Thursday, March 24, 2011
Frankie's Book Review: My Review
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Feedback: So Far
This is the feedback I have received so far about my promo poster. The person who said they weren’t sure that their comment was showing on blogger (which it wasn’t) later called me to give me her feedback. She said it was very well done and asked me what program I used to create it. I used Serif PhotoPlus as this is the software I have at home and am more familiar with. She suggested that the second line of text at the top could be in a smaller font to highlight who the two characters are in the story. I will take this suggestion into consideration but will not take any actions before I recieve a bit more feedback and some input from my group as I have emailed them all a copy of the poster.
I have posted the link on Facebook again and I am hoping it will spark a bigger response.
EDIT
Frankie and Jack received my email and commented on my work via Blogger. Here is their feedback...
Writing a Song
Over the last 3 months, we have been working towards writing a song within our music lessons. We started off just improvising at the keyboard using just the pentatonic scale. All these sessions can be found on my blog (I will post links at the end). Once we had sorted out the chord pattern and an outline of some lyrics, we started practicing on different instruments. Olly is playing the guitar throughout and Frankie is tackling the piano. Jack has no instrument at he moment and we are currently still deliberating as to whether he will play one as he raps a section of the song in the middle. Olly and Mr Truscott taught me a basic rhythm on the drums which I have mastered and will be playing in the song.
This process has been very gradual as we didn’t really know we were developing the skills we needed to carry out this process at first. We also watched a video on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I )
This shows just what you can do with only four chords!!
Here are the links to the blog entries in order...
Also here are the links to our song and to my research about existing songs on gender equality...
The only reason I posted the links is because I have tracked my progress throughout this process and I think some quality would be lost (due to forgetting certain things that happened) and also, if it’s already been done, then it’s a bit pointless doing it twice.
Axis of Awesome - 4 Four Chord Song
Sorry about the bits of swearing in it...I couldn't find the version we saw at school without the swearing in it.
Promo Poster: Response
I posted a link to my blog entry showing my promotional poster on my Facebook account as I thought that would be a good way to get lots of feedback and comments. Unfortunately, I didn’t recieve the response I was rather hoping. I think this may be due to the fact that I posted the link in the middle of the day. Maybe if I post it again in the evening which is the peak time that people usually go on Facebook, then I will get a better response.
Promo Poster: Frankie vs Jack
I have produced a promotional poster for our performance about gender equality. We have decided to base the play on Little Red Riding Hood. we discussed photo's and posers within our group and came up with the idea of half of Frankie's face (Little Red) and half Jack's face (Wolf) so I made a draft at home an decided to but it on a poster so here it is. I plan to e-mail this to my team mates and get their feedback and edit it if necessary. Please comment!!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Our Song About Gender Equality
Boys and Girls- written and performed by Olly Smith, Frankie Cooney, Abi Lee and jack Silkstone
(Intro 2 bars)
Verse 1
Girls can play football
Guys can dance
If their all given an equal chance
(2 bar musical bit)
Verse 2
Guys can like their pinks
Girls can like their blues
Many different colours surround the genders too
Rap
(Jacks rap, Abi starts to drum only using the kick drum)
Gender can pop up in everyday life
From jobs to sport to films and music to
So remember what I said today
Don’t bother trying to discriminate because
Chorus
(Olly stop guitar, Frankie only playing piano)
We are all the same
We only get judged by what we do
If I’m female then so are you, so are you
(3 bar musical bit all instruments start to play)
End chorus
(Only Frankie and Olly play the intro part for the end)
We are all the same
We only get judged by what we do
If I’m male then so are you, so are you
The chord pattern is
G D Em C
Theatre In Education: Definition
When schools take students to the theatre it is usually to see a particular production. TiE, on the other hand, starts with an educational topic or debate and develops a show around it. There are a number of companies in the UK that specialise in producing theatre to be performed in schools. Such productions often have drama workshops attached and may involve the pupils in the performance itself.
