Camera movement & Camera Angle

What camera angles have you been able to identify [in the film Short Stuff]? Describe them and their context.

Angle type	Long shot (establishing shot)	Action	Close-up / Point-of-view
Context	Allows viewer to take in the view or scene (Greenwood, 2003, p. 5).	Main activity the girls are playing.	Conversation; no distraction from the action that is close by.
Why used?	To identify the setting, time, place, weather etc.	To excite the viewer. Film can take advantage of action more than still photographs or drawings can because the viewer can see the action taking place. (Greenwood, 2003, p. 18).	Significant moment. Can also establish the link between characters by allowing the viewer to clearly see the expression on faces etc. ("Peep Show" in the UK is great at this!)
Narrative intent?	Wanted to show the girl alone, away from the action, with no other people around her. Also sets the scene of 'school playground/sports area'. No teacher, so likely an after school or break-time activity.	Makes up part of the 'beginning' of the story. Basketball is the activity the group of girls are participating in, and it is essential to the story: the lone girl wants to join in on the activity.	Angles in these close-ups/point of view shots are deliberately filmed at an exaggerated angle. (Dinham, 2014, p. 251). This is likely to emphasise the 'short' girl's status and that she is 'outside' the group. The aggressive girl is shown to be looking 'down' on the lone girl.

Animation

Here is a storybook video (Murray & Wingfield, 1964) that I created in Movie Maker. My 4-yo son Zachary was keen to do the narration! I can now use the skills learnt in this process to design a 3-6 grade lesson using similar tactics.

References

Dinham, J. (2014). Delivering Authentic Arts Education (2nd ed.).  Melbourne, VIC: Cengage.

Greenwood, D. R. (2003). Action! In the Classroom. Oxford, UK: Rowman & Littlefield Education.

Murray, W., & Wingfield, J. H. (1964). Look at this! London, UK: Ladybird.

Media Arts

During professional experience placements (PE), I have seen technology being used.  On PE3, with grade 2’s, I used an iPad to video the children teaching each other how to complete certain mathematical processes.  This was the first time they had done this kind of activity, but they loved performing in front of the camera and seeing themselves on the TV at the end of the session.  Some children came out of their shell and would talk about mathematical concepts in a way which showed they had some conceptual understanding (Skamp, 2012) which was maybe not so apparent in their written work. 

As a parent, my son has used an iPad in both grade 5 and 6.  I have found it to be very useful for him as an alternative way to present his information to both myself and his teachers.  He has undertaken PowerPoint presentations, iMovie’s, keynote speeches and garage band.  He still writes in grey lead and text books, but his iPad has opened up new ways to show his learning to others and that is only a good thing.  As advocated in Universal Design for Learning [UDL] (Ashman, 2013) engaging children can effectively be completed through the use of different forms of expression, ICT being one of these.

I will definitely be using media arts in my future teaching as a way to engage those who may struggle to convey their knowledge the conventional ways.  Not only does it engage the children, but it teaches them skills needed for future schooling and in their future jobs.

References

Ashman, A. (Ed.) (2015). Education for inclusion and diversity. (5th ed.). Melbourne: Pearson Australia.

Skamp, K. (Ed.). (2012). Teaching primary science constructively. (4th ed.). South Melbourne: Cengage.

Soundscape

Our soundscape (with help of a 4-year old)

Perhaps the machine making the noise? (with help of a 4-year old)

What can we hear?

• Rhythm - our soundscape has a repetitive rhythm in that the different sounds are made in the same sequence each time
• Dynamics - the volume starts out soft, and increases towards the end
• Tempo - the tempo increases towards the end
• Timbre - the group members in our orchestra bring instruments involving a combination of mouth movements, objects tapping and foot stomping.
• Form - the machine starts up. Its functions start one at a time. It gets faster. It reaches its full capacity, and suddenly it is turned off.

Classroom

I envisage each student in the lesson to be involved in all three processes of music: listening, creating and presenting. Lessons will allow students to explore individually, in pairs, in groups and as a whole class. Students will also be given the opportunity to discuss how they (and others) use the elements of music in performance and composition (ACARA, 2015).


