Author Archives: Leah Mortimer

Music Listening Package

Music Listening Package

Prepare a listening package for a stage of your choice. This should include learning intentions, audio excerpts (or links to these) activities, assessment procedures and differentiation material.

I have created this listening package for the upper stage. A lot of the content would be suitable for from primary four and up, however the introduction of new terminology makes it a bit more challenging. I think it is important that children are given this new vocabulary in primary school as it better prepares them for the listening and theory in secondary school.

Experiences and Outcomes

I have listened to a range of music and can respond by discussing my thoughts and feelings. I can give and accept constructive comment on my own and others’ work. EXA 2-19a.

I have listened to a range of music and can identify features and concepts. I can give constructive comments on my own and others’ work, including the work of professionals. EXA 3-19a.

Learning Intentions

-I will be familiar with different genres of music and can give reason for my preference.

-I will be able to know the difference between a major and minor key.

-I will be able to list a variety of instruments that can be found in an orchestra.

-I will be familiar with dynamics including crescendo, diminuendo, forte and pianissimo.

-I will be able to describe the tempo of a piece of music.

-I will be able to explain how a piece of music makes me feel, and why I like/dislike it.

This listening package can be taught over several lessons, depending on how fast the learners pick up on the concepts. The idea of music listening, and the teaching of the theory of music to some children can seem very dull and boring, particularly for the children already disinterested in music. It’s important that these lessons are very interactive. To get them engaged from the very beginning, push all the tables and chairs out of the way and get all the children to lie down and close their eyes.

Listening and appraising

Start by playing a few very different pieces of music. The following are just examples.

 

Classical Piano (comptine d’unautre éte)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQZ0AQHYgYI

 

Pop– Taylor Swift (shake if off)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWlot6h_JM&list=PLH4eU5eoZGyKcAZypscn2QzJSPJA6jukn&index=5&pbjreload=10

 

Musical Theatre– MATILDA the musical (revolting children)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN_62IO4zIk&pbjreload=10

 

Beat boxing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6Y-eujlUpM&pbjreload=10

 

Orchestra -Auckland Symphony Orchestra (pirates of the Caribbean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zTc2hD2npA&pbjreload=10

After playing a couple of different pieces, have the name of the piece and the genre up somewhere for them to see. Go over each one again and identify which is which so that the children know what they listened to. Have the children sit round in a circle, and have a ball you can roll to one another. Have the children take it in turns to pass the ball around and say which they preferred and why. Also ask them what music do they like to listen to, if they have any favourite singers/bands and why. Establish among the children that everyone has different tastes and can prefer different genres.

Then talk about how differentpieces of music can make us feel different ways. Talk about the emotions certain types of music can evoke. Do certain songs make them happy, relaxed, nervous, sad?

 

Instruments in the orchestra

Ask the children what they already know about instruments and have them list the ones that they know to assess their current knowledge. Find out prior to this lesson whether any of the children in your classplay or are learning an instrument and see if they can bring them in. Encourage them to play them also. Some children may be part of an orchestra outside of school and if so ask them what they like about being a member of one. Go through the main instruments and show the children short video clips of them being played. The following links are a couple of examples.

Violin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isTebvtgth8

Double bass

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbTm5Q2Bn4s

Trumpet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGk1zIDQQjQ&pbjreload=10

Saxophone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t9LjQdrMiM

Flute

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be1jJCH32OU

Percussion (drums)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0gl9LXq3LA

After playing each one ask the children how to describe the way the instrument sounds. Explain to the learners the role of each instrument and they part they play within the orchestra. They all play different parts/notes etc but when they all come together it makes beautiful music. The violins/flutes/ trumpets mostly having the melody, the cello, bass and horns playing the accompaniment almost.

Learning concepts

Get all the children sat down together on the carpet. Play audio clips, along with showing them a visual aid to help them learn and become familiar with the concepts. Emphasise that they often come in pairs/like opposites.

Major- sounds happy

Minor-sounds sad

Fortissimo- LOUD

Pianissimo- quiet

 

Crescendo- getting louder

Diminuendo- GETTing quieter

 

Ascending scale- getting higher in pitch

Descending scale- getting lower in pitch

 

Staccato- short notes (sta. ca. to.)

Legato- smooth notes (legato)

 

Adagio- slow (say slowly)

Allegro- fast (say fast)

 

Activities

When the children seem familiar with all of these concepts and are able to identify what they are without much assistance, they are ready to move on to this activity. This should hopefully reinforce what they have learnt, in a fun and active way.

