visual arts – Rachel Fraser UWS ITE ePDP

Integrated Arts- Music Application and Visual Arts 10/10/2017

The focus of this week’s inputs where music and the visual arts. This week I have been able to explore a range of technologies and methods that can be interwoven throughout primary learning of the integrated arts.
The initial input was music, during the workshop we were introduced to GarageBand, a software application that enables you to produce sounds, create your own music and record audio. We were first asked to create an eight-bar piece of music, using a range of sounds, beats and musical instruments. After experimenting with this aspect of the application, we then moved onto altering our pieces of music by using fade ins and fade outs, changing the pace and pitch and introducing sound effects. After trialling the application, we then created our own music using an animation as a stimulus. This allowed us to consider a variety of animations and select appropriate backing music (considering musical instruments, bass and sound effects) to complement the short clip. In regards to music at the beginning of the module I was not confident with the prospect of teaching the subject, but being introduced to a range of music resources I feel that music is a subject that is not based solely around playing musical instruments and singing, but there are opportunities to use online applications in order to aid teaching. By using GarageBand within the classroom, I would be utilising an interdisciplinary approach as children would be developing skills within music and ICT. Bloomfield (2000, p.68) devised a framework for music teaching and learning within this Bloomfield conveys the importance that children should be “developing ICT skills in music and learning to compose and create music”. In addition, children should be exposed to a variety of “sound source and combinations of sounds” (Bloomfield, 2000, p.68). The GarageBand application likewise enables children to consider musical elements, that Bloomfield (2000, p.69) defines as: “pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture and structure and form”. When teaching music cross-curricular with ICT the principle musical element would be timbre (Bloomfield, 2000). Timbre can be denoted as the characteristics of musical sound and the diversity of sounds that can be created. It is foremost that children have the opportunity to experiment with sounds and engaged in producing their own pieces of music using a variety of technologies.

I can use my voice, musical instrument and music technology to experiment with sound, pitch, melody, rhythm, timbre and dynamic (EXA 2-17a)

During the visual art workshop, we continued to work on ‘Windows of the West’ painting, but taking a different dynamic of the work that we produced during printmaking in the previous week input. This enable me to approach the work with a fresh creative frame of mind. Firstly, we selected one of the multiple printmaking copies, which was then photocopied onto A4 paper, this left us we half of the paper to illustrate our own imagination. Using this as extension work in the classroom would empower children to create their own unique perspective on the painting and also develops their awareness of good judgement, as the children must be able to scale their work to ensure they include all detail they want to illustrate (Eisner, 2007). There are many opportunities to use printmaking with ICT for instance Cox and Watt (2007, p.55) devise “scanning prints onto a PC and manipulating them using art and design software”. In addition, computer software packages can change the “colour and tone- or a selection of a print then copy and paste it serval time to create a new patter” (Cox and Watts, 2007, p,81). ICT in the visual arts generally enables children to take more creative risks and experiment with their work in-depth.
Also during this week’s visual art workshop, we looked at colouring books, however the colouring books we examined where different from the conventional books that mainly have a lot of detail, these colouring books had space for individuals to draw their own response as well as colouring in. This outlook on drawing and colouring in the classroom would empower the children to demonstrate and illustrate their understanding of the image given as well as improving their drawing skills. I believe colouring in is an activity that is rather calm and therapeutic on the mind.

Interlinking both music and visual art technologies can be used to complement and improve work quality. Within music technology can improve sound quality where as visual art technology of a printer can produce serval copies which allows mistakes to be made.

Using printmaking as a stimulus to create own view

Also, over the past week I have read ‘Room 13: The Movement and International Network’ Claire Gibb. Room 13 was an art studio founded in Fort William in 1994 by young artist. I found this to be an insightful read as it highlighted the work of children and their desire to make art more noticeable within the curriculum. The art studio had a resident artist Rob Fairley who built the essence and practises of Room 13 and was very passionate in regarding children as unique artist but cognitively the same. The art work created by the children was unsystematic which enable the children to experiment and discover their unique skill and acquire their individual knowledge on art and social issues that had recently occurred or occurred in the past. By taking this approach to art children are able to develop art skills at their own cognitive pace as well as build confidence. By reading Room 13 I have been inspired to consider the teaching of art and who as a perspective teacher I utilise the visual arts within the classroom, I believe it is important for children to discover their unique creative and produce art work that is symbolic and fulfilling for them, emphasising art should not be about seeking perfection and uniformity in work, but being confident in their art ability.

