Student Name: Anathema Harris Student ID Number: 220045193
ENCO310 Children's Literature: Children's Picture Books and Fantasy
Assignment One
Option 2
Book Proposal
Book Proposal: Details of the Book
Hook: "Janie is a very troubled sixteen year old. Her father is missing, her step father is dead, and of her twin brother's one is had a drug overdose less than a year ago. Her other brother is gone, left to work in Antarctica as a biologist. Why? Because it's the furthest away he could get from their mother. Janie is now running for her life, trying to escape her mother and discover the secrets that are buried in her troubled families past."
Back Story: This is a story of a teenager, Janie, who is growing up fast. She is learning that her family is not like other people's families with ordinary problems, her family is far different. Last year her brother Kyle had died of an overdose that had been waiting to happen; he was deeply depressed after breaking up with his girlfriend; his twin brother Cary had taken the first opportunity to leave and hadn't come back, he and their mother had been fighting terribly. She'd already been through the disappearance of her biological father when she was a child; her step father had died of no known cause at a healthy 45, he was fit, ran a successful local paper and enjoyed many friends. There had been no real reason for him to die, her mother, the so-called mournful widow had sold his booming business and was nicely set up for life.
For quite some time Janie's mother had been putting a lot of pressure her to do various things, some of which was becoming stranger and more uncomfortable. It started rather innocently, she had asked Janie to clean out all of her toys for a charity auction; Janie had happily done so but had kept a threadbare doll she'd had since she was three, a gift from her father. Her mother had fought bitterly about it, but gave in eventually. Later requests for her to change her appearance, probes into her personal life and finally hiring a prostitute to have sex with her drove Janie to run away two weeks ago.
Novel: Janie is waiting until her mother had driven away to go to work and breaking into her own house only to find that her room had been completely cleaned out of her things, and a university student border moved in. It seemed to Janie as though her mother had completely erased her from her life.
Janie is a fugitive, taken in by squatters, living on charities for food while she starts looking into who her mother really is. She is terribly afraid of being found by the authorities and made to go back to live with her mother so she is constantly looking over her shoulder, afraid of who might be watching.
What she finds is much more shocking that she realised. Her mother is a succubi, and was grooming Janie to be the same.
Particulars: This will be a fantasy novel, set in the present time. It will be a chapter book, comprising of eight chapters. The main characters will be Janie, her mother Sarah, her brother Cary, the squatters and a friendly medium who becomes terrified at what they discover about Sarah.
Chapter Breakdown
Chapter One: Breaking In. Janie breaks into her own home and bedroom to discover that her room has been let to a university student, all of her belongings are gone.
Chapter Two: Survival of the Fittest. Janie is running. She is hiding in a squatter's community in the inner city. This chapter introduces her fellow squatters as well as illustrates her current living conditions, she is living on local charity and there is violence around her.
Chapter Three: Soul Searching. Janie starts her investigation into her family past secrets, she scours library archives for articles on her family. She also uncovers that her mother has no past records (birth certificate/family). She also uncovers that her father is missing, presumed dead, but there is a flicker of hope he still lives. There are flash backs to disturbing encounters with her mother.
Chapter Four: A Brief Interlude. Another Squatter, Pips, an older boy helps her discover that there is a big wild world out there, a supernatural one. He reveals he has 'gifts', and senses she is not human. However, he learns to trust her when they have a supernatural encounter with a demon, and they fight. She is coming to terms with being different too, she finds she is very strong when confronted by violence, and has the ability to fight.
Chapter Five: A Visitation. Pip introduces Janie to a friend of his, Sylvie, who is a medium. Sylvie agrees to try and contact her dead relatives. She is possessed not by her brother's spirit but by a demon. He tells her she is descendant and she must embrace her destiny and bring souls back to him.
Chapter Five: Mother. Janie faces her fears and goes home to confront her mother. She reveals herself to Janie as one of the Succubi, and tells her she is of the same kind. Janie tells her that she will never be that way. While her mother laughs, Janie cries and runs away. She falls into an exhausted sleep, her mother dream visits her.
Chapter Six: Changes. Jamie awakens to find Pip shaking her. He is disturbed, she's physically changed. She looks into a mirror, she has changed, taken on the appearance of a demoness. Angry, she throws the mirror and it shatters. Later, after calming down, she assures him she feels no different. Before leaving to visit her brother Cary, she goes under disguise to confront her mother. There is no resolution between them.
Chapter Seven: Revelations. Janie goes to see her brother. He is currently working in Tasmania with the Antarctic Division. He is afraid of her, but reluctantly agrees to see her. He knows everything, he knows she is a Succubi, like her mother. He tells her both their father and step father are most certainly dead or worse. Kyle too. Cary admits he left because he was afraid of ending up like them - that being in the Antarctic most of the time meant being mostly safe from their mother.
Chapter Eight: Choices. Left alone in Cary's flat, Janie must now come to terms with who/what she is. She can't reconcile it, without embracing the whole package, she can only use her physical strength; this means she can't shape change to appear human anymore. She won't go back home and live with her mother, she knows she'll eventually change into her and she can reach out in her dreams. She can't live in human society like this either.
Chapter One, Paragraph 1 - 4 (opening paragraphs which also introduces the character).
The streets were black and wet, light flashed in and out of sight, along with the swoosh of water along the road that accompanied something sleek and powerful. A cat shrieked and a large crash as something fell somewhere, and then, preternatural silence.
