Week 14 Dance

For our final dance workshop of the course, we again explored the integral strands of dance through the focus of today - moving with a stimulus. Our class was split into four groups based on our choosing, each of which worked with a particular stimulus.

Stimulus #1 was tactile - We were asked to handle an object hidden inside a bag with only our tactile feeling sense. We were then to use the qualities of that mystery object in a dance. The object felt like a ball containing very prominent and multiple spikes jutting out all over. They weren't sharp spikes, more like knobby spikes, and created a sense of uniqueness, roughness and off-the-wallness. These could be perfectly translatable to the movement of bodies across the dance floor and incorporated into any basic dance routine.

Stimulus #2 was based on an idea - Advertisement cards that contained a specific list of constraints/requirements for a dance routine were handed out. The group was to create a short advertisement in the form of dance, using any elements of dance they wished to.

Stimulus #3 was visual - We were shown a statue of a woman with her head in her hands who was uniquely proportioned. Any number of interpretations could be made from this stimulus.

Stimulus #4 was kinesthetic - A choreography sequence was to be developed and performed utilizing movements focused on isolated body parts, which we used during the warmup.

We chose stimulus #4 for our group routine. Since my group contained three girls and myself, we came up with the idea of three mannequins being positioned and worked on by a storekeeper (myself). Through our routine, I would "control" and "position" them using the kinesthetic movements from the warmup. These included wide-arcing motions such as swinging arms sideways and up & down. I had a different routine for each of the three girls/mannequins as I walked across the stage. It turned out pretty well, with the entire scene set to David Jones shopping music!

I think that this last dance workshop brought together the learning in the past four weeks in a very strong way. We were continually aware of different elements of dance such as levels, space, canon, contrast and movement. It all culminated in one last musical routine that I can actually say I had fun taking part in!

Week 14 Music

For this final workshop in music, we delved more deeply into the concepts of music by exploring a variety of music pieces from different genres. We first started with a selection from the "Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Säens, specifically The Swan. Each song from the Carnival of the Animals represents the musical quality of animals and includes humorous and graceful representations of animals such as turtles, kangaroos, elephants, and so forth. In XIII: Le cygne (The Swan), we listened for all five concepts of music and discussed them with increasingly complex vocabulary and terms. The song was played in arpeggio, which meant that the chords were broken up and played individually in sequence. I enjoyed imagining what interpretations could be made from that, and came up with a visual of the ripples of waves emanating from just under the swan's wings as it glided past. In the future, I would encourage students to come up with as vivid of imagery as they could, and I wouldn't be surprised if they could produce interpretations I hadn't even thought about, as long as the music is quality! Another aspect of the song that was memorable in discussion and reflection was the duration and quality of notes - the cello was played in legato, characterized by smooth and connected notes. This gave the piece an overall smooth quality and represented the elongated graceful motions of the swan quite well. Carnival of the Animals would be a great resource in the future to use with students as the pieces would appeal to the interest of the children while containing excellent examples and contrasting styles of the different concepts of music. They are also readily available off YouTube.

We then listened to "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edward Grieg, one of the most recognizable and iconic pieces of our generation. We analyzed the structure of the piece (8 repeating bars throughout), its tone color (more and more layers added with different instruments fading in and out) and dynamics (crescendo from low to high volume). While covering each of these different concepts, interpretations could be made more precisely and easily of this powerful piece.

We also briefly looked at the Ice Dance from the Edward Scissorhands movie. While analyzing the piece, the adjectives I came up to describe it were melancholy, enchanting and whimsical. I would like to engage my future students in coming up with words to describe pieces they hear, albeit using appropriate vocabulary level!

Finally, we looked at how music can be linked to other KLAs. It wasn't too difficult to link English and HSIE since those can both be very interrelated to musical strands via lyrics, culture and historical references. For linkage to science, my group came up with the notion that the basis of all music is vibration of air via different frequencies and wavelengths. Many experiments can be performed to investigate musical sounds and students could even construct their own instruments.

This music worksop greatly enhanced my vision into how to approach primary age students with the strands of music. I hope to be able to use some of the activities and resources we worked with in this workshop in the future.

Resources

Wikipedia. The carnival of the animals. Accessed 10 November 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carnival_of_the_Animals

YouTube. The Swan (Carnival of the Animals). Accessed 10 November 2013 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_niWfQEGvk

Week 13 Dance

For the first time in our dance workshop, a literary piece was introduced as a text to work off for today's session. I had not realized in the past that this would be a great way of integrating other KLAs, specifically in English and literacy, into the dance curriculum. The book that we worked with was called Henry & Amy, which follows the tale of these two opposite-headed friends and explores themes of friendship, sameness and difference, conformity and originality. The character of Henry is portrayed as somewhat of a conundrum, forever stuck in opposite mode, constantly out of step with the world around him and did things in unique ways. On the other hand, the other protagonist Amy is painted as a perfect child who never went against the grain and everything just worked out for her.