Campbell (2005) states listening is a very important component of music (p. 30). I can plan lessons to incorporate sound-awareness experiences based on her recommendations and extend these experiences through composition and presenting processes.

Music is...

Source

Lessons

Above: Primary Music Lesson: Rhythmically Speaking

• Count us in (Australia)
• Melbourne Graduate School of Education: Huge range of music lesson plans for Primary school classrooms, from various sites.

References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2015). The Australian Curriculum Version 7.5. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au

Campbell, P. S. (2005). Deep Listening to the Musical World. Music Educators Journal, 92(1), 30-36.

How to apply music into my generalist classroom

I really liked the way Bill linked making music with everyday items (linked to Australian curriculum: Sustainability under the Cross Curriculum Priorities). I have added an audio of my music composition.

Sarah's Music Composition

(If the above playing widget doesn't work, please download the composition).

This was creating and performing music.  It used:

• rhythm - although their were no silences within the whole composition, each individual sound had silences.
• pitch - the composition stayed the same throughout so the pitch did not change.
• dynamics - this stayed the same throughout the composition.
• harmony - throughout the piece there are different sounds with different pitches, making the piece easy to take apart if you wanted to.
• texture - towards the end of the composition some sounds stop, making the texture different as there are not so many sounds together.
• form - we did not have a plan when we composed this piece of music, we used kitchen utensils, recorded each sound on Garage Band and added them all together.

(Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2015)

Music can easily be linked to science as sound is a scientific phenomenon, the children could experiment with making sound softer, louder, longer, vibrating, etc.  Mathematics could be used to explain and quantify how they have made the sound change.  ICT plays a role as sound can be made on apps such as garage band and iMovie.

Linking to English would be simple as the children could listen to a piece of music and write how it made them feel, the emotions the music evoked.  They could also compose a piece of music and write a narrative behind the music.

Music is easily incorporated into any area of the curriculum with a little creativity.

References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. [ACARA]. (2015). Australian Curriculum: The arts. (version 7.5). Canberra. Retrieved from:               http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/the-arts/music/glossary

 

What unique contribution does dance make to a child’s development?

Dance is a great medium to teach with as children do not have the reticence that teenagers and adults have about their perceived public image.  Movement is crucial for healthy development and to coordinate both gross and fine motor development (Hoffnung et al, 2013)  It can also abate the increasing obesity epidemic we are facing in today’s Western society. (World Health Organisation [WHO], 2013 & WHO, 2015)  

Reflect upon and discuss what you have seen, done or read about and add any further ideas you have for creative movement and dance in primary school.

I loved the idea of writing your name with your body parts, so simple and so effective.  I have uploaded a video of me writing my name.

Dance, for me, comes hand in hand with PE, movement and activity.  As the Western world struggles with an increasing weight issue, movement is becoming much more important.  Not every child likes competitive sport and so dance should be another avenue to explore increasing activity and movement in our everyday life.  Cheong-Clinch (as cited in Pullen & Carroll, 2013) discusses music and the relevance to adolescents. Music and dance are interwoven as music makes you want to move.  If we could channel that desire to move when we hear music from our early childhood, limit our inhibitions and allow our adolescents to have the technical knowledge to create dance for pleasure, then this would surely help the obesity epidemic we are facing today.   

References

Cheong-Clinch, C. Music for engaging young people in education. In Pullen, D. & Carroll, A.

            (ed.). (2013) Adolescent wellbeing: Trends, issues and prospects. Hobart, Tasmania:

            ACYS Publishing.

Hoffnung, M., Hoffnung, R. J., Seifert, K.L., Burton Smith, R., Hine, A., Ward, L., Pause, C. &

            Swaby K. (2013). Lifespan development: A topical approach. Milton, QLD: John Wiley

            & Sons.

World Health Organisation. [WHO]. (2013). Childhood overweight and obesity. Retrieved

            from: http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/childhood/en/

World Health Organisation. [WHO]. (2015). Global strategy on diet, physical activity and

            health. Retrieved from: http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/pa/en/

Dance

Through reflecting on the readings and the videos, what unique contributions does dance make to a child’s development?

