Week 8: Media Arts Lecture

 

What are the Media Arts ?

 

This week’s lecture was lead by Miranda Jefferson, which is a new aspect of creative arts in the NSW Australian Curriculum. Having said that, I was very excited and willing to delve into this component of the unit, as I have never had a chance to learn more about it.  Nowadays technology is rapidly growing and increasing through today’s world with many more expectations to come, so children have experienced and seen the range of technologies out there, which are linked closely with Media Arts. Walsh (2004) believes “Literacy practices of students outside school reveal engagement with mobile, gaming, and digital technologies with less interest in reading and writing print-based texts, particularly literature.” (p.14). I strongly believe this to be as it enhances a child’s learning through engaging them with the use of technology but also integrating other Key Learning Areas with Creative Arts and other curriculum areas. This helps to support student’s learning and engagement in making meaning with media arts as well as connecting ideas from other peers as collaborative team. Moreover, an assessment idea for teachers could be the use of film making, but it also allows teacher’s and future teacher’s like myself, to integrate film making with all of the creative arts strands by making connections to other KLA’S like: English through writing a script, drama; through role play. Film learning is an example of a sociocultural approach to learning because learning in this area relies heavily on the collaboration of learners who bring their own unique knowledge and backgrounds to the creative learning process. Film is a collaborative art form." (Anderson & Jefferson, 2009, p.12).

 

References:

Anderson, M., & Jefferson, M. (2009). Teaching the screen: Film education for generation next. Sydney, NSW: Allen & Unwin.

Walsh, M (2004). Multimodal literacy: researching classroom practises: Primary English Association (e:lit). - New Literacy practises.

Week 7: Visual Arts Workshop "Making our Puppets"

Making our Puppets!

This week we began our visual arts component of the unit where we began making our puppets. As a group, we discussed and thought about our scene, our feelings of our characters, their traits and persona, as well as how we wanted to make our characters. As far as it goes, we have watched several puppet shows but we have never made puppets before. Fortunately, with the help of group work and decision-making, we were able to collaborate using our ideas effectively as a group, which was helpful throughout our making of the puppets. Collaborative learning activities engage peers in subject-specific discussion, promote cooperation and support, develop teamwork and communication skills, assimilate multiple view to deepen knowledge and promote critical thinking, foster individual accountability, structure out-of-class learning and mitigate learner isolation (Collaborative learning, 2013).

Coming from a student’s perspective this was a great first and hands on experience to learn about the making of puppets, and demonstrate our ideas into practice which to me could be easily utlilised in any classroom setting. For the making of our puppets I used a range of different materials such as toilet rolls, shredded paper, cotton string, satin, cotton material, and thick black fabric for the stepmother’s dress which we thought conveyed her character effectively. With the help of our collaborative skills, I felt like it helped us to gain an idea in thinking strategically on what materials were needed and how they could be used to convey meaning of our character to the intended audience of our film. In taking part in such a wonderful, inspiring, engaging experience allowed me to understand how the use of puppets is so crucial, effective, and beneficial to utilise in a classroom. This lead to my perception where students not only learn by looking at puppets and making them but also become creative learners by developing their creativity and imagination in the process of making puppets. Not only it is an experience of creativity and imagination but it also leads to student’s ability to collaborate effectively with their peers during the process of puppet making.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference:
Collaborative learning. (2013). Retrieved 25th April 2013, from http://otl.curtin.edu.au/learning_teaching/philosophy_teaching/student_centred/collaborative.cfm

 

 

Week 6: Visual Arts Lecture "An Introduction to Puppetry"

Week 6: Introduction to Puppetry

What  a fantastic, inspiring lecture we had this week by a well known Puppeteer and primary teacher Kay Yasugi, who graduated from Sydney University specialising in Primary Education and puppets. Kay’s definition of puppetry is “the art of bringing inanimate objects to life", she demonstrated her insightful definition through her very own wonderful demonstrations of how to manipulate a puppet’s movement and bring the puppet’s trait and persona to life using a range of voices. One of my main highlights to Kay’s lecture was the significance of purpose when making considerations on any puppet. Kay introduced Rocky the Racoon (see below), Bina the Butterfly, a puppet she uses specifically for writing activities – this effective for when teaching children with English as second language as encourages students to write and achieve their skills and outcomes in writing. When Kate Introduced Rocky her purpose was so effective as she made his movements quite small and calm which engaged and grabbed the audience’s attention. The following pictures introduce a variety of puppets that Kay bought to life using such inspiring voice, character, and personality.