Janie shivered. Ice felt as if it were forming under her nose where it was dripping. Her breath formed clouds. She crouched inside the jacket that seemed to be growing too small. She waited, patiently until she heard the sound of voices, car doors slamming and the engine starting. She held her breath. Soon, she breathed to herself, soon. She wiped her nose across the back of her hand and willed the shadows around her.
The car drew out onto the street, she could see it now and she hunched down as far as she could and shut her eyes lest they give her away. As soon as the blindness was gone she quickly scanned the street and felt the lightness and quietness as a peace, no one stirred. She casually walked towards the house and towards the gate. With familiar fingers, she lifted the latch of the garden gate and slipped it quietly back into place, skirting her way towards the back of the house. The back window’s latch still broken as she remembered it, she easily climbed through and into the dark house.
Uneasily she forced herself to walk into the kitchen; it smelt the same, the clock on the wall chimed on the hour of 6 am. Though she was hungry she ignored the food. It would be too obvious. She hurried through the lounge room and clunk! Her leg grazed the coffee table. Well, she thought to herself that’s different, and continued through the house to the back rooms. The patchwork craft cat doll with Janie stitched across her dress still hung on the door.
Rationale/Aim.
Recently, the marketplace has been flooded with the supernatural, particularly vampires and super heroes. While this indicates there is a market for the supernatural themed work, there is room for other types of supernatural beings, and one that is under exploited is that of demons living amongst us, in this case Succubi. This novel will explore the idea that being 'gifted' by something supernatural or out of the ordinary, above all as an emerging young adult may not be as pleasing or useful as one may expect. It is a challenge, it examines the idea of the monster within, should we fight it or embrace it? The novel leaves Janie with a choice, to embrace or deny her birthright. It does not actually show the choice she makes, leaving it up to the reader to decide - what would one do in Janie's place?
There are questions undermining notions of the mother figure; she is invested in bringing Janie into an amoral world, one humans would consider evil. Janie has a human heart and the conscious that goes with it. She cares for people, has the potential of love. Now she has matured differently, developed a different appearance, she has become the 'other'. This would be emotionally distressing for any teenage girl. There is potential for the female protagonist, Janie, to relate to her audience even more strongly as we all have very hard decisions to make, and to learn that we all have varying views on what is right and wrong. Janie is learning to be an adult, perceive the world through adult eyes - the world is a hard place to live in. Particularly for Janie who is visually different. The empowering of Janie is that she is the one who must make her own decisions, no matter how difficult or impossible seeming.
There is also a lack of the father figure that guides and protects in this novel. Janie has had to stand alone, against great odds for a very long time, she is already strong. Greater odds are thrown her way that further complicate her position. Her "heroine's" journey is not only her own physical journey, it is also reflected as an internal journey as well. The question is how long can she keep strong?
Rationale for Selected Publisher.
Chosen Publisher: Harper Teen
HarperCollins Publishers
Att. Submission Officer, HarperTeen.com
10 East 53rd Street, New York, New York
100225299
After much searching, to my dismay, I have found many publishers are not accepting manuscripts for one reason or another. Many of the publishers are specific to the Children's Book market - and this novel is for the Young Adult market, above Grade 8.
If it were ideal, I would submit this to Harper Teen Publishing, as the novel would fit right in with their other speculative fiction titles. Some compatible novels are: Wings by Aprilynne Pike, Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingstone and the Vampire Diaries by L.J Smith. Wings is about a teen girl, Laurel, who finds out she is a fairy, she has just begun school after homeschooling for ten years, and has two male friends, one is a known quantity, the human David, and a new fairy friend who is something amazing but mysterious, Tamani (She is also supported by well known Vampire writer, Stephanie Myer). Wondrous Strange is an example of an older teen girl faced with being born with a fairy heritage and pursued by dark forces. Vampire Diaries is one of half a dozen of similarly themed books.
This novel would be aimed at the young adult, particularly female market grouping. They have a great deal of work being published under the umbrella theme of the supernatural, mainly vampires. The novel would be best suited to a publishing company that knew this market well. I believe that not only does it suit this theme, it extends it in an exciting and a new way.
The protagonist, Janie, is a half blood demoness, a succubi. She is unable to change it, though it is changing her. She is an older teen, she has fitting in issues, just as her readers might, or at least be able to relate to. Holding onto one's humanity is an age old issue, and one I think that rings true to many people.
This would be a novel that would possibly not be one that would be included in school curriculum studies for the above age group, because the fantasy novels have much been passed over for the realist novels for the librarians and teachers of this grouping. But there is a large market there within the children themselves, and I pose the question - is getting the child/teen reading any work better than have them not reading at all, or being forced to read and not enjoying it? No there is a place for the fantastic, the supernatural in teenage writing, and some of it literature worthy.
Authorial Blurb.
Anathema Harris is a university student, cares for her bipolar husband and homeschools her five children. When she is not actively pursuing the above, she lends her hand to writing. She has three poems published in various literary magazines and a short story titled Notes on a Piano in an anthology of Tasmanian writers published. She has written for the online magazine, Cheers. This is debut novel for older children.
References
Campbell, J. (1968) The Hero and the God. The Hero With A Thousand Faces. 2nd Ed. Princeton, New Jersey. Princeton University Press. Chapter 3 pp 31-39.
Chambers, Aidan. (1990) The Reader in the book. Children's Literature: The Development of Criticism. Ed by Peter Hunt. London. Routledge pp 91-115.
Cranny-Francis, A. (1989) Feminist Fantasy. Feminist Fiction: Feminist Uses Of Generic Fiction. London: Polity. Chapter 3 pp 75-106.
