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Reflection - Drama

During my second professional placement in year 5, I taught a few Drama lessons. These Drama lessons occurred directly after a History unit which underpinned the teaching and learning. One lesson I taught covered the elements of drama, and the second lesson students were given the opportunity to put them into practice. 

There was a lot of content to fit into a small time-frame. Students were to be begin assessment of their learning of this content after only 2 lessons. This put me under pressure to assure that the students had the skills and knowledge to complete their assessment. 

While I thought that the amount of content which students received was limited, I did assume that students would be able to complete their assessment with the knowledge and skills they had learnt. However, I did not stop to consider whether they had developed knowledge and skills in a way which they actually connected with beyond the assessment. That is, I am unsure of whether they would be able to connect their learning to any other circumstance. 

However, I do think the quality of learning was improved through the assessment which allowed for the students to further explore the elements of Drama.  Students further explored the elements of drama by reasoning how they used them in a booklet. Lawson & Byrne (2007) believed that having a variety of assessment is vital in primary. Students should not be purely assessed on performance. This is because students might lack confidence with performance skills but still understand the concepts (Lawson & Byrne, 2007). In addition, performing with “good use of space” does not necessarily show that a student understand space, because they may just be moving without considering their actions. 

While I know that time is an ongoing restraint in the primary setting, I think more time could have been devoted to the teaching and learning prior to beginning the assessment phase. This could pose issues when it comes to assessing students learning. Regardless, assessing students learning in Drama should allow students multiple opportunities and modes to showcase their learning (Lawson & Byrne, 2007). This way, the teacher can determine whether students have effectively made connections in their learning. 

Reference: 

Lawson, J., & Byrne, S. (2007). Assessing primary drama. MASK (1). pp. 18-21. retrieved from: http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au/fullText;dn=952264870860918;res=IELHSS

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Resource - Digital Technologies

https://scratch.mit.edu/

Scratch is a program which enables students to meet a number of outcomes for the Digital Technologies Curriculum. Scratch supports Algorithmic thinking and design as students define problems and follow steps to solve them. Through the program students can program interactive stories, games and animations and share with an online community. 

For more tools and resources see: (these are primarily coding focused)

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/cool-tools-to-help-kids-learn-to-code

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Resource - Digital technologies

http://codecode.ninja/

- syntax highlighting for JavaScript, Ruby, Python and more  - learn by typing (because we code by typing)  - you can use typing cards to learn things such as shell commands and vim commands  - keystroke flashcards  - one-line to multi-line code structures  While access to CodeCode NINJA is only free for 30 days, the website offers free features. see: http://codecode.ninja/shared 

Code academy provides class resources and materials here: https://www.codecademy.com/schools/curriculum/resources  Resources provided on the above website guide teachers on how to teach the fundamentals of coding.

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Resource - Design and Technologies

(pictured above: an outcome of google sketchup) 

Google Sketchup - a free downloadable 3D drawing software which is downloadable from: http://help.sketchup.com/en/article/60107 The program allows students to create realistic designs with ease. This resource would engage and challenge upper primary students and prepare them for design and technologies as they move into year 7. Such a design program enables students to work within a number of CD’s including: “develop project plans that include consideration of resources... (ACTDEP028),” “generate, develop and communicate design ideas and processes for audiences... (ACTDEP025),” “investigate characteristics and properties of a range of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment and evaluate the impact of their use (ACTDEK023)”

Design programs provide a representation of an otherwise abstract idea. Students can easily analyse and compare these abstract ideas when they are made accessible through design. 

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Engaging - Digital Technologies

(pictured above: NAO robot) 

http://www.educatoronline.com.au/news/school-uses-robot-to-revive-ancient-language-226409.aspx

The above article discussed the endeavour of one school to revive a language through the use of a robot. NAO robots were programmed by students and teachers at Maitland Lutheran School to speak Narungga. Narungga is the language of the traditional owners of the land which Maitland Lutheran School resides. There is only one fluent speaker of the language in the world. Students feel real connection and engagement towards such an endeavour. It connects students to their culture and heritage, as 23% of students at the school identify as Aboriginal. 

This article revealed how the digital technologies curriculum can be brought to life through creative projects which have authenticity to students. It showed how digital technologies could be used to solve a problem for the future local community (Explain how student solutions and existing information systems are sustainable and meet current and future local community needs ACTDIP021). Projects which engage students in digital technologies processes and production skills extend their future capabilities to use data to; design, improve and evaluate solutions.

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Engaging - Design Technologies

http://au.educationhq.com/news/33312/design-and-technologies-never-more-important/

This article written by a design and technologies teacher, calls for the need of a future focused design and technologies content. While many teachers have already taken on the task of teaching design and technologies, the teaching can often lack “forward thinking” and ability “real-application.” The author describes how the architects of tomorrow will create 3D computer aided designs (CADs) which will be used by the entire construction industry. This means that CAD should be an integral part of design and technologies classes. 

