Month: November 2019

This was our final week of Integrated Arts. I was a little sad, if I’m honest, for the module to be over as I really enjoyed it. One of the things I enjoyed most was that the module was so practical. Every week, we had a different workshop on different art area’s and I really liked experimenting and playing around with different materials and techniques. Drama was definitely my favourite area to study. I was a part of drama groups when I was younger so to be able to pick it back up and learn how to incorporate it into the classroom was really enjoyable for me. I also found the other areas (dance, visual arts and music) really fun and beneficial for my future practice. I feel that my confidence has grown in these other areas and they have helped to develop new skills.

As this was our final week of dance, it was performance time! We started off by rehearsing a few times so that everyone felt confident going into the recording. I felt quite nervous going into the performance, even after rehearsing lots and knowing that every one else was feeling the same way.Recording the performance is an easy way to self-evaluate and compare your progress from the beginning of the rehearsals to the end product. A point we spoke about to consider for future practice is that not all children need to be dancing to participate. Some pupils may not be able or want to dance. This could result in them feeling left out and sat on the side. A way of avoiding this is by giving everyone a job, like set designer or costumes. This way, they still feel included and it encourages team work.  After our performance, we watched it back and used “3 stars and a wish” to evaluate it. I thought that this was a really good concept to consider for my future practice because it allows children to also consider what they done well in as well as an area that they could develop in. My three stars and a wish were;

1. I was really enthusiastic (had good energy)
2. I was very focused on my groups part of the dance
3. I was able to put forward ideas for our chore graphical devices
4. My wish was that my timing could’ve been better at the end of the dance.

Our dance can be viewed here. https://vimeo.com/376244238

In our music input, we were learning to play the ukulele. We began by learning the basics of the ukulele and how to play it through the use of figure notes. We all got a shot to play the ukulele’s and I actually found it really fun. I had memories of playing guitar in school and I was hopeless at it. I couldn’t move my fingers quickly enough or get them in the right positions but I didn’t feel that pressure learning the ukulele. We played everything as a class and nobody was singled out. I also really liked that we used figure notes because it meant that I could focus on the finer positions rather then trying to work out what notes to play as well. Learning to play the ukulele seemed really difficult when the idea was presented to us but it was actually quite straight forward with the use of something like figure notes. This is definitely something to consider in my future practice because it can create a sense of achievement in the children as they’ve conquered something that seemed intimidating.

This weeks lecture looked at creative dance. We first looked at what creative dance is and Cone (2009) describes it as allowing the children to come up with their own dance routines. “One of the most powerful experiences dance educators can offer children is the opportunity to create a dance that reflects their ideas” (Cone, 2009). I thought this quote was really interesting because it explains that a major element of teaching dance is giving the children a chance to express themselves. This links with one of the CfE Experiences and Outcomes for dance which says “Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express my ideas, thoughts and feelings through creative work in dance” (Education Scotland). We also learned that creative dance has lots of benefits for the pupils, such as increased confidence and mental & physical wellbeing. It can also develop an ability to communicate and work in groups and can increase self confidence.  These skills and increased self confidence can be across other subjects and benefit other areas of life.  We then went on the discus what our role is, as teachers, when teaching creative dance.  This was an area that I found quite daunting because I don’t have a lot of experience in dance so I didn’t think that I would be able to teach it effectively. However, something we discussed was that the role of the teacher should include valuing the creative process and believing in the validity of children’s creativity and ideas. This means having an end goal for the children to work towards and for you to assess but also understanding that how the children get to the end product is just as important as the end product itself. It also includes creating a safe environment in the class for the children to feel comfortable to explore their ideas and then perform them.  We can also use stimulus to inspire the children and this could come from a variety of sources such as photos, videos, or watching a performance. We also discussed some resources that could be used in schools for creative dance and a major one was youtube, where you can watch a variety of videos featuring dance, such as tutorials or performances.  You could also games, like Just Dance, or other pupils who dance as a hobby as resources for dancing.