References
Eisner, E. (2002) The Arts and the Creation of the Mind. Chapter 4, What the Arts Teach.
Bloomfield, A. (2000) Teaching Integrated Arts in the Primary School. Oxon: David Fulton
Cox, S, Watts, R (2007) Teaching Art and Design 3-11. New York. Continuum International
Gibb, C (2012) Room 13: The movement and international Network. Blackwell Publications
https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers/cfe-(building-from-the-statement-appendix-incl-btc1-5)/Experiences%20and%20outcomes

Integrated Arts- Printmaking and Drama 3/10/2017

The focus of this week’s Integrated Arts module where the visual arts and drama. During the input I was able to develop a range of personable skills, as well as teaching techniques in which I will be able to implement within a classroom environment.
As part of the lecture we were given a copy of the painting ‘Windows in the West’ by Scottish artist Avril Paton. We discussed the painting and the wealth of opportunities that it can be used for within integrated arts areas of the curriculum, as well as occasions when an interdisciplinary approach can be utilised. Using an appropriate painting or drawing there are many opportunities within the curriculum to compose a narrative (relating to drama, literacy, possibly social studies and health and wellbeing). Taking a comprehensive survey of the painting ‘Windows of the West’, it is evident that within the painting there is a significant amount of activity occurring within the image. Subsequently there are many opportunities to build a drama lesson, the ‘Windows of the West’ painting represents a story behind each window of the tenement block, there many possibilities to question children such as: what are the people doing in the painting? Look at the different floors, what is happening inside each flat? What do the flats look like inside, can you create an image? Availing Rod Taylor framework of PROCESS, FORM, CONTENT and MOOD, this can be used as an aid when discussing aspects of art with children.

‘Windows of the West’
PROCESS
What materials, tools, processes and techniques did the artist use?
The artist used watercolour paints in order to create the painting. The artist also used a range of paintbrushes as the painting has a lot detail implying the artist carried the work out carefully and with accuracy.
FORM
Are there recurring shapes, lines, rhythms, forms etc. which determine the design of the piece?
The artist has created uniformity with in her painting, the shape of the windows remains constant. Likewise, the artist painted attentively due to the structure of lines.
CONTENT
Was the subject matter observed directly, remember or imagined?
Analysing the painting it look as though the artist observed the situation directly due to the volume of detail in her work. As the painting was created on Scottish street snow is quite rare.
MOOD
Does it convey feelings about life and nature?
The painting conveys the unpredictably weather in Scotland. The artist main aim perhaps was the to illustrate that behind every window there is a different story evolving.

During the first input we explored printmaking in the visual arts. To create our printmaking, we used the ‘Windows of the West’. This was the first time that I had ever attempt printmaking, in spite of having low art skills set I was able to produce work of a good quality, in which was pleasing and satisfying to myself knowing I had develop a new skill. Cox and Watts (2007, p.47) considers printmaking as “something slightly magical about the process of printmaking… making a print is a rewarding experience”. In order to create printmaking there are many processes to be carried out:
• Firstly, trace the image onto polyboard, this will leave slight idents on the board. It is best to use a ball point pen to trace back over the idents.
• Paint (range of colours) is then put onto wooden/ plastic board, using rollers to roll the paint onto the polyboard.
• Once the polyboard is covered in paint, the polyboard can be transferred and printed onto paper. We used A5 paper and coloured paper too.
• There are many opportunities to facilitate printmaking within the curriculum, children could perhaps make Christmas cards using print, or even print a piece of literacy work using printmaking.
I found the process of printmaking to be an enjoyable and a fulfilling experience. However, printmaking possesses complexities especially when teaching young children, nonetheless as long as the processes are demonstrated and explained clearly children should be able to grasp an understanding of the skills involved. Likewise, printmaking can be a messy, during the input I was able to tolerate the mess created, thinking of a classroom setting giving children wipes would minimise the mess of paint.
There are many benefits for teaching printmaking within the curriculum:
• The principle reason for teaching is the polyboard can be reused again making multiple copies. In addition, children will be able to trail their work without encountering failure. Multi-copies give teachers a chance to collect a folio of work that can be used as assessments for children art work (Cox and Watts, 2007).
• Likewise ‘aesthetic’ is explored within printmaking. Printmaking stimulates children to develop their visual literacy, when printmaking children while have little power over the outcome of their print. “A successful print is often a combination of the intentional and unintentional” (Cox and Watts, 2007, p.48).

Paint will be rolled over the tracing in order to create a print

multiple copies where made using the same colour of paint, but different coloured paper

an additional stage is adding more personal detail to the tracing. Also different colour of paint can be used.

Also, this week we had our first drama input of the module. At primary school I have limited experience of drama, I only got taught drama in primary 7 and was part of the World War Two topic that my class was studying, the drama narrative was based on a primary school teacher and her class being evacuated to the countryside, within the drama I portrayed the main character. Being part of this production, I gained a lot of confidence and self-esteem and extremely enjoyed drama. When I transitioned to secondary school I did not studied drama and as I have grown older I feel rather uneased at the prospective to teaching drama, due to the little exposure I have had to drama. Reflecting back on the input I feel significant more comfortable and less apprehensive. During the input we were introduced to a number of drama conventions that can used within a primary school drama lesson:
• Teacher in role-
• Freeze-frame
• Though tunnel
• Improvisations
• Thought tracking
Young children have the opportunity to participate in drama, this is usually conveyed in ‘let’s pretend’ element of play. Bloomfield (2000, p.27) establishes that children create pretend play by “observing people around them, imitating their actions or mode of speech, pretending to be characters in stories they have read or from television programmes they have seen, that children entre an inner world of practical realism or romantic fantasy”. When teaching drama, it is important to consider the individual ability of each child, some children may not be confident to participate in a drama lesson, it is therefore pivotal to adapt the lesson to ensure that all children are included in the drama in some way.
I believe I have acquired a significant amount of understanding of different approaches to painting, through printmaking and it is an approach that I would certainly implement within the classroom. Likewise, this week I have been able to develop my knowledge of drama and considering the number of means I can teach drama to pupils.