I can see a strong link to HPE in terms of body movement, balance and well being, but of course dance should not just be about those things: It is a creative way to express an idea, thought or emotion (Deans, Meiners, & Young, 2012, p. 128). It allows students to learn in a playful and open-ended manner. In addition, students are learning basic dance skills (perhaps without even realising!)

If students can let go of any inhibitions (I'm thinking upper primary) and really let loose, they can likely see how fun and rewarding dance can be.

I'm also very aware of our digital and technological lifestyles, and students may not have ever 'moved' in some of these ways before. Arching, travelling, bending and balancing (and more) can all be explored through simple, fun lessons, and this can help the child's body develop by making use of muscles and moving joints in ways they may not normally experience.

Dance can also teach students about concepts such as respecting other people's space and bodies (Cone, 2012, p. 24). These concepts can be transferred to other areas of their lives, such as sport, playground play and general interactions amongst their fellow peers, friends and family.

Source

Dance is...

Source

Resources / Lessons

Dance Til You Drop (Commercial, NSW) - Provides a structured dance program for Primary Schools and Preschools.

TasDance - School programs based in Launceston, Tasmania. Teacher resources & DVD also available.

References

Cone, T. P. (2012). Presenting Essential Content for Children’s Dance. In Theresa Purcell Cone, Stephen L. Cone (Eds.), Teaching children dance (3rd ed., pp. 21-34). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Deans, J., Meiners, J., & Young, S. (2012). Dance: Art Embodied. In C. Sinclair, N. Jeanneret, & J. O'Toole (Eds.), Education in the Arts (2nd ed., pp. 128-144). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford. 

Familiarisation

How might your own experiences, perceptions and feelings towards visual art impact upon your willingness and preparedness to provide visual arts learning experiences to your students?

My feelings towards art could very much impact upon the learning experiences I prepare for my students (Dinham, 2014, p. 309). I understand this question is probably aimed at those who perhaps had a negative experience of art when they were at school. Luckily, mine was a very positive experience, and I have seen some wonderful lessons utilising fine arts during my professional experience placements, as shown below:

Images drawn by grade 5 students at a primary school in Launceston as part of their historical convict unit (Aug 2015).

What might you do to ensure you provide sufficient opportunity to ensure your students fulfil their right to experience the visual arts as part of their education?

I believe if I am guided by the curriculum, and be sure to incorporate visual art on a regular basis within lesson sequences and group rotations (Brown, Macintyre, & Watkins, 2012, p. 125). This will make it easy to be prepared and willing to provide positive visual arts learning experiences for my students. I am also keen to learn from Professional Development workshops and be inspired and network with like-minded teachers in my school or community. For example, I was quite inspired by the teacher next door to our classroom in PE3 who always seemed to incorporate interesting visual art ideas into her many lessons, and she was willing to talk about her techniques and ideas.

Breaking the ‘creative’ ice

Rich's hand drawing (without looking at picture while drawing)

Art class teaches kids to...

My primary school teaching, artistic cousin posted this on her facebook wall - very inspiring.

Lessons

• Mrs Brown's Art Class
• DickBlick - Lesson Plans for K-4 Art

References

Brown, R., Macintyre, P., & Watkins, M. (2012). Learning in and Through the Visual Arts. In C. Sinclair, N. Jeanneret, & J. O'Toole (Eds.), Education in the Arts (2nd ed., pp. 111-127). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford.

Dinham, J. (2014). Delivering Authentic Arts Education (2nd ed.). Melbourne, VIC: Cengage.

Children produce large quantities of art when they are young – particularly between the ages of four and six. (Boone, 2008, p. 30)

I can relate to this from the perspective of both of my children.  My daughter was a prolific drawer and producer of art from a young age.  My son, however, was completely opposite.  He would only draw when absolutely necessary.  He did like to construct things, both from Mobilio and in the sand-pit - his artistic endeavours were not on paper.


