Today in drama we finished off our learning about the different conventions. The last four being flashback, flash-forward, narration, and slow motion. Flashback and flash-forward give learners the opportunity to carefully consider the consequences of actions and the possible past events which may have lead to certain consequences. For me, these two conventions emphasise the idea that every action has a consequence and every consequence once had a catalyst. Narration helps learners to consider what is happening in the drama and why, as it calls for them to give an explanation. This can be a good way for learners to take themselves out of the experience for just enough time to reflect on what is going on, but for a short enough time that they remain engaged in the process. Finally, slow motion can be used to slow down aspects of the drama to encourage learners to think carefully about their characters’ reactions to different stimuli and to engage with the experience of these reactions. Neelands (2000) suggests that the use of drama conventions in the classroom allows teachers to teach drama as a subject in its own right, as well as use it to capture learners within a learning experience about various other subjects across the curriculum. I would agree with this point as through the past few inputs on drama, and through various inputs in other modules, I have gained a deeper understanding of the use of the different drama conventions and have been made aware of numerous learning points for children which would fall into different curricular areas. This could be, for example, the use of flash-forward to a time in the future which shows the results of our pollution of the planet, and then an alternative flash-forward to a future time which will occur if we start living more sustainably.

We considered these conventions within the theme of a Halloween story. Using the theme of Halloween would hopefully engage learners as it is relevant to them (especially on the 31st of October). We also considered Augusto Boal’s Forum Theatre. This is a style of drama in which audience participation is key. The audience are invited, not to judge or to find fault in a drama, but to give their opinion and give suggestions for alternative concepts which the drama could adopt. In some cases, the audience members may act out their suggestions. I found this form of drama very interesting as it has the potential to bring different insights on the roles of different characters and encourages the audience members to be active rather than passive throughout the process. This could lead to an enhanced experience for all of those involved as the actors are being questioned and have to think carefully, meaning that they will have no option but to be engaged. This supports Eisner’s (2002) claim that “The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their largest lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.”, as different people will have different ideas about the way in which the drama should go and by encouraging them to express these ideas we are encouraging them to explore and accept those of their own and of others.

After drama, we moved in to music. Firstly, we focussed on the use of the voice as a teacher. We considered the numerous uses of the voice and concluded that it is an imperative tool for a teacher to have and use effectively. We considered various ways to care for our voices and this has intrigued me to learn more about different ways to get the attention of the class or to convey messages to the class without raising my voice. I aim to look into this with further reading.

We then looked at different warm-ups which can be used in the class before singing. Before this input I had not realised the importance of warming up our muscles before we sing and had not considered the use of different vocal warm-ups as a strategy to settle the pupils into the class. We started off by practising some breathing warm-ups. One of these was breathing in for 4 seconds, holding it for 4 seconds and then releasing the breath through making a long, continuous “sssss” sound for 20 seconds, until all of the air was released from our lungs. We also held on to our rib cage while doing this technique to feel our lungs expanding and contracting. This would be a good way to contextualise learning about the organs of the human body as learners can feel their lungs functioning and would hopefully be more able to visualise their diaphragm contracting and relaxing as they breath in and out. We then warmed up our bodies and faces by making a ‘big face’, a ‘small face’, and chewing an imaginary piece of toffee. I found these activities enjoyable, and definitely a fun way to stretch the muscles of our faces and improve our enunciation.

My favourite of the vocal warm-ups was the penguin song. I loved this as a way to warm-up our bodies and our voices and I also thought that it would be a great way to help young children practise their rights and lefts. I will keep this song to use in the classroom, especially with younger children, to settle them in to class by ending the song with “Penguins, attention! Penguins, sit down!” Julie demonstrated this to use today and it was very interesting to see that every single one of us in the class followed her order almost subconsciously as we were so engaged with the song. This is an example of how the arts can be used as methods of behaviour management as well as their various other properties.

Finally, we explored the use of grids within music. I found this to be a very interesting and non-intimidating way of creating a whole class or group production, in which learners are encouraged to consider sounds which they would relate to a certain theme and how they would represent those sounds using different instruments, their voices, and electronic sound effects. As a class, we considered the theme of fireworks. After coming up with the sounds we chose where on the grid we wanted them to appear and chose the instruments we wanted to use to represent them. We decided how may beats we wanted each box to represent and added different dimensions such as a crescendo. We had a conductor who pointed to the column which she wanted us to play. We then split into groups to make our own versions of the grids. My group chose Christmas.

This activity encourages creativity through experimenting with different sounds and representing connections using different media. This strongly supports the imaginative aspect of Tallis Habits Pedagogy Wheel as it allows learners to play with possibilities, make connections, and use their intuition. As well as this, it provides a fantastic opportunity for IDL. As soon as I saw the grid I thought of maths. Grids like this could be used for learners at first level to achieve the Experience and Outcome of ‘I have developed an awareness of where grid reference systems are used in everyday contexts and can use them to locate and describe position.’ MTH 1-18a. The learners would all contribute to making the music grid as a class or in groups and could then identify which squares within the grid there is a ‘bang’ or a ‘boom’. In this case there is a ‘bang’ in squares A6, C6, E6 and F6. By making each of the squares represent the same number of beats I would be helping the learners to understand that on a grid all of the squares have the same value. When introducing this I would use a very small grid, possibly only 3 by 3 squares. To practice it, I could shout out coordinates like ‘C3’ and all of the children who have the instrument to make a sound on C3 do so. This could transform the role of the conductor from simply pointing to different points on the grid to calling out the names of the points on the grid to create our piece of music. As Marshall (2014) explains, teaching with an integrated approach allows learners to understand that knowledge is not separated into set groups, but it is integratable and relatable to other forms of new and existing knowledge.

After today’s workshops and from further reading, I have come to the conclusion that teaching drama through various methods such as the conventions approach and music through non-conventional approaches, allows the arts to enhance creativity, and to teach and contextualise learning in other subjects, as well as being taught in their own right.

References 

Eisner, E. (2002) The Arts and the Creation of Mind. Yale University Press.

Marshall, J. (2014) Transforming Education through art centred integrated learning. Visual Enquiry: Learning & Teaching Art. [Online] Vol.3(3), pp.361-376. Available: http://www.academia.edu/8439173/Transforming_Education_Through_Art_Centred_Integrated_Learning [Accessed: 24 October 2017].

Neelands, J. (2000) In the Hands of Living People. [Online] Paper presented at: The National Drama Conference. York, UK, April 2000. Available: http://www.theatroedu.gr/portals/38/main/images/stories/files/magazine/EandT_e-mag_June2002_EN_06.pdf [Accessed: 12 October 2017].