 Kay believes "puppets are important for students as it its engaging in getting people's attention- it’s good for multiple intelligences, good for visual learners, good for communication and good for shy students, puppets were students are behind the screen are good for students, it’s good for confident/ extroverted students and good for all ages and abilities"

This is Rocky the Racoon, whose purpose is to capture the student’s attention and calm them, bringing the whole classroom together.

The following  video shows Kay’s use of puppets, where she uses a range of voices to portray the personality and character of the puppet to the audience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m5YUERRiTM&feature=youtu.be

Overall, Kay’s lecture has allowed me to reflect on ways I could utilise puppets in my own classroom, which lead to a idea of not only incorporating in my classroom but also using a variety of puppets which might be useful when teaching a multilingual classroom. The following video shows Kay Yusagi and Kate Roberts who teaches at the University of Sydney, a unit called teaching multilingual classrooms where she shares her ideas on how puppets can be used for a variety of purposes. This also allows for cross-curriculum ideas demonstrating the integration of the arts in the curriculum.

http://youtu.be/Xrh3ZtGdRBQ

Week 5: Drama Workshop 3 "Bringing Puppets to Life"

 

Week 5: Drama Workshop 3 – 11/4/13

                                   

                                         OH! I WISH I CAN GO TO THE BALL!!  

 In this week’s workshop, we thought about how we will bring our critical moment to life with our handmade puppets and improvised script. My group and I considered how the quality of our voices changes depending on the emotion being conveyed by our chosen characters. We also considered how the personality of the character changes according to the many different scenes from our critical moment. During this workshop, we were given the opportunity to create our puppets using the materials: newspapers, net, balloons, textas, and rubber bands. Before we began making our puppets we wrote up a short script to use when performing our Scene. I created and improvised on being the evil, viscous stepmother where I used a newspaper and made a twist in the middle and drew her eyes with a angry face using a black texta, I brought it to life with a certain character depicting the evil stepmother.

                                                                                     
Unfortunately, my improvised puppet wasn’t complete and made to perfection. However, this insightful experience made me realise that puppetry is not just about the purpose and making, it encounters many detailed aspects on: who is the character? Choice of setting? What viewpoint is the puppet looking? What messages are being conveyed to the audience and what are the emotions of the audience? What is being portrayed to the audience?

Overall, It felt like the puppets came to life and that the puppets were in role and focus intent. It was a new experience to take aboard for my future teaching as it made me realise that when using puppets to perform you are performing in a dramatic role. "Part of the never-ending appeal of puppetry lies in the fact that the puppet is the focus of attention, and so the puppeteer feels safe." (Ewing & Simons, 2010, p.53). What really amazed was the amount of critical thinking and decision-making surprised me, which made me consider good aspects add  into my teaching. This has opened several opportunities to incorporate puppets into my teaching.

http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=z08titE6s1A&feature=youtube – This video shows our scene focusing on our critical moment of the fairy tale ‘Cinderella’.

 

 

Ewing, R. & Simons, J. (2010). Beyond the script: Drama in the classroom take 2. Newtown, NSW: Primary English Teaching Association

 This is the script that my Group and I came up with when performing our  critical moment scene of Cinderella.

                       

Week 4- Drama workshop 2 - No Workshop "Good Friday"

 

Thursday 28th of March 2013

Good Friday - No drama workshop

Week 3 - Drama Workshop 1 "Cinderalla Storyboard"

 

 

Week 3:

Drama Workshop 1 – 21/3/13

“If you see the magic in a fairy tale, you can face the future” (Steel, D).

