Today consisted of our first dance session. First of all we did a few warm up activities. The first activity we did was lining up in height order from tallest to smallest without talking, this would be a good task to do with the pupils in a class when starting off a lesson just to get their brains working and ready to learn. After this we stood in two lines and faced in a different way from the two people who were at the top of the line. The lecturer showed the two people facing the opposite direction a short dance move and one by one the dance move was passed up to the top of the line to see how well it had been copied and to see if the move was still the same from when it started off at the top of the line. This game would also be good to play with pupils as it is along the lines of Chinese whispers and the children would enjoy the anticipation of waiting to see the move as it works its way up to the end of the line. I feel like this is a fun way for the pupils to interact before any of the learning takes place. We then all got into one big line and when a short music clip came on the person at the front of the line had to do the first dance move that came to their head when they heard the music and everyone had to copy them until the music clip had ended and they then went to the back of the line and someone else did this too. This activity kept going until everyone had gotten to do their own short move to a different song. This is a good way for pupils to be creative and also gain confidence as everyone is getting to do a dance move each but it is a dance move of their choice so it doesn’t have to be really complex, it could just be a jump or a small arm movement. “Students are encouraged to discover multiple ways of moving, make movement selections and create their own choreographic structure or use one provided by the teacher.” (Cone, 2009, P81). We looked at different parts of the body and where different muscles were and also did some stretches that the pupils should learn how to do before they take part in any dance lesson. We also looked at ten basic skills to learn when teaching dance and how to expand on these within a lesson. I particularly enjoyed this input as I have a dance background and it was very interesting and useful to see how dance can easily be incorporated into the curriculum. It was a positive experience and I am looking forward to being able to teach dance within the primary school. An experience and outcome that could link to introducing dance to a class could be “I have opportunities to enjoy taking part in dance experiences.” EXA 0-10a. (Scottish Government, n.d.).
In today’s music session there were Primary 7 pupils with us teaching us how to use string instruments. This was a very engaging and positive input as it was a pupil led input and they were showing us how to hold the bow to play the violin and also what the names of the strings were and how to hold them in order to make different sounds. There were a few things used to aid our learning like feathers and bubbles which is something that I would think about using when it comes to teaching music as I do not have a musical background and this also made me interested in possibly learning how to play the violin. All of the pupils were great to see and I also seen how music was linked to other areas of the curriculum like maths, a sheet with music notes and adding up their values, I found this advantageous and would take this idea forward into my own classroom. Pupils being focused on learning an instrument gives them something else to focus on apart from literacy and numeracy, although this can be linked in, it also helps them to learn a new skill which they can carry on with them when they go to high school.
The dance workshop game and the music workshop links together as both of these could be child led lessons which is good as it allows pupils to gain confidence in themselves and also performing in front of other people too.
References :
Scottish Government, n.d. Curriculum for excellence: expressive arts experiences and outcomes. Assessed online. Available at: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf
Cone, T. 2009. Following Their Lead: Supportiing Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances, Journal of Dance Education. Routledge. P81.