The author also discussed how planning and creating must be future thinking. Considering how to design something that is also productive, cost effective and ethical, enables high order thinking skills. Students consider the impact of their designs and create them accordingly. The teacher should facilitate the discussion of such economic, environmental and social impacts of their designs and lead students direction of analysis.

For example: instead of the production of a single chair. What would be the social and economical impacts if the chair was produced on a larger scale? Would materials need to be changed? How would it be profitable? 

This poses the need for in-depth, hands-on (where possible) and focused learning experiences of design and technologies in the classroom. Otherwise students learning will be surface value if design and technologies content continues to be an afterthought. 

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Educational resources - Media Arts

Educational texts for teaching media arts: https://www.atomqld.org.au/resources/texts/

Look Again! - Teaching guide using Film with 3 to 11 year olds, appears to be informative and relevant for MTeach students 

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Resource - Media Arts

Generator from the Australian Centre for the Moving Image:

On this website students can watch videos created by their peers and create films using a Storyboard Generator. The tool offers support throughout the process and provides access to copyright-free resources via a media library. The website also contains tips from industry professionals. link: http://generator.acmi.net.au/

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Engaging - Visual Arts

http://theconversation.com/why-is-teaching-kids-to-draw-not-a-more-important-part-of-the-curriculum-60379

This article discussed why drawing is a valuable learning experience for students as they grow as learners. While the article focused on the value gained from drawing, this could be extended to other concepts which are taught in the visual arts strand. Many skills which are explicitly taught in visual arts can play a role in cognitive development. Visual arts can extend to creative thinking and writing, develop hand-eye coordination, improve analytic skills and further conceptualisation.

This is important to consider when developing lessons: how does this contribute to the students? Not only does it tick a box for this particular CD, but what are the students gaining from the learning experience.

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Resources - Visual Arts

http://learning.qagoma.qld.gov.au/ 

This website contains collections of artworks which are useful for teaching art and potentially history. Artworks range in art form (drawing, media, installation, painting, photography, print, sculpture), theme (country/place, history/ culture, life/people), and collection area (Asia and Pacific, Australian, Indigenous Australian, International). 

Each piece of art is accompanied by the concepts which underpin the piece of art (possible extensions for learning), questions for discussion and a related classroom activity. 

The search is useful for finding resources which relate to a chosen topic. For example, if students were learning about how to “use materials, techniques and processes to explore visual conventions when making artworks (ACAVAM111);” and I searched “materials,” art pieces which are useful for discussing materials appear. One particular art piece which the search turned out was “Heard (Detail)” by Nick Cave [pictured above]. 

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Resource - Visual Art

Schrock’s revised taxonomy is a useful tool for teaching art in primary school. This is because it emphasised the interconnection between levels and ideas. Rather than working within one cognitive process; undertaking learning which engages all cognitive processes shows how they work together. 

This could be applied in the visual art classroom, where the teacher sets a creating task which requires students to engage in the other cognitive processes throughout. Doing so would result in an improved creation which has more substance than a task which were solely “creating” or solely “understanding.” This avoids tasks which are based on assessing craft skills or test tasking skills. 

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Resources - Music

A music resource for students with a hearing impairment - A booklet with information and support for teaching students with a hearing impairment. This is valuable as it is a common misconception that students who have a hearing impairment are unable to access a music education. You can download the booklet from: http://www.ndcs.org.uk/me2/are_you_an_organisation/arts/music.html

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Teaching scale through movement - This video examples an idea on how to incorporate learning scales through movement. While the video focuses on pentatonic scale, the idea could be applied to teaching notes on the lines of the treble clef (e,g,b,d,f). The notes and lines of the treble clef could be drawn on the floor and the teacher and students could jump between the notes and lines while singing the corresponding notes. link: http://funmusicco.com/bobby-mcferrin-demonstrates-the-power-of-the-pentatonic-scale

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A number of great IPad apps are listed on the website: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/02/30-ipad-apps-for-music-teachers.html

including: Garage Band, SoundPrism, Avid Scorch and inHarmony

Many of the apps extend students ability to compose, play and practice a variety of music.

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Teaching music in the 21st century

Randles, C. (2016). “Why music lessons need to keep up with the times.” The Conversation.  http://theconversation.com/why-music-lessons-need-to-keep-up-with-the-times-58268 

While this article was written in reference to the American education system, I think it holds ideas which are also relevant to the Australian situation. The article discussed how music education does not reflect our musical experience; as makers and consumers. As makers of music, our ability to make music has been altered through technology which brings new ways to create, record and share. A lot of the music which youth listen to is digitally produced, but their music education is widely a Western European model. 

