Interesting journal article.

I came across a journal article which caught my eye as soon as I read the title, "Parents' goals, knowledge, practices, and needs regarding music education for their young children in South Korea'. The reason was probably because it contained the words 'music' and 'South Korea'. I was born in South Korea, never lived their but spent my whole primary school life with Korean parents and grandparents. However, when I started to read the article, I found the focus was not on 'Korea' but more on music itself, which is why I continued to read it. 

Youm (2013) states that music education is crucial for the development of children not only in the Creative Arts but within all areas. This is likely as music is a positive factor that enhances the emotional, social and cognitive development in children. However, primary school students are under the care of their parents and the music provided to these children is mostly not by choice, but by what is approved by their parents.

It is also stated that music can serve as an 'emotional bonding' activity in which the parent and the child grow a connection. I remember in primary school when I used to dread private piano lessons, but I still loved playing the piano at home. My favourite part of playing the piano would be when I would practice at home and grandfather would pop a chair next to me, watch me play and ask me to "teach" him. Although I was just learning the notes of the piano myself, at the age of five, I was teaching my grandfather all I learnt from these lessons. I think the only reason I continued to go for these lessons was so I could come home and 'teach'. This is where I grew a strong bond with my grandfather despite the fact that he was so strict and strong on discipline.

The article discusses that parents feel lost when teaching music to their children. I find that this is the way most M.Teach (Primary) pre-service teachers will feel if placed directly into a music classroom with a class of students all wanting to do something. The article continues by saying parents "seek direction wanting to do something good for their children but not knowing how" (Youm, 2013), I think this depicts my thoughts on teaching not only music but the whole Creative Arts stream. I love the Creative Arts, absolutely love music, drama, dance and visual arts. But before and during the unit of study 'EDMT5530 Creative Arts K-6', quite often I wondered, "Is it enough to love it?", "Does enjoying something mean I can teach it and teach it well?", "Will my students learn? If so, how? If not, why?". But then I think back to when i played the piano with my grandfather, I taught him what I knew and by doing this, I consolidated my knowledge and learnt even more than I knew. I think the underlying principles in teaching the creative arts can be quite similar. Although at the moment, I am still not 100% confident in going into a classroom and delivering an excellent lesson where all my students will be engaged and passionate about their learning, I have gained quite a steady knowledge of how to plan and where to look to be able to teach this KLA. This unit of study has really helped me learn about how to teach and why we need to teach the creative arts in primary school. I believe that with further practice, with further research and with further planning, I think I will be able to place myself in a position where I teach to learn and ultimately learn to teach the Creative Arts!


Youm, H.Y. (2013). Parents' goals, knowledge, practices, and needs regarding music education for their young children in South Korea. Journal of Research in Music Education, 61(3), 280-302.

Week 14, Dance.

Dance Workshop

This was our last class for our whole Creative Arts stream. I think I learnt the most useful teaching tips and strategies in this workshop. Working with stimuli.

Sometimes I think that myself as a teacher will constantly think about the importance of scaffolding and 'overdo it'. What I mean by this is that I will explain and describe a task within the Creative Arts lessons to an extent where the children will forget about their own, unique, creative creations and  will just follow and do what they 'think' I want them to do rather than express what they really want to do. I found that using a stimuli would be a great resource.

There were many stimuli including a photograph, a hidden object and a sculpture like model. I found that all three stimuli were an excellent springboard resource to base a sequence of lessons. However, I found that the hidden object was one I could and would definitely use in my lesson. Hidden object: Hide an object in a bag, ask students to feel the object and without having an actual visual stimulus, use the other senses, especially touch to represent the object. I feel that the students in any class would love this activity.

The structure of the lesson was the same for all groups with different stimuli. We had to

1. Create a dance routine using the stimuli as a springboard. 
2. Decide on a title, what we were representing and the music we wanted to use. 

Of course, due to the nature of our lessons, we were pushed for time and had to create movements within ten minutes, however in a real classroom, students will require more time and a flexible, creative activity like this could be extended into two lessons. 

Overall, the dance workshops have been very useful and engaging. Especially as I had no proper experience with dance, I was worried as to how I would teach it. I've learnt so much in these dance workshops and now, am quite eager to get an opportunity to 'try out' these teaching strategies!

Week 13, Music 2

Music Workshop (Wednesday)

Tillman (2001) states that the most important period for the development of musical abilities starts as early as kindergarten. In primary school, children should develop listening skills, to listen selectively, and enhance their attention to detail (Gooding & Standley, 2011). The workshop today focused on one of the most important factors when it comes to music - listening.

We listened to different pieces of music and discussed the five musical concepts. I thought that learning about the five musical concepts was very useful and important as although children will enjoy music nonetheless, if they understood the underlying concepts of music, it may trigger a spark of greater interest.

- Pitch: Notes being played.
- Duration: Rhythms, tempo, time signatures.
- Dynamics: How it is played, loud-soft. Creates the mood.
- Structure: Orchestra/solo. Placement of music, i.e. Verse and chorus in a song.
- Tone Colour: Which instruments plays the main melody, which are in the background. Types of sounds.

