Drama
PORTFOLIO
entry one,
session one
The concept of having a home-base for the students to refer to and a designated place when they circle-up can create the same effect as having a seating plan in a traditional classroom. This is in order to establish the classroom expectations and management within a drama and dance class. I believe that this is an effective introduction to the class in the beginning of the year, and as the year progresses, depending on the group dynamic, the students’ home-base or circle spot could change. It is versatile when transitioning from giving instructions to implementing activities. What I found interesting was the 8-count exercise away and back to their home-base. This provides the students to become familiar with their surroundings, explore their spatial awareness, and attentive listening and timing. These skills can set a foundation that can be integrated into dance and drama. In addition, while students are circled-up, it creates an inclusive and focused dynamic where each student can feel a sense of belonging, which can be lead to establishing a safe environment for students to participate in the activities.
Regarding John Birmingham’s Would You Rather activity, it was an excellent icebreaker activity and as Christine stated, a unique way to create groups for later activities. The reading also explains that thinking creatively through literature “provides a perfect vehicle for blending story and drama when working with students. It also provides a useful working model for an examination of the relationship between these two modes of learning,” (Booth, 2011, p.16). By integrating drama and literature together, it builds on student engagement and allows students to think critically about the content of the book. As I closed my eyes and imagined the snail pop, smashed worms, spider stew, and slug dumplings in front of me, it made me consider all aspects of myself (emotionally, physically, mentally, etc.) being in the presence of the book’s contents. By doing this, students can open the discussion as to why they would consider one option over another or why they would refuse one option, which promotes students to use their lateral thinking while also exercising their dramatic abilities and communication skills (Booth, 2011). This again sets the foundation of skills needed to separate drama from students’ regular pretend play. From a literary perspective, this activity can deepen the students’ connection to the book which strengthens their ability to create meaning as they continue to read text across all curricula (Booth, 2011).
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As stated previously, Would You Rather, is an excellent icebreaker and grouping strategy to use within the classroom. It allowed our class to split into groups to create a tableaux of where we would prefer to live. Again, the students’ imagination and exploration can be extended in the form of drama by simply starting with a book. In my own teaching experience, I have always started a lesson with a storybook regardless of which curriculum I am teaching. Thus, I completely agree with David Booth’s strong belief in the power that literature holds.
Reference
Booth, David. (2011) Story Drama, 2nd edition: Building a Storying Community
entry two,
session two
During our second class, as an extension of David Booth’s idea of starting with a book, I found the lesson with John Lights’s The Flower (2007), engaging and insightful because of the diverse approaches to understanding the literature. This lesson and the reading emphasized the importance of ongoing professional development and adapting lessons for diverse learners. My research interest has been focusing on integrating curricula, therefore I found that the reading aligned with my own professional views on interdisciplinary education which states that “multiple, interconnected factors that contribute to deepening student achievement and engagement, what teachers know and are able to is one of the most important factors,” (Jackson, 2014, p. 3). As we were analyzing the illustrations and using our critical thinking, it made me realize the self-empowering impact that the inquiry process has on student learning. The illustration exercise was an interesting way to connect drama to the language arts curriculum, and as the reading explains, teachers can “incorporate and integrate different kinds of knowledge, develop and utilize a sophisticated instructional repertoire,” (p. 3) which falls into the philosophy of interdisciplinary education and implementing more versatile teaching skills. By getting into the roles of different characters either in the book or related to the book, it allows students to critically think about the context of the story’s physical environment, societal/ political context, and their specific character’s place in the story’s world. As a part of the lesson’s role-taking exercise, I created a poem in the perspective of the main character’s best friend:
Oh dear, oh dear
What have you done
Not just a page, but a whole book?
If the police see, you’ll be gone!
Wait! Shh! Quiet! I see one giving a look
You know I love you, Brigg
But what you’ve done is way too big!
