Dance 4

The final dance tutorial held a focus around dance pieces which tell a particular story, as well as exploration of the incorporation of other KLAs into dance.
One of the stimuli was the book “Henry and Amy”, with a focus on contrasts between the two characters. Through peer led dance sequences and warm up, movements relating to the contrasts were explored.
As well as a strong literacy connection being implicit throughout the learning experiences explored today, drama could also be incorporated. Through the telling of a story using the elements of dance, movements are used to communicate narrative or theme and getting into role according to this can enhance the effect of the movements to further enrich and illustrate the performance.
As discussed by Ewing and Simons (2004), drama can be used to explore concepts and allow students to get a sense of perspective through the embodiment of a particular character or event. (Ewing and Simons, 2004). This can work well interworked alongside dance, to create truly interesting and memorable learning experience for students.

References

Ewing, R. and Simons, J. (2004). Beyond the Script Take Two: Drama in the Classroom. Newtown, N.S.W.: Primary English Teachers Association.

Werrington Library. (2011). Henry and Amy. [Image]. Retrieved from: http://werringtonlibrary.pbworks.com/f/1285843420/Henry%20and%20Amy.jpg

Dance 3

This week’s dance tutorial saw an exploration of shapes with a variety of contrasting stimuli – up/down, advance/retreat, through/around – as well as movement through pathways and transitions in space.
We also looked at using a variety of props as part of a problem solving exercise that could be carried out in the classroom.
This exercise provided an interesting means to create an engaging and unique experience in the classroom. Through the using of varied materials students can work together to shape their own movements and actions by way of using the stimuli.
This also has great scope to cross over into other areas of the curriculum. Mathematics outcomes may be reached through sequencing of movements when using stimuli.
Both the exploration of shapes and the stimuli aspects of the tutorial required collaboration with peers to reach. As found by Schmitz and Winskel (2008) collaborating to work towards an answer in a problem solving context allows students to work together to use unique perspectives towards the task, particularly where students involved in each group have a range of varied strengths. (Schmitz and Winskel, 2008)

References

Clips Ahoy. (2014). Girl thinking. [Image]. Retrieved from: http://www.clipsahoy.com/clipart3/as5814tn.gif

Richly Middle Class. (2013). Kids solving a problem. [Image]. Retrieved from: http://www.richlymiddleclass.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/kids-questions-629×435.jpg

Schmitz and Winskel. (2008). Towards effective partnerships in a collaborative problem-solving task. British Journal of Educational Psychology. 78, 581 – 596. London, U.K.: British Psychological Society.

Dance 2

The focus this week was based upon concepts of contrasted movement – Dart/Dash, Strong/Sustained, Light/ Sustained, Light/Flow/Smooth and how these work to enhance dance performances and movements.
Carrying out a variety of movements and contrasting them with corresponding “opposite” actions enhances the experience through adding a level of diversity and in turn creates more engaging and interesting activities.
Conducting a lesson based on movement and finding contrasting movements allows students to further explore actions and gain a sense of juxtaposition between each varied movement.
This allows for a level of cognitive reasoning, as students must observe a particular action and come up with a contrast for it.
These types of activities could be particularly useful in an earlier Stage setting (S1 or ES1), to enable students to learn more about the types of movements their bodies can perform.
Young (2010) discusses the benefits of carrying out dance activities with young children. Through collaboration and sharing of space children learn both social and spatial skills, as well as developing their skills in deciphering opposite and contrasting movements. (Young, 2010)

 
Reference

Daily Mail. (2013). Hip hop dancing. [Image]. Retrieved from: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/07/16/article-0-1AD715B1000005DC-203_638x479.jpg

Starlite Dance Studio. (2012). Silhouetted dancers. [Image]. Retrieved from: http://starlitedancebx.com/wp-content/upload/2009/09/Silhouette20Dancing20People.jpg

The Winger. (2012). Ballet dancers. [Image]. Retrieved from: http://thewinger.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/moves-600×428.jpg

Young, C. (2010). Creative Dance Starters for Young Children. YC Children. Retrieved from Proquest.com

Dance 1

The first week of dance saw discussion surrounding key body skills implicit in movement – strength, coordination, balance, flexibility and stamina – as well as carrying out exercises demonstrating the body and its potential for self-expression and creativity.
A variety of movements were explored – turning, travelling, jumping, gesture, stillness – in order to further demonstrate the use of the body in a creative context.
The learning experiences carried out throughout the tutorial reinforced the sense of importance implicit in teaching creative dance to students. Through this medium creativity and individuality can truly be explored.
As discussed by Gibson and Ewing (2011), creative dance allows engages on a plethora of levels, among those both intellectual and physical. Engaging in dance requires consideration on an intellectual level, while still allowing for enhancement of physical capabilities such as flexibility and stamina (Gibson and Ewing, 2011). Furthermore its implicit creativity allows for a truly engaging and expressive experience for students.