In our music input we were playing the glockenspiels again but instead of following notes or sheet music, we were improvising. As warmup, we played some simple tunes on the glockenspiels to remember what to do and then we moved on to the improvisation. We were only given 4 four notes to invent with but that was more than enough. We each took it in turn to improvise a couple of bars on the glockenspiels to a backing track of “hit the road jack”. The idea of inventing music in front of the rest of my peer group really scared me. Music has never really been a strong point of mine or an area that I felt confident in. This increased my nerves but in reality, there wasn’t much to it. Everyone had a go one after an other, no body was made to feel horrible about their contribution and we all congratulated each other. This was because we had made a safe environment in our room where everyone felt comfortable to express their ideas.

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In our dance input, we started by combining all our different group sections into one. big, whole class dance. We all worked together to come up with different poses for in-between the group sections. Everyone made different suggestions and all their opinions were valued and listened to, no one was made to feel stupid for having an idea. This is another example of the safe space that is needed for creative dance or for any type of creating. However, something that I noticed was that our dance lecturer done very little during our workshop. She helped with some of the technical things like timing and spacing but other than that, it was mostly just us students. This highlighted how little the teacher has to do in a creative dance lesson.

References

• Cone, T.P. (2009) Following their lead: Supporting children’s ideas for creating dances. Journal of Dance Education, Vol 9(3), pp.81-89
• Education Scotland (2017) Curriculum For Excellence: Experiences and Outcomes [Online] Available:https://education.gov.scot/Documents/All-experiencesoutcomes18.pdf [Accessed: 20th of November  2019]

This weeks lecture looked at creative partnerships within the arts. We learned that it can help to provide a higher quality of education for the pupils because its experts providing the children with their expert knowledge. We also looked at some examples of creative partnerships and one was the Creative Minds Learning Network. They hold whole day events where teachers have the opportunity to gain knowledge in the art areas. The events involve local artists and experts to talk to the teachers and help them to provide themselves and the pupils with a quality learning experience. The day is not only open to teachers but also lots of other people, including parents or other school staff. We looked at another successful example of a creative partnership which was the parkour project. This was started because the boys didn’t feel comfortable dancing so they brought in a parkour instructor to teach the children and help them to express themselves through movement. The project worked really well and it helped to improve more than just their physical movement. The project helped to raise attainment, attendance and confidence and also improved the pupils ability to follow instructions and be safe.

Our music input focussed on a concept called figure-notes. It’s a form of notation that allows everyone to play together using either traditional or non-conventional notation. It uses shapes and colours instead of notes and you just hit the key that matches the sheet. It’s really beneficial for autistic children because conventional notation can be difficult to understand (different length bars, etc). We all had a shot at using figure notes on the glockenspiels and got to play a couple of songs, jingle bells and Frère Jacques. Everyone picked it up really quickly and done really well. I’ve mentioned before that music was never my favourite subject but I actually had a really fun day and enjoyed myself because I didn’t feel stupid for not being able to read music.

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Our dance workshop started off with us performing our dance routines to the rest of the section. I was really nervous because my dancing skills aren’t great. However, after the performance, I felt more connected to my group because we all worked together and none of us really felt that confident about it. This is backed up by Ken Robinson who mentioned in a blog of his that there was “demonstrable improvement in students’ abilities to cooperate and collaborate” after they worked in groups for a dance project. A lot of work in schools now is group based so this is a really important point to consider for my future practice. We then came together as a section and started to create a whole class dance.  We used different stimulus’, pictures of different Scottish landmarks, to come up with a Scottish themed dance move.  each group came up with a different move and then we combined them all to create the beginning of our dance. Cone (2009) says that allowing the pupils to choreograph their own dances allows them to explore their own thoughts and feelings.

References

Cone, Theresa. (2009). Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. Journal of Dance Education. Vol. 9, pp 81-89. Available: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233223027_Following_Their_Lead_Supporting_Children’s_Ideas_for_Creating_Dances [Accessed: 14th of `November 2019].

TED-ED (2018) Why Dance is Just as Important as Maths in School [Online] Available: https://blog.ed.ted.com/2018/04/02/why-dance-is-just-as-important-as-math-in-school/ [Accessed: 14th of November 2019].