This activity can be done indoors or outdoors. Get the children to make up an action/sound. Examples to give the children as ideas could include:

  • staccato being short hops on one leg while saying sta. ca. to.
  • Legato could be smooth movements while saying it smoothly
  • ascending scale could be starting in a little ball on the ground and as they   rise up to standing, they sing la la la la getting higher in pitch.

 

When all the children are familiar with all the different concept actions, they’re going to become a ‘concept orchestra’. The teacher will play the different excerpts and the concept in the excerpt that comes up, the children have to do their movement. Practice this until they have good understanding and response isn’t hesitant.

 

Assessment

In terms of differentiated assessment, I have come up with a quiz which the whole class will take at the end of the music listening package. I have made two example worksheets, to show how although it’s assessing the learners on the same content, the difference in terminology is what sets them apart. These are just examples, which could easily be made more difficult/easier so that they are appropriate for the learners within the class. These worksheets go alongside the following excerpts of music:

question 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIuotFZnBtk

question 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zaJ5LLIRn0&pbjreload=10

question 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjjqrxKTVWk

question 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H43xhgY9O8s&pbjreload=10 

question 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbjIH5pvT5A&pbjreload=10

 

 

Create an Advert

MUSIC AND THE MEDIA: Create an Advert (2 hours)

This tutor directed task leads on from the Music and Media workshop. In this task, you are asked to create an advert (for television or radio). The focus of this should be the musical persuasion.

Evidence: Your completed advert should be recorded and submitted in electronic form.

The focus of this tutor directed task was to create a television or radio advert using musical persuasion. We decided to do a radio advert as we thought the music element would have to be even more prominent, due to there being no visual. We used a digital piano to create the ‘jaws’ music. This was replicate the feeling those get when desperate for a drink of coke. As it stops suddenly, we opened a can of coke (and got through quite a few as it took quite a few takes to get it perfect). We then used voice to exhale and speak the very simple spoken word part. I think with these three basic elements, it made the radio advert very effective.

 

Illustrate A Dance Step

This is a small poster I made, consisting of some drawings of dance moves that vary in difficulty. It’s inevitable that some children will come into the classroom with experience in dance and gymnastics and it is important to encourage and nurture these talents by providing lessons that are differentiated for the needs of all the learners.

Book Illustration

Illustrations in books play a major role in the telling of the story for many children. As I child myself, it was definitely an important factor in whether or not I was going to read the book. As I grew up, I realised illustrations didn’t always determine whether the story was going to be good or not, but as a younger, less confident reader having the right illustrations made reading more enjoyable.

I loved all Jacqueline Wilson’s books and I think it was partly due to Nick Sharratt’s very distinctive, neat and detailed illustrations on the cover and throughout the books. His style was very aesthetically pleasing and inspired me to draw in a similar style growing up. I feel they work really well in Jacqueline Wilson’s books as they fit well with the stories.These books are aimed for children between the ages of 7 and 12 I would say. Sharratt’s illustrations also appear in various other children’s books, mostly younger children’s book, like ‘Eat Your Peas’. The colours he uses are very vibrant, bringing the story to life.

As a young child I loved being read Roald Dahl books, with my favourites being Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Witches. However when reading them myself I became disinterested as I hated the illustrations. Looking at them now, I can appreciate Quentin Blakes quick rough sketches throughout the stories, but as a young child I remember really disliking them and it made me reluctant to read his books. He uses rough, light quick lines to draw his characters and then either leaves them as line drawings or fills them in with a wash of water colour.

When I was younger, I was lucky enough to live very close to a library that always had lots of exciting things going on for children. There would often be authors come in to talk about books that they’d written, to inspire and encourage young readers to read them. One that has always stayed in my mind was when Scottish children’s author Aileen Paterson visited the library, promoting her ‘Maisie’ books. They are aimed for young children and from what I can remember, the stories were very good. They seemed relevant to the local children in particular as they are set in areas of Edinburgh and Fife.

The reason I have always remembered this author and her books is because of the illustrations. During her library visit, as well as reading us part of her new story and telling us why she wrote her books, Aileen Paterson also demonstrated how she draws Maisie. She had an easel with a big sheet of paper on it and she drew the cat effortlessly in thick black marker pen. She later gave it away to a child who asked her a good question (and although I can’t remember what my question was, to this day i’m convinced I deserved it more). I remember being fascinated at the fact she could draw this cat over and over again and get it identical every time.

I do think that illustrations in children’s books are such an important factor in enriching the story for children, particularly less confident readers or children reluctant to read. I think in schools when children are writing creatively, it is just as important to help them develop their drawings and illustrations.

