Week 14 - Dance

In the dance lecture we revisited the idea of defining dance and looked at some of the resources for dance that are currently out there.

- Sydney Dance Company, Walsh Bay - http://www.sydneydancecompany.com/

- Scootle  (Provides 8,000 digital curriculum resources from The Le@rning Federation. Teachers can    find interactive learning objects, images, audio files and movie clips) - http://www.scootle.edu.au/ec/search?topic=%22Arts%22

- AUSDANCE - http://ausdance.org.au/

- Bangarra Dance Theatre - http://www.bangarra.com.au/

- Dance Educators Professional Association (DEPA) – 02 9886 7594- National

- Aboriginal and Islander Skill Development Association (NAISDA) - http://www.naisda.com.au/

- Quantum Leaps, NSW Department of Education and Training

- Cool Cates Resources, Bushfire Press

http://ausdance.org.au/articles/details/effective-dance-teaching-methods

In the workshop we further explored how stimuli can be used as a starting point or incentive for creating a dance. Stimuli can be classified into 5 groups: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile and ideational. The stimulus for my group was tactile. There was a spiky object concealed from us in a bag and we each had a turn at feeling the object without looking at i. From that initial contact we thought that maybe the object could be a giant seed pod perhaps. We made a dance entitled 'the spike of life' which consisted of us representing visually the shape of the object we had felt followed by the idea of a seed bursting from the pod in a fire and creating new growth. Other groups came up with great ideas including an ad for an airline company 'Ipenema Air - where half the fun is getting there'. We were all keen to find out what our object actually was and it turns out it wasn't a seed at all! 

Week 14 - Music

Listening appreciation

5 musical concepts

·      duration

·      pitch – high/middle/low sound, ascending/descending, leaping/stepping

·      structure

·      dynamics – volumes of sound, loud/soft/getting louder/softer

·      tone colour - the sound source (what instruments are being played and how are they being played?)

Carnival of the Animals – The Swan by Camille Saint-Saens

Tone Colour – the sound source (what instruments are being played and how are they being played?) cello & piano

What do you think the two instruments represent? Cello (the swan) piano (the water)

Describe how they are played – softly but with a dignified strength (cello), the bowing movements are long to suggest graceful movements

Dynamics

How would you describe the dynamics of the piece? The piano is the accompaniment to the cello, which is leading the piece. Generally speaking it was relatively soft, but there were gradations of softness

F = forte (loud)

P = piano (soft)

PP = pianissimo (very soft)

MP = messo piano (medium soft)

Duration

Describe the tempo, rhythms – slow, meandering

adagio (slow)

don’t confuse beat with rhythm – beat is slow but there might be faster bits of rhythm inbetween

rhythm sits on top of the beat, rhythm wont be slower than the beat

In the hall of the mountain king – Edvard Grieg

How would you describe the change of each of the five musical concepts throughout the piece?

·      Duration – 2 minutes, tempo sped up (accelerando)

·      pitch

·      structure – 8 bars long repeated, gradually gets faster

·      dynamics – starts off softly ends up loud and more aggressive, started off more punchy (staccato) ended up longer notes (

·      tone colour – started with a horn instrument, progressed to other instruments leading wind instrument, ends with lots of instruments playing together (the texture built up)

The Ice Dance – Edward Scissorhands by Danny Elfman

Tone colour

What is the first instrument heard in this piece? Violin, harp, flute

What family of instruments enters next? Wood (anything with a reed), percussion, strings

Why do you think the composer used a “music box” as part of the instrumentation? Because it’s emotive, nostalgic makes us think of childhood and memory

What voice range can be heard in the choir? Soprano (high), tenor (mid), bass (low)

Dynamics/expressive qualities

What words would you use to describe this piece? Emotive, nostalgic, enchanting, sentimental, hopeful, victorious

What images do you think of when hearing this piece? 2 people dancing, fairytale, transformation

Describe the dynamic changes in this piece

Diminuendo (diminishing), crescendo (builds up), both

Harry Potter – Hedwig’s theme by John Williams

What is the name of the instrument that plays the main theme the first time?

Celesta (mini piano), flute, violin

What family of instruments takes the theme the second time? String, brass, woodwind

How do the strings make the “sound” of the wind?

Show youtube videos of certain instruments being played to show the children what they sound like. Multiple choice questions are good so kids can eliminate options if they aren’t sure.