I’m with you through the thins and thicks
This new life with these officers, who are d-- dangerous
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The reading encourages educators to “be responsive to expanding understandings of learner diversity,” (p. 3) thus by switching between language arts and the drama arts, students of various learning styles can express their understanding in different forms, for example a poem. Another activity that I thought was powerful was when we were taking the perspective of the police officer and the protestor giving out a flower. When creating a script for these characters, we again had to embody the character’s personality, intentions, and attitude in order to gain an in-depth understanding. This builds on students’ empathy development and finding first voice which is important in other subjects such as social studies where there is an activism aspect within the curriculum. During my practicum, I used a resource called That’s Not Fair, a child-friendly web series that addresses social justice issues, such as the right of expression, racism, and journalism rights, in a cartoon animation. The That’s Not Fair web series was created by the non-profit organization, Canadian Civil Liberties Association/ Education Trust in partnership with the Law Foundation of Ontario and Canadian government, and they are involved with various outreach programs and student empowerment. Thus by using this web series in the same way we used The Flower (2007), we can analyze important and serious topics in an engaging and empowering way through drama.
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CLICK HERE FOR EPISODES
Reference
CCLET That's Not Fair Episodes. (2012, October 24). Retrieved from http://thatsnotfair.ca/episodes-2/
Jackson, C. (2014) Building an Inclusive Community: Thinking, Feeling, and Caring Deeply Through the Arts. OISE/UT. pp.57-63.
Light, J., & Evans, L. (2007). The Flower. Child's Play International
entry three,
session seven & eight
During our last two classes of the Dance and Drama course, we explored Alejandro Cruz Martinez’s book The Woman Who Outshone the Sun (1991), a story about a woman named Lucia who was cast away from the village and took the village’s river with her. The story underlines themes of humans’ relationship with the environment, respecting others and bullying, and self-acceptance. As a class, we touched upon these themes through a series of activities such as the retelling of the story through a third party character which allowed students to challenge their perception of the story and empathize as another character. We then transitioned to a Tableau exercise using social justice vocabulary such as; Protest, Ally, Inclusion & Exclusion, Defiance & Compliance, and Power. Within the social justice article by Shelton and McDermott (2010), the reading expressed the versatility that the arts curriculum has in introducing serious or challenging discussions like social justice. The article stated that by “connecting children’s literature with drama allows us to use physical knowledge to understand the concepts addressed in literature differently. Physical knowledge is embodied knowledge; when we embody our learning we know things differently for to see or create a physical representation of a concept is a different kind of understanding than conceptual knowledge,” (Shelton & McDermott, 2010, p.127). By integrating arts education with social justice, it provides teachers with a safe and age appropriate platform to openly discuss these issues. In my own practicum experience, I used visual arts education as a way for students to express social justice issues that were passionate to them, as well as used animated cartoons to introduce topics like racism and bullying. After exploring the book in this course through drama and dance, I now found new inspiration to extend connect students’ physical knowledge and their conceptual knowledge.
The interdisciplinary aspect of the Creation Stations welcomed a diverse range of learners to showcase their performing platform in safe and comfortable formats such as creating chants, songs, dance sequences, monologues, poems, murals and Readers Theatre. Thus demonstrating an integration of music, dance, drama, and language arts curricula. As someone who is interested in interdisciplinary education research, I could also extend this book and performance piece in other subjects such as science when discussing the aquatic habitat or water cycle, as well as social studies and the discussion of water as a human right. A research study explored the arts education being integrated in the curriculum and how teachers recognize the value of the arts in the school curriculum, however explains that their knowledge and self-efficacy is not proficient to teach for junior grades (Roucher & Lovano-Kerr, 2006). Reflecting upon my own experience through this course and my prior comfort-level in teaching the arts, I feel even more enlightened by the versatility and power that arts education possesses over all types of students. The research continues to state that the arts curriculum can positively impact students’ learning experience when teachers demonstrate an attitude that enriches and acknowledges that the value of the arts in the core curriculum through interdisciplinary education (Roucher & Lovano-Kerr, 2006).
Reference
Roucher, N., & Lovano-Kerr, J. (2006). Can the arts maintain integrity in interdisciplinary learning? Arts Education Policy Review, 96(4), 20.