Considering the link between the visual arts and drama, printmaking is a great way of producing and creating innovative backing scenes for drama productions or showcases.

References
Bloomfield, A. (2000) Teaching Integrated Arts in the Primary School. Oxon: David Fulton
Cox, S, Watts, R (2007) Teaching Art and Design 3-11. New York. Continuum International.
Taylor, R, Andrews, G. (2012) The Arts in the Primary School. Oxon: Routledge

Intergrated Arts- Visual Arts and Music 26/9/17

This weeks Integrated Arts inputs where vastly engaging. The inputs focused on the visual arts and music.

In my prior blog posts, I discoursed that integrated arts related subjects are not my strongest curricular areas, but as this module progresses I feel I am becoming significantly more confident in my abilities and my capacity of teaching the integrated arts in a classroom environment.

During this week’s visual art input, I realised that the visual arts are not concerning seeking perfection, but in fact the individual’s ability to create art work that is unique, abstract and symbolic to them. In order to create distinctive art work, we produced our own paintbrushes, we were supplied with a range of materials- a wooden stick was the bases, to design the stick there was wool, cotton wool, feathers, string and other small objects. From the outset, the art work of class inevitably would not be uniformed, however within a primary school environment pursing for uniformity can be challenging, as segments of art can be intricate and complicated for pupils. It is therefore important to allow different variation of art work that represents the individual unique skill set (Holt, 1997). Children will get great satisfaction and achievement from making their own paintbrushes, it a perfect opportunity for them to develop divergent pieces of work.

Once we created our paintbrushes, we then continued onto paint using our paintbrushes. The lecturer read out a Scottish Highland scenery that was concealed from us, the lecturer described the image using straightforward language. By using this method of delivering the lesson we rendered our own perspectives of the image and created unsystematic art work using the paintbrushes and different colour and size of paper When painting I felt some uncertainty and was hoping that the painting would turn out how I was expecting it to. Within the classroom it is important to keep in mind that art should fun and engaging for children, however as children progress through their primary education, they are more aware of their abilities in which they will often compare to their peers and also will be less eager to experiment in subject areas. ‘Some children find art and design lessons frustrating, and would be far happier if there was less mess and greater certainty’ (Kay and Stillman, 2009, p.2).

Before the visual art session, I would not normal like to paint due to the mess generated, but my view has changed, as I found painting to be therapeutic and stimulating, and I am now inclined to paint in the classroom. In order to reduce mess, it is important to have good organisation of resources, using A3 paper children will be able to make their own disposable mixing palate, likewise ensuring the desks are kept protected this can be done by drawing a boundary around the paper and using newspaper as table covers (Cox and Watt, 2007).

The focal point of the music input was understanding how to play a glockenspiel using figurenotes. Figurenotes are coloured and different shape stickers that can be used on musical instrument to represent musical notes and has matching coloured music sheets. Despite being unable to play a musical instrument I would now be able to facilitate children’s musical instrument by using figurenotes as it easy to understand and there is no need to read musical notes. Also, this week we were introduced to Charanga, a primary education website that has a range of music lessons, songs and musicals that can be implemented in the classroom. Knowing that these resources are available is giving me more confidence in relation to teaching the arts to their fullness and ensuring children are acquiring skills from the arts too.

What I assimilated from this week’s input I can relate to the Tallis Habit Pedagogy Wheel (2013), within the persistent category. Within the visual arts input I was ‘tolerating uncertainty’, as I created a paintbrush and was unsure if I had the ability to paint an unseen picture. Within the music input I was ‘sticking with difficulty’ initially I found playing the musical instrument challenging but I ‘persevered’, remained ‘focused’ and by the end of session I felt confident enough to implement within a school setting.

Music and Art provide the opportunities for children to develop their creativity and related skills. A paintbrush resembles closely to the implement that is used along with glockenspiel, therefore children could create their own individual glockenspiel instrumental stick.

References

Cox, S, Watts, R. (2007) Teaching Art and Design 3-11. New York: Continuum International Publishing.

Key, P, Stillman, J. (2009) Teaching Primary Art and Design. Exeter: Learning Matters

Holt, D. (1997) Primary Arts Education: Contemporary Issues. Guildford: Biddles

Tallis, T. (2013) Tallis Habits Pedagogy Wheel. [Online] Available: http://www.thomastallisschool.com/tallis-pedagogy-wheel-guide.html. [ Accessed on 27 September 2017]