Batman piece – ask about dynamics, cresciendo

Mission impossible – how would you move to this piece of music? Ask about duration, what is the rhythm (ostenato = repeated pattern)

How can we relate music to other KLAs? - Maths, science, hsie, religion, art, English

HSIE – stage 2 beliefs – how people’s beliefs and religion relate to music, indigenous music and culture, sustainability - building instruments out of recycled materials, civil rights movement in America which musical genres came out of that struggle - write a rap about it, how music can create a character – politician paint a softer picture with music in ads

Music and English – meaning of lyrics, rhyming words, use the stimulus of a book to create music, theme generates music,

Music and maths – measurements etc.., patterns, thickness of strings, how many bars etc, how many sections etc,

Music and art – painting what you are listening to, words of a song translated to music and art “a girl is falling through the air” represent it, use excerpt of a movie – remove the audio – have kids create the music, look at certain artworks or art movements and think about what music works

Music and P.E – invent musical games – 5 hoops cops & robbers move on the beat

Music and science – instruments to teach the science of sound, transformation of energy – kinetic to sound – how does sound get amplified, natural habitats introduction to, replicate how animals make sounds etc

Connecting literacy and music using a visual stimulus.

Two early learning principles

·      the early leaner is holistic and sensory

new English syllabus – capabilities

Billy Goats Gruff – Susan Hellard

Look for events in the story and characters in the story

Goats eating grass – scrunching paper, Goats crossing – ‘trip, trap’ wooden percussion, troll getting tossed into the river, cold

3 goats – change pitch, lower sound for biggest goat, higher sound for smallest goat

troll different at the beginning and at the end. Drum – low and loud at the beginning

audacity – recording and editing program – free download!!

Finger stomp is another good program

Garage band

Percussive latin

My story

Wrightstuff music, midnight kids

Week 13 - Dance

The focus of this week's workshop was using a stimulus for the basis of a dance piece incorporating aspects from other KLAs (English/literacy). We explored in the lecture how different stimuli  (visual, kinaesthetic, auditory, tactile and ideational) have the ability to stir students' creativity. We looked at the book 'Henry & Amy' by Stephen Michael King.

In the book Henry is a quirky unorthodox sort of character who does what he likes without much care for what other people think of him. In contrast, Amy is very sensible and well organised. In the story the two extremes of their characters balance each other out. We began by going through some warm-up activities including a great 'chinese whispers' game which involved students forming a line, they then had to pass on a short dance sequence that either represented the character of Henry or Amy, to the next person in the line. The final person was required to perform what they believed was passed on to them, and it was fascinating seeing the way people interpreted the original move.

Finally we were asked to split into groups and choreograph an original dance routine based on either Henry, Amy or a combination of both. My group chose a combination of both characters. I found this workshop thoroughly interesting and useful and i am beginning to see how using quality children's literature as a starting point can lead to rich learning experiences in other KLAs including creative arts and dance more specifically.

Week 13 - Music

In today's workshop we began by listening to a piece of music and we were asked to listen with our eyes closed. As we listened we were asked to jot down a couple of sentences of what came to mind when listening to the piece. I wrote that the music made me think of an underwater scene where crabs were dancing across the ocean floor and octopus were peeking out from inside their caves. We were later told that the title of the piece of music was 'Rainforest' by B'Tutta and although the music had invoked a different natural habitat for me the idea of fluidity and the element of water was definitely present. I think that this would be a great rich learning experience for children and one that you could link to other KLAs especially creative writing in English.

Next up we had to create our own soundscape and we were to represent the distinct aspects of our soundscape visually by creating a diagram which offered a visual represntation of what was going on in our soundscape. Below is the diagram for our soundscape.

We decided to create a soundscape based around a rock concert. We decided that the soundscape would consist of 6 distinct 'events'.

1. feet shuffling of people entering the concert
2. sound check
3. the musical performance
4. hands clapping in applause
5. feet shuffling of people leaving the concert
6. a triangle representing a 'pin drop' once the concert hall is empty  

Here is a link to our 'Rock Concert' Soundscape

I thoroughly enjoyed this activity and think it is something that kids would really get into.

Finally we had to construct a rap which was something i was very happy to be taking part in as i rap in my spare time. This was the first time i have ever felt like an expert at something at uni and boy was it a good feeling haha! I will look to employ rap a lot in my future career as a teacher because it is an art form that children are naturally drawn to and enthusiastic about. We wrote a rap called 'I got no time for school' which you can listen to here: 'I got no time for school'

The lyrics are as follows:

I got no time for school cause my teachers a fool

forget sittin on a stool I don’t follow the rules

they say im a rough neck stuffin up subjects

looking suspect cause I haven’t had lunch yet 

I got no time for school

Week 12 - Music

In this week’s workshop we were looking at singing and began the lesson by brainstorming some of the qualities and technique that go into making somebody a good singer.