References
Ewing, R. and Gibson, R. (2011). Transforming the Curriculum through the Arts. Melbourne, Victoria: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kinderhaus of musik. (2014). Children dancing. [Image]. Retrieved from: http://www.kinderhausofmusik.com/images/dancing_kids.jpg

Dance Informa. (2014). Ballet tech dancing. [Image]. Retrieved from: http://assets.danceinforma.com/public/assets/mce/Chelsea_News/Ballet_Tech_Meshugana_Dance.jpg

Music 4

The final music lesson provided an opportunity to engage with several diverse activities based around musical exploration and how other KLAs might be integrated alongside music. As a class brainstorming in small groups was carried out with each group offering suggestions for a different KLA. Relating to English outcomes, a story could be read to students and a soundscape could be created to demonstrate actions and characters in the story. This could further cross over to elements of science and technology, if instruments were created to conduct the soundscape.
The final music lesson and the discussion and activities held through its duration prompted great consideration of the benefits of an integrated curriculum. As discussed by Barry (2008), incorporating elements of other subject areas into music provides students with a more holistic and thorough experience of the curriculum. Similarly, incorporating the arts into other more traditional KLAs allows students greater scope to develop their creativity, imaginations and critical thinking skills. (Barry, 2008)

References

BBC.com. (2014). Using musical instruments in creative play. [Image]. Retrieved from:
http://static.bbc.co.uk/images/s/width/live//p0/0j/qn/p00jqnnh.jpg/496

Barry, N. (2008). The Role of Integrated Curriculum in Music Teacher Education. Journal of Music Teacher Education. 18(1). 28-38. doi: 10.1177/1057083708323139

Manchester Music Works. (2011). Kids playing instruments. [Image]. Retrieved from: http://www.manchestermusicworks.co.uk/images/musicisfun.jpg

Music 3

This week there was a focus on listening skills: how to decipher and single out various aspects of diverse pieces of music. In listening to various pieces of music we were to gauge the duration, structure, pitch, dynamics and tone colour of each diverse piece.
In demonstrating such diverse pieces of music to students and providing them with a framework to appreciate music in this way there can be a greater level of understanding of how different types of music are made, as well as enabling students to make distinctions between different types.
Furthermore, allowing students an opportunity to engage with music for enjoyment can be beneficial in providing an interesting and enriching cultural experience.
As discussed Kokotsaki (2012), by allowing students to explore music allows a level of creativity to take place and to develop their “musical imaginations”, further allowing for a rich, meaningful listening experience. (Kokotaski, 2012)

Reference

Blogspot. (2014). Appreciating music. [Image]. Retrieved from: https://creativeartsblogedup.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/b6355-i_love_music_1.jpg

carstenknoch.com. (2011). Playing violin. [Image]. Retrieved from: http://carstenknoch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/chamber_music.jpg

Education Portal. (2010). Listening to music. [Image]. Retrieved from: http://education-portal.com/cimages/multimages/16/listen-music-student-girl.jpg

Kokotsaki, D. (2012). Research Studies in Music Education: pre-service student-teachers’ conceptions of creativity in the primary music classroom.34(120). doi: 10.1177/1321103X12466770

Music 2

This week’s music tutorial was based around singing and use of the voice and ways singing can be incorporated into the classroom. Discussions were carried out surrounding the selection of musical repertoire for use in a primary setting: songs chosen should be engaging and relevant to students to ensure musical experiences incorporating singing are meaningful for students and ensure engagement. By exploring a range of musical pieces and taking part in singing with the group divided into sections, a sense of understanding could be gained of how important it is for singing to be a part of primary classrooms.
As discussed by Bintz (2010) singing can be incorporated into classrooms to reinforce learning (reciting mathematical concepts such as time tables, or aspects of literacy such as the alphabet) in an engaging and enjoyable way. It assists students in developing vocal skills such as voice projection and communication, as well as phonic and phonemic skills. (Bintz, 2010)

