Today we did not have a morning lecture and went straight to our workshops. My group started in the drama workshop where we reconsidered the different drama conventions of hot seating, improvisation, thought tunnels, freeze frames, and teacher in role, and were introduced to some new ones. We began by listening to an explanation of 2 characters – a brother and sister. We were told that the brother wound his sister up and picked on her. We were then asked to create a role on the wall, which is one of the new drama conventions we were introduced to today. In our groups we used 2 pieces of paper and drew outlines of one character on each. On the outside of the outline we wrote words to describe the character and on the inside we wrote words to describe how the character feels about themselves. This helped me to put myself into the shoes of the characters and to consider how my views of them may differ from their views of themselves. We then listened to the story of the brother and sister. Half way through the story we stopped and acted out using voice in head (another of the conventions). This was useful as it allowed us to consider the contrasting views of the two characters. This convention will also show children that there can be many different explanations and reasons for actions and it will allow them to consider a variety of them. It may also give me, as the teacher, clues about some issues which children may currently be dealing with – such as lack of attention at home or the pressures of fitting in to social groups. Voice in head essentially gives children the opportunity to relate any feelings they may have to those of the character in order to explain their actions, or to consider why the character may have different feelings to what they do. It is very similar to thought tracking, however voice in head calls for the opposing view to be heard, which in many cases is useful for showing that there are two sides to every story. We then used mime which was a good way to make the story visual. I found this useful as it helped me to get into character and to internalise the experience of being part of the story. Finally, after finishing listening to the story, we revisited our role on the wall sheets and considered how our views had changed on the characters and wrote new words on the paper. This would be very beneficial for helping the children to think about how and why their views had changed and to consider whether at first, they were too quick to judge before they knew enough about the characters. In our groups we then acted out, using a variety of conventions, a part of the story which had not been heard – this could have been after the story had ended or a part during the story which was not covered by the writer. In the classroom this would be a good opportunity for the children to make the most of the freedom they are being given and to consider, without being directly told by the teacher, the consequences of different risks taken by the characters. This, along with creating future plans, is a very important part of drama (Heath and Gilbert, 2015).

We then moved into the dance workshop. We used the theme of Halloween to warm up and play games such as Zombie Tig. We also revisited the dances which we created in our groups last week. We used different stimuli for creating a whole class dance, which had very little teacher input. We stood in a circle and came up with moves for the numbers 0 to 9. We then went back into our groups and answered a number of mathematical calculations. The answers to these determined the order of the moves we had came up with. This would be a good way to integrate dance into maths as a means of practicing different types of calculations in a memorable way. We were also given a symbol each in our groups and asked to come up with a move which represented that symbol. These symbols were related to Halloween since this was our topic, but could be related to any topic. These moves were then added all together and because the symbols related to the topic, the moves fitted in perfectly with the music genre. This was a clever way of allowing us as the learners to make up the moves to the dance and to feel a sense of accomplishment in doing so as the moves looked aesthetically pleasing and professional as they fitted with the music. It also provided us with the opportunity to think creatively and this has been argued to increase self-esteem (QCA, 2004), which I think is a very important aspect of dance. When we revisited the dances which we created last week we added in starting and finishing positions as well as cannon and a change in position. This gave the opportunity for everyone to be at the front and to show off their contribution to the group. Finally we combined all of the different parts of the dance together and performed it as a class. This made me feel proud to be a member of the group and it would have the same effect on many children if the techniques were used in the classroom.

Overall, in both drama and dance today the balance of teacher-pupil control and encouraging learners to think creatively for themselves were important aspects to consider. Using different stimuli such as a story or symbols allow the teacher to guide the learning and the direction of the lesson without dominating it. It also allows for learners to be inspired. Csikszentmihalyi (1996) argued that resources, chances and recognition were all very important when nurturing creativity. Therefore, within dance and drama we must provide resources in the form of stimuli for thought, chances in the form of encouragement of participation, and recognition in the form of praise of performances. The inputs which I took part in today showed me various ways to ensure that I am providing learners with all of these things in the classroom.

References

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of discovery and invention. New York: Harper Collins.

Heath, S.B. and Gilbert, L. (2015) Creativity and the work of art and science: A cognitive neuroscience perspective. The Routledge International Handbook of the Arts and Education. [Online] Vol.1(1), pp.398-409. Available: http://shirleybriceheath.net/pdfs2016/creativity-work-art-science.pdf [Accessed: 21 October 2017].

QCA (2004) Creativity: find it, promote it: promoting pupils’ creative thinking and behaviour across the curriculum at key stages 1, 2 and 3: practical materials for schools. [Online] London: Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. Available: www.qca.org.uk/creativity [Accessed: 19 October 2017].