Shelton, N. R., & McDermott, M. (2010). Using literature and drama to understand social justice. Teacher Development, 14(1), 123-135.
Dance
PORTFOLIO
entry four,
session three
The Jans Dean reading (2016) explained that, like in any other subject, classroom structure is needed. Thus dance class structure involved “a warm up routine to get the blood circulating throughout the body” as well as separating “everyday movement to the art of movement using body and mind,” (Deans, 2016, p.48). As an introduction to BERST (Body, Energy, Relationship, Space, and Time), I found the activity incorporating the different aspects of each category to be helpful in further understanding each strand. This exercise helped me as a visual learner to associate the card’s colours and coordinate with others while introducing different styles of movements. This helped me later on in the lesson when choreographing a dance sequence and implementing contrasting movements to relate to one element (earth, water, air, and fire). It was interesting to see how the sequence of the dances from each element matched with the unknown, assigned music. One suggestion that was made to the group, as an extension of the activity, was to find a piece of music that would better match their sequence. I thought it was interesting because the groups already thought of what kind of music to match in their heads while creating the sequence. Thus when they reacted differently to the assigned music, I went into an epiphany that dance and music was all interconnected and as much as we try, it is difficult to separate the two. Overall, I have learned how to effectively build the fundamental skills and establishing a relationship with students to give them a sense of comfort to express movement and dance. These fundamental but basic-level activities are essential in scaffolding students’ zone of proximal development and growth as creative thinkers and dancers (Booth, 2016).
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During the dances of the four elements, I noticed the social pressure that comes with performing in front of peers. Within my own group, because of the lack of comfort and anxiety that some of my dance members had, I felt that it was safer decision for us to pass our turn to perform. In my future teaching practice, I would want to establish and emphasize to my students the power and importance of having mutual respect for everyone, especially when performing. It is easy for students to laugh at something they would not normally do outside of the classroom, but I would like the main message in my dance lessons to acknowledge the courage, self-confidence, and dedication it takes in every performance. My main priority and concern about teaching the arts curriculum is creating a safe and comfortable environment for everyone.
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In addition, relating back to my interest in the research of interdisciplinary education; we briefly discussed RAFT (Role, Audience, Format, and Topic) in relation to the arts and language arts. I believe that can be implemented into dance as well because students can also perceive dancing as taking a perspective of an animated or inanimate object to convey a message to a specific audience about a topic, while using different dance and movement techniques/styles. What I admire most about the arts is its versatility and ability to weave itself into all subjects and topics of discussion.
Reference
Deans, Jan. (2016) Thinking, Feeling and Relating: Young Children Learning though Dance. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood.
entry five,
performance viewing
As a part of the performance viewing assignment, I chose to attend Aga Khan’s Dancing In the Park event that showcased the Latin Grammy-nominated band called Colectora. It was a celebration of cultural and heritage pride as a diverse group of audience interacted and danced with the Noventa Dance Project dancers, a dance organization that tours around and outside of Canada, showcasing cultural dance performances such as; classical, contemporary, urban, West African, Latin, and Afro-Caribbean dance. The big ideas that stayed with me afterwards was a greater appreciation for diversity and the unity of communities. What I admire most about the performance was the open setting where the dancers were on the same level as the audience, which created a welcoming and uniting atmosphere for the audience to join the dancers in their performance. Throughout the show, even when the dancers were not performing, with the upbeat and vibrant sounds of Colectora, the audience gradually took over the stage and the whole park became a dance floor. The lead singer of the band expressed that they collect inspiration from not only their own culture and heritage, but from other cultural music as a way to reach out and create a global community through music.
