Art – 18th October 2016

This workshop continued on from our guest speaker in the morning. Isabel went through a step by step collage that could be completed over a few weeks in schools, this allowed us to see that art lessons do not need to just be one lesson as there is no rush to complete anything. All stages of the collage was simple and can be adapted and carried out with all levels of the curriculum. Isabel taught us this lesson the way she would teach primary classes, this was effective to me as it took me through a step by step process and allowed me to see effective styles of teaching art.

Our first step was to complete a continuous line drawing of a washing line onto a small piece of paper, all that was needed for this activity was pen and paper. This was very fun to do however it felt strange and was a challenge to me as this was my first time trying to draw by keeping the pen flowing on the paper without lifting it off, this washing line was individual and we got to chose our own ideas of how it should look, this gave me confidence as there was no correct way that it should look.

We then got water coloured paint and had to colour in the washing line and decorate it the way we wanted it to look for example add in any patterns or designs.

  

We then got an A4 piece of paper and designed a wall, there were different photos of walls given out to all groups to give us some ideas and designs for example there were stone walls, bright walls and dull walls. We got to choose our favourite and amend it to suit what we wanted our wall to look like. We only had certain colours so were being experimental and had to mix colours and find the colour we needed. I was given inspiration by the photos of walls as when I think of a wall, the first thing I think of is a “plain brown brick wall”, these photos allowed me to be more creative and design something unusual.

   

We then completely covered a larger piece of paper with wash colours of our choice for the background. Isabel demonstrated and instructed us to sprinkle salt onto our painting which one dried, would give a textured effect. This allowed me to think about what I can add into activities to create a more effective painting for example the salt which I had never thought about before.

Once these were all dried we ripped the painted paper into several strips and created a skyline from it, we pieced our creation together, tearing and sticking down our wall and cutting and sticking our washing line. This painted had the ripped edges for more effect.

At the end of this activity everyone had a different collage, this showed everyone’s individuality and allowed us to be creative in our own ways. This whole idea was taken from a photo in a book of a washing line and allowed us to create a project to end up with something unique. This was an enjoyable, fun activity which with children can be carried out in several lessons as there is no rush for them to complete it in one day. There s no correct result of this so therefore all children feel like they have achieved something unique. I will look forward to taking this activity into schools as it is not just copying something but is allowing children to look at photos and be inspired, creative and imaginative. An experience and outcome to allow me to plan this lesson could be “I can create and present work using the visual elements of line, shape, form, colour, tone, pattern and texture” (EXA 1-03a).

References

Education Scotland(2009).Expressive arts: Experiences and outcomes. Available at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/expressive_arts_experiences_outcomes_tcm4-539863.pdf. Last accessed: 19th October 2016.

Week Six

Music – 25th October 2016

Today in our music input we were introduced to instruments and rhythm. I had no previous knowledge about any instruments as I have never studied music in depth. We completed a variety of different activities that we can take into schools and teach children to be comfortable and confident in music. At first I found this confusing and thought I “couldn’t play” an instrument, however after concentrating and learning the basic steps I was able to play an instrument by the end of the session. I realised from this input that you don’t actually have to be able to read music to play an instrument, this is what I have always thought in the past and I have no previous knowledge in music therefore I have never played an instrument properly however today we completed an activity where we used the symbols to read music for example squares and circles instead of music symbols, this for me was much easier as I knew what they meant instead of the music notes. I think it is important that children also know this fact as children will assume they have to read music to play an instrument. We then looked at different music notes for example semi quavers, rests, crochets and minims. We also learnt how many beats each note was worth and clapped out rhythms that the notes made.

We then each got a glockenspiel and learnt the five basic notes which were C, D, E, G and A. We took off the other notes that we didn’t need to save any confusion. We played the glockenspiel to the song “Hit the Road Jack” for 30 counts infront of the class, at first I was nervous about this as this was my first time playing an instrument infront of a group of people, however we were told there is no right or wrong way for this task, this made me feel more comfortable in playing the 30 counts out loud. This allowed my confidence to grown within music and allowed me to feel more comfortable in teaching music to kids. From this session I have realised that music is more than just playing an instrument but it is about developing a whole range of life and cross-curricular skills all from music.