Crowe, C. (2002) Young Adult Literature: YA Boundary Breakers and Makers. The English Journal. Vol 91 No.6 (July 2002) Council of Teachers of English. pp116-118. http://www.jstor.org/stable/821837. Accessed on 25/09/2009
Gilead, S. (1991) Magic Abjured: Closure in Children's Fantasy Fiction. PMLA (Modern Language Assoc.), Bol. 106, No2 (March 1991) pp 277-293. http://www.jstor.org/stable/462669 Accessed: 20/09/2009
Jackson, Rosemary (1981) The Fantastic as a Mode. Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion. London. Chapter 2 pp. 13-60.
Jenkins, L. (1991). Female Stereotyping in Quest Novels. Children's Literature and Contemporary Theory. Ed. Michael Stone. Wollongong. New Literature Research Centre, Dept. of Eng. University of Wollongong. pp. 24-39.
Rustin, M. & Rustin, M. (1987) Introduction: Deep Structures in Modern Children's Fiction. Love and Loss: Studies in Modern Children's Fiction. London. pp 1-26.
Small, R. C. Jnr (2005) Bold Books for Teenagers: Strange Creatures. The English Journal. Vol. 95, No. 1 (Sept. 2005) Council of Teachers of English. pp 129-132. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30047417 Accessed: 25/09/2009
Vogler, C. (1999) Book Two: Stages of the Journey. The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters. 2nd Ed. Pan Books. London. pp.81-221.
Friday
Dance, Visual Arts, Music, Poetry and Drama Education in the Primary Classroom
Creative Experiences With Music
*The examples are very illustrative of how say pattern or rhythm are in all arts, and how that can be taught, explored, thought about. Then exploring how that can be used to create a mood.
*The blurring of the edges with other art forms, and how easy it is to implement this with a thematic approach.
*Learning about history (or other cultures) is much more immersive if there is music, art, painting, literature, sculpture, cooking, clothing, types of theatre, architecture etc
I already implement themes, I find something the children are interested in and we learn about it together, listen to music, make drawings, do cooking etc. I think we like to look at a thing as complete as we are able (they are young yet). I really like the ideas that are presented in lesson format here, it makes me feel like I've been robbing them of music! We certainly do make music, but not with the theory backing it up, so now I'm going to try implementing pattern, tone, rhythm into it, and encourage the children to make music, and use it across the arts, ie, make a poem/paint a picture or draw one that interelates.
Poetry Immersion.
*to get 'poetry back into our bones' (Tom Romanov page 46) and to get the sense and the music of the poem requires 2 readings (Eve Merriam, page 47 quoted from in Copeland 1933, 122).
*to have them read poetry, and find that natural rhythm and to preform it
*knowing when to stop is as important as knowing when to edit
I love poetry. It really is in my bones, I'd just forgotten about it. Really, above everything else, I am a poet. I got a bit jaded about writing poetry. No one around me loved it like I did, I thought to myself that poetry had indeed died, and that I'd never make a career with it. I have to realise that is not true. I certainly do not want to pass this down to the children. I'm going to read poetry aloud to them everyday, not just children's books to them (which is a daily event for us, and has been since they were babes). I'm going to just read them poetry, poetry I love, that I've written and if they choose to write a poem, I'll be glad and happy for it. I'm going to buy that book The Random House Book of Poetry for Children, I'm going to read it to them and showing them that I love poetry will hopefully allow them to embrace and exprience the passion I have for it. Even if it were true (that no one likes poetry anymore) I would love to share it within my own family anyway. Its nice to know I was wrong! After they are immersed in poetry, then I'll let it evolve from there.
Dance: The Most Ancient of Arts
*dance as language, movements as symbols as a vehicle of communication thought and feeling.
These are: pattern, line, form, shape, time, rhythm and energy (obviously links with music and drama, but all arts, and in the overall curriculum maths and social science.
*For the most ancient of the arts it is unfortunately deemed the least essential art, and that is pathetic. This to me is wrong and it should have a place of equal standing. It would go a long way in encourage healthy attitudes and bodies, I imagine.
*Encouragement for expressions through dance via the use of literature and music.
Personally, the only dancing I got to do in school was square dancing and ball room dancing. I didn't enjoy it, it was boring and repetitive and meaningless to me. Ironically, I now love to dance. I dance to many kinds of music, some of which I like only to dance to and others I like to listen to as well. I don't dance so much to express concepts, its for pure enjoyment really. I don't want this to happen to my children. I already put music on for them and encourage them to dance, but now I see I need to imbue it with meaning, get them to think about it more and to try and convey and express through non-verbal means like gesture, movement and expression.
'Encouraging play and creative drama in the classrom.'
*not impose your will onto the children, let it evolve naturally and allow them to have control
*socio-dramatic play = higher form of social play. to allow it to be meaningful for the children and for children to be aware of others similarites and differences. Eventually this becomes creative expression. (imagination and creativity, pantomime, improvisation and children's theatre are all forms of children's drama).
*Children can learn more language usage more effectively by free play than during formal teaching sessions (particularly special or disadvantaged children).