 

Expressive Arts TDT- Gallery Visit

I visited the City Art Centre in Edinburgh the other day, with this particular TDT in mind. I enjoyed looking at the exhibition which displayed a range of art and artefacts from the 20th Century. There was a focus on the war and the lifestyle from around that time. As we went through the exhibition it became more current, with various installations focusing on more current political issues. I really liked this one in particular. Unfortunately the photo I took isn’t great as it doesn’t show all of the posters that were part of the display.

I think that this piece of work would be a great starting point for looking at why people may protest and what their reasons for it may be, and could tie in with learning about rules, rights and responsibilities. It could also start discussions on topics such as racism, sexuality, equality etc.  A simple photograph like this can stimulate a whole variety of ideas and thoughts, and can engage the children from the start. Looking at it from an interdisciplinary perspective, these were my following thoughts of a few lessons derived from this one photograph.

Social Studies: Could look at the Suffragettes and Suffragists and the lengths they went to for women to get the vote.

Literacy: Children could look at old newspaper articles published after big political movements and create their own, either set at that time or in the future. Get them thinking about what changes they want to be made in the future and what they think people will be protesting about in years to come.

Art: Learners could think of an issue they feel strongly about and make their own protest banner/poster. Emphasise the importance of making it bold and eye catching, with a direct message and appropriate illustrations. Look at a variety of different protest banners, and what the font is like etc. Children can bring in bits of cardboard to make their banners, and can use paint, markers, glitter etc.

There are many other avenues to explore from just this picture, these are just a few examples I have come up with. I think by showing the children this would be a great way to introduce these lessons.

 

 

Expressive Arts TDT- DRAMA

DRAMA FROM EXISITING STORIES: Alternate endings (2 hours)

Choose a well-known story. Consider the ‘big themes’ of the story and explore possible alternate endings. Decide on the most powerful new ending and film your new story. This task is best suited to group work.

Evidence: Consider how to record the planning stages to accompany your final film. Reflect on the challenges of this kind of assessment evidence. Your final film should be submitted electronically.

I decided to look at Beauty and the Beast as the fairytale to create an alternate ending for. It was one of my favourites as a child and earlier this year I went to see the new version at the cinema. I felt inspired to create a more realistic ending, with Belle deciding that when the beast turns back into his human self, that he wasn’t as attractive as she thought he’d be and that she preferred the Candlestick in his human form.

When planning how I would film my alternate ending I knew i’d need two other characters, so asked my two friends to help me. A challenge we faced during filming was that we struggled to not laugh. To make the most of our time, we then went on to film each others alternate endings, with us all being the extra characters within the pieces. This worked well and allowed our scenes to be more interesting and complex, with a couple of supporting characters.

Expressive Arts TDT- music 1

MUSIC AND THE MEDIA: Create a Silent Movie.

As a group, we chose ‘horror’ as the genre for our short film.  We wanted to create our own music as our soundtrack, so selected a few instruments to help. Although we wanted the music to be heavily featured within the short film to create dramatic effect, we decided to keep it very simple, only using tuned percussion and a wooden guiro. Initially when we were discussing concepts and themes for our video, we had the idea of incorporating the use of leitmotifs to distinguish different characters within the film. However, on reflection was going to be too complex and so decided to just use a repeated few bars played on the tuned percussion, each time a character would enter the lift. I think this proved very effective in our piece, creating an atmosphere and building anticipation as the audience would begin to recognise the bars played and ultimately know and be able to predict what would happen to the next character.

When coming up with the short tune on the tuned percussion, we played a simple collection of notes in a minor key. which was effective in creating quite a scary atmosphere in attempt to make the audience uncomfortable and perhaps a bit scared.

Scientific Literacy Paper

Scientific literacy is a term that is used to describe someone who can understand science. A more elaborate explanation of that is someone whom has the capacity to use scientific knowledge, to be able to identify questions about science and to draw evidence-based conclusions from science experiments (OECD, 2003). The European Commission (1995) elaborated further ‘Clearly this does not mean turning everyone into a scientific expert, but enabling them to fulfil an enlightened role in making choices.’ This means that scientific literacy is not about everyone being able to understand everything to do with science, it is more about being able to understand a little bit of science to question and develop the world around you. Scientific literacy is having the ability to describe, explain and predict natural phenomena. It means that you can read, with understanding, articles about science and engage in social conversations about the validity of the conclusions to experiments that are written about (National Science Education Standards, page 22).