I feel I can take this activity into schools as it is a good task to allow children to feel confident in music and allow them to be proud when they are able to play an instrument. This task can be adapted to suit all levels of the curriculum.

    

Dance – 25th October 2016

Today was our final input in dance. We carried on rehearsing our routines and finished off our dance. We put our whole routine together and made it into a five minute dance as a whole class. After a few practices together, we were ready to get filmed doing our whole dance. At first I felt nervous about performing on camera, however it reminded me of my past and I how felt in dancing shows on stage when I was younger. After we had completed our dance on camera, we then got the chance to watch the video back whilst peer and self assessing. We had to give our partner three stars and a wish. I found this embarrassing at first having to watch myself dancing on camera, however I was able to reflect on what I could have done better next time. Being able to watch and assess a partner is a good activity for children to do as it allows them to think of what they can do better next time but what is also good about it, this refers to the Curriculum for Excellence outcome “I can respond to the experience of dance by discussing my thoughts and feelings. I can give and accept constructive comment on my own and others’ work” (EXA 0-11a / EXA 1-11a / EXA 2-11a / EXA 3-11a).

I feel children will enjoy this activity as each group dance is unique and this will allow them to feel as if they are the teacher as they are the ones creating the dance. This activity is child centered, I feel this is more effective as it is their ideas they are using and not just learning or copying from the teacher which I feel in my previous dance history I done. I feel I just learnt the routine by copying what my teacher done, so now I feel comfortable to leave the children explore and be creative to create their own dances as this will be more fun and interactive for them as they are using their imagination. Teamwork is very effective in this task and it is important that all children work together to create and perform to the best they can. “Children who participate in teamwork building activities inside and outside of the classroom develop a greater sense of social competency because they learn to correctly interpret and respond to their peers’ needs, according to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Not only are children learning to work as a team, they’re learning to actively listen and respond in a way that makes the group effort more effective” (Schnell, C).

This dance activity was very flexible and can be carried out within 3/4 sessions. Throughout this dance session I found out that it can be linked to any topic including maths. The only work from the teacher is supervising and dealing with technical issues such as music and space. This allows children to enjoy the activity more as they feel independent. An experience and outcome from the Curriculum for Excellence relating to children performing a dance is “I am becoming aware of different features of dance and can practise and perform steps, formations and short dance” (EXA 1-10a).

Overall, I have enjoyed participating in dance and feel very comfortable in taking what I learnt forward into schools including the ten basic steps to dance and a variety of games and warm up activities that can be done with children. We finished off our session by we finished off by doing creative social dancing as a class. Instead of traditional social dancing we put our own twists on them.

   

Above are screenshots from our whole class routine in our dance.

    

Above are screenshots from our group routine within the dance.

    

Above are the evaluation sheet of what should be included in our dance and our peer-assessment sheet.

References

Education Scotland (2009). Expressive arts: Experiences and outcomes. Available at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/expressive_arts_experiences_outcomes_tcm4-539863.pdf, Last accessed: 25th October 2016.

Schnell, C . (n/d).The Benefit of Teaching Children Teamwork. Available: http://oureverydaylife.com/benefit-teaching-children-teamwork-19822.html. Last accessed: 25th October 2016

Week Seven 

Drama – 1st November 2016

Today our focus was on drama within our areas of the curriculum, we were particularly focusing on drama within literacy. For this task we listened to the story “The Tunnel” by Anthony Browne, this book has numerous themes and issues but the main theme being about not making judgements of someone. The brother and sister Jack and Rose are very different in this story.

We used this story to participate in various different drama conventions and used it to create freeze frames, thought tunnels, role on the wall and other techniques to reflect on the characters thoughts and feelings both inside the person and how people can view them differently. In groups we had to choose whether to draw Jack or Rose and inside the drawing we had to describe their feelings and on the outside we had to write how people may perceive them. This allowed me to think of the way they feel compared to how I actually would view them. This allows me to create my own opinions about the characters.

After completing numerous activities from the drama conventions, I feel more comfortable teaching drama and have learnt a  variety of activities to take forward with me in placement. This particular activity allowed me to see how drama can be linked to other areas of the curriculum and how I can make these areas more engaging and interactive by using drama.