Theme 6: Children believe artistic ability improves with age.
Young children assert that physical development adds to a person's artistic ability.  As children grow, their fine motor ability (i.e., pencil grip) improves, which allows them to have more control and accuracy in drawing and painting. (Boone, 2008. p. 32)

 This links in with what I was discussing above.  My son has some artistic talent and this has improved with age.  He still prefers to make stuff and is an avid origami producer.  This shows that his fine motor skills have improved as he has matured to the point that he can make some very intricate things with paper. (See montage of pictures for his artwork.)  He may not be the conventional artist who draws, but he is an artist in his own right.

 

Early childhood literature acknowledges art for its contribution to the general development of children (Tarr, 1989), but does not specifically discuss the pleasure and social skills children derive from art experiences. Early childhood is exploratory in nature, so play-based learning is promoted within early childhood settings. (Boone, 2008, p .36)

This quote resonates with me as I really enjoyed art in my primary school: making bubble pictures, pasta cards, mirror images with paint, sewing pictures, etc..  It was only when I progressed onto high school that I began to feel that art was not my thing.  I did not fit into what the teacher wanted.  Art is a subjective subject, what I like or do not like does not mean that everyone will feel the same.  We have to take the creativity from the piece and appreciate it.

References

Boone, D.J. (2008). Young children’s experience of visual displays of their artwork. Australian Art Education, 31(2), 22-45.

Tarr, P. (1989). Pestalozzian and Froebelian influences on contemporary elementary school art. Studies in Art Education, 30(2), 115-121.

 

I'm sure a lot of schools have a 'cafeteria' approach to art, but that's not been my experience in my Professional Experience placements, or when I attended Primary school myself.

Many of you would be familiar with rotations: when you split the class up into groups (e.g. 4 or 5 groups) and each day they do a different activity. One particular teacher made one of the rotations an arts corner. Some of these art activities were fantastic, and I was really pleased to see the students fully engaged with those units of work, proudly and happily displaying them on the classroom wall. I think it helped the teacher was quite 'arty' herself, and joined in with the task when possible. I, too, was asked to join in and create my own project with the students, not just assisting them with theirs, so it became a real enjoyable session.

Another teacher (different school) set aside a few lessons for students to draw pictures on small bits of card, which was to be used for a Principal's leaving gift book. They were able to be as creative as they wanted. Some children opted to do 'bubble writing' etc. instead, as that was their passion. The same class were involved in Readers' Cup which involved presenting a 4 minute retelling or skit on a particular book, in small groups. It was really wonderful to watch the students rehearse, make puppets, write scripts, make props and give their all in front of their peers.

I understand about arts being considered a 'non-essential' learning area, but what a difference it can make to other areas of students learning if they are given the chance to be creative, share something that is special to them, and be able to express themselves as individuals.

References

Speck, C. (1989). A depth art curriculum for the primary school. A Depth Art Curriculum. Retrieved from https://mylo.utas.edu.au

Source

What strategies would you use in teaching a drama workshop like Fox to primary children?

By not pre-reading the whole book to the class, Kate ensured that they did not have their Making, Presenting and Responding influenced by the final conclusion of the book.  They could use their own imagination throughout the teaching sequence to structure their own final piece.  This would allow the children to use their own creativity (Robinson, 2006) to guide where the learning and teaching.

To be able to ensure that students were not influenced by preconceived ideas about endings, I would use the strategy of introducing a novel or the initial piece to gain their ideas whilst only allowing them the next small step toward the end goal.  This would allow for all abilities to participate whilst allowing all individuals to work to their own zone of proximal development (Hoffnung et al., 2013) both cognitively and emotionally. 

In both Fox and the short video of children from Gordon Junior School, the teacher is relating the topic to their students own experiences.  This enables the students to engage with the lesson more readily as they can understand the characters thoughts and feelings as they relate to themselves.  This is important as it has been proven that children learn more from lessons which they can relate to personally. (Piagano & Gillies, as cited in Ashman, 2015)  Using drama can relate any topic more readily to the children within the class, so this is definitely a strategy I would use in my future teaching.