From a pedagogical perspective, this performance signifies the beautiful possibilities when people move forward in their creative process and push beyond the first step of gaining a sense of inspiration. The performance showed how natural and engaged the diverse audience members contributed to the show’s overall atmosphere. Although not everyone was from Central and South American heritage, we all gained a deeper insight and appreciation for music and cultures outside our own. A research study from New Zealand focused on pluralist pedagogy, which means taking multiple perspectives of cultural values and implementing them into teaching (Ashley, 2014). The study interviewed elementary school teachers who stated that this teaching affirms cultural connection to deepen their understanding and become expressive of their identity through dances familiar to their own culture. The research collected explained that when the students were placed into a teaching role to advocate and represent for their own culture, the teachers “had interpreted as beneficial for young learners in the video with regard to a familiar dance being culturally and educationally relevant,” (Ashley, 2014, p.259). This in turn, allows the students to connect personally and physically and develop a stronger sense of pride and self-esteem (Ashley, 2014). From the beginning of the course, we discussed how inspiration and imagination can emerge from the students’ prior knowledge and the experiences they come into the classroom with. As educators, it is our obligation to extract and guide students’ inspiration, scaffold and support students’ imagination and provide the resources needed for further planning, then exploration, and so on (Ontario Curriculum, 2009). In addition, I have noticed the interconnectedness of the creative process being used in the science and language arts disciplines. This to me is evidence to support my ideology that interdisciplinary education can create fluidity, student engagement, and creative, innovative thinking.
Reference
Ashley, L. (2014). Encountering challenges in teacher education: Developing culturally pluralist pedagogy when teaching dance from contextual perspectives in new zealand. Research in Dance Education, 15(3), 254-270
The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8, The Arts, 2009; pp. 23-28
entry six,
session five
The contemporary dance workshop with Debbie provided wonderful insight into the cultures of Western Africa and allowed me to explore a different way of dancing and self-expressing. Being able to build a story through movement and collaborating on ideas in my group was a pleasant experience because we all provided a variety of insights into bullying and community building. Although not everyone in my group felt comfortable within the subject of dance, I greatly admired the way they pushed themselves out of their insecurities and demonstrated their willingness to learn. I find the most fulfillment in teaching when I am learning alongside them. There is a huge misconception towards teachers, that they hold all of the answers and skills to pass over to their students. I do not believe this to be true, in fact, teachers also possess a shyness or lack of knowledge in one or more subjects. That is why I believe educators hold a lot of responsibility in the way they approach new experiences with their students. The reading explained that “teachers’ subject content knowledge had no consistent relationship to student achievement, while pedagogical knowledge had consistent and strong links,” (Melchoir, 2011, p.125). That is why it is crucial for teachers to demonstrate self-efficacy and a resiliency in learning. When students observe a teachers’ willingness to new and explore, it contributes to establishing a safe and non-judgemental class dynamic. I noticed a lot of overlap between the Malian dancing and other cultures which I thought in a pedagogical perspective would be effective for students to connect to their own cultural identity. In terms of cultural relevance, the research article stated, “the importance of the teacher’s role in creating a culturally inclusive environment for learning and the impact of teacher expectation on student achievement,” (Melchoir, 2011, p.125). To me, this means that if the teacher understands their students’ cultural way of learning, the teacher would adapt their expectations and lessons to support the students’ learning.
This pedagogy of cultural relevance can be linked with universal design because, “‘all students benefit from being in a culturally inclusive classroom. However many students from non-dominant cultures are not free to be whom and what they are when they go to school,’” (Melchoir, 2011, p.125). By bringing more cultural awareness, students gain a broader perspective into their critical thinking, especially when it is being explored through various art forms. Debbie’s workshop reminded me of my internship at Vibe Arts for Children and Youth, an organization that provided social outreach programs and school workshops from art therapy to Indigenous education. It is accessible to register online and the programs they provide varies depending on what the teacher’s big take-home message is. During my internship at Vibe Arts, I was also able to create a blog that provides further insights into their organization and I created a guideline for artists to use as they facilitate their workshops in an educational setting. I would recommend Vibe Arts to any educator, for any age group, and for whatever comfort level the students and teachers are in, in relation to dance.
Reference
Melchior, Elizabeth. (2011) Culturally responsive dance pedagogy in the primary classroom. Research in Dance Education, Routledge.