                  

Music – 1st November 2016

Today we were very lucky to have children and teachers from p5/6 at Greenmill School in East Ayrshire visit us. These children are involved in a programme called the “Strings Project”. These children within this project all chose and learnt a string instrument as a class and created a class orchestra. As an orchestra they have had many performances including infront of Royalty. These children all feel very proud of this and put their best effort into everything they perform.

The children started off by playing us some pieces of music and then the part that we played in the session was to learn how to play a string instrument with a child being our teacher. This was very rewarding for the child as they felt confident and independent in teaching us own their own. The partner I chose played the string instrument viola, this was very new to me as I have never played a string instrument before. I started off by asking my partner some basic facts about the viola and what different parts on it meant before she taught me some pieces of music. I always thought of the viola just being a “bigger violin” however my partner explained to me that a major difference between playing the violin and the viola is in the production of sound. The viola has thicker strings than the violin therefore it speaks slower as it takes a bit longer to hear its sound from the time the bow touches the string.

After we spent some time with our partner learning about our string instruments, we came together as a class to play various pieces of music. This project is very beneficial to children as the teacher said within the class the children are more calm, there are better teamwork skills and increased concentration. This is backed up by the quote from Barekski who says”There are better classroom vibes: with music instruction in schools, teachers found that students were less aggressive”.

I feel children strive on the pride from their achievements and for them to be able to learn me a brand new instrument was a great activity to increase their confidence and independence.

Above are parts of the viola I learnt from my partner.

References

Barekski, S. (2016). The Power of Music Education. Available: https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2016/01/the-power-of-music-education.html. Last accessed: 3rd November 2016

Week Eight 

Drama – 8th November 2016

Today’s input was slightly different from previous weeks. Today our task was micro teaching. We had to work in groups and choose a children’s book to outline and create activities based on drama to deliver to our peers. My group chose the book “Rainbow Fish” written by Marcus Pfister. This book is best known for its morals about the value of being an individual and for the distinctive shiny foil scales of Rainbow Fish. We created a PowerPoint and covered an outline of the book, Curriculum for Excellence outcomes relating to this topic and drama activities we could use with the class. As we only had a certain amount of time for each presentation my group decided only to carry out the role on the wall and the thought tunnel with our peers. For the thought tunnel we asked the class to get into two lines and one of us went down the lines and the class each shouted out one word which described what the thought of the fish. This allows teachers to see what the class is thinking and will allow them to know if they really understood the story and activity. For the role on the wall, the class in groups drew a picture of the fish and had to right on the inside what he felt about himself and on the outside how others see him.

This activity allowed me to experience what it would be like teaching drama activities to children and what I would change when next teaching it for example the length of time given for each activity. We also got to listen to others power points and carry out their activities by taking part and fully engaging, this gave me new ideas and activities that I can use with a class.

  

Above are screenshots from our PowerPoint on The Rainbow Fish.

     

Above are the results from our role on the wall task.

At the end of our session we looked at how we can link drama into topic work. We looked at the topic war and as Remembrance Sunday was this week it allowed us to speak about that. Drama is a good starting point to teach these topics to children. In groups we had to create a freeze frame showing something from the war. We chose evacuation and showed mothers waving off their children on the train. Children will be engaged in this activity as it is active and involving them rather than just sitting listening to information about topics.

Music – 8th November 2016

For today’s input we were in the computer lab. We were looking at “Garageband”. GarageBand is a line of digital audio workstations  that allows users to create music or podcasts. I had never worked on anything to do with music online before so this was new to me. Through Garageband I am learning new skills and technology to take into schools. We got to explore through the online resource and had to create our own 32 count tune by listening to different rhythms and beats to decide which we wanted for our own tune, we then picked which instruments we wanted to include. This brings choice and creativity into the classroom which is very important for children to have.

Nowadays, technology is expanding and more and more schools have more access to IPads and Smart boards, this therefore is an effective resource online to use as some schools may not have many instruments for all children or have a large variety of instruments where as on Garageband you don’t need the instrument infront of you to be able to play it as you can play and explore through this resource. I feel this is an important resource which I will continue to use as children enjoy working on technology as it is fun and interactive. Technology plays an important role in our lives supported by this quote saying “Technology can be used to support teaching, and to enable pupils to compose, make, record and perform music. It can also remove barriers for groups who might not otherwise be able to access music’’ (HM Government, 2011).