Reflection so far……

I agree with Rich, that I am beginning to see where drama can be used effectively in the classroom.  It does not have to be a traditional drama lesson in an empty room which is what I experienced in high school.  I had not really thought so much about the way children play and their imaginations letting them go to places they create.  If I can harness that creativity and input some of my own, then ‘the world is my oyster!’

References

Hoffnung, M., Hoffnung, R.J., Seifert, K.L., Burton Smith, R., Hine, A., Ward, L., Pause, C. & Swaby, K.  (2013). Lifespan development: A topical approach. (1^st ed.). Milton, Qld: John Wiley & Sons.

Paglano, P. & Gillies, R.M. Inclusive practices. In Ashman, A. (ed.). (2015). Education for inclusion and diversity. (5th ed.). Melbourne: Pearson, Australia.

Robinson, K. (2006). Do schools kill creativity? TED talk, February 2006. Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en

Source

 Fox

"What strategies would you use in teaching a drama workshop like 'Fox' to primary children?"

It seems that warm-ups are essential to creating a safe, non-judgemental environment for drama-based lessons (Sinclair, 2012, p. 46). I hadn't thought about their purpose much before, but that does make sense.

There are some warm-up games listed on this site.
Some that could be adapted to suit 'Fox':

• Yes, let's (actions or moments from the story)
• Beach, Boat, Bank (Adjust these settings and poses to match the story. For example, one setting could be the desert, another the forest etc.)
• Hot seat or Park Bench, but for the latter, use the book's characters (Dog, Magpie, Fox) in place of free-choice characters (may be better in small groups). Hot seat may work better.
• Clapping circle for general warm up
• And "Zip Zap" (I can't think of a way to tie it to 'Fox' at this stage, but would love to try this to see the energy and fun it creates!)

I would include the Offering and rejecting help activity in a similar fashion to Bird, Donelan, Freebody, O'Toole, & Sinclair (2012, p. 76). I believe linking to human situations that the students themselves are facing could also be appropriate and helpful (as long as the students were comfortable with this). For example, there could be some issues that exist amongst groups of students or individuals, or the school as a whole.

Lessons

• TES Australia - Australian Drama lessons for primary schools K-6
• Range of Drama lessons sorted by age level (USA)
• List of commercial classes for students in Launceston Tas
• And of course, ArtPop! Resources and lessons

References 

Bird, J., Donelan, K., Freebody, K., O'Toole, J., & Sinclair, C. (2012). Drama: Social Dreaming in the 21st Century. In C. Sinclair, N. Jeanneret, & J. O'Toole (Eds.), Education in the Arts (2nd ed., pp. 65-90). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford.

Sinclair, C. (2012). Teaching for the Aesthetic, Teaching as Aesthetic. In C. Sinclair, N. Jeanneret, & J. O'Toole (Eds.), Education in the Arts (2nd ed., pp. 43-53). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford.

"Create a 250-word pen portrait that reflects a dominant philosophy from your own schooling. Reflect on the place of the arts and creativity in your portrait."

I remember participating in many forms of art in both Primary school and High school. I enjoyed a lot of creativity in storytelling, visual art and music. Whilst drama and theatre seemed to be more of a focus in early childhood, it 'came back' again in High School, when we were able to choose elective subjects. Dance and Movement in primary school would have been primarily explored as part of Physical Education. This, I assume, is the same in the majority of schools today.

The notion of teachers or students 'leaving behind' play and art (O'Toole, 2012, p. 9) did initially fill me with a bit of sadness. I was concerned that my imagined ideal classroom was lacking a creativity vibe. The negative attributes of the 'dialectic of play and art' diagram ate away at me for a short time. Many 'behaviour management' aspects came back to me. I began to worry about my unconscious aim to set up a non-exploring, rule-based, prescribing, closed, horrible classroom!