CLICK HERE to visit vibe arts' programs
CLICK HERE FOR my internship blog
MUSIC
PORTFOLIO
entry one,
session one
Prior to this music course, my musical knowledge extends from my early childhood to my teaching experience as an Early Childhood Educator (ECE). During my elementary years, I was a part of the school’s choir, learned the recorder in the fourth grade, and learned to play the double bass until high school. Outside of school, I was also taking guitar and vocal lessons. I always loved musical performances, and my fondest memory was when I sang and danced with my friends as our class’s weekly ‘show and tell’ so needless to say I am comfortable with performing. However, as I got older I became more self-conscious of how people perceived my performances so I gradually stepped away from music in the tenth grade. Although my orchestra teacher tried to support me and push to continue performing, it made me feel more stressed and uncomfortable until I quit music all together. As an aspiring teacher, I hope to gain more insight and strategies on how I can support and nourish my students into embracing music, especially for those who are self-conscious and/or have stage-fright. As an ECE, implementing music fits seamlessly into a kindergarten classroom and early childhood learning so I am confident that music can be integrated into all subjects and grades appropriately. What I found interesting in the first session was introducing counts not as numbers, but as terms like ‘pie’ and ‘watermelon’. As discussed in class, teachers can even implement terms they are using in other subjects like science and French.
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Something that I will take into consideration when I begin to teach music in my classroom is the comfort of having students participate in copycat games and rote songs (Ontario Curriculum, 2009). I find that both have the least amount of pressure to perform and unifies the classroom dynamic. I would love to use these styles of musical pedagogy as icebreakers to build a safe and welcoming atmosphere for learning. Based on a research article from Joseph Shively (2015), it explains that pre-service teachers may also be experiencing the same level of unfamiliarity and discomfort as their own students may feel. That is why it is “critical that we provide them with strategies for transitioning to constructivist approaches to music learning and teaching as they begin to establish themselves in their jobs,” (Shively, 2015, p.130). When teachers show professional self-efficacy in their own teaching and positive attitude towards music education, it can follow through in their practices and students’ achievements. The article continues to explain that music education places teachers in the role of a conductor but as a facilitator and co-teaching alongside the music. The research study emphasizes the importance of social constructivism when teaching music because it holds a power in community building. Through this course, I am hopeful in my self-efficacy and open-mindedness to unpack my prior music education experience and relearn the way I have perceived music class as a conductor and student environment. In my future pedagogy I aspire to continue to build teaching approaches that empowers student-centred learning and establish interdisciplinary education that welcomes all students of any skill level.
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Reference
The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8, The Arts, 2009; pp. 11-17.
Shively, J. (2015). Constructivism in music education. Arts Education Policy Review, 116(3), 128-136.
entry two,
session two
As stated in my previous entry from Session One, my philosophical teaching is linked with interdisciplinary education. Thus, by incorporating music into various subjects, it creates more fluidity and is inclusive to different types of learners. Gena Norbury’s article explained that “No matter what the student’s previous knowledge, language barriers or developmental ability, it provided each and every student with success,” (Nobury, 2013, p.13). Since I am interested and comfortable to incorporate music, yet I am not a music specialist; rote songs are brilliant entry-points for any type of teachers wanting to engage their students through music. I also appreciate the numerous and diverse resources of musical books, puppets, and CD’s that I can have access to during my teaching practice.
I noticed that one of my peers also brought in a puppet to use as a teaching aid for presenting his rote song. I agree that puppets are helpful to reduce the social pressure of performing, but I also thought of puppets as another classroom management tool to refocus the group. In my own ECE practices, I often use puppets as a way to emotionally regulate with my students and act as a third party listener for children to talk to about whatever is troubling them. Lastly, I imagine that my own students could have the opportunity to use the puppets themselves if they feel anxious singing as well. As a result, I plan to invest more into puppets in my future class in a more versatility, from behaviour management to pitch management. Norbury stated that “differentiated instruction occurred as students chose what they were most comfortable with and included in the final performance piece as no ‘written’ work was to be completed to gain a sense of accomplishment,” which supports my belief that music supports cultural responsiveness and inclusive learning (Norbury, 2013, p.13).
