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]