Drama is important for learning about the world and taking on roles and characters. Putting oneself in another's shoes. Again, drama can be a vehicle for organic, naturalistic learning. Allowing for the child to experiment, and control their interpretations and learning experience will be more enjoyable and memorable. My children role-play all the time, they pretend to be characters from movies they've watched, characters out of books. My toddler is fun! He loves to run around 'being' dinosaurs and 'eating' people. This sometimes spills out into the other children, and they all pretend to be dinosaurs and they think about how they can act, what they would eat, and how they should sound. This is an early version of what they should be doing. To encourage literacy, I might ask them to dramatise a book for me. What they have done already is quite good in regards to Studio Ghibli work though (looking for dust sprites/bunnies) which is also looking at another's culture and history as well. I like the idea of improvisation. I used to rather enjoy doing Theatre Sports (not in school - it wasn't done there). I'm sure they could get a whole lot of fun and learning out of that. I am considering sending my eldest to theatre workshops as she seem orientated in this way.
'The artful classrom: Management and organisation'.
*Art is not merely entertainment, it involves a depth of thought, good planning and solving problems, looking at other's work and discussion! It can be paralleled with learning to read and write, and just as essential. Again- Art as Language!
*Environment must be conducive to work, the children's work should be on display, areas dedicated to learning, areas for movement and areas for contemplation.
*Art is a process
The sensory display ideas for math/science are wonderful. I'm going to do this! Actually I've done a few things like this, I kept the skeleton of a leather jacket that my toddler had caught at a fishing trip, it sat in the window and eventually bleached white. Discussions surrounded those old bones! Art work was made, and thoughts were provacative. I think this is a great idea! What I have going for me is a small space, really, but a huge backyard. Some of these activities will have to be done outside! Painting and other 'messy' art and craft activities, some of our science are done at the kitchen table and in the bathroom. Drawing is done everywhere, even in the van. We've done work with charcoal recently, they were drawing birds, and some of the work was quite amazing, considering they'd never used these materials before. Would I ever love more space though! We study at the table, and we have our computer areas for research and learning. The children use art programs on the computer. This is the area of strength for us. Dante, 7, is very artistically creative, he has been drawing as soon as he could pick up an pencil he started making marks. However, I know we can do better in the sense that they can learn more about what they are doing, learn the language (which I had always assumed they were too young to learn). I also intend to get them to conceptualise and plan out their work before attempting it. We do have a mini-gallery space in the hallway, which is great! The children put up their own work in their bedrooms too, and I display their work on my blog. They love this and always want to see how their work has 'turned out' being online. I am encouraging them to set up their own.
*We do promote safe behaviour* and try and use non-toxic items (in the case of doing the charcoal drawings, I was the one who sprayed the setter on.) They use safe scissors and clag and paints etc (except for scrapbooking - they use archival quality paints and glues).
Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Theory
Gardner asserts that there are 7 intelligences. These being linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, body-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal and intrapersonal. The ones that relate specifically to the arts are linguistic, body-kinesthetic, music and spatial. These are not stand alone, everyone is suppose to possess them to one degree or another.
However there are some gifted in one area to the detriment to other areas. They do interact/blur, for instance mathematical and musical appear to have strong links, spatial to body-kinesthetic.
Children obviously have these forms of intelligence, some intelligences are naturally stronger than others, and unfortunately the traditional form of education is more about analytical scientific and ligusitical types of intelligence, and therefore not suited so well to those who learn differently. Creating a more arts-based curriculum, in theory, will provide a greater chance of catching children with differing learning styles and intelligences and offering them another approach at learning.
*The examples are very illustrative of how say pattern or rhythm are in all arts, and how that can be taught, explored, thought about. Then exploring how that can be used to create a mood.
*The blurring of the edges with other art forms, and how easy it is to implement this with a thematic approach.
*Learning about history (or other cultures) is much more immersive if there is music, art, painting, literature, sculpture, cooking, clothing, types of theatre, architecture etc
I already implement themes, I find something the children are interested in and we learn about it together, listen to music, make drawings, do cooking etc. I think we like to look at a thing as complete as we are able (they are young yet). I really like the ideas that are presented in lesson format here, it makes me feel like I've been robbing them of music! We certainly do make music, but not with the theory backing it up, so now I'm going to try implementing pattern, tone, rhythm into it, and encourage the children to make music, and use it across the arts, ie, make a poem/paint a picture or draw one that interelates.
Poetry Immersion.
*to get 'poetry back into our bones' (Tom Romanov page 46) and to get the sense and the music of the poem requires 2 readings (Eve Merriam, page 47 quoted from in Copeland 1933, 122).
*to have them read poetry, and find that natural rhythm and to preform it
*knowing when to stop is as important as knowing when to edit
I love poetry. It really is in my bones, I'd just forgotten about it. Really, above everything else, I am a poet. I got a bit jaded about writing poetry. No one around me loved it like I did, I thought to myself that poetry had indeed died, and that I'd never make a career with it. I have to realise that is not true. I certainly do not want to pass this down to the children. I'm going to read poetry aloud to them everyday, not just children's books to them (which is a daily event for us, and has been since they were babes). I'm going to just read them poetry, poetry I love, that I've written and if they choose to write a poem, I'll be glad and happy for it. I'm going to buy that book The Random House Book of Poetry for Children, I'm going to read it to them and showing them that I love poetry will hopefully allow them to embrace and exprience the passion I have for it. Even if it were true (that no one likes poetry anymore) I would love to share it within my own family anyway. Its nice to know I was wrong! After they are immersed in poetry, then I'll let it evolve from there.
Dance: The Most Ancient of Arts
*dance as language, movements as symbols as a vehicle of communication thought and feeling.
These are: pattern, line, form, shape, time, rhythm and energy (obviously links with music and drama, but all arts, and in the overall curriculum maths and social science.