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While I was participating and listening to the songs from Japan and Ghana, it reminded me of the songs my family from the Philippines and Turkey used to sing to me. From a pedagogical lens, I believed that students would be engaged and eager to think of other songs that come from their own families’ cultural background. This would create an excellent opportunity to extend students’ learning to do their own research and contribute to a grand culminating performance. I found more videos, music sheets and audio recording regarding the Obwisana song and other resources to multilinguistic songs from Mama Lisa’s World and the National Arts Centre, which also includes Indigenous songs and musical games (both resources are linked below). I find myself thinking about multiple ways I can be culturally responsive through music and how I can incorporate different adaptations and accommodations to help students feel welcomed and successful.
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Reference
Norbury, G. (2013). Culturally Responsive Practices in the Arts: A School-Wide Project. The Recorder. p.13-16.
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Music Alive Program. (2018). National Arts Centre. Retrieved from https://nac-cna.ca/en/musicalive/resources
Yannucci, L. (2018). Mama Lisa's World: Children's Songs and Nursery Rhymes from Around the World. Retrieved from https://www.mamalisa.com/?t=eh
CLICK HERE for resources from the national arts centre
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mama lisa's world
entry three,
session three
What I found the most interesting in today’s class was the step by step progression of students learning to read music. As an ECE working with toddlers and kindergarteners, I would always encourage my students to patch the beat during my circle time songs as a way to establish their musical foundation and literacy. By using the heart symbols as beats and other symbols related to the song, it creates a seamless link that younger students can easily follow along. With this new knowledge and pedagogical skill, I will use this in my future classrooms starting from kindergarten until approximately the fourth grade. What I also admired was how we solely focused on the note stems rather than the circles because in my personal experience. I was always confused between what each stem represented and had to rely on my memory rather than meaning making. Especially when counting beats and rhythm notes was difficult if not impossible to do simultaneously, therefore I will appreciate having a visual representation as a strategy to anchor myself, as the educator, and for any of my students who are also visual learners.
As I have continued discussed throughout my blog entries, I hold high value in students’ self-advocacy and being culturally responsive within my own teachings. That is why I am appreciative of the limitless resources to multilingual and multicultural songs, poems, and chants that are now available with the advancements of technology and the Internet. In addition, I thought that the Roots and Branches (Campbell, McCullough-Brabson & Cook-Tucker, 1994) is an excellent resource for teachers because of the extensive background knowledge and inspiring musical extension activities that it already provides to implement in the classroom. Although the Ontario curriculum strives to involve multiculturalism and diversity into education, I found that most times educators would only have a shallow thinking of how to implement it without the full understanding of what the values and beliefs are being revealed in these multicultural songs.
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In addition, regarding the article and its analysis on the perspectives of Muslim students in music education, I found it interesting that they focused on the difference between cultural and religious practices, as well as the music education’s intentions. The article states that “by examining differences that can exist in definitions of music, intentions, priorities and values amongst music educators and Muslim parents, it is my hope to help music educators create a musical environment that is sensitive to Islamic practices, beliefs and values,” (Izak, 2013, p. 43). This is in reference to the Muslim families who have various perspectives of what value Western music education provides to their children. I myself identify as a biracial and Muslim so in my experience, my personal views came from a more religious perspective that focuses on the intention and value that my music class. As a biracial Muslim, I was able to separate the religion of Islam that I studied on my own to the Islamic culture that my Muslim family members grew up and surrounded themselves in. As a result of this, I have gained a more empathic understanding of how Muslim families approach music education and their own perspectives of Western music. That is why in my teaching practice, I will strive to having open communication with the families, express the well intentions of the music curriculum, and approach them with sensitivity and respect (Izak, 2013.)
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References
Shehan Campbell, P., McCullough-Brabson, E., & Cook Tucker, J. (1994). Roots and Branches. World Music.
Izsak, K. (2013).Music Education and Islam: Perspectives on Muslim participation in Music Education in Ontario. The Recorder. p.38-43.