Henry & Amy by Stephen Michael King

During our workshop, we could easily bring these thematic elements into our routines and numbers. For the first activity we played a variation of the "telephone" game, in which the first person in line performed an action embodying the character of either Henry or Amy only to the second person in the line with no verbal cues. The second person would then tap the third person in the line to show them the action, and so forth. At the end, the last person in the line would perform the action at the same time as the first person, and we could all see how jumbled or altered the routine got! I've always been a fan of these communication games because it takes a high degree of concentration and observation to successfully pass down a message. In this case, we worked with elements of dance which throws an additional challenging wrench into the mix.

The focus activity of the workshop was to join a group that was either Henry or Amy-centric, or a combination group of the two characters blended. In each group, we were to create a routine that reflected the personality each character through use of different levels, the space, travel and timing. I was in the Henry-centric group and we came up with a routine where each of us stood in a jagged pattern and created a 4 count routine depicting some wacky component of Henry's eccentricities. I commenced the routine with a half-hearted half push-up and "tagged" the next Henry in our formation who repeated and passed it on. This activity and workshop worked very well in linking other KLAs to the dancing instruction. I previously had not thought of using story books, or any literary text for that matter, to demonstrate dancing outcomes. But through this workshop, I now have a rationale of using literary texts to increase "aesthetic literacy" (Gibson & Ewing, 2011, pg. 8).

References

Gibson, R. & Ewing, R. (2011). Transforming the curriculum through the arts. Camberwell: Palgrave Macmillon.

Week 13 Music

Today's music workshop engaged us in the perception of music and song through the elements and finding ways of expression through the creation of a "soundscape."

We were first played a piece of unknown music, of which we knew neither the title nor genre beforehand, and asked to record what we thought of its qualities. I described it as soothing, entrancing and soft initially, which gradually built up to a fluttering of notes and a colorful melding of many instruments. There was a solo xylophone part which depicted to me almost a character in a story, wondering through a nebulous path only to be joined by additional characters on his way. The number of adjectives I just used makes me realize that totality of emotions and characteristics that is embodied in a piece of good music. They can be broken down via the musical elements of tone color, dynamics, duration, structure and pitch.

Further on in the workshop, we were asked to form groups and create a soundscape through which a story could be told with no words, only music and instruments. Our group collected a few instruments including a glockenspiel, a tambourine, guiro and a couple cowbells. We came up with the idea of a surprise birthday party and how three people would "knock" on the door and be let inside before the final "birthday" boy knocked and would be greeted by a harmony of sounds as well as the familiar Happy Birthday song. We drew up a soundscape, which was basically our rudimentary map of the sequence of events during our routine.

Surprise birthday party soundscape

To follow this soundscape, just start at the top left with the shoe and knocking symbol representing the approaching and knocking on the door. We lightly tapped our shoes on the ground in a slow rhythmic pattern to mimic what footsteps sound like. After ringing the doorbell, which we expressed by hitting two cowbells with different pitches (ding-dong), the sound of the door opening was an eerie creak created with striping a guiro with a stick. This was followed by a "shhhh" vocal sound effect. After three repetitions, the final one was followed by a cacophony of all the instruments together for the "surprise." My role in the soundscape was playing the Happy Birthday song on the glockenspiel, which I learned to do right then! The beginning notes of the sequence, CCDCFE, are depicted on the birthday cake. This was undoubtedly a worthwhile activity to learn to do as well as see the other groups perform. All the groups worked well and it wasn't difficult to ascertain what was going on despite lack of verbal communication. Through various instruments and altering the musical elements, very distinct and interesting soundscapes were created.

This is an activity that I look forward to using in a classroom. It is fun, easy to break down, and engages students (just like us in the workshop) to use sound organization and the elements to create an entertaining piece of music. The Musica Viva website is a resource that contains a few pieces of music that can be used for soundscapes: http://www.musicaviva.com.au/vivazone/musicians/musician.asp?id=2.