*For the most ancient of the arts it is unfortunately deemed the least essential art, and that is pathetic. This to me is wrong and it should have a place of equal standing. It would go a long way in encourage healthy attitudes and bodies, I imagine.
*Encouragement for expressions through dance via the use of literature and music.
Personally, the only dancing I got to do in school was square dancing and ball room dancing. I didn't enjoy it, it was boring and repetitive and meaningless to me. Ironically, I now love to dance. I dance to many kinds of music, some of which I like only to dance to and others I like to listen to as well. I don't dance so much to express concepts, its for pure enjoyment really. I don't want this to happen to my children. I already put music on for them and encourage them to dance, but now I see I need to imbue it with meaning, get them to think about it more and to try and convey and express through non-verbal means like gesture, movement and expression.
'Encouraging play and creative drama in the classrom.'
*not impose your will onto the children, let it evolve naturally and allow them to have control
*socio-dramatic play = higher form of social play. to allow it to be meaningful for the children and for children to be aware of others similarites and differences. Eventually this becomes creative expression. (imagination and creativity, pantomime, improvisation and children's theatre are all forms of children's drama).
*Children can learn more language usage more effectively by free play than during formal teaching sessions (particularly special or disadvantaged children).
Drama is important for learning about the world and taking on roles and characters. Putting oneself in another's shoes. Again, drama can be a vehicle for organic, naturalistic learning. Allowing for the child to experiment, and control their interpretations and learning experience will be more enjoyable and memorable. My children role-play all the time, they pretend to be characters from movies they've watched, characters out of books. My toddler is fun! He loves to run around 'being' dinosaurs and 'eating' people. This sometimes spills out into the other children, and they all pretend to be dinosaurs and they think about how they can act, what they would eat, and how they should sound. This is an early version of what they should be doing. To encourage literacy, I might ask them to dramatise a book for me. What they have done already is quite good in regards to Studio Ghibli work though (looking for dust sprites/bunnies) which is also looking at another's culture and history as well. I like the idea of improvisation. I used to rather enjoy doing Theatre Sports (not in school - it wasn't done there). I'm sure they could get a whole lot of fun and learning out of that. I am considering sending my eldest to theatre workshops as she seem orientated in this way.
'The artful classrom: Management and organisation'.
*Art is not merely entertainment, it involves a depth of thought, good planning and solving problems, looking at other's work and discussion! It can be paralleled with learning to read and write, and just as essential. Again- Art as Language!
*Environment must be conducive to work, the children's work should be on display, areas dedicated to learning, areas for movement and areas for contemplation.
*Art is a process
The sensory display ideas for math/science are wonderful. I'm going to do this! Actually I've done a few things like this, I kept the skeleton of a leather jacket that my toddler had caught at a fishing trip, it sat in the window and eventually bleached white. Discussions surrounded those old bones! Art work was made, and thoughts were provacative. I think this is a great idea! What I have going for me is a small space, really, but a huge backyard. Some of these activities will have to be done outside! Painting and other 'messy' art and craft activities, some of our science are done at the kitchen table and in the bathroom. Drawing is done everywhere, even in the van. We've done work with charcoal recently, they were drawing birds, and some of the work was quite amazing, considering they'd never used these materials before. Would I ever love more space though! We study at the table, and we have our computer areas for research and learning. The children use art programs on the computer. This is the area of strength for us. Dante, 7, is very artistically creative, he has been drawing as soon as he could pick up an pencil he started making marks. However, I know we can do better in the sense that they can learn more about what they are doing, learn the language (which I had always assumed they were too young to learn). I also intend to get them to conceptualise and plan out their work before attempting it. We do have a mini-gallery space in the hallway, which is great! The children put up their own work in their bedrooms too, and I display their work on my blog. They love this and always want to see how their work has 'turned out' being online. I am encouraging them to set up their own.
*We do promote safe behaviour* and try and use non-toxic items (in the case of doing the charcoal drawings, I was the one who sprayed the setter on.) They use safe scissors and clag and paints etc (except for scrapbooking - they use archival quality paints and glues).
Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Theory
Gardner asserts that there are 7 intelligences. These being linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, body-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal and intrapersonal. The ones that relate specifically to the arts are linguistic, body-kinesthetic, music and spatial. These are not stand alone, everyone is suppose to possess them to one degree or another.
However there are some gifted in one area to the detriment to other areas. They do interact/blur, for instance mathematical and musical appear to have strong links, spatial to body-kinesthetic.
Children obviously have these forms of intelligence, some intelligences are naturally stronger than others, and unfortunately the traditional form of education is more about analytical scientific and ligusitical types of intelligence, and therefore not suited so well to those who learn differently. Creating a more arts-based curriculum, in theory, will provide a greater chance of catching children with differing learning styles and intelligences and offering them another approach at learning.
Thursday
Teaching in the arts and an integrated curriculum.
Comte’s main arguments
*that children at a young age use multi-artistic forms, cross art boundaries naturally, and the educator is the one pushing labels onto what they are doing, which is unnecessary.
I concede this point, personally I don’t have any issues with it. Arts educators are not the only teachers trained to see education as a rigid structure, but to me it should be more natural. The teacher’s role should be closer to being a facilitator than a ‘teacher’.
*that multi-arts and the various mutations and combinations of the arts (blurring the boundaries) have not only been used in the past but will continue into the future. To break down the outcome into parts is diminishing ‘the whole’ piece. He argues that the arts are in constant flux and the education and practice of the arts should be evolving and embracing this phenomenon.