I particularly found this resource very useful as if I had the instrument infront of me, I would not know how to play it as I don’t have a deep knowledge of music or haven’t played any instruments in the past, however through Garageband I was able to play and experiment with instruments I thought I would never have touched to create my own tune. I will take this resource into schools with me as I know it improved my confidence in music through using technology rather than playing the actual instrument.

References

HM Government. (2011). The importance of music. A national plan for music education. [Online] Available: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/180973/DFE-00086-2011.pdf. Last accessed: 8th November 2016).

Week Nine

Art – 15th November 2016

In today’s lecture we looked at Rod Taylor’s process, form and content whilst looking at photos and analysing what we thought they meant. Below is the photo I got given to discuss and a video to download of myself speaking about the photo.

Today in the workshop we looked at how art should be related to a specific artist and their work. In my current placement, I have saw an art lesson being carried out relating to the famous artist Piet Mondrian. The class were making abstract art inspired by Mondrian using only blue, red, yellow and black paint.

Above is the class display of their “Piet Mondrian” work.

I feel it is important to relate art work to an artist as this allows the children to also widen their knowledge about art history and who their paintings are inspired from.

Today we looked at the famous tenements painting by Glaswegian artist Avril Paton, the painting we studied was called “Windows in the West”. This painting shows lives living in the tenement across from her in Glasgow.

Watch the video below to listen to Avril Paton speaking about her painting “Windows in the West” from Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow which has the biggest connection of Art in Europe.

 

For our activity we were given out a copy of the painting and we had to chose a certain part which inspired us, then using polystyrene we designed out own outline of the certain part of the building which inspired us using a ball point pen, we done this before using our template to print on paper. Everyone’s drawings were different and there was no such thing as mistakes in this task. I feel this is important to tell children as they may assume theirs is “wrong” because it doesn’t look like anyone else’s. It is important to allow children to be creative and have their own individual designs.

After drawing we then rolled coloured ink onto a board and rolled it onto our drawing before printing and lifting the design on a colour of card of our choice. I enjoyed this activity as it was different and artist related. It was a good, quick activity which I will take forward and teach with a class. This activity can be adapted to make other things such as Christmas cards by using Christmas colours and it also allows the children to learn more about artists and their paintings.

 My result from printing.

Music – 15th November 2016

Today’s input for music was in the computer lab again. This time we were looking at “Charanga Scotland”. This is an exciting primary school scheme for the music curriculum. This allows us to develop music skills and knowledge which I feel is very beneficial for me as I don’t have much previous knowledge about music. Charanga allows all levels of the curriculum to be looked at aswell as all curricular areas. It provides teachers with worksheets, activities and lesson plans in order to be able to teach music. I feel for me as a student teacher that this is a useful resource to have especially when I am not as confident in music as I am in the other arts. It can also be fun and exciting for children as there are many activities that can be played within different topics. Children can be creative and explore this website whilst they create music.

For teachers this is a useful tool as Charanga also has an assessment tab which gives you information on how to asses pupils music abilities for example by plan, do, check and review. I feel this is a good tool teachers can use when starting out to teach music as it is prepares with lesson plans, activities and songs. Children also enjoy using Charanga as it is online and for children who perhaps don’t enjoy music can still be involved and create their own music online rather than playing instruments which they may not like.

I will take this resource into schools and use it in a beneficial way to enable me to teach music to the very best I can. In my current placement I have saw posters and notices for Charanga in the staff room and heard staff speaking about it, however until today I had never been on the website.