Because these groups specialise in educational work, the performances have been designed with particular aspects of the curriculum in mind. Some will always link their work to a particular Key Stage, whilst others will design various projects for different ages. In addition, a number of companies aim their performances at specialised groups, for example, Oily Cart Children's Theatre works with students with multiple learning disabilities. TiE productions are also especially adapted for touring, making them flexible enough to perform well in school settings.
How does TiE compare with other theatre forms?
Children's theatre
Children's theatre is not always based on a specific curriculum area and may be part of the work of a non-specialised company. It could bring a children's story to life rather than having an educational focus on a particular topic, and is often aimed at the under-12 age group. In contrast, TiE companies usually travel to meet their audiences and address a specific topic of interest. They can cater for age groups up to 25-year-olds.
Community theatre
Community theatre companies and TiE share some of the same common ground, since both target their work at a particular social group and offer workshops in a socially motivated theatrical form. Cardboard Citizens works with homeless and ex-homeless people, while Clean Break works with female ex-prisoners. However, such companies go further than TiE companies, in that they usually carry out training projects for adults in the particular area they are interested in, e.g. helping women get back to work. Further details on community theatre companies can be found at the British Council website.
Source: http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/teachingandlearning/library/theatreineducation/
Miss Woffinden's Work: Review
On March 1st, Miss Woffinden gave us all some handouts of extracts
from her coursework when she studied T.I.E at University. I picked out the first section straight away...
from her coursework when she studied T.I.E at University. I picked out the first section straight away...
I found that I needed to find out the origins of T.I.E as i found out it “emerged in the 1960’s” by the Belgrade Theatre Company and it was formed by a director named Tony Richardson and a teacher named Gordeon Vallins.
Our group also needs to review its “educational aims” and how to “engage the audience”.
“Workshops are as important as the performance”. I picked this out as I am very interested in the workshop part and I am really going to press this point in my group.
Miss Woffinden also mentioned “Pit Prop Theatre” which is another T.I.E company I was not aware of and will have to look into deeper.
I also picked up on the fact she set herself tasks to do for the following week. This is something some members of our team could do with paying more attention to.
When Miss was talking about rehearsals, she mentioned improvising. She said “I found this method of working more productive”. I will suggest this to my group as when I received their feedback from when we devised our hotseating, they all seemed confident and enjoyed improvising.
This is Miss Woffinden’s spider diagram of her ideas for her workshop.
I circled the title of the next page. “SHARING RESEARCH”. This is something the boys in our group really need to work on as Frankie and I seem to be doing most of the work at the moment. I saw the quote “the use of empathy which is used to assist the pupils in learning” as I am going to challenge this assumption. Our play is going to be different and use humour to educate as this is something I personally am interested in and thinking about using different strategies to assist learning as empathy is not the only one.
As I mentioned before, I am very interested in the role of the joker so took great interest in this spider diagram.
S.E.A.L
(Social and Emotional Aspects of Leaning)
· Self Awareness
· Managing Feelings
· Empathy
· Motivation
· Social Skills
· Learning Outcomes
P.L.T.S's
(Personal Learing and Thinking Skills)
· Self Manager
a) Be Organised
b) Manage Emotions
c) Go For It, Finish It
d) Manage Risk
· Creative Thinker
a) Imagine
b) Question Assumptions
c) Take Creative Risks
d) Make Links
· Effective Participator
a) Persuade Others
b) Identify Issues
c) Find solutions
d) Get Involved
· Reflective Learner
a) Set Yourself Challenges
b) Plan-Do-Review
c) Invite Feedback
d) Share Learning
· Team Worker
a) Take Responsibility
b) Evaluate The Team
c) Build Team Strengths
d) Manage The Team
· Independent Enquirer
a) Reach Conclusions
b) Evaluate Evidence
c) Explore A Question
d) Stay Objective
Mar 1st: Drama
On February 8th, we discussed the roles within our groups and within a real TIE company. We came up with many roles such as director, playwright, actors, production team, front of house/workshop leader, musical director and composer. We then put our name next to which roles we thought we were. Mine looked something like this...