Finally, we created a rap using our birthday party topic. After choosing a few key rhyming words (cake, make, candles, manhandles, etc), we composed a short four line rap which made very little actual sense. We were mostly going for the rhyming and rhythm emphases! At the end, we added some interesting ostinati (eg vocal "punches" on last words, body percussion, certain people emphasizing keywords, certain people repeating "it's your birthday" etc). I had no idea raps would be part of the music curriculum, but it stands to reason that composing raps would overlap with multiple parts of the English KLA in terms of language structures.

References

B'Tutta. 2004. Musica Viva Australia. Accessed 5 November 2011 from http://www.musicaviva.com.au/vivazone/musicians/musician.asp?id=2

Week 12 Dance

This week in dance, we embarked on a mini-revival of the "Hairspray" musical which was quite worthwhile. However, as always, the importance of the warm-up was stressed and I decided to reflect for a moment on that. I believe that dancing, and physical activity in general, is a significantly different activity from those that primary students are accustomed to in the classroom. Dancing not only involves significant physical movement and flexibility (compared to sitting in the classroom), but it also requires a certain degree of coordination and associated thinking. Because the skill sets and areas of the body/mind involved are so different during a dance lesson, it is essential to warm-up the students. The more physically warmed-up the students are, the more smoothly the lesson will go. Therefore, a major implication that I've soon learned in this second dance workshop is that it is acceptable, encouraged rather, to spend a sizeable chunk of time on the warm-up aspect (typically 25% of the class time!) In the past I would have guessed only a 5 minute warmup (or less) was necessary.

Today, we spent 15 minutes warming-up to play three different games. The first game was a sort of "tag," where the aim was to tag and link everyone in the class. During the pursuit, we were required to assume special levels and locomotion methods (skipping, hopping, jumping, walking backwards, etc). Following that exhausting game, we played a "huggies" game; we formed groups bonded in a group hug based on the number and geometrical position the teacher shouted out. The final game involved following the leader in 4-person train, with each member improvising a particular style of movement such as swinging, sustained movement and walking with percussive sound elements. What I found particularly valuable in all three games was the cooperative element; each of us in the class had to work together if we wanted to have a successful go at the game. There was a no talking rule in all the games as well, which made non-verbal cooperation quite critical. What I also found particularly meaningful were the improvisation and quick-thinking elements. In dancing, it seems that it is important to be fluid and able to respond quickly, especially during an up-tempo song!

In the body of the lesson, we focused on dynamics - how the movements were controlled and implemented in our routines, set to the musical Hairspray. I found it challenging to switch quickly from one movement quality to another (eg sudden, sustained, heavy, light). There was of course an emphasis on routine, starting with the introduction of multiple 4-count dance sequences.

In the end, we were able to come up with a fairly synchronized routine across the class which was impressive. But as in all subjects, there was clearly a wide range of fluidity and competency in the execution of the number; I would be towards the lower spectrum of that. In future classrooms, I'll definitely understand this quite well with the not-as-coordinated students! However, as long as they engage in the topic and express through their body in their own way, it will have been a good lesson; as this one was for me!

References

NSW Department of Education and Training. 2000. Creative Arts K-6 Syllabus. Sydney: DET.

Week 12 Music

This week's music workshop took a different direction and focused on the instrument that all of us carry around 24/7, our voices. I have always enjoyed singing so I looked forward to this experience; hopefully it wouldn't be embarrassing to my fellow MTeachers...

To start, we spent a few moments discussing the importance of warming up, including utilizing/maintaining proper posture and warming up the vocal chords, parts of the mouth and diaphragm. We went through two vocal exercises, each emphasizing different parts of the mouth (lips & tongue) which will be important practice for future students.

Lip exercises (repeated alliteration)

Tongue exercises (tongue twisters)

After warming up, we were also introduced to the proper music concepts as defined by the NSW Creative Arts Syllabus (2000) - duration, pitch, dynamics, tone color and structure. Every piece of music can be nuanced by each of these concepts, which provides for very different possible interpretations of songs through singing.

For singing practice, we learned and sang "Beachcombing" by Andrew Robertson of Jozzbeat Publishing. A fairly simple song as the notes indicate, the piece was a good introduction to singing as the notes were not too difficult to keep track of and attain with our vocals, and the accompaniment was basic. In addition, it was beneficial that the piece drew upon the information about notes and timing that we learned from last week. Specifically, there were not only crochets, but dotted crochets, quavers and dotted minums to navigate in the piece.

Singing the song in various different ways reflecting the five music concepts we discussed would produce different interpretations. As an example, with the duration concept, just altering the tempo or rhythm of the song to either a quick-pace or slow drawn-out pace would immediately set a different mood to the piece, all other qualities being the same. Questions can be asked of the students once they have performed the piece which relate to the concepts - how did they feel when they were singing? (upbeat vs. melancholy), how is the piece laid out? (structure) and what sounds did you hear? (tone color).