     

Week Ten

Music – 22nd November 2016

Today’s focus in music was looking at our voice and the importance of our voice as a teacher. We discussed how teachers can protect their voice for example if they have the cold, they can take strategies to prevent them needing to use it as much. One of these strategies being simply giving instructions speaking more quiet than usual. Teachers could also use the strategy of clapping their hands to get attention which I have saw in placement where the teacher has her own rhythm she claps out and when the child hears it they stop what they are doing and listen. Another would be by simply counting down from 5 to 1, I have also saw this in use and it is very effective as children do not want the teacher to reach one. Not eating a lot of spicy foods, not smoking and only talk unless necessary are all actions that we can take to help our voice. We done some excercises that could be used before singing to excercise our voice these involved making different facial expressions and generally relaxing our mouth and body. We then sang a song together which can also be used as a warm up. It is not only singing in which you can use your voice in music, but you can also use it in activities such as beat boxing or online using Charanga. I found this input very beneficial as it provided me with new information I had never thought of before and allowed me to discover different actions I can take to protect my voice.

Singing is an important part in music and the curriculum therefore it is important we look after our voice. Experiences and outcomes from the Curriculum for Excellence which includes the importance of your voice are “I can use my voice, musical instruments and music technology to discover and enjoy playing with sound, rhythm, pitch and dynamics” (EXA 1-17a) and also “I can sing and play music from other styles and cultures, showing growing confidence and skill while learning about musical notation and performance directions” (EXA 1-16a).

References

Education Scotland(2009).Expressive arts: Experiences and outcomes. Available at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/expressive_arts_experiences_outcomes_tcm4-539863.pdf. Last accessed: 23rd November 2016.

Week Eleven 

Music – 29th November 2016

Today in music we were looking at instruments we would find in schools both untuned and tuned percussion. Our main instrument for today to focus on was the ukulele.

As a class we learnt the four chords required to play all basic songs this was demonstrated by Axis of the Awesome which is shown below.

This was my first time playing a ukulele so it took me some time to get used to how to hold it properly and what strings to play and what the strings were called. After a few practices, I became used to it and felt more comfortable to play it infront of the class. This showed me that children of all ages can learn to play the ukulele and the more opportunities they have, the more comfortable they will feel. We looked at the different strumming methods you can use whilst playing the ukulele. There were techniques which allowed us to learn simple songs on the ukulele. We put everything we had learnt as a class together and performed “Last Christmas” by Wham as a class. To perform this song we went through a step by step guide to make it easier and took it in a few steps at a time. This was much easier to me as I had no previous experience playing the ukulele. I feel when teaching instruments with kids, I will teach it step by step which means they are not getting too much information at once and can go over each step in detail to ensure all children understand. The song “Last Christmas” was related to the theme Christmas which therefore allows us to see that music can be linked to themes and the class can relate to these themes. I found this a very enjoyable activity and was happy to be able to perform it with my peers. I now feel I have learnt enough to teach this to my future pupils and I can show them how simple it is to play the ukulele. I am now comfortable in bringing instruments into music whilst teaching the children.

I feel it is important that children enjoy playing music and experience it through instruments. I have never played an instrument before and after these sessions I realised how simple it can be to learn an instrument and how fun it can be. There are known to be many benefits of playing a musical instrument for example increases the capacity of your memory, refines time and organisational skills, boosts team skills, enhances coordination and creates a sense of achievement. Matthews, M says “Playing a musical instrument fosters your self-expression and relieves stress as you can play what you want with your instrument, the more advanced you become on an instrument, the greater you will be able to play what you want. Music is an art- just like an artist can paint their emotions onto a canvas, so can a musician play a piece with emotion. This has proven to relieve stress and can be a great form of therapy. Music therapay has been useful in treating children with autism, depression and other disorders” (Matthews, M). An experience and outcome which covers musical instruments and the importance of having experience with them  is “I can use my voice, musical instruments and music technology to discover and enjoy playing with sound, rhythm, pitch and dynamics” (EXA 1-17a). I will use this outcome to help plan lessons for my future pupils and teach music to my best ability.

Drama – 29th November 2016

Today was our final input in drama which continued with our previous task micro-teaching. Today as my group had already delivered our presentation, we got to listen to the other groups and participate in their drama activities. This showed me a variety of methods of teaching drama activities aswell as gave me new ideas that I could take into schools.