I can see some flaws to implementing this within the bounds of the classroom, and it isn’t that the argument is flawed, people are, and the way they have been trained. What many educators see as education does not marry well with the creative arts, and unless they are retrained to understand this I think it would be rejected. On the other hand, educators who have specifically been trained to work within the arts have been shaped to present and educate in a certain way, may be able to embrace another way to present the arts . It could be a wonderful thing if the educator is open and willing to change, it could create a very fertile learning ground.
*He argues that arts education has been limited in the past by certain ways of thinking, arts history has been confined to movements, and self-expression limited to composition. He states the Arts boundaries are fluid, creativity and 'aesthetic appreciation' are essential to all aspects of the arts including appreciation, reproduction and production.
I think a multi-arts approach that encompasses all the arts would be beneficial, and defining and seperating arts into subjects is limiting the Arts themselves, naturally they are going to interact and connect. Implementation of his ideas, though, will entail changing the opinions of many educators.
*He has mixed feelings about the future of the arts. Change may happen, IT is certainly changing things anyway forcing the multi-media approach and making it an easy option. We need to be open to the constant flux of the arts and aware of it's developments. Essentially the main problem with the arts, is under-funding because it both undervalued and artists are seen to be beyond the average person.
Arts has unfortunately always fallen behind sports in this country, and this has caused many problems for the arts all around. This is going to cause problematic if one wants to overhaul the Arts education system, particularly if one wants to change it on a national level. Comte also points out that many arts educators differ on the conceptualising of the Arts and this would need to be addressed. I don't think for a minute the Arts community could not reach some level of understanding, but the money involved I can see might be a problem, trying to prove we need to revolutionise and bring together the arts community costs money, and lobbying for enough money has always been an obstacle.
Cornett's suggestions for integrating the Arts throughout the curriculum:
Definitions
Teach with the arts, or to give opportunities to the children to make creative works, with some freedom, or integrating an art project within another discipline like math/science.
Teach about and in the arts, teaching them about Art for Art's sake, gaining artistic skill and to learn about artistic content and meanings.
Teach through the arts, the arts are placed in a prominent position and incorperated on a daily basis, focusing on the Arts themselves and how that relates back into life an into other disciplines of study.
Immersion into the arts goes another step, can incorperate the above in various methods and degrees, Plus:
Creating the environment to make it artisticly rich by
*Using posters
*arranging the furniture for comfort and pleasure
*using music
*using living plants which not only is visually pleasing it also enriches by fragrance
*flowers arrangements
*putting in a designated comfortable area for reading surrounded by books
*putting up easels with works on display or for easy use
*beauty boxes that are collections of the childrens which they can talk about and discuss
*textural items for sensory enjoyment
*partial picture preview
*an Arts for Life centre
*encouraging contributions from the students and have them comment on it
*a comment box for reviewing books
Doing:
*having the tools, and learning how to use them
*learning concepts and skills (pattern, line, shape, texture, value etc)
(genre, element, style, art forms, media)
*Know that Arts is another language and become familiar with it
*Develop HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills)
*Asking provocative questions, talking about feelings and how they relate in use of an artistic medium
*Learning the great artists of the past
*Learning how artists work
*Various learning materials ie charts, word walls, visual aids
*having artist visitors to do a unit.
*that children at a young age use multi-artistic forms, cross art boundaries naturally, and the educator is the one pushing labels onto what they are doing, which is unnecessary.
I concede this point, personally I don’t have any issues with it. Arts educators are not the only teachers trained to see education as a rigid structure, but to me it should be more natural. The teacher’s role should be closer to being a facilitator than a ‘teacher’.
*that multi-arts and the various mutations and combinations of the arts (blurring the boundaries) have not only been used in the past but will continue into the future. To break down the outcome into parts is diminishing ‘the whole’ piece. He argues that the arts are in constant flux and the education and practice of the arts should be evolving and embracing this phenomenon.
I can see some flaws to implementing this within the bounds of the classroom, and it isn’t that the argument is flawed, people are, and the way they have been trained. What many educators see as education does not marry well with the creative arts, and unless they are retrained to understand this I think it would be rejected. On the other hand, educators who have specifically been trained to work within the arts have been shaped to present and educate in a certain way, may be able to embrace another way to present the arts . It could be a wonderful thing if the educator is open and willing to change, it could create a very fertile learning ground.
*He argues that arts education has been limited in the past by certain ways of thinking, arts history has been confined to movements, and self-expression limited to composition. He states the Arts boundaries are fluid, creativity and 'aesthetic appreciation' are essential to all aspects of the arts including appreciation, reproduction and production.
I think a multi-arts approach that encompasses all the arts would be beneficial, and defining and seperating arts into subjects is limiting the Arts themselves, naturally they are going to interact and connect. Implementation of his ideas, though, will entail changing the opinions of many educators.
*He has mixed feelings about the future of the arts. Change may happen, IT is certainly changing things anyway forcing the multi-media approach and making it an easy option. We need to be open to the constant flux of the arts and aware of it's developments. Essentially the main problem with the arts, is under-funding because it both undervalued and artists are seen to be beyond the average person.
Arts has unfortunately always fallen behind sports in this country, and this has caused many problems for the arts all around. This is going to cause problematic if one wants to overhaul the Arts education system, particularly if one wants to change it on a national level. Comte also points out that many arts educators differ on the conceptualising of the Arts and this would need to be addressed. I don't think for a minute the Arts community could not reach some level of understanding, but the money involved I can see might be a problem, trying to prove we need to revolutionise and bring together the arts community costs money, and lobbying for enough money has always been an obstacle.