Reference

Bintz, W.P. (2010). The Reading Teacher. 63(8), pp. 683 – 686. doi: 10.1598/RT.63.8.7

Blogspot. (2013). Children singing. [Image]. Retrieved from: https://creativeartsblogedup.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/2b8c8-lbwkidssinging.jpg

Word Press. (2011). Dominican kids singing. [Image]. Retrieved from: http://stgeorgesardmore.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/dominican-kids-singing.jpg

 

 

Music 1

The first music lesson allowed for recapping of key musical concepts – duration, pitch, structure, tone colour and dynamics. As a class we looked at how these features give music their character.
We were able to use percussion instruments to create musical pieces, dividing the group into sections (soprano, alto, tenor and bass), as well as body percussion (hand clapping) to create sounds fitting with a recent popular song.

http://www.wimp.com/trombonehappy/

In this video, Bill (2014) illustrates a similar concept: a recent popular song is reworked to provide a varying sound from the original, but the structure is maintained and is certainly recognisable. (Bill, 2014)

Using body percussion or other types of musical play is highly engaging for students, and incorporating songs students are familiar with offers a greater level of engagement and enjoyment. Students experiencing different ways of producing songs that they are familiar with can facilitate interesting discussion surrounding how music can be diversified in this way.

References
Bill, C. (2014). Trombone version of “Happy”. [Video file.] Retrieved from: http://www.wimp.com/trombonehappy/

Gandharva Loka. (2014). Wooden xylophone. [Image]. Retrieved from: http://www.gandharvaloka.co.nz/instruments/images/mi-wooden-xylophone-lrg.jpg

Thoman. (2014). Glockenspiel. [Image]. Retrieved from: http://images.thomann.de/pics/prod/113404.jpg

Media Arts 3

The final Media Arts tutorial allowed each group to conduct final editing on films. This stage of the creation process saw music and effects added as well as raw footage being narrowed down and refined to best demonstrate the story.
As a class we were also given the opportunity to watch each other’s preliminary movie cuts and provide and receive feedback.
This process is important as it allows for students to get varying perspectives on their work: this is an important facet of conducting any form of arts learning experiences. As discussed by Nilson (2003), the value to students from peer interaction and feedback is great, particularly where criteria for feedback is presented prior to the session commencing. Students can be prompted to make comments on specific aspects: such as clarity of narrative, different shot types and how they might best be used and other details.(Nilson, 2003)
This ensures students have a framework within which to consider various pieces of advice.

Reference

Nilson, L. (2003). Improving student peer feedback. College teaching. 51(1). 34-37.
doi: 129.78.139.28

Tweak Your Biz. (2014). Collaboration and unity. [Image]. Retrieved from:
http://tweakyourbiz.com/growth/files/How-Collaboration-Creates-Growth-For-Your-SME.jpg

Word Press. (2012). Sharing ideas. [Image]. Retrieved from: http://lucy4wellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/cartoon-image-on-sharing-ideas.jpg

Media Arts 2

Filming commenced on our short film this week. The experience overall was insightful; an understanding of the work that needs to be carried out was gained as production was carried out. This brought to mind the importance of organisation and directness when carrying out such tasks, especially when done in a primary school setting.
Attention was further more drawn to the technical side of creating a short film and its implications for undertaking such an endeavour with students.
As discussed by Watts (2007) students are often engaged and motivated when involved in a project such as creating a short film. As such a project holds such an interactive and exciting potential, there is great scope for a project such as this to be carried out in a classroom context. With students able to collaborate and work together on a variety of aspects of creating the film such a project would likely be highly engaging and meaningful for the whole class.

References

Lake Kawana Community Centre. (2013). iPad workshop for kids. [Image]. http://www.scvenuesandevents.com.au/sites/default/files/imagecache/event-page-large/img/events/small_ipad_movie_making_pic.jpg

Movies By Kids. (2014) Movies by kids. [Image]. Retrieved from: http://www.moviesbykids.com/losangeles/images/film/filmframe1.jpg

Time Out New York. (2013). Kids making movies. [Image]. Retrieved from: http://kids.media.timeout.com/images/resizeBestFit/100526395/660/370/image.jpg

Watts, R. (2007). Harnessing the power of film in the primary classroom. 41(2). Malden, U.S.A.: Blackwell Publishing.