There are four types of scientific literacy and these are nominal scientific literacy, functional scientific literacy, conceptual scientific literacy and multidimensional scientific literacy. These all show a different kind of understanding towards science. Nominal scientific literacy is where the person recognises the vocabulary but does not have a clear understanding of it or they have misconceptions. Functional scientific literacy is where a person can describe the concepts of science but they cannot use the correct vocabulary and they do not understand fully what they are saying. Conceptual scientific literacy is where the person has a greater understanding or a concept and they can explain it. This person will also have a better understanding of enquiry and design in science. Lastly, there is multidimensional scientific literacy which is when the person fully understands concepts in a wider context. They can also make connections between science philosophy, history and practical applications of science.

According to Jarman and McClune (2007) without scientific literacy there would be an increase in inaccurate or misleading information, which can often result in media scares. Cases in which this has been apparent include the swine flu epidemic, and quite possibly the most known being the MMR vaccination scare.

Deer (2011) states in 1998, Andrew Wakefield, a medical researcher published that the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination was linked to colitis and autism spectrum disorders. Despite this being false, it was credited as a reliable source, and people became reluctant to allow their child the vaccine and it wasn’t long before controversial articles were published in newspapers, further damaging the reputation of this vaccination.

Deer (2011) also highlighted, that it was later in 2004 that an investigation into Wakefield’s research paper was put in place and it was found that the original paper was fraudulent. The scientific consensus is that MMR is in no way linked to the development of autism. Due to this media scare, there was a great decrease in the amount of children receiving this vaccination, and therefore a rise in cases of measles. Many still refrain from this vaccination despite it being proven that its benefits hugely outweigh its risks.

Fair testing in school science links to scientific literacy as it involves recognising and communicating questions that can be investigated scientifically and knowing what is involved in such investigations. It also includes identifying or recognising evidence needed in a scientific investigation. For example, what things should be compared, what valuables should be changed or controlled, or what action should be taken so that relevant data can be collected. This is essential for ensuring that the data collected is accurate. For example, taking the example that is used on the PowerPoint. The children should be able to recognise that it is going to be an unfair test as one driver involves a man on a motorbike, whilst the other driver is a small child on a go-kart. The children will therefore identify that the man on the motorbike will have no problem in winning the race. Children should also be able to recognise what should be altered so that the race would be deemed as fair. In this case, both the vehicle and age of the person leads to an unfair test. This skill is key to a child’s scientific literacy and is therefore pivotal to teach. The children can also learn from their mistakes. If the experiment does not go the way that they had predicted, this gives them an opportunity to communicate and understand how the experiment went wrong and how they would be able to correct these mistakes. This in itself is scientific literacy.
References

European Commission (1995) White Paper on Education and Training
http://www.literacynet.org/science/scientificliteracy.html. Assessed 15th February 2016.

Deer, B. (2011) Exposed: Andrew Wakefield and The MMR-Autism Fraud. Available at: http://briandeer.com/mmr/lancet-summary.htm (Accessed: 15th Feb 2016).

Jarman, R. and McClune, B. (2007) Developing Scientific Literacy. England: Open University Press.

OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] (2003) The PISA 2003 Assessment Framework – Mathematics, Reading, Science and Problem Solving Knowledge and Skills. Paris: OECD.

Johnny, Abi, Leah, Rebecca

‘The Secret Life of 4 Year Olds’ Review

The other night, I found myself watching ‘The Secret Life of 4 year olds.’ I’d watched a previous episode a few months ago and I had enjoyed it, but this time I found myself taking notes, and recognising the terminology used by the child psychologists, and could relate some of the methods to what we’ve been learning about in lectures. What made this documentary different to others I have watched of a similar nature, was that there was very little adult influence. The child psychologists observed the children through hidden cameras, thus giving us an honest representation of the way children act at this age.

“At the age of four, the average girl tends to be five months ahead of the average boy, in terms of their language skills.” On initial thought, this doesn’t seem to be that big of a development gap, however this can put boys at a disadvantage when it comes to social interaction. Throughout the programme, it was evident that most of the girls were more capable of voicing their concerns, and expressing what they were enjoying or found upsetting. Some of the boys on the other hand, found this a lot more challenging, and would get frustrated at not being able to convey how the felt inside, in words. This often resulted in the child becoming distressed and uncomfortable.