These were:

·       Pitch accuracy

·       Dynamics (good control over expressive technique – louder/softer)

·       Duration (rhythmic accuracy)

·       Articulation (lips, teeth, tip of the tongue)

·       Breath control/diaphragm support

·       Projection

·       Sense of meaning

·       Style

·       Posture

·       Good vowel sounds

·       Range extension – get them to try higher or lower than what they would normally

It was helpful to have the teacher talk a little more on posture saying that it is imperative that we get our students to stand up straight, having their feet shoulder width apart with their knees slightly bent and to remember to breath from the diaphragm. We also want to avoid looking down to much to read the music so she recommended lifting the music up to eye level, rather than looking down as this can cut off our airways and inhibit our full potential to sing well. She suggested that we imagine we have a piece of string hanging off the back of our head, which we use to pull ourselves up straight. I can imagine the kids liking this.

We then began singing! We looked at two songs ‘Beachcombing’ by Andrew Robertson and ‘Wet Day Blues’. The teacher split the class up into two halves and modeled the register that each half of the class would be singing in. Having the teacher give an example of how she wanted us to sing was a great way to scaffold singing for those of us who are less confident. Effective scaffolding is so important in encouraging those students who are less confident in music as many students start school very eager and confident to sing, however ‘this confidence can be eroded once formal schooling begins’ (Gibson & Ewing, 2011, p10).

I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed my first music class and am really looking forward to next week’s workshop!

References:

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

Week 12 - Dance

Today was my first dance experience ever other than shuffling around awkwardly in the back of dimly lit clubs, so to say that I was a little nervous would be somewhat of an understatement!

Just by looking around the class I could tell that I wasn’t the only person meeting Dance with a sense of trepidation.

We began by engaging in some warm up exercises. It is essential that we plan for warm up activities in our lessons as they:

·       Physically prepare the students’ body (e.g raise the pulse rate and body temperature, mobilise joints and warm muscles)

·       Helps to focus students’ mind on the lesson as well as reflect the focus or content of the lesson (DET, 2011).

The warm up activities included moving around the room in different original ways incorporating the use of different levels (low, mid, high), side stepping, rolling, zig-zag etc. Following on from this we played the ‘chain grab’ game where only the two people on the end of the chain could grab those who weren’t yet part of the chain. These warm up exercises certainly helped to relax me and everyone was laughing and making a lot of noise. I can see how these warm up games would help in building children’s confidence with the more complex routine that was about to occur and how these exercises would be useful for a teacher under ‘pressure to maintain control of the class’ (Goldblatt, 2005, p.118).

The next warm-up activity was ‘follow the leader’ where each group formed a line and each person in the line was designated a different movement element. For instance the first person in the line incorporated ‘percussion’ into their movement, the next person had to incorporate ‘swing’ and everyone behind the leader would have to mimick their actions. The next warm up activity saw us practicing some of the dance moves that would later be incorporated into the dance that our tutor had choreographed including strutting, walking silly, jumping etc.

In the body of the lesson we had to learn what I thought was a fairly complex routine to one of the songs from the musical hairspray. What I found interesting about this routine was that we were asked to break up into stereotypical high school characters e.g the jock, the too cool for school kids, the nerds, the outcasts etc. By stepping into a role it really gave some personality to the way we moved our bodies and that characterisation made our movements far more dynamic, varied and believable.

I am happy to say I have survived my first week of drama and it was definitely less painful than I thought it would be!

References:

Goldblatt, P.F. & Smith, D. (2005). A student teacher faces the challenges of the classroom. In Goldblatt, P.F. & Smith, D. (Eds). Cases for teacher development: preparing for the classroom (107-124). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.

http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/primary/pdhpe/dance/dan005.htm

Week 11

Unfortunately i was sick on the monday of week 11 which meant i missed all of my creative arts lectures and workshops as they all occur on the monday!

Below is my medical certificate:

I did try to take some photographs of street art in my local neighborhood throughout the week though so as to at least have some kind of art experience for the week.

This last photograph is particularly poignant to me as it refers to the death of T.J Hickey a then 17 year old Aboriginal youth, who's death allegedly came about as a direct result of a police pursuit sparking the 2004 Redfern riots.
In my future profession as a primary teacher i will undoubtedly be dealing with students from a myriad of cultural backgrounds including students of Aboriginal descent.
For instance it pays to know of the importance of story sharing as one of the eight ways of aboriginal learning (Yunkaporta & Kirby, 2011, p. 207).
As such i need to be aware of the differences in each of the different cultures i might encounter and adjust my teaching practice accordingly in order to implement optimal learning opportunities for each and every single one of my students.

References:

Yunkaporta, T., & Kirby, M. (2011). Yarning up Indigenous pedagogies: A dialogue about eight Aboriginal ways of learning. In N. Purdie, G. Milgate & H. R. Bell (Eds.), Two way Teaching and Learning. Towards culturally reflective and relevant education (pp. 205-214). Melbourne ACER