What we did was listen to a piece of music and analyse its features in terms of the five musical concepts. I thought that this was an excellent teaching activity to teach theory (Which can often be regarded as 'boring') in an interesting and engaging way. Asking children to memorise definitions does not help them develop a conceptual understanding. By asking them to listen and to discuss then to analyse and share gives them the opportunity to explore and further develop meaning in music.

Reference

• Gooding, L., & Standley, M. (2011). Musical development and learning characteristics of students: A compilation of key points from the research literature organised by age. Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, 30(1): 32-45.
• Tillman, K. (2001). Conference keynote musical development theories revisited. Music Education Research, 3: 227-242.

Week 13, Music.

Music Workshop (Monday)

Creating a 'soundscape' was the focus of the workshop today. When I head the word 'soundscape', I had no idea of what the word meant and I had no idea of what the workshop was to be about. Just as any teacher would, our teacher began to scaffold the lesson by asking us to write down thoughts that came to our minds whilst we listened to a piece of music. We were not given any other knowledge on the piece of music we had to listen to. I thought that this was a useful strategy as with children, although giving relevant information is important, providing them with too many details may reduce their creativity as they get worried to what is 'incorrect' and prefer to replicate the example or idea provided by the teacher. We were asked to create an image in our heads of what this music was expressing and telling us. Once we listened to the piece of music, we discussed with our peers about what we thought about it. I had written 'jungle' but we soon found out that the piece of music was called 'Rainforest'. 

In groups, we then got a piece of paper and began to draw our own soundscape plans. Our group selected the theme 'thunderstorms' and I drew our ideas on the page in a progressive form. 

Our story began with a person driving home on a cloudy and windy day. It starts to rain lightly and then more heavier as the person gets closer to home. The rain develops into a full thunderstorm and the person runs out to his house and slams the door. 

Once our soundscape, illustrated plan was complete, our group collected some percussion instruments and we started to play our instruments so that our story would be represented by our sounds. 

- Large drum: Moving fingers on the surface to represent driving car. Loud banding for thunder. 

- Shaker: Light rainfall

- Maracas: Heavy rainfall.

- Tambourine: Lightening 

- Two-tone block: Alternating sounds to represent running footsteps. 

- Claves: One loud sound to represent door slam. 

This type of lesson is great to develop collaboration and communication skills with children as they need to discuss, plan and create a soundscape as a group. I would love to use this workshop to base a future lesson on. Personally, I think this activity would work best over a couple of lessons with a higher age group (Stage 2 or 3). For the younger stages, I would adapt the activities a bit. Perhaps, Asking students to draw a comic strip that represents a piece of music they hear. 

We then, in the same groups as before, learnt to create a simple rap. It was to be four lines, not necessarily rhyming. This task made me remember my professional experience this semester, I was placed in a Stage 3 classroom and the children composed their own raps on the theme of saving energy. Children generally show interest in music even without having any experience listening or making it (Morehouse, 2013). Although they may not be confident at first, with an appropriate amount of scaffolding, I found that children would be engaged with a task like this. 

However, I had never thought about teaching students how to rap. I had never thought about teaching students to put emphasis on certain words and to keep with a beat. I had been ignorant to the basics of music in creating a rap. This lesson helped me learn that I need to take a couple steps back and really break down components of teaching and student understanding that I assume children may know. 

For our rap, we had a beat-boxer, two people rapping the four lines together, and the remaining helping to put emphasis on certain words. It was fun but quite embarrassing as our rap was not 'educational' at all. But, I can definitely see children enjoying a task as such and engaging in these types of activities. 

References

• Morehouse, P. (2013). The importance of music making in child development. YC Young Children. 68:4, 82-89.
• NSW DET. (2006). Creative Arts Syllabus. Sydney: Author. 

Week 13, Dance.

Dance workshop

In today's dance workshop, we used a picture book "Henry and Amy" by Stephen Michael King as a stimulus to dance. Henry is a character who is 'different' and does things in ways he doesn't intend to whereas Amy is quite a perfectionist. Before we did any activities using this picture book, once again we did a routine of warm up activities.

'Chinese Whispers'
I remember playing this game when I was a child, but from my memory, I remember it to be a game where music was played loudly in the background and in a circle, we would whisper a long sentence to the next person once and carry on until the last person would match their guess with the person who first said the sentence. The activity we did in this workshop was an adaptation of my childhood game. In groups of about seven students, we all stood in a straight line, the first person would yep the person in front of them and do a dance move, that person would remember the movement, tap the next person and try to represent the exact same movement until the last person would match what they've learnt with the original movement. This is an activity I will definitely try with my future class. It was fun, quick and easy to organise!