This week we had no lecture and instead had only two workshops. The first workshop was music and it was delivered by a group of primary school pupils who all played string instruments. We were seated like an orchestra and the children all sat between us. We done lots of different exercises that the children done in class to learn how to play the instruments and the pupils took on the role of teachers, showing us how to do them. It was a really fun workshop to be a part of  because it was so practical and when I was in school, I used to play the cello so it was a reminder how hard playing an instrument was! We also learned lots about the schools string project and how it works. Unfortunately, 97% of the school is on free meals so ordinarily, most of the families wouldn’t be able to afford the private tuition lessons which is why the project is such a great initiative. The children receive whole class lessons and don’t take the instruments home so although it may take longer to make progress, the children aren’t practicing mistakes at home and they actually get a chance to learn an instrument that they may never have normally had. I found this workshop really inspiring because the children all really loved playing their instruments and most of them wanted to continue playing them into high school.

Our second workshop was dance. This was our first week doing it so I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  I had done a little dance when i was younger but I was little apprehensive about doing it now. We started  with a dance version of Chinese whispers, to warm up, where a dance move was passed up to the top of the line and you had to see if it matched the bottom. We then done another exercise where we all danced in a line and every time the music changed, the person at the front came up with a new dance move. This was really fun and everyone really enjoyed it but this could be really difficult for children who don’t dance or who have little self confidence. You would have to know your class really well before doing something where they have to show off on their own. We also done an activity where when certain numbers were shouted, we had to get into groups of that number and form pre-arangeed shapes with our bodies. We focussed on a Scottish theme and used items like castles or the Loch Ness monster but it could be used for a variety of topics and subjects in class, for example maths. This could be really helpful for children with learning difficulties who might benefit from visual learning. Our main activity was, in groups, to come up with a move for each of the 10 basic moves of dance, which are jump, kick, roll, twist, turn, hop, gesture, reach, balance and slide. We then used these moves to create a dance routine. However, we ran out of time to show our routines so this become next weeks task.

 

This week our lecture looked at creativity. There was a quote from Csikszentmihalyi (1996) that I found really interesting that said “constant busyness is not a good prescription for creativity” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996, p.353). I really liked it because it shows that you need to allow time to be creative and that actually, boredom is okay. Being bored means that you have time to think and come up with something that you actually want to do which is really important for an arts lesson.  Another interesting point we discussed came from Ken Robinsons TED talk. His talk focuses on wether schools kill creativity and one of the things he said, “If you are not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything” (Ken Robinson, 2006), really stuck with me. It backed up a point made in our very first lecture that we need to develop an ambiguity for messiness. We also need to know how to learn from our mistakes and move on. Not only is this vital for creativity and arts lessons but also for our own mental health and wellbeing. We also looked at WALT (We Are Learning To) and WILF (What I’m Looking For) and how these don’t always apply to art lessons.  The lesson should be a problem that the children have to solve using art which is why don’t always know what we’re looking for in an art lesson.

Our visual arts workshop looked at critiquing art and being critical. Children can struggle to talk about their art learning, such as the different elements of art.  Art is always assumed to be a practical lesson but it should also be critical, This could be by looking at different pieces fo work and critically examining them. We then done this ourselves by using Taylors model of assessment to critique a work of art and create a video about it. I had done higher art at school so I had a little knowledge in this area with different terms, etc but I could understand if others struggled, especially children.  Theres also opportunities to link the critical lesson to a literacy lesson because one of the first level experiences and outcomes is “As I listen or watch, I am learning to make notes under given headings and use these to understand what I have listened to or watched and create new texts” (Education Scotland, 2017).

In our music workshop, we used the online resource called Charanga. The website had lots of different lesson ideas and resources that could be used by non-specialist music teachers. I think this would be really helpful in my future practice because I don’t personally feel that music is a strong point of mine and I wouldn’t feel 100% confident teaching it so this website would be a really big help.

References

• Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity – Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, New York: Harper Collins
• https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity/up-next?language=en
• Education Scotland (2017) Curriculum For Excellence: Experiences and Outcomes [Online] Available:https://education.gov.scot/Documents/All-experiencesoutcomes18.pdf [Accessed: 31st of October 2019]