It was encouraged, rightly so, that music sheets containing the notes, and not just the lyrics, should be used in teaching students if possible. I plan to do this in my music teaching because it would certainly provide for a more complete overall sense of the music that students would be learning. In addition, it would just make teaching the melody just that much easier.

References

NSW Department of Education and Training. 2000. Creative Arts K-6 Syllabus. Sydney: DET.

Week 11 Dance

Of the four strands of EDMT5530, dance is the one that stirs up the most negative feelings for me in terms of performance, mental conceptions and general enthusiasm. I have never considered myself that competent in dancing and rhythmic movements in general, other than physical sport, so this has contributed to my attitudes towards the art. To teach on a creative arts strand as foreign to me as obscure Greek mythology is going be a tremendous challenge to me. Nonetheless, it is important that we as pre-service teachers get at least an exposure to the content and activities we can use if necessary in our classrooms!

We warmed up in class for about 15 minutes through various activities that not only engaged our bodies but also got our minds ready for the dance-related activities coming up. We traveled around the floorspace according to several sets of constraints - in straight lines, curved pathways, sharp corners and backwards.

In the body of the activity, we formed groups of 4 or so and were told to come up with our own 16 count routine that incorporated dance elements. We decided on the following 4 movements of 4 counts each, which each had constraints given by the teacher (in parentheses): a dosey-doe start (two feet no hands), hip and arm swivel (two hands 1 foot), low position to up (no hands no feet) and finally letter formation for letter "n" (form a letter of the alphabet). We only had two minutes to come up with the routine and an additional two minutes to time it correctly with the song, which was very challenging.

Throughout the activities this week, and the next workshops as well, the importance of the elements of dance like levels, space and timing were and will be stressed. I thought this workshop was an eye-opening experience which encouraged everyone to participate and freely learn elements of dance.

Week 11 Music

This was the first music workshop and I had pretty mixed feelings about this portion of creative arts. On one hand, I used to have a more-than-passing interest in playing instruments, having learned the violin and piano when I was in primary school. But I eventually gave up those instruments since I did not enjoy my experiences being forced to practice and commit large amounts of time, which put me off to performing music.

I consider myself a non-music specialist and my moderately low confidence level in teaching music, especially to upper primary students, is confirmed by Seddon & Biasutti (2008) who state that "non-music specialist trainee primary school teachers lack confidence in teaching music in spite of changes to teacher training and the introduction of music in the National Curriculum in England." However, in their study, three teachers who previously regarded themselves as non-music specialists were put through very informal/casual training to learn a 12-bar blues improvisation on the piano. After the six activities, they could all play with both hands together perfectly. All three of their confidence levels skyrocketed simply by "encountering" music. The authors of the study contend that even non-music people (such as myself) can judge their own musicality more objectively and improve confidence in their informally acquired musical abilities simply "encountering" music at a practical level.

In our workshop this week, there was definitely an easy-going and informal atmosphere for my classmates and I to so-call "encounter" music. We had our pick of instrument to play with and play/present briefly to the class in a unique way; I chose a tambourine. Following the initial exposure to the mostly percussive instruments, we were introduced to the music theory side in a very basic form - introduction of the percussion clef symbol and the different forms and names of notes. The naming system is different from the system I learned in America (ie, crochets and quavers vs. quarter and eighth notes), which I shall have to pay particular attention to.

We then partnered up and performed different parts of Purcell Canon on the wooden xylophone, which brought up memories of my primary school music experience. I definitely had a pleasant experience this initial music workshop and look forward to three more lessons exploring the different aspects of music we will eventually teach, such as singing/vocals/raps and the five concepts of music.

References

Seddon, F. & Biasutti, M. 2008. Non-music specialist trainee primary school teachers’ confidence in teaching music in the classroom. Music Education Research, 10(3), 403-421.

Week 9 Visual Arts

This week's visual arts workshop was dominated by a roundtable discussion of our practical experiences, specifically the implementation (or lack thereof) of visual arts activities and lesson plans. I found that most classmates did not have extensive exposure to visual arts in their classroom, either by the cooperating teacher or in their own lessons, which was in direct contrast to the experience I had in my Kindergarten class.


With my class, visual arts was an essential part of the classroom almost every single day. There were multiple projects going on, some long-term such as the making of 12 panels of a calendar, and some short term just related to an activity in another KLA. It was incorporated into complete free time as well as structured "activities" free time. All in all, I had a very broad and continuous exposure to visual arts in the classroom and even had the opportunity to conduct an arts lesson myself.