And then I thought of a grade 5/6 class I have been working with lately, and how the class happily explores a variety of tasks, including visual art. The teacher joins in with the class, and lets their creativity fly. I've seen her use drama, storytelling, visual art and music in her classroom. If she can make art part of everyday life in her classroom, in a government school, and get the best out of her students, then I know I can too.

Source

References

O'Toole, J. (2012). Art, Creativity, and Motivation. In C. Sinclair, N. Jeanneret, & J. O'Toole (Eds.), Education in the Arts (2nd ed., pp. 7-14). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford.

Create a 250 word pen portrait that reflects a dominant philosophy from your own schooling.  Reflect on the place of the arts and creativity in your portrait.

Being educated in the 80’s, creativity was not encouraged as teachers wanted students to ‘toe the line’.   As Sir Ken Robinson states in his TED talk (2006) “education has stifled creativity”.  Education has taken a step in the right direction to allow children to use their creativity.  This can clearly be seen in pedagogy such as Universal Design for Learning (Ashman, 2015) which encourages different forms of expression, allowing students to show their learning in whatever form they desire.  This is very different from my education which more geared towards a transmissive pedagogy which certainly stifled creativity. 

The increased usage of technology also allows for increased creativity.  This allows all children to use their creativity, innovation and flexibility.  Technology also breaks down barriers for those students with learning difficulties as they can express themselves through many different mediums such as iMovie, photos, PowerPoint and animation apps, allowing all children to show their learning.

I am looking forward to learning many different ways to engage children in the various art forms whatever their talents or capabilities. As Rich said, "art is subjective", so what someone sees as not being very good, the next person will think is wonderful. That is what I hope to achieve in my classroom - that no person's work is any better than the next.

References

Ashman, A. (Ed.). (2015). Education for inclusion and diversity. (5th ed.). Melbourne, VIC: Pearson Australia.

Robinson, K. (2006). Do schools kill creativity? TED talk, February 2006. Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en

Having watched Sir Ken Robinson's talk I was inspired by his quote:

Creativity is as important as literacy.

This applies to all of the Australian Curriculum, where we, as teachers, should be striving to encourage the children to be creative in their studies.  This creativity can be in many guises, movement, visual, ICT, musical or written.  The important factor is that the children are allowed to use and strengthen their creativity, not to have it stifled by set structures of rote learning and transmissive teaching.  This is advocated by the Australian Curriculum under the general capabilities of critical and creative thinking. (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2015)   Not only does this allow them to enjoy their studies, it allows them to work to their strengths and so builds an inclusive classroom where risks are taken, encouraged and celebrated. (Killen, 2013)

References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2015). Australian Curriculum: Critical and creative thinking. Version 7.5. Canberra. Retrieved from: http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/generalcapabilities/critical-and-creative-thinking/introduction/introduction

Killen, R. (2013). Effective teaching strategies: Lessons from research and practice. (6^th ed.). South Melbourne: Cengage Learning.

Robinson, K. (2006). Do schools kill creativity? TED talk, February 2006. Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en

 

Image retrieved from:
http://www.saddleback.edu/studentdevelopment/ted-tuesdays-fall-2013

"Share your most formative early arts experiences (be they school-based or not, positive or not)"

Visual Arts

In terms of actual memories, I can remember leaf rubbings at Hollybank, creating bubble pictures, vegetable stamps, decorating real eggs as Easter etc.

During my first degree I took an elective in Digital Arts. I learnt during that unit that art is quite subjective, and that although I didn't think much of my own work, my course coordinator and external markers did think it was good, so I think that's an important aspect to keep in mind when teaching art: remind students that we appreciate different elements of art.

Music

I started playing electronic keyboard from about age 6, and continued on to electronic organ and then piano up until I was about 16. So I have an appreciation for music, especially classical or film-score music. I taught my sister piano at an early age, and she went on to play piano up until her college years.

Drama

I've got photos of myself dressed as 'Joseph' in my preschool school nativity play, and I went on to love drama in High School and college (years 11 & 12).

We state that this blog is 50% the work of Sarah Gale and 50% the work of Rich Talbot. We accept that the grades awarded will be the same for both of us.

Enjoy our blog! 

:)       (: