Month: December 2017
Creative Partnership and Reflections 28/11/2017
This week was the last Integrated Arts module inputs. Reflecting over the course of the module I have certainly acquired and develop new skills and theological understanding in regards to dance, drama, visual arts and music and subsequently I feel better equip with the skills and teaching techniques and I am self-assured I can successful teach the arts within primary education. Initially I was rather self-conscious and uneased at the perspective of teaching the art, I significantly lacked confidence and feel I did not have the ability to ever teach the arts, but as the module progressed and participated in various input I have been able to build upon my skills sets. For myself personally the immense lesson I learnt was the arts is not regarding seeking perfection (art, production or creative work) but in fact is concerning having the ability to tolerate change, utilising ideas and creations, in order to form pieces of work which is unique, abstract and symbolic to the individual.
This week’s lecture focused on creative partnership within schools. By the end of the lecture I was able to understand creative partnerships are the link between school and arts sector works. Creative partnerships have many opportunities for teachers and pupils alike, teachers are able to work profession from within the arts industries to improve their skills sets, as for pupils they are able to develop an understanding of the arts in context of individual who work within these industries (Scottish Government, 2013). Creative partnerships can significantly impact and improve behaviour, attainment and attendance of children is evident through the ParkOur project that have been implemented in serval secondary school throughout Scotland (Scottish Government, 2013).
In essence the Expressive Arts encompass the development of creativity across the curriculum, it imperative as a student teacher and as a teacher in the future, I consider creativity within my pedagogy. Creativity is not dependent upon the arts but is providing children the relevant opportunities to develop problem solving, communication, critical thinking and team working skills, which will appropriately equip children in a world which lack certainty and is constantly changing (Scottish Government, 2013)
References
Education Scotland. (2013) Creativity Across Learning 3-18. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/cre39-impact-report.pdf. [Accessed 6 December 2017]
Drama and Dance 21/11/2017
Similar to every week of the Integrated Arts module I have been able to improve, develop and acquire new skills, this weeks focuses where dance and drama.
This week’s inputs started off with a lecture formed on dance in education, from the lecture I was able to gather why dance is important in education, implementation of dance and the role the class teacher. Within the Expressive Arts dance should always underpin creativity, creative dance is the idea of allowing the children to use their imagination to chorography and create a dance, in essences creative dance should not be teacher led in fact a child led activity (Cone, 2009). Creative dance should always be enjoyable, engaging and empowering for all children regardless of dancing ability (Pain et.al 2014). Paine, et.al ( 2014 p.1) elucidates dance as “means of human expressions” hence dance is a form of communication. “It (dance) requires no equipment apart from the body itself (the instrument) and a space in which to move (the medium)” (Paine et.al, p.1). The class teacher plays a fundamental role in children creative development through dance, first and foremost it is imperative that the teacher equally consider ideas and innovations of all children. Likewise, it is important that the teacher provides a safe, engaging and supportive learning environment, teachers should have knowledge in regards to the 10 basic dance skills, this will ensure that all children have a starting level and are able to build upon these 10-basic movement and is a beginning of their creative dance (Cone, 2009). Many would allude that dance is solely concerning physical development, however creative dance develops children social skills which is aspects of the creative skills definition and the creative process (Scottish Government, 2013). Creative dance enables children to make enlightened and analytic judgement, work in partnership with peers, develop thought processes, empowers confident individuals and improves children’s aesthetics awareness (Paine et.al , 2014 ).
During this the dance workshop we were focusing on developing our group routines from the previous week, however the class decided to use the theme of Christmas instead of Halloween, we used the foundation of the previous routines to develop new dance. Student took leadership of the warm-up, cool-down, starter game, 10 basic movements and visual stimulus relating all to the theme of Christmas, this enabled for us to understand what we have acquired over the weeks in regards to dance and our confidence and teaching ability in leading a creative dance lesson. The group I was working with were given visual stimulus we created five pictures as our stimulus of:
• An elf
• A present
• Christmas tree
• Fire place
• Santa
We then proceeded in supplying the picture stimuli to groups and the groups were tasked in developing a 4-count movement to express their stimuli. We continue to build onto our routines by starting off with a whole class dance and then separating into our groups to perform our initial dances. I thoroughly enjoyed this week’s dance inputs as we were all given the opportunity to create our own dance under the guidance of the lecture. Relating this week’s dance inputs with Tallis Habits Pedagogy Wheel I believe I was able to be imaginative due to understanding the 10 basic movements, using this understanding to create a routine and then evaluating what improvement were need.