Cornett's suggestions for integrating the Arts throughout the curriculum:
Definitions
Teach with the arts, or to give opportunities to the children to make creative works, with some freedom, or integrating an art project within another discipline like math/science.
Teach about and in the arts, teaching them about Art for Art's sake, gaining artistic skill and to learn about artistic content and meanings.
Teach through the arts, the arts are placed in a prominent position and incorperated on a daily basis, focusing on the Arts themselves and how that relates back into life an into other disciplines of study.
Immersion into the arts goes another step, can incorperate the above in various methods and degrees, Plus:
Creating the environment to make it artisticly rich by
*Using posters
*arranging the furniture for comfort and pleasure
*using music
*using living plants which not only is visually pleasing it also enriches by fragrance
*flowers arrangements
*putting in a designated comfortable area for reading surrounded by books
*putting up easels with works on display or for easy use
*beauty boxes that are collections of the childrens which they can talk about and discuss
*textural items for sensory enjoyment
*partial picture preview
*an Arts for Life centre
*encouraging contributions from the students and have them comment on it
*a comment box for reviewing books
Doing:
*having the tools, and learning how to use them
*learning concepts and skills (pattern, line, shape, texture, value etc)
(genre, element, style, art forms, media)
*Know that Arts is another language and become familiar with it
*Develop HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills)
*Asking provocative questions, talking about feelings and how they relate in use of an artistic medium
*Learning the great artists of the past
*Learning how artists work
*Various learning materials ie charts, word walls, visual aids
*having artist visitors to do a unit.
Habits
*encourage exploration, questioning and creative thinking
*teaching the backstory/history - the why
*positive reinforcements with constructive criticism balanced with compliments and sayings
*foster passion and encourage total engagement
*use of 'fat' questions or open to discussion (What if? What backs this up?)
*encourage risk taking/develop courage
*its the journey not the destination attitude.
*allow and foster self-starters, independance and self-discipline
*interact with the children on their terms/understanding/level
As I don't have anything to do with the education system, as my children are homeschooled, I'll discuss Glover and Ward's Music in the intergrated primary curriculum from my perspective which is tempered by both interactions with homeschoolers and my own experience with music when I went to school. Music was a distinctly different subject when I was at school... and even in high school it was seen as something very different from everything else. In primary school we had to go to another teacher in a specialised room. We sang from a music book while the teacher played piano, and in the last two grades (5/6) we got to play the recorder. In high school, we had to take music for the first two years and we all had to do guitar. There was no music appreciation, no choices. There is no doubt why this approach doesn't work, I never engaged with music at school. I actually fostered a negative attitude as the teacher was only interested in the children that 'showed talent'.
Now, some homeschoolers are musical people, music just happens naturally in their households, the children are engaging because from birth music has been played and appreciated within the home. It is natural for them to have access to music to listen to and to play. On the other hand, some homeschoolers may not be so naturally inclined, so they either outsource when and if their child is interested, but the often harbour music appreciation by playing music within the household. It is a rare household that doesn't at least listen to music and appreciate it.
Personally my approach is, as I know at least one of my children is musically inclined, to play music around the house, it is often playing. We discuss how the music makes them feel, we show interest in what types of music they like to listen to and allow them to listen to whatever music they are so inclined to and put our own on when no one else is particularly interested in playing it. We have a large basket full of musical instruments (bells, shakers, glockenspiel, recorders and various other small things) and we have a child sized guitar and a keyboard. The basket is always available to them, the keyboard and guitar is available but out of reach to protect them. They get to 'play' whenever they want really, but rarely do they ask. I am beginning to bring them out and play with them myself, and this has marked a difference with them, they see my engage with music, and now they are interested in learning too. If my abilities are not up to speed, we will pay someone to tutor them - but with a view to natural learning as much as possible. For the younger two, there is baby einstein and Mozart etc. We also have Kindermusik curriculum. We sing all the time, in the van travelling, around the house, whenever the urge takes us. We also enjoy making sounds that imitate nature (my eldest is 8, so its early days yet).
I like the approach Glover and Ward suggests, that the experience I had ie the specialist teacher is flawed, but rather should be integrated into the curriculum. I think its natural to link maths/science and music. Sounds of nature, the beats in music is time, and the theory of music is linked to maths. Sorting/controlling sounds is a wonderful, natural approach to learning. From reading Glover and Ward, I'm inclined to want to integrate music more into their learning by letting them experiment, make drums, see how glass sounds, or pots when struck by a wooden spoon, making a stringed instrument etc. We already paint listening to music, I'm sure this is an interactive art experience for the children. Integrating music into history makes it come alive, listening to sounds of the ocean or a volcano (geography) and attempting to reproduce those sounds would be interesting way of thinking about sound.
As a world view approach to music, we already incorperate music from other cultures, we use this as a part of the discussion about different types of societies, and they also think creatively as to why this particular culture may have invented this type of musical instrument, ie what's available to them in their natural environment. This is across the board, into the visuals too.
The language of music should be familiar to the children, just as the language of visual arts.
Tone, texture, form, scale, colour and rhythm.
While learning another language it is natural to embrace the culture, so integration of other cultural practices are a good way of including music (amongst other things). Writing lyrics and music, or putting poetry to sound is another way to foster love of music.