But for many of the students in my workshop this week, the major issue that prevented their visual arts exposure seemed to be lack of time in the overall day schedule. This appears to be the dominant theme when it comes to visual arts incorporation in the classroom. The "overcrowded" curriculum problem was continually brought up by my classmates; there is simply not enough time to cover all the KLAs in each term. There were a few who indicated that art was done "in another term" but not Term 3 that we were in.

Naturally, it has always been a question of how worthwhile it is to incorporate arts into the curriculum, when math/reading/science/literacy seems so much more prevalent in student lives. Eisner (1998) writes that it is understandable "that questions about the contributions of the arts to academic achievement are raised by those for whom the arts are personally marginal." The basis of his essay however, was not touting the contributions of arts to other fields, using it to somehow bolster reading and math skills for example. When this becomes a priority in the curriculum, art becomes "a handmaiden to ends that are not distinctively artistic and in the process undermines the value of its unique contributions." I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment. Visual arts education (all arts in general) should really not be looked at as a means to improvement of student academic performance, but rather should refine the student's awareness of the aesthetic qualities in art and life. It will continue to be a hard press to push visual arts into the classroom, especially in middle and upper primary stages.

References

Eisner, E. 1998. Does experience in the arts boost academic achievement? Art Education, 51(1).

Week 9 Drama

Drama today was packed with yet more acting and being put on the spot in front of the class. For some reason, I've been picked very often, pretty much every class we've had, and I've had to demonstrate and/or perform something for my peers. I like it but it's hard work! I am not accustomed to being active in the classroom typically as I normally choose to remain quiet and observe. However, the class atmosphere has been quite conducive to getting "out there" a bit more, and it isn't difficult for me to change gears and extend myself a bit further. I'm glad this workshop has given me that space, and I hope to extend my enthusiasm to my future students and classroom.

I picked to partner with my classmate David Messer as we focused on story telling for this week's final drama workshop. First we retold the story of the "silkies" in each of our own ways/personalities. I found myself making up quite interesting details and analogies as I retold the story, but using the backbone 7-8 'tension' moments. After that, we were told to recount a childhood story for the next activity, and I told David my story of toilet-papering some neighbors house way back in middle school; I barely remember who I was with (actually I don't) but I clearly remember running away frantically and being just scared out of my mind! I relived the excitement and rush of that moment in life as I narrated my story to David, a powerful emotion. After, he told me his story of youth rambunctiousness and shenanigans which was quite entertaining and enthralling. Almost on cue, we were selected as the first group to tell a story to the class, so we picked David's. It was fun and somewhat challenging telling his story as if it were my own, which was the goal of the activity. At the end, perhaps a third of the class thought it was my story, and probably would have been more had I maintained better eye contact. It was quite rewarding to get up and narrate a new story, since I rarely get the opportunity to perform like that.

In Ewing & Simons (2004), the term of ‘educational drama’ is introduced as a fundamental concept that teachers and students can employ to model and manage different roles. Through different roles/personas, students have a means of constructing narratives, and thereby coming to a better understanding of the different ways people might operate. In this workshop, I was given the freedom and encouragement to take on the role of 15-year-old David Messer and narrate his story, just based on a few minutes worth of details. This is an invaluable tool that extends well beyond the drama and classroom itself.

References

Ewing, R. & Simons, J. 2004. Beyond the script: Drama in the classroom. Take 2. 2nd ed. Sydney: PETA.

Week 3 Visual Arts

Our workshop this week represented the 2nd (and messier) half of our overall project to first sketch then paint face portraits. We cut up our original sketch from last week into four quadrants in any fashion we liked. I opted for the angular slices as opposed to traditional congruent rectangles, just to add some pizzazz to the final painting. Lastly, I just had to indicate what colors I'd like my panels to be painted; I chose light & dark shares of blue. At that point, all my own work had concluded on the portrait, and it was up to my classmates to bring this to life. I obtained four random panels and set to work painting.

I thought this activity was a particularly neat and creative idea. The notion of passing ownership of my portrait to my peers was interesting and engaging to me. In this way, we as a class could feel more responsible for each others work and take partial ownership in our peers' work.

For me, this week's visual arts experience represented a culmination of the last couple weeks of work and mindset; something that resulted in a tangible product we could appreciate. It was a fun and worthwhile experience having the sketch I had drawn of my classmate Phil transformed by other classmates (forever unknown!) into quite another piece entirely.

My/my classmates' masterpiece