The drama input was centre around micro-teaching, in which my group presenting our drama lesson. The group I was working with we decided to plan our lesson based on the Children’s story ‘The Three Little Pigs’. We thought it was appropriate to use a video as visual stimulus for our audience, we had serval video options to choose from and our final decision was to go with a video that contained subtitles this meant within a diverse class all children would be able to follow the story along and be included regardless of needs. Throughout the micro-teaching lesson, we used skills and teaching methods that we had acquired throughout the module in order to develop the story as well as the skills of the audience. It was great to see all the audience engaging with our lesson and drama conventions. Considering this experience to the Tallis Habit Pedagogy Wheel I would say I was within the ‘collaborative’ segment as I had to work and co-operate with my group to develop and produce the micro-teaching lesson, likewise I had to present the lesson peer audience and use peer feedback to reflect upon the lesson.
During this week’s inputs I have been able to enlarge my understanding in regards to performing both within drama and dance. Dance is based on communicating through movement where drama is communicating verbally, however linking both drama and dance messages and themes can be conveyed through non-verbal movements and expressions.
References
Tallis, T. (2013) Tallis Habits Pedagogy Wheel. [Online] Available: http://www.thomastallisschool.com/tallis-pedagogy-wheel-guide.html. [ Accessed on 30 November 2017]
Cone (2009). Following their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dance. [online] Available: http://moodle.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/109357/mod_resource/content/1/Purcell%20Cone%20%282011%29.pdf. [Accessed: 30 November 2017]
Education Scotland. (2013) Creativity Across Learning 3-18. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/cre39-impact-report.pdf. [Accessed 1 December 2017]
Paine, L and National Dance Teachers Association. (2014) Complete Guide to Primary Dance. 1st ed. Not Stated: Human Kinetics
Music and Drama 7/11/17
This focus of the integrated arts inputs this week was music and drama. During these inputs I believe my confidence and ability within the integrated arts curriculum is developing, the skills that I am acquiring are valuable and relevant, which I would implement within my future practice.
This week the music input was vastly dynamic, as 30 primary school pupils from an East Ayrshire school came into the university, the children were teaching us. The children are part of the string project, the fundamental aim of the project is children from primary 4-7 have the opportunity to learn a string based musical instrument along with their class teacher. Being part of this initiative enables children to thrive within the four capacities (success learner, responsible citizen, confident individual and effective contributor) of the Curriculum Excellence. This was evident to myself when the children taught the university student how to the play their musical instruments. The children were very motivated, engaged, resilient, confident and were a credit to their school. The music instrument I was assigned to was the cello, the children were very helpful at showing the university students to different skills required to play the musical instrument. Initially, I felt rather apprehensive as this was the first I have ever attempted to play a string instrument, but I become more assured as the input progressed. Reflecting on this learning experience using the Tallis Habits Pedagogy Wheel I believe I was within the persisting segment of the wheel whilst learning the skills required, to begin with I felt challenge, but I remain focused and sustained the task, kept repeating the skills and at the end input I reviewed and reflect upon what I achieved during the input. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed and found the input to be insightful, it was a great experience for the children to be ‘teachers’ and I learnt a significant amount in regards to string instruments. The String Project (which is unique to this school) is an excellent project that provides children from all backgrounds the opportunity to play and acquire the skills and understanding necessary to play a string instruments. There are strong collations that music improves children’s behaviour and attainment within education this is heighten by research carried out by the University College London (n.d) that discovered “it (music) has led to curriculum innovation, increased participation and investment, benefiting millions”. Similarly, Nick Gibb (former school minister) (University College London, n.d) denoted that “quality music education improves behaviour, attention and concentration and has a hugely positive effect on numeracy and language skills”. Therefore, this input conveyed the importance of music within primary education and immense empowerment and opportunities children can gain by playing a musical instrument or using voice.
Likewise, this week’s drama input was divergent from the usual, this was due to having the opportunity to micro-teach and participating in students group lessons too. Throughout second year of this degree we are becoming increasingly accustomed to this element of practising teaching. Kalaimathi et.al (p.4, ) defines micro-teaching as “an excellent way to build up skills and confidence, to experience a range of lecturing/ tutoring styles and to learn and practise giving constructive feedback”, likewise adding (p.3, ) “teachers also need appropriate opportunities to practise what they have learnt through stimulated or workshop experience”. During the session it was absorbing to see a range of ways students used to teach their drama lesson one group used a video clip, while another group read from a storybook and likewise a third group created their own story. This allowed the rest of the class to consider the variety of opportunities there are when it comes to teaching drama. In a couple of weeks, the remaining groups will create their own micro-teaching lesson.