Obviously music and movement are entwined, so allowing children to dance, use their bodies for expression are often used with music. There is a strong link between these. Rhythm and dance is making and expressing sound through the body. Playing different types of music and encouraging children to dance or move to the music is important, and also using imagination to create a show then finding music that works well with it.
Koster endorses theme as opposed to project type work. Themes can be richer and fuller experiences for the children, and foster a greater enjoyment, make it more memorable and fulfulling. Working by way of theme has a downside of time intensive preparation. (There are prepackaged Theme works to save time). I like the idea of organic learning personally. The example given of the butterfly is like the kind of learning I'm talking about. A teachable moment I would replace as a learning moment though. Child-delight learning is a wonderful way of learning for children. Given the butterfly example, after discovering colour and shape and doing a painting of it, you could read Eric Carle's Caterpillar book, try the technique of tearing coloured paper and doing a picture that way. If they are still interested, grab a few books or look at a few web sites and documentaries to look at them in further depth, go on a nature walk to see if you can find a coccoon, a butterfly. Make butterfly cakes. Write a poem, sing a butterfly song. Focus on metamorphis and draw a series of pictures that describe it. Create a series of objects that show a transition between one state to another (leaving it to the imagination of the child). Then take a series of photographs and make a simple animation. It may start with a butterfly, but from there, who knows where the children may take it. All the while, you can sneak in writing/art/poetry/product making/science/math/reading/just about anything you can imagine!
Projects are a focused study on a particular topic. They engage the children to widen their knowledge, it breaks down the barriers between curriculum, allow creativity, it can be levelled at the children's stage, it creates a sense of freedom to explore but at the same time is reliant on a child's motivation. They can direct their own learning, researching and ultimately responsible for their own learning. The success of the project is directly linked to how engaged the child was.
Exploring, organising and discussing what is learnt.
Projects/themes can be interactive. They are not necessarily separate.
Bottom line is, if you have the children's interest, they will be easier to engage and it will make for more meaningful and successful art. Also they will be more successful.
How children think, feel and understand things through the Arts.
Karen Gallas believes that the separation of art from life begins early in the school career. I tend to agree. Society places artists on a pedestal, makes the creation of art as an abstract, magical essence that only few are capable of tapping into. I see art as Gallas does, something that is an integral part of our social identity, and instead of it being delegated to an afternoon cut and paste or painting session, we should be enriching our curriculums with it, enhancing all learning areas. Writing a poem about the role of worms in the garden, creating a mosiac of sea creatures that inhabit a certain coral reef or making a song about how we went to the shop and we brought vegetables to make a soup.
Goldberg is concerned with how learning and the arts is what makes us human, about what makes us shine as a race, what makes us different from the others in the animal world. But fundamentally, learning should be about a sense of wholeness, learning a personal repotoire about what the world means and how it shapes us and how we can shape it. Arts should be recognised for the enormous contribution it gives any and every area of society. One would not make new inventions nor realise new endeavours in science or business without the creative spark. This is the methodology she means, the story of us as human beings, how we make sense of the world around us and express it in individual terms.
Children should have control not only about what they learn, but how they learn. Goldberg believes that childen should be empowered to control their own learning in the school system. I believe this is a form of utopia, at the current level of thinking concerning education it isn't obtainable, but I see it as necessary and important. The only available method available right now is homeshooling. One would need to revolutionise the whole education system in order for it to work, and creating an arts based education system would be one step in doing so. Children should be able to carve their own paths in education, not be shaped too closely by it. Positive arts experiences would give children a sense of self-worth, freedom to experiment so they would know what best suited their individual needs and help them to feel the success of achievement that is not available in the current climate, which is fairly much mapped out for them. Forging an individualised path is enabling a greater sense of freedom, fostering a policy for children to be free thinking and allow for children of different types of learning styles to fully use thier strengths.
In relation to Susan Wright's exploration of the 3 kinds of arts-based intelligence (according to Howard Gardner multi-intelligence theory which has seven), which are musical intelligence, spatial intelligence and bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence.
Musical Intelligence relates to one's musical ability or talent, it "has been defined as the controlled movement of sound in time" (Wright, S. (2003), 'Ways of Knowing in the Arts" page 4). To imbue that sound with emotion is a step above the clinical approach to music, making it far richer. An example of children using their musical intelligence would be to create sounds and rythmns of a chorus of animals ie stamp like an elephant, click like a cricket or to sing like a bird.
Spatial Intelligence is about percieving the world around and making a physcial expression of it, whether by a 2D image or a 3D object. An example of Spatial Intelligence would be observation of a fish tank and either making a drawing representation of it, or creating a physical representation out of a collection of materials.
Bodily-Kinaesthetic Intelligence is how one uses ones body to create solutions to problems and making an orginal work with one's body. An example of which could be manipulating or shaping one's body movements to imitate a flower waking and pushing its petals to the sun or dancing to music.
Goldberg is concerned with how learning and the arts is what makes us human, about what makes us shine as a race, what makes us different from the others in the animal world. But fundamentally, learning should be about a sense of wholeness, learning a personal repotoire about what the world means and how it shapes us and how we can shape it. Arts should be recognised for the enormous contribution it gives any and every area of society. One would not make new inventions nor realise new endeavours in science or business without the creative spark. This is the methodology she means, the story of us as human beings, how we make sense of the world around us and express it in individual terms.
Children should have control not only about what they learn, but how they learn. Goldberg believes that childen should be empowered to control their own learning in the school system. I believe this is a form of utopia, at the current level of thinking concerning education it isn't obtainable, but I see it as necessary and important. The only