Overall, now I feel very comfortable in teaching drama within schools. I feel now after knowing and understanding all the drama conventions it allows me to have a deeper understanding of what drama really is. I learnt drama does not have to be scripted and it can be linked into other curricular areas for example literacy. I learnt many games and activities I can use with my future pupils to allow them to experience drama and enjoy it. I feel within the curriculum drama can fit in with most areas and at some point within the school week drama should be used, I learnt you do not need a certain space or hall for drama as it can be used within the classroom space. Throughout the drama sessions I have gained confidence and learnt new skills and techniques to take forward into schools which I am excited to pass on to my future pupils.

References

LTS (2009). Expressive arts: Experiences and outcomes. Available at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/expressive_arts_experiences_outcomes_tcm4-539863.pdf. Last accessed: 29th November  2016.

Matthews, M. (2011).18 Benefits of Playing a Musical Instrument. Available: http://www.effectivemusicteaching.com/articles/directors/18-benefits-of-playing-a-musical-instrument/. Last accessed 11th December 2016.

Week Twelve 

Art – 6th December 2016

Today’s input was based on using alternative approaches to arts education focusing on Room 13. Room 13 represents a growing network of student-run arts studios in schools and community settings worldwide. The story of Room 13 began in 1994, when a group of students established their own art studio in Room 13, Caol Primary School near Fort William, Scotland. They ran the studio as a business, raising funds to buy art materials and employ a professional Artist in Residence to work with them. Each Room 13 studio facilitates the work of young artists alongside a professional adult Artist in Residence, providing an exchange of ideas, skills and experience across the ages. In Room 13, students are encouraged to take the lead, be creative, and to think for themselves. The website for more information and photos of some work can be found here. http://room13international.org/

In groups we looked at art work from different schools. We has to think about what was shown in the work and whilst as a teacher having a tolerance for ambiguity, share our conclusions with the class. The piece of work which my group had is shown below.

At first I was unsure of what they were trying to express through this art work however after discussing some ideas with my group and then further with the class we came up with some ideas varying from part from a horror and issues about people fitting in with others. We then looked at how to display art work of a class, we learnt the best way is by putting it all out in a large space and moving the pieces of art work around to see what looks best where and that all capabilities should be displayed within the class.

I feel after having studied Room 13 that it would be an effective tool in schools as it promotes creativity and allows the children to express themselves in their own way as each final product will be different and there is no certain expectations for it to look like.

Music – 6th December 2016

Today was our final input in music. We concluded it by looking at the alternative approaches to teaching music. In today’s session we were looking at figure notes. With figure notes you can start playing an instrument immediately. All you need to do is match two identical symbols. All information is written with the shapes and colours. You just have to play what you see. They give the same musical information as conventional notation and it is easy to switch to conventional notation if and when the player is ready for it. I felt really comfortable playing an instrument using figure notes as I have never played an instrument before and didn’t have much previous knowledge about music. I feel figure notes are a very effective thing for children who find music difficult or who do not play an instrument.

As a class we created images for certain sounds. By placing symbols into a grid, a tune was created which we could all follow and play. I chose a hand drum as my instrument to be able to play the tune we created.

    

We then used figure notes to play different pieces of music for example Jingle Bells and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on either the glockenspiels or keyboards. I chose to play these songs on the keyboard. I found from this activity that figure notes allowed me to play a piece of a music as it is easy to follow and easy to read.  Using these symbols and colours allowed me to successfully play twinkle twinkle little star and jingle bells with a partner both playing bass and melody. This gave me confidence and satisfaction that I can actually play an instrument and you don’t have to be able to read conventional notation to play a song.

        

Below is a video to download of me and my partner playing jingle bells on the keyboard using figure notes.

I found figure notes a very useful thing to learn as it allowed me to experience music in a way I had never before. I will definitely take figure notes into schools to use, this will help build children’s confidence within music and allow them to play an instrument successfully by reading the shapes. I picked figure notes up very quickly and feel it would be a good starting point to teach children before they are able to move on to conventional notation. Throughout the music sessions I have gained a variety resources including online resources and my confidence has grew. I now feel able to take what I have learnt into schools and teach music to my future pupils in a fun and interactive way.

Overall throughout this module, my knowledge has developed on all of the arts – music, dance, drama and art. I have gained numerous activities and information which I look forward to taking into schools to teach my future pupils the arts in the best way possible making it fun and exciting for them.