In Today’s drama workshop 1, we created a storyboard (narrative) for our critical moment of our chosen fairytale ‘Cinderella’ and presented our work in the form of a storyboard. As a group, we decided to focus on the critical moment where Cinderella watches her stepmother and stepsisters getting ready for the ball and she comes along thinking she is going but then her evil stepmother takes away Cinderella's dream. We drew pictures of our critical moment in a series of events and came up with a narrative on what is happening under each scene of the storyboard. Together we presented our critical moment scene of Cinderella to the class were we role played each scene and read our narrative to the class while improvising for the some of the events we drew. For future implications for my teaching, I would utilise this activity into my classroom, as it is fun and engaging for students where students work together as a team and improvise together a script for their chosen fairytale. This allows students to take on a persona and trait, which therefore students input is valued and all the elements of creative arts are explored and demonstrated through role-play, film, and artworks. “When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.”(Albert Einstein).

NA, (2013). Quotes about fairy tales: Good Reads Inc, retrieved 23^rd March 2013 from http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/fairy-tales

Week 2 - Drama Lecture

 Week 2:

Drama Lecture - 15/3/13

In today’s lecture, we covered a range of topics, which included focusing on a critical moment in fairytales, historical and contemporary depictions of fairytale characters in print and film media, exploring narrative structure, character relationships and status on role. One experience I focused on was on ‘to make a good story we need’... this incorporated linear narrative (going forward), tension, characters, settings, coda, and story structure. This lead to my experience through critically reflecting on fairytales by focusing on what happens to the characters after the story. This highly links to Media Arts when looking at the seven parts to a story/film. Overall, from this experience the implications I take aboard for my future teaching is I would provide the structure of the story to the students as from what I learnt today it would empower the students to look upon the story. I would teach the students on how to communicate with the story, know how to construct and deconstruct a story, which leads to further discussion when making connections with the story and making meaning for an audience.

 

 

Week 1: Introductory Lecture

 

Discover a world of fairy tales...

Week 1:

Lecture 1 - 8/3/13

In today’s introductory lecture, we were introduced to the Fairytales and their significance in children’s lives. This entailed me and other peers to brainstorm a variety of Fairytales that we knew and ones that we were familiar with in our early years of life. We named fairytales like, the Princess and the Pea, Hanson and Gretel, Peter Pan, and many more. A great discussion arose on whether the story of the three little pigs was classified as a fairytale or not. This allowed me to think about my early years experiences up until today’s lecture, which shifted my perception to looking at how fairytales have been modified over time ‘before and after’ and how they are presented nowadays as oppose to the past.  Therefore, Victoria read the book ‘the true story of the three little pigs’ which lead to a great discussion on how fairytales were fractured over time and the changes that were made to the fairytale. As a result, 3 of my peers and myself grouped together and focused on a critical moment from the fairytale Cinderella, where we each took on a role of a character discussed the elements of drama (Space, Contrast, focus) and bringing the characters together to make it come alive.

 

Welcome to EDUP 3008 Creative Arts 2

'Welcome to a world of fantasy, where imagination takes you far beyond your expectations and creativity leads itself to a world of wonders..'

 

Hello and welcome to my EDUP3008 Reflective Scrapbook! My name is Souha Malak and I am currently in my 3rd year at the University of Sydney studying a Bachelor of Primary Education. This blog is for the EDUP3008 Creative Arts subject which covers drama, media arts, and visual arts.

Nowadays, we see that technology is  growing rapidly which will continue to progress in the future, as you can see by this blog itself! . 

 
My blogs will be specifically about my experiences in each of the EDUP3008 workshops, which will include entries from each of the creative art-forms: Drama, Visual Arts and Media Arts. My entries will be supported with critical reflections detailing 'the experience', wider readings and future
implications for teaching as well as images and videos to support my reflections and ideas.