Another aspect of the programme i found interesting was the contrast between girls and boys. At this age, children will self segregate when it comes to gender. A girl team captain was selected and also a boy team captain. Taking it in turns, they picked members for their teams, which resulted in a girls team and boys team. They then went on to have a ‘relay’ type competition, in which the first child of each team would race against each other with a bean bag placed on their head. The rules being, you weren’t allowed to touch or hold the beanbag. The boys finished first and the girls were quite rightly not satisfied with the result. Every boy had compromised the rules, in order to win. The girls on the other hand had spent longer completing the task, however were strictly abiding by the rules. This game concluded that at the age of four, there seems to be a difference in moral importance and priority, in girls and boys.

The favourite childhood line “I’m telling my mum on you!” made an appearance a few times throughout the documentary. At one point, two girls were arguing, and telling each other who they were going to ‘tell on them’ to. The child psychologists gave us an insight of what this says about the particular children. Both girls were listing people they considered to be of important moral authority in their lives. Their parents, grandparents, older brothers and sisters. As the list went on, they became more elaborate and these authority figures included the Tooth Fairy, and Father Christmas. All people who make judgements about our behaviour, and have the power to punish us. This also was an example of the children being very egocentric, and assuming that others would value the same people as them as authoritarian.

At four years old, there’s a fine line between being assertive, and being aggressive. The children spent a lot of time experimenting and figuring out where that line is. As they began to develop friendships, the natural instinct for that child is to test it; to prod at it, and see if they can break it, before they fully understand what the concept of ‘friendship’ means. It was interesting to watch two children fall out over who was going down the slide with who, with one child rushing off crying, unsure of how to cope with the situation. Within minutes, it was resolved and they were walking off together, hand in hand. There’s something so refreshing about a child’s sense of forgiveness and on reflection, some adults could learn a thing or two from watching these children!

Coming to the end of the programme, the last ‘experiment’ involved each child being given a wrapped gift. Ten out of the twelve presents contained a toy bubble blower, and the others contained just the wrappings, and a peg. Scientists use this method to gain an insight into the children’s ability to regulate their emotions. The presents were given out at random, and each opened. Naturally, the two children that didn’t receive the toy were disappointed, however their reactions differed. The girl who received the peg voiced her disappointment, but had the skills to not become overwhelmed by these feelings. However, the boy who received the peg hadn’t yet grasped the idea of how to react, and was unable to recover from the situation, and took himself to the corner, where he sat by himself crying. At this age, they’re learning, through experiences like this, how to handle and control their emotions. This particular boy was still coming to terms with the correct way to deal with the disappointment. After about ten minutes, two extra bubble blowers were brought out to resolve the situation, and all the children could be seen enjoying their new toys and interacting with one another, and slowly beginning to learn that others have feelings too.

I thoroughly recommend watching this programme (even though I have quite possibly given away all the good parts). It was very insightful into understanding the level of development these children are at, just months before they embark on a new chapter. Primary School.

 

 

Being an Enquiring Practitioner.

It is important that as student teachers, we acknowledge the fact that learning continues all the way through life. We share with others what we’ve learnt through life experiences, and gain knowledge by working with the people around us. Practitioner enquiry is a skill that is developed through the observation of others, reflection, taking a step back and looking for areas in need of development, the constant self-assessment and learning from mistakes. The latter I am still working on to improve. This is my third attempt at writing this blog post as I forgot to save it the first two times, clearly not taking the time to reflect and learn from previous errors.

In order to be a successful enquiry practitioner, we as teachers, should always looking for areas of improvement, to further our own personal knowledge. We need to develop our investigation skills, the way we look at things, and continually question our beliefs and our practices. Almost like the infamous question that most teachers and parents are familiar with, “but why?”. These skills should also be used in the classroom when observing children, and understand behaviour, learning development and attitudes.

As student teachers, we already have accumulated a set of skills, and knowledge that will enable us in the classroom, to deliver children an education. However, to be an effective enquiry practitioner, we need to be able to seek out our ‘flaws’. To be successful, it’s required that sometimes we may need to take a step back, and really look at how we’re teaching, and whether or not we are delivering our pupils the best education possible. The worry is, that after teaching for many years, we may become ‘set in our ways’ with regards to teaching styles, and methods, and forget how to be open minded and reflect. This is why working collegiately in groups, with colleagues and peers can have such a positive impact on your development as an enquiring practitioner.

Observing other teachers in the work place can be so beneficial in our own understanding as a teacher. Opening our minds to new and different ideas will provide us with a different perspective, and so many opportunities in terms of teaching, and our own personal learning. This will also give us an insight to techniques and methods that aren’t as effective, and should guide us towards what work well in the classroom and what doesn’t. We are committing ourselves a life style where we will continue to learn. With the use of practitioner enquiry, we will be able to easily identify areas needing improvement, but also what is working well.