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, 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, 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!

Week 11, Dance 2

Dance Lecture

In this dance lecture we learnt that dance has two forms:
- Art form: To share with others, expressive, emotive using a variety of dimensions.
- Non-art form: For fun, fitness and socialising as at a celebration.

With this, there are six elements of dance:

- Action (What)
Locomotor: Moving from one location to another. (ie. Skipping, walking)
Non-locomotor: Moving without changing location. (ie. Crouching, stretching)

- Space (Where)
Where we move to and the area we use. (i.e. Levels, shape, direction)

- Time (When)
The duration and the speed of movement. (i.e. Fast, slow, sudden, use of beat and rhythm)

- Relationships (Who)
With who (Other people/environment) the movement is with. Including equipment and number of individuals/ groups.

- Dynamics (How)
How we use movement. Energy and control. (i.e. Long, sudden)

- Structure (Form)
How the movements are organised.

http://www.sydneyregionarts.nsw.edu.au/dance-programs/primary-dance-day/the-elements-of-dance

Week 11, Dance.

Dance Workshop

This was our first dance workshop. My prior experience with dance at school? ZERO. I don't even remember doing any dance-like movements during primary school in our end of year productions. So I didn't have any negative or extremely positive feelings towards dance at all. 

During this weeks dance workshop, we did some warm-up activities: 

Roaming around the given space

Trying not to bump into each other, using the movement skill the teacher asked (i.e. skip, low movement). 

Follow the leader

Music was put on and to the beat we had to make our own movements in a line of five. Each movement had to be different and we had to swap when we were signalled to. 

These warm up activities are quick, fun and inclusive to all students. I found that with activities and games, it is important to give alternatives to 'elimination'. Elimination is an uncomfortable topic with children. They do not want to be eliminated which increases the likeliness of 'cheating' or 'competitiveness'. 

Following this, we were put in small groups to make a quick dance routine that integrated alphabet representation, high/low movements to music in a specific number of beat counts. I can see this type of activity working well in a primary classroom as small groups allows the 'shy students' to feel less intimidated and giving them specific dance movements to work on, gives them flexibility on what they want to do whilst developing their skills. 

During my professional experience at Homebush West Public School, I was lucky enough to be part of the school musical. Of course I didn't take a role in the musical itself, but as a prac-teacher for Stage 3, I observed many lessons in which the students made dance routines for the musical themselves. The children really enjoyed this time that was given to them. Nobody was disengaged and every single student wanted to participate. I think it was because they were given the freedom of choice to make their own dance moves, which gave them a sense of authority and responsibility.