Assessment task link to unit learning outcomes:
1. demonstrate advanced practical skills, knowledge and capabilities in fostering creativity through the visual arts, music, drama and movement suitable for young children (birth to eight years of age)?2. demonstrate an understanding of contemporary approaches related to the development of creativity through arts pedagogies and inquiry-based learning Australian Professional Standards for Teachers : 1.2, 2.1
Details of task: The aim of this individual assignment is to communicate, through a written paper, what you have learned so far about children's meaning making in the arts from your readings, online materials and the face-to-face workshops.
For each of the Weeks 1-4 topics, compose a 400 word written reflection explaining one key thing you learned about children's meaning making through the arts in the early years. Your discussions should aim to make concise connections between the unit materials: set readings from the textbook, concepts from the online resources and your experiences in the workshops. Show depth of thought through critical reflections that explain how your ideas have been challenged, expanded, modified or reinforced by these engagements. Show further depth by supplementing your reading of the textbook with the recommended scholarly literature.
The below are the topic for each week learning: (face to face workshop)
Week1 - Exploring art elements and principles - drawing activity
Using the concept of “vibrant matter” presented by Jane Bennett, as well as the scholarship of Professor Donna Haraway,
https://cultivatingalternatives.com/2013/11/28/summary-vibrant-matter-by-jane-bennett/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMBRX9EcrH8
Part 1: Individual drawing
1. (Invite students to close their eyes, and feel the page, imagining it as a space to enter into, a space in which you can find a strong place to centre and begin, when you have a sense of a strong place put your hand over that place)…
2. Imagine it as an opening…here you are not bound by the structures of a man-made environment…out here in this space there is “vibrant matter” – how do you first visualise this?
3. Use the drawing materials to make marks on the paper, representing “vibrant matter”… How are you encountering it –
as something in the distance, something nearby but outside of yourself, something that you are holding or connected to in some way…
4. Focus on the vibrant matter, draw marks to depict its movement, is there light emanating,
how do its particles form to reach up, outwards, or into the earth,
would you describe these as feelers, tentacles, fingers, tendrils, roots, snouts…
how is your drawing helping you envisage… where is your thinking as marks on the page taking you… as you imagine vibrant matter? Listen to the mental notes…
5. The thing is, vibrant matter can be animal, vegetable, and mineral, or any composits thereof, vibrant matters are not inert, they are lively intensities, related in a web…
6. Pause and look at what you have drawn,
Draw an organic shape to contain, or partly contain the vibrant matter, Is it shell, skin, transparent, opaque,
Part 2: Collaborative drawing
1. Draw your attention to the people next to you, I now invite you to work together to connect your pages (spaces),
now draw marks to connect the drawings –
Imagine a relationship between these vibrant matters, each involves other – makes kin…
diverse ecologies are constituted of complex relations of vibrant matter – being, becoming and belonging to whole…
2. In all that your vibrant matter has been, as you have imagined it just now,
Start to observe what you have drawn as abstract representations of separate and unique imaginations…talk to your partners with/through your drawing mediums…
I improvise with this…
Part 3: Reflecting
I begin to direct the placement of drawings as small collaborations, into a larger assemblage in the centre of the room – and invite everyone to gather around and dialogue about the following…
Each thing in its thing-ness, human and non-human is a part of the eccentric force of the wild, a part in and of diverse ecologies.
Why do these vibrant matters, matter?
why are they a matter for education discourse? why do the arts as the means for making meaning, matter?
(this was what happen in class)
Week 2 - Using an object or photo to make either a 2D or 3D artwork that can represent cultural connections to home country or heritage
Background for me (I was born in Hong kong and came to Australia when i was 10) you will work on your own bag, and at intervals, explore what others are doing. For a short period, during this making you will be asked to pause, and observe your own work in the context of the group. Observe the activity from a pedagogical point of view as well as from a child’s point of view through your inner child if you can.
As you will return to your making, enter into inquiry with those at your table by using your bags to make connection. I circulate and assist with group observations and whole group unity.
You will also consider taking a sequence of photos to capture your process of making and that of others.)
• Consider your cultural background – is there a way you would like to incorporate some phenomena about this culture; patterns, symbols, colours, shapes in the design that represent a matter of vibrant cultural importance.
• Explore materials
• Do some sketches if you wish to approach the task that way, or simply begin by combining materials in a pleasing way.
Discussion: 30 minutes
Gather as a whole group and take turns in talking about the artefacts and the processes behind them.
Post workshop observations:
During our classes, individual students and the group as a whole shared their making experiences, reflecting on how interwoven thoughts and memories are becoming in such process. When each time we gathered to conclude the class, the level of deep reflection was moving and inspiring. Patterns emerged in the group as, in the forms of bags, we explored what each of us has to bring to teaching and learning scenarios. Various use of weaving techniques, symbols, purposeful use of colour and form, for example, provided entry points for dialogue. We learnt about the home towns, travels, geographical features, passions, family tensions, cultural expectations, personal challenges and triumphs in becoming thoughtful learners and teachers in the world. Once again, the variety of response to one prompt, to make a bag to carry your vibrant matter, unfolded into a rich collective discourse. The relationship between the arts and cultural diversity is evident in how the space of our classroom is transforming simultaneously with our shared inquiry.
They are the arts that my classmates created (need to refer to what we have done in class)
Week 3 activities: listening creatively, sonic maps, connecting to the world through soundscapes and performing musical stories
please use the set text book pp. 226-229 to assist you in creating a
soundscape with what’s at hand - voice, water, percussion, nature - be
creative. Record your soundscape, to assist with your reflection.
In class, first we watched a video about soundscape, sound of drawing, the children in the video were wearing handphone and listen to the sound that they heard and draw whatever they feel and hear from the headphone. After we watched the video, my group has found different materials around the room such as water bottle, pen, tissue boxes, sticky tape to create a sound track.
Week 4 activities: expressive bodies, moving creativity, physical sculpture, performing stories
This is what we did in class:
Warm up - exploring how the body can move - developmental movement
stages from 0 to 2 years
• Discussion of movement possibilities - isolating and coordinating parts of the body
•Reflect on the following exploration of movement: start lying on the floor exploring head movement - ‘starfish’ add arms and legs exploration - using head to initiate rolling onto stomach (and further starfish) - full rolling - push back, backwards sliding/crawling - forwards crawl - reaching & balancing - spider crawl - push to standing. See text book p. 147.
'Where the Wild Things Are'
• Dramatic play, freeze frame, moving images, 'the wild rumpus', teacher in role, props/puppetry
• If you were away, take some time to read the textbook pp. 192-194; then watch 'Where the Wild Things Are’
Conclude your weekly reflections with a final 400 word Position Statement on how your understandings of children's meaning making in the arts informs your intentions to support arts-rich teaching for learning in the early years. Show depth of thinking by supporting your statement with clear explanations about why you hold that position.
Word count/equivalent: 2000 words
First person prose and APA academic referencing is expected. Your reference list is not included in the word count.
DO NOT need introduction and conclusion
Criteria for marking: (please find the attached marking rubric for your reference)
1. Discussions that show understanding of children's meaning making in the arts 2. Engagement with unit materials that shows depth of reflection?
3. Clear position on teaching for children's meaning making through the arts?
4. Effective communication and academic literacy