Interconnecting both inputs I feel I have been able to develop my confidence and pushed out my comfort zone in array of ways, at particular junctures throughout the day especially when being taught how to play a string instrument and during drama being in a small group propelled myself to take in a larger role when performing. Relating both learning experiences to the Tallis Habit Pedagogy Wheel I would consider that the segments “collaborative and persistent”. As a class we worked collaboratively during drama as we shared our ideas, discussed and explained why those ideas surfaced and received feedback. Likewise, during the music, we worked collaboratively with the primary schools’ pupils as they shared their musical skills with us, similarly explaining and showing us how to play their musical instruments. From my standpoint I believe that my learning experience was “persistent” before the music input I was unsure and apprehensive due to limited knowledge, but I endured the unknowing and continued with the difficulty and remained focused throughout. Overall this week I have been able to develop my understanding and esteem within the integrated arts in particularly music and drama teaching.
References
UCL (2014) Music in Schools: Boosting Achievement, enthusiasm and participation. [Online] Available: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/impact/case-study-repository/music-in-schools [Accessed 12 November 2017]
Kalaimathi, D. and Julius, R. (2015) Micro-Teaching – a way of building up skills. [Online] Available: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=mPtDCwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=microteaching&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjCrpTqiMnXAhXCHxoKHbp1AMMQ6wEILzAB#v=onepage&q=microteaching&f=false. [Accessed 12 November 2017].
Tallis, T. (2013) Tallis Habits Pedagogy Wheel. [Online] Available: http://www.thomastallisschool.com/tallis-pedagogy-wheel-guide.html. [ Accessed on 12 November 2017]
Visual Art and Music 14/11/17
This week’s input where based on the visual arts and music. Once again, this week I was able to consider the importance of the Expressive Arts within education and the vitalness that I continue to develop theological and performance knowledge.
During the visual arts input we explored primary education and the arts in Lapland. It was rather insightful as Lapland a significant amount of outdoor learning takes place all year round, in spite of having extremely bad weather during winter months. Within the Scottish education system outdoor learning is increasing emerging due to the wealth of learning opportunities the outdoors can provide in relation to children academic and social development. Using outdoor space can be a great way of engaging the children in their learning, there are many Expressive Arts Activities that can be taught outdoors for example;
• Opportunity to explore different types of art media such as chalk.
• Provide space for large-scale painting projects
• Engaging children with nature and seasons, this can be used as stimuli for art work, such as using leaves to create an image.
• Using outdoor space as a setting for drama.
• Children will be able to use their sense to discover new knowledge
• The outdoors can be used to teach music the different sounds and rhythms for nature.
(Thornton and Brunton, 2013)
Also during this week’s visual arts input all student had the opportunity to discuss their placement experience in regards to the Expressive Arts and what form of the arts are being taught. I am fortunate within the school I am currently placed I see a significant amount of the arts being excellently taught. So far, I have seen every form of the Expressive Arts being taught, it is great to see all children are fully engaged, get excited and seem to enjoy the arts. The class teacher is proficient utilising inter-disciplinary learning, for instance in the visual arts the children had to design a house using only three shapes (square, triangles and rectangles). I believe the main aim of this lesson was to develop children creative skills and process in particularly problem solving. Placement tasks will be posted later and will looking in-depth as the expressive arts I have fortunate enough to observe.
Moreover, the central point of this week’s music input was to develop sound, rhythm and notations. Initially I did not have understanding of notations and what each individual note value was, but over the course of the session I was able to acquire a greater understand and increased confidence. During the input was used drum sticks to mick playing drums and what hand movement would be required. We were giving a notation and had to play in rhythm with the backing track, which aided myself in following along with the notations. I found this input to rather enjoyable and was able to take a lot of learning experience with me. Over the music inputs I have most certainly become more self-assured in my ability to teach music skills to children in the future, it is important that I believe in my abilities and do not get nervous when to teach music, as this will most definitely impact on children learning within the arts (Jaap, 2009). It is imperative that I seek advice from arts specialist and engaged with career development within the art, when I am qualified teacher in order to support my skill development and increase the effectiveness of my teaching within the arts (Wilson et.al, 2008).
Connecting both input together there is a clear coloration that using the visual arts as a source for outdoor learning can complement music likewise as children can engaged with the nature scenery and related sounds.
References
Thornton, L and Brunton, P. (2013) Making the most of Outdoor Learning. 1st ed. London: Bloomsbury Publications.
Wilson, G, MacDonald, R, Byrne, C, Ewing, S, and Sheridan, M. (2008) Dread and Passion: primary and secondary teachers’ views on teaching the arts’. curriculum journal. [Abstract Online] Vol 19 (1) pp. 37-53. Available: http://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/files/16586710/Wilson_et_al_Curr_Journal_revised_submission.pdf [Accessed 20 November 2017]
Jaap, A. (2009) A Little Music Class. [Online] Available: https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_434179_en.pdf [Accessed 20 November 2017].
Tallis, T. (2013) Tallis Habits Pedagogy Wheel. [Online] Available: http://www.thomastallisschool.com/tallis-pedagogy-wheel-guide.html. [ Accessed on 20 November 2017]