· Director – Abigail
· Playwright – Abigail
· Actors – Abigail
· Production team
· Front of house/workshop leader – Abigail
· Musical Director
· Composer
As you can see, my name is down for 4 out of the 7 roles we discussed. Obviously, I am not the only actor or director or playwright as we are all doing those jobs!
We drew a table last week with our team member’s names on one side and skills we took from the PLTS’s (Personal Learning and Thinking Skills) up the other. We then had to evaluate each person in the team. My table looked like this...
Key:
/ is a tick
X is a cross
--- is in-between
Olly told me that I was a self manager, creative thinker, effective participator, independent enquirer, reflective thinker, used my initiative and am a team worker. Olly didn’t give me any targets, partly because we didn’t have time. When we shared our feedback with the group, he couldn’t give me a target so Miss Woffinden gave me one. She said I have to be more assertive with my feedback which I agree with as I sometimes can be a bit hesitant in not wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings or sound too harsh.
I am very happy with my feedback from Olly, the only thing is, I wish he could have given me more targets so that I had something to work towards as I gave him several but Miss Woffinden had to give me mine. Afterwards, with the class, they all thought of more targets to give me when they heard I was a little disappointed when we’d given our feedback. Francesca said I can sometimes get carried away with my ideas and Miss Woffinden said that I should trust that other people have ideas and also to find out what other people’s strengths are and accommodate to them.
I agree with this feedback I received but it is hard for me to trust other people with ideas and work as I have done in the past but been let down and disappointed so I do find it hard. Also, i didn’t quite understand what Francesca meant when she said I sometimes get carried away with my ideas.
We then got given a giant calendar and had to work out a rehearsal schedule. I couldn’t do this task as I was the only person in my team in school. We discussed that you had to find out deadlines and when your free, find available space and book it, mark in when holidays and work experience was and work around it.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Mar 1st: Music
On March 1st, Mr Truscott was teaching us about transposing music and how roman numerals are used to do so. We said that in the key of C, there are no sharps or flats, in the key of G, there is only F# and in the key of F, there is only Bb. We then wrote out the chords in the key of G with roman numerals under each one like so...
D E F# G A B C
B C D E F# G A
G A B C D E F#
I II III IV V VI VII
Mr Truscott then said that chords 1, 4 and 5 go together well as do 2 and 6 but chords 3 and 7 didn’t really go very well. This is the same for every key. By using roman numerals, you can write a chord pattern and show it to someone; they can then play it in whatever key they like. This makes it easier to transpose music as the chords will change but the numbers will be the same.
We made a grid like this to fill in with our chord pattern.
Feb 28th: Music
On February 28th, we talked about how to write a song. Mr Truscott said that if you write the lyrics, then the chord pattern, and then create a tune over the top, it makes it easier, in his opinion to bring together a song. I was with Olly and we were given a sheet of sugar paper to write down words about our topic (gender equality) and sentences we could use as lyrics.
We wrote the words:
v Chances
v Boys
v Girls
v Stereotype/typical
v Equal
v Acceptance
v Sex/Gender
v Abuse
v Male
v Female
v Bullied
v Same
v Verbal
For the lyrics side of the sheet, I recalled a quote Miss Woffinden said. I then looked in my notebook and found that she’d said, “Treating people equally is not treating them the same. It’s treating them so they have the same chances.” I thought this would make a good chorus or opening line as I think it’s quite a powerful statement and makes you think about equality in a different way.
Olly also contributed “The men need to treat the women the same and the women need to treat the men the same.”
While Olly worked out some chords, I worked on some lyrics. I came up with, “Girls can do football and guys can dance, if they’re both give an equal chance”. I came up with this from thinking about Miss Woffinden’s statement. Olly came up with a chord pattern of
G C D
Songs About Gender and Gender Equality
I researched songs about gender stereotypes and equality. Here is the list I compiled; I will later add links to the songs.
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