'Henry and Amy'
The activities we did with this picture book reminded me of how closely integrated the creative arts can truly be with other KLAs, especially English. To show understanding of the story and characters, you can represent it through movement! Our class split into four groups and were to represent through dance, either a character or a combination. I was in the group that was to represent Amy. We did short, sharp and straight movements in synchronisation with each other to show that Amy was a perfectionist. I thought that this type of activity will be enjoyed by children in a classroom. It gives them the opportunity to express their understanding through movement.

Week 12, Music.

Music Workshop

This week's music workshop was on singing. These days, it is quite difficult to find good and appropriate music that children enjoy (That is not Disney). We were introduced to a couple of suitable and fun resources to use with students in primary school. I think in the future, if I am given the opportunity to take responsibility over music in my classroom, it is important that I have a good list of resources that are usable with children.

The activity which I enjoyed most in this workshop was singing 'Wet Day Blues' with the class. Especially with younger students, using simple, repetitive songs are best. Also, a good teaching tip I learnt in this session is that we should try give various students specific parts of a song rather than getting the whole class to sing the whole song through together. For students to enjoy music, they need to have a personal interest and need to be engaged by it (Reid, 2006). Singing the whole song from start to end with the whole class is quite disengaging and students are more susceptible to 'zone out'. Also, music is not only about sharing to another audience, but it should also be about sharing with those who are performing together (Reid, 2006). By providing students different parts, they will be listening to each other, concentrating on the sound of others and their own which is a core part in sharing with each other.

To practice a part with harmonisation, it is important to let groups have sufficient time to practice so that they can sing their part without being confused by other parts when sung together. I learnt that if a song has catchy lyrics which you can put small dance movements to, the children will learn the lyrics faster as the movement recalls the lyrics to their memory!

Kenney (2011) outlines the 'Seven steps for developing successful singing and listening habits' which from a pre-service teacher's perspective, I found quite interesting.
- Step 1: Energise and align the body
Move the body so that one is 'activated'. Fix body into a tall posture. This is to prepare the body for singing and get them focused.
- Step 2: Love the breath
Sit or stand tall. Bring oxygen to each part of the body and enhance correct posture.
- Step 3: Play with the voice.
Imitate sounds, be expressive. Feel the vibrations of the voice in high and low pitches. Experiment and listen.
- Step 4: Sing one pitch.
Sing one pitch to another in a 'sliding motion'. Listening to and feeling the difference in pitch.
- Step 5: Sing two pitches.
Sing one pitch and progress to another. Enhance listening before imitating. Matching pitch.
- Step 6: Sing a short phrase.
Choose a simple song and sing a phrase, ensure to listen so that all pitch is correct. Listening and recalling the melody from memory.
- Step 7: Add words to the phrases.
Complicating the easy procedure. Enhances concentration. Combining different pitches, listening and matching pitches.

When I read this, I thought that it would be a good 'starting off point' for new primary school teachers that haven't had a singing-teaching experience. It is easy to make children repeat and copy everything you do, but I realised that to repeat, copy and imitate, students need to be able to listen and listen carefully to the changes that occur whilst singing.

Reference

• Reid, S. (2006). Introducing music to young children. A Fine FACTA, 7(1), 39-40.
• Kenney, S. (2011). Teaching young children how to sing: One school's experience. General Music Today, 24(2), 52-56.
• NSW DET. (2006). Creative Arts Syllabus K-6. Sydney: Author. 

Week 12, Dance.

Dance Workshop

I find that as much as theory is important for me to learn as a pre-service teacher, the stream of workshops this creative arts subject provides is very useful. Being able to take part in activities that I will be using in the future with my students, allows me to participate, evaluate and reflect on what works for me and how I would make it work with my own class. Today's dance worship focused on performing movement. As usual, we did some warm-up activities. For children, these warm-up activities are very important as they prepare their minds and bodies for the main content of the coming lesson.

Warm up activity: Chain-tag.
This is an activity that I was familiar with as I had used the chain-tag game as a skill application activity in one of my PDHPE Fundamental Movement Skill assessments. It is where children move around an allocated area and a starting chain (Two students linking arms) moves around and tags the free players. One tagged, students join the chain. When the chain links four students, they split into two chain pairs and continues until all students are in a chain. This activity is very inclusive as even though you are tagged, you still participate until the end. With dance, it is a great activity where students are given the opportunity to work collaboratively in their chains (Building on the element: Relationships) and working on space as well using different levels and forms of movement.

The main activity for this dance class was to dance to a routine from the musical Hairspray (Song: You can't stop the beat). The routine was practiced in small parts where six lines were made and we would follow the teacher's demonstration in time with the music. We practiced all together when the parts were 'learnt'. Unfortunately, our dance workshops are only one hour so everything was fast-paced but in a real classroom situation, we were told to spread this one lesson into a sequence of lessons so that the children would have enough time to explore, learn and apply. As dance is often linked with expression, we were given the opportunity to play a role of the characters in the actual musical (i.e. Geeks, too-cool-for-school). We had to think about how we would portray these character's trademarks so that an audience would recognise us by watching our movements. It was fun but I can already see how funny and embarrassing it will be to watch the recorded videos in next week's lecture!