Placement Tasks

Student teachers must acquire knowledge and understanding of theory and practical skills in curricular areas, referring to local and national guidance Student teachers must understand how to match the level of curricular areas to the needs of all learners Student teachers must understand the importance of using and designing materials for teaching and learning to stimulate, support and challenge all learners   (Standard for Provisional Registration with GTCS, benchmark 2.1.2)

TASK 1: OBSERVING THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT Spend some time observing the learning environment. Note the following: Is there much display of expressive arts practice in public spaces/corridors/classrooms? Are these displays related to knowledge and understanding within the expressive arts?  Specify the content of the work that is displayed. There are various displays of expressive arts all around the school. There are displays in the classrooms, corridors, ICT room and gym hall. Each class has its own walls in the corridors which they use to display a variety of the children’s art work. The school is open plan so each class can see others’ work in the classroom and corridor. Throughout the corridor there are a variety of displays from each class as well as in the main corridor and entrance to the school, there are displays children have made about the school rules and pupil council. All displays are related to what the children have been learning in class and cover various curricular areas for example Viking Art which relates to their history topics and symmetry art which relates to mathematics. There are displays of colour wheels the children have made to understand primary and secondary colours for their art lesson. Each of the displays are varied from paintings, drawings, collages, sketching and shading. In the classroom there are various expressive art displays covering all areas of the curriculum including numeracy, history and geography. There is also topic themed work for things happening for example firework night. Above is a display of firework Art using chalk and firework safety posters. Viking Art – History Topic. The children learnt how to write their names in Runes. Is learners’ work displayed? Are there labels and written explanations? All pupils work is displayed, the teachers ensure when putting up displays in the corridors that all children have something displayed. These displays are throughout the school and each piece of work has the pupil’s name labelled somewhere on the work. All displays have labels and a title at the top of the display wall. These labels tell us what the children have been learning and what the aim of the task was that is being displayed. Above is a display of shading work using pencil. Above is a display of the children’s Piet Mondrian Abstract Art work using only red, yellow, blue and black. What kinds of spaces/facilities are there for performances? In the school there are various spaces used for performances. There is a full equipped music and performance room. This room is used when the children have music or any class performances they want to practice. Assemblies are sometimes carried out in this room also. The room has benches, an interactive whiteboard, musical instrument trolley, resource cupboard and a cd player. Any class can use this room when it is not in use. There is also a large gym hall. The gym hall is used for p.e as well as any performances or space a class needs. The gym hall has benches, a cupboard with resources and equipment, a stage can be put in this hall also for any school shows. What range of media is being used?  Are both two and three dimensions covered?  Is digital media used? What is the range of instruments that learners have access to? Throughout the school a range of media is used through expressive areas including paint, clay, pens, pencils, chalk and crayons. There are also material resources for example pipe cleaners and ribbon. There is a large art cupboard in the school which all teachers have access to this has a variety of art resources in it including paint and paper. Both 2D and 3D dimensions are covered, the 2D displays are found mostly on the walls and 3D found displayed in the classroom or open area. Above is a 3D Halloween Pumpkin made with card that the children made.

