WEEK 2 – 17th September 2019

We began our week by disgussing how important visual learning is for pupils. We began by looking ‘Justifying the Arts-Drama and Intercultural Education’ (Flemming, 2006) to discuss the process of visual thinking during visual learning. To do this we were all given a page out of a book (I have attached a picture below) we then had to read through the page and bring it to life by drawing the metaphores. At first my gorup decided we would draw at the blank section at the side of the page, however, we realised from another group that it was more affective to draw over the writing. Personally, I found the idea of drawing over the writing quite difficult due to being a bit of a neat freak! However, I soon realised that it really did make a massive difference in bringing out the text and making it more visual.

During this weeks drama input, we were looking at concepts such as thought tracking, still image, narration, flash forward and flash backward. For each concept, we were required to do a little drama scene in our groups, this allowed us to put it into practice and gave us a feel for what it would be like to do this with pupils. Benjamin Franklin stated how important drama is within the classroom when he said “Tell me and I will forget, show me and I will remember, involve me and I will understand.” (Benjamin Franklin, …) Drama allows children to express themselves in many different way, with or without words. Flash forward and back would be good to use in the classroom as it would give pupils the opportunity to develop their ideas further.

Our art input began with a discussion on the book ‘Dot’ by Peter H. Reynolds. This book outlines how important it is that nobody is told or made believe they can’t draw. You wouldn’t say you can’t read or write, why say you can’t draw?

We then went on to make marks using our hands and ink, using our marks we had made we had to then use a pen to bring out things we could see within our marks. For example, the body of a penguin or simple marks like finger prints going together to become balloons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Personally, I feel like my attitude towards the concept of ‘art’ is changing more and more after each Integrated-Arts session. I feel like I am becoming much more open minded to messy learning and the idea that not every lesson needs to have a set plan. It benefits children more if they are given the opportunity to be free and express themselves in a way that suits them.

Reference:

Fleming, M. (2006) Justifying the Arts- Drama and Intercultural Education. The Journal of Aesthetic Education. Vol.40(1), pp.54-64.