Towards the end of the drama module, to put all our learning together, we each in groups presented a micro-teaching lesson in front of the class. A micro-teaching lesson allows teachers in training to teach a lesson and receive feedback (Remesh, 2013). Teamwork and communication was critical for this task. We had to ensure we were meeting the criteria of the task and were making it as enjoyable as possible for the students to take part in.

Our group decided to base the lesson on the movie ‘Inside Out,’  this would allow the pupils to discuss and show their emotions using a range of drama conventions. We chose this movie because the characters demonstrate good communication, compassion and empathy towards one another. This can encourage young people to open up about their feelings. This film is also very relatable, as children have to go through different changes and experience different emotions when growing up. The movie is also very current, so young people would be engaged.  We began by showing the trailer to the class to allow them to recap or familiarise themselves with the movie. The General Teaching Council (2019) reveals that discussing children’s emotions is important to the growth of their emotional and mental well-being.

Our first task was for the class to get in groups and do a mime. Each group were given one of the characters such as Anger, Disgust, Fear, Sadness and Joy. The groups then performed their mime to the class, and they had to guess which character they were given. This task would allow children to focus on their movement and facial expressions. This task would also be good for quieter pupils that do not feel comfortable speaking out.

The second task was to focus on narration. The groups were to create a scene of a fond childhood memory that they have. One person would then then out of the scene and explain what is happening and the emotions the characters are feeling. This task allowed the class to further develop their character and allowed them to use inspiration from their own childhood. It was interesting to see how varied the scenes were, such as one group decided to do a scene of Christmas day and one group decided to do a scene of when their mum told her she was having a baby. I think this would be an interesting task do in a primary setting as it allows pupils to task inspiration from their own past and allows them to recreate an enjoyable memory they have had with the class.

Lastly, we focused on voices in the head. The scene was about the parents wanting to move to a new house, but little girl does not want to. It was interesting to watch how the groups were able to describe their feelings and emotions and show all the conflicting feelings the characters would be feeling.

Today we had our first music input. Music is extremely important as it can lead to better brain development and help to relieve stress. Private music lessons can be very expensive, it is important as teachers we implement music into our classrooms (The Inspired Classroom, 2017). Music strongly contributes to developing skills, attributes and attitude that can help support leaning in other subjects. These include-

• Concentration skills
• Being creative
• Being able to work in a group
• Have self confidence
• Listening skills
• Perseverance

(Phillips, 2012)

I also learned that there is a lack of music lessons in primary schools. The issues appear to be that teachers lack confidence in their musical ability, there is not enough resources and space, and verbal and written analysis is over-weighted as the preferred teaching strategy (Zeserson et al., 2014). As I do not have a musical background, I would feel nervous about teaching a music lesson. However, it was interesting to find out that there is so many online resources that we can use in the classroom such as Charanga and GarageBand. This helped to put me at ease as I know I can always refer back to these websites.

References

Phillips, L. (2012). The Top 10 Skills Children Learn From the Arts. [online] ARTS Blog. Available at: https://blog.americansforthearts.org/2019/05/15/the-top-10-skills-children-learn-from-the-arts [Accessed 17 Dec. 2019].

Remesh, A. (2013). Microteaching, an efficient technique for learning effective teaching. – PubMed – NCBI. [online] Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23914219 [Accessed 15 Dec. 2019].

The Inspired Classroom. (2017). Why is Music Education in Schools Important? – The Inspired Classroom. [online] Available at: https://theinspiredclassroom.com/2017/05/why-is-music-education-in-schools-important/ [Accessed 15 Dec. 2019].

Zeserson, K., Welch, G., Burn, S., Saunders, J. and Himonides, E. (2014). Inspiring Music for All. 1st ed. [ebook] London: Paul Hamlyn Foundation, p.20. Available at: https://www.phf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Inspiring-Music-for-All.pdf [Accessed 10 Dec. 2019].