TASK 2: OBSERVING LEARNING-IN-ACTION In consultation with your mentor identify two expressive arts lessons (dance, music, drama, visual art) to observe. For each lesson, make a note of the following: Lesson 1 – Class Christmas Picture Lesson 2 – Upper school show –“Oliver” What are the learning intentions and success criteria? 1)      To successfully design and make a Christmas picture to display in the school – All classes make a Christmas picture to display in the dinner/gym hall in the month of December. This picture is seen by pupils’, staff and parents. School shows, nativity, Christmas parties, Christmas lunch, Christmas Fayre and a variety of things happen in this hall in December so these class Christmas pictures are on display. 2)      To successfully learn the script and musical pieces to perform the school show – P4-7 have an annual school show in December, this year’s show is “Oliver” and will be performed to staff, pupils and parents. Is the lesson part of a sequence? If so, what is the concept or theme of the sequence? Where in the sequence is this lesson placed? 1)      This was a structured activity. All the children got to do something on the picture. This picture was based on the theme Christmas, the class have been making things related on this theme for a while for example making crafts to sell at the Christmas Fayre. They made craft gingerbread men tree baubles and they entered a Christmas card competition where they designed their own card. The biggest thing which took the most time to make was the class Christmas picture as they put a lot of thought and effort into it. They had to finish it by the first week in December to allow it to be displayed in time for the activities happening throughout the school. 2)       The children have been working on the show for a while. They have been doing parts at a time firstly by sorting out the roles in the show and who had what part.  They then all learnt the script and children practised their own parts to say, then all children learnt the songs. After these were all mainly done, the stage was put up and props were made as well as dress rehearsals before the final practice. The lesson I observed for this task was the first stage rehearsal where children got to practise it for the first time on stage and it allowed teachers to see what it looked like and what had to be changed as well as where the children would all sit. What resources (procedural & declarative) are used in the lesson? 1)      The resources used in this lesson were aprons, pva glue, glitter, ribbon, paper, pens, pencils and paint. 2)      For this lesson pupils needed to have a loud voice to participate, CD, CD player, scripts, a stage, microphones, chairs and benches. Things will be added in at a later date for example props and art work for the background. How is the arts practice demonstrated to the learners? 1)      The teacher and pupils had a discussion about what they would like their class picture to be. The class all voted and decided the most popular idea was a reindeer. They decided what they were going to include and how they were going to decorate it and with what resources. The class done it step by step by all taking turns to do different parts. They firstly sketched it on A4 paper before doing the real drawing, they then drew the reindeer and wrote “Merry Christmas”. The reindeer was painted and glitter was added for the nose. The writing was coloured in with pen and outlined with black pen. The children all made a Christmas bauble to hang from the reindeer with ribbon. 2)      The show was learnt through repetition and a lot of rehearsals both at school and at home. The children learnt all the songs in school during class time as well as music. They learnt these songs step by step and got the scripts home to practise. The rehearsals allowed the children the opportunity to pretend it was the real show and to know how well they knew their part. The school show covers all aspects of integrated arts as for music, the children had to learn and sing all the songs, for drama they had to perform the show, for art they had to create all the backgrounds and props and for dance they had dance routines for part of some of the songs. What, if any, differentiation methods are used? 1)      No differentiation methods used. 2)      No differentiation methods used. Are specialist arts practitioners used to deliver learning? 1)      Structured activity done by class teacher and helped by classroom assistants. I also helped out with this task by taking groups out to finish the painting. 2)      P4-7 teachers all carried out the planning of the show. I assisted with the show on the night by helping set up and helping the children get organised before the show. After each lesson reflect on what you observed and write down three reflections associated with it (one or two sentences for each reflection will suffice). 1)      Reflecting on this lesson, ·         I realised how it was so important to involve all children in tasks. Each child was very excited to wait on their turn to decorate the painting. They all also designed their own bauble which would be displayed on the picture. ·         I also realised it is important to allow children to decide how they want to design it and what they want to create. It is important children have a choice. The children all got a say to decide what the picture would be and the class took a vote to decide the most popular one. They were all very engaged in the activity and were excited for it to be displayed. ·         It is important children are engaged in the activity, all children were engaged and this piece of work was theme related which the children could all add their own ideas and designs to the plan. As the children were engaged, the work which was produced was to a high standard, this was a “hands on” activity which the children thoroughly enjoyed. It is important to make the work enjoyable and gain children’s interest. 2)      Reflecting on this lesson, ·         I realised how much children enjoy performing especially to an audience. All children participated in the school show and were very excited to perform to their parents. I was at the school show on the night and every child participated and sang as loud as they could. The children all knew what they had to do and had learnt their script and they performed an excellent show. ·         I found that it is important to make sure all children are fully engaged in the lesson and all are participating. Sometimes not all children might be singing so it is important to make sure all are engaged and know what is happening in the show. ·         I found that all four aspects of integrated arts are shown I creating a show. There was aspects of drama, music, dance and art all performed in the show.  Children may have a favourite aspect out of these four and engage more in this, however it is important to ensure they are participating in all. Above is the final product from Lesson 1 – Final Christmas picture on display. Above is the final product from Lesson 2 – The stage set up on show night ready for the children to perform.