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Module Specifications

Archived Version 2020 - 2021

Module Title
Module Code
School

Online Module Resources

NFQ level 10 Credit Rating 5
Pre-requisite None
Co-requisite None
Compatibles None
Incompatibles None
Description

The importance of the arts to human development and well-being underpins this module. In the visual arts and music components students engage with the various strands to increase their confidence and competence in making art and music and develop insight into children’s meaning-making in the arts as well as a critical understanding of the practical and theoretical aspects of teaching children at primary level.

Learning Outcomes

1. Draw on a critical understanding of the principles that inform the primary visual art and music curriculums and on their working knowledge of the strands of activity and concepts to design, teach and assess imaginative and engaging activities for children’s learning in music and visual art.
2. Demonstrate a growing personal competence and skill in music and art making, applying an understanding of the fundamental principles and practices of each curriculum area and incorporating the use of digital media in creating, recording of work and in teaching.
3. Confidently lead children’s music-making and art-making with an awareness and understanding of children’s diverse needs and learning processes in music and art in ways that nurture and support children’s growing creative skills while deepening children’s awareness of the expressive potential of music and art.
4. Respond insightfully to music and artworks using an appropriate specialist vocabulary to consider both technical and affective aspects and to communicate an awareness of the multiple ways in which visual art and music have a role in individual and societal meaning making.
5. Sensitively use a developing repertoire of music and art works in a range of genres and styles in ways that effectively create a relationship between children and the music or artwork based on their own knowledge and judgement.
6. Integrate a range of ways in which children can represent sounds in symbols and gestures across the stands of activity and express meaning through visual media.



Workload Full-time hours per semester
Type Hours Description
Workshop48Art (24 hrs); Music (24 hrs)
Assessment Feedback18Written lesson plan inspired by a chosen work of art (10 hrs); Music Composing Project (8 hrs)
Independent Study20Completion of art-works begun in workshops for inclusion in portfolio (10 hrs); Music Independent listening work book (10 hrs)
Independent Study39Music and Art Independent reading, planning and preparation
Total Workload: 125

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Learning through the arts and movement (B) Music and Visual Arts
Music and Visual Arts focus on unique ways of learning and engaging with the world. While they each have discrete and distinctive modes of engagement and practice, they both draw on aesthetic engagement with auditory and visual media, developing children’s sensitivity to the beauty and power of artworks. They provide an inclusive and non-verbal mode of expression and symbolic meaning-making which can cross cultural and linguistic boundaries and create historical, social and geographical links. In this module through active appreciation, enquiry, expression and creation in music and visual arts, students acquire a basis for the pedagogical content knowledge necessary for effective teaching in primary schools. In tandem they develop an understanding of the power of the arts to shape and express personal and communal identities, connect and engage participants beyond surface meaning and encourage ways of working that are open-ended while drawing on and affirming a growing set of skills and competencies in ways that are ultimately personally satisfying.

Art Education
Teaching of basic art and design skills in the six art strands and development of visual awareness and understanding of the visual arts elements: (1) Drawing: Looking at and responding to drawings by other artists, observing and photographing the visual elements of line, tone, colour, shape and texture in the environment. Experimentation with mark making using different drawing instruments, drawing from observation, drawing from imagination with attention to the visual elements of line, tone and texture. (2) Creating Form: Looking at and responding to examples of form, natural and man-made. Creating form with an emphasis on shape, balance, texture and line using various media e.g. clay, papier mâché, fabric and fibre. (3) Paint and Colour: Looking at and responding to colour in the environment, to colour in the work of artists. Experimenting with colour mixing and matching using primary colours in paint and other media. Working from close observation of colour and tone in natural and man-made objects and through imagination. (4) Fabric and Fibre: Exploring the properties of different fabrics and fibres, creating new fabric and fibre forms (e.g. felting), using fabric and fibre to create two and three dimensional art pieces with increased awareness of texture, colour, pattern, shape and form. (5) Printing: Making prints using various techniques e.g. cut card repeat patterns, printing plates, templates with close attention to design, shape, space, line, pattern, colour and rhythm. (6) Construction: Using a variety of media, creating abstract, semi-abstract and realistic constructions of varying sizes with an emphasis on design, form, line, shape, space and balance.

Looking at and Responding to the work of artists
In each of the strands and to natural art forms in the environment. A visit to an art gallery. (Written assignment with two components (a) Art appreciation; (b) Teaching children about art works).

An understanding of Curriculum Art in Primary Education
(1) The creative process in art making. The need for the child to "be the designer"; (2) Children's art and how it develops from early childhood to the mid-teens; (3) Planning how to help school children engage with a work of art; (4) How to plan an art lesson: Suitable theme, stimuli, use of media, dialogic techniques; (5) Classroom management during an art lesson; (6) Integrating art with other curriculum areas; (7) Use of photography and digital imagery; (8) Display of 2D and 3D art work.

An understanding of the strands and concept of the Music Curriculum
Through 12 hours of mixed workshops/lectures students gain an understanding of the principles underpinning the primary music curriculum and how the strands and concepts can be used as a framework for planning. They critically engage with the idea of music expressed in the curriculum and the understanding of a spiral curriculum in music that it contains. They further their understanding of embodied learning and knowing and of recognising and observing children’s tacit knowledge in music through practical work with the eight music concepts. They develop an understanding of how they can use a range of music materials to develop children’s ‘sense’ of these music concepts.

Child Centred methods of teaching and working with notation
This 5 hour set of workshops introduces students to an expanded concept of music notation and of using musical representation in gesture and graphic and other symbols to develop children’s music understanding while listening, performing and composing. They further develop their own skill in using standard notation.

Independent Listening workbook
This Moodle based workbook engages students with music of different genres and times and provides models of activities to create a relationship between the child and the music. Worksheets help students to know how to create a context for listening, how to engage pupils thoughtfully with significant aspects of selected pieces and challenge students to source their own listening materials based on the principles presented and to design other ways of engaging children.

Composing
This 5 week workshop based course introduces students to composing as inventing and shaping sound and through a range of practical activities supports students in developing their own group composition on a chosen theme. Following a performance of their group composition students reflect on children’s creative thinking in music.

Assessment Breakdown
Continuous Assessment% Examination Weight%
Course Work Breakdown
TypeDescription% of totalAssessment Date
Reassessment Requirement
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories;
1 = A resit is available for all components of the module
2 = No resit is available for 100% continuous assessment module
3 = No resit is available for the continuous assessment component
Unavailable
Indicative Reading List

    Other Resources

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