This leaves most students unmotivated to learn music, as they gradually begin to tune out; especially in later schooling when their choice to learn music is extended. To heighten the relevance and interest in music to students in the 21st century, digital technologies can be used to produce music. 

Students are increasingly present in online environments such as YouTube, and learning how to produce music for such platforms would connect learning and actions. This connects to the CD: “Rehearse and perform music including music they have composed by improvising, sourcing and arranging ideas and making decisions to engage an audience (ACAMUM090).” 

The ability to mix tracks online or with software is extending the capabilities of music further than what is achievable through solely instruments. They will not only have the ability to make music but also the ability to record and share. It also allows students who may believe they have no musical inclination to realised their potential through technology. The opportunities are plentiful when looking at the curriculum and could be extended through a simple recording device where resources are lacking. 

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Resource - Media Arts 

Photo: Memac Oglivy & Mather Dubai, Gute Werbung/UN Women (2013). 

Posters developed for UN Women to reveal gender inequality and discrimination of women online. The posters were part of a social campaign (The Autocomplete Truth) which circulated online. 

Political posters or photos such as the one above would be useful resources for students to visit in Media Arts. Political photos and posters present an array of ethical and publication issues which can be considered. Students are presented with the opportunity to engage in analysing how successful posters are made, and work towards developing and creating their own. 

This resource would connect well in the year 5 and 6 Media Arts Curriculum where students explore representations of others which are represented in media. (ACAMAM062) (ACAMAM064) (ACAMAR065)

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Resource - Media Arts

https://www.playposit.com/login?redirect=true&url=%2Fdash%3F

Above is a link to an app/ website called PlayPosit. The website enables students and teachers to engage further with videos on YouTube. Content such as images, texts and questions and quizzes can be embedded into a video. This presents an opportunity to teachers to alter a video being presented with extra information such as prompts. It also enables teachers to assign the PlayPosit directly to their class and monitor student performance of quizzes. This provides the opportunity for further formative assessment which is accessible online. 

This would be a great tool for summarizing, critical questions, formative assessment, revisiting knowledge and test preparation. 

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Engaging -  Media

http://theconversation.com/media-arts-should-be-at-the-core-of-the-australian-curriculum-33401

Senior Research Follow from the Queensland University of Technology, Ben Goldsmith, criticized the review of the Australian Curriculum (2014).The review was criticized because of the recommendation to remove many of The Arts subjects, including Media Arts. It is supposed that Media Arts is “already covered” in other strands. Goldsmith argued that this is damaging to the development of students digital media literacy education. This education is valuable because students:

- see how media is constructed (is it biased etc.).  - learn valuable technical production skills  - learn communication skills  - learn how to be an ethical creator, user and consumer 

Some of these skills reveal how the lack of Media Arts in the Curriculum could be detrimental to students prospects in the 21st century. Students must learn to recognise when the information they are presented with is viable. And while students already engage with media (increasingly social media) they may not have understanding of ethical and privacy implications. Goldsmiths argument for Media Arts in the Curriculum, is valuable as it highlights the mistake in assuming that students are “digital natives.” They learn to develop key skills in addition to strengthening general capability including ethical understanding, personal and social capability and information and communication technology capability. 

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Research literature - Digital technologies

Research article: Hilton, A., & Hilton, G. (2013). Incorporating digital technologies into science classes: Two case studies from the field. International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning 8(3).

Digital technologies in the science class 

This research article outlines the impact of digital technologies on teaching and learning. This is extended by the articles focus on two case studies. While both studies differ, they both revealed that the teacher has the ability to adapt the curriculum in order to integrate digital technologies. It also presented ideas on how digital technologies should be integrated in a way which inspires meaningful application. The meaningful application of digital technologies in the first case study was through digital video production – which had been deemed beneficial by various sources. The second case study focused on a molecular modelling and stimulation software to further learning. These case studies show how digital technologies in the classroom offer resources and tools which allow for deeper understanding of abstract thought.

Adapting the writing-to-learn model to a video-to-learn model, students experienced learning through digital technologies which challenge text-based instruction. This involved including video production as a legitimate text in the writing-to-learn model. The result, was that learning was that rather than any learning being lost, learning was improved. This is because the digital technology component in the task added educational advantages which would have otherwise been lost.

This is important to consider when teaching digital technologies through integration with other strands. Rather than segregating digital technologies as as separate endeavour in learning; consider how it can be integrated into subject learning. This will further the usability of the digital technologies, as well as serve students learning across subjects. It does not have to be a strenuous task, as was exampled by the inclusion of a video production task within the traditional writing-to-learn model. Pre-existing models which are usable already exist; it is about finding how digital technologies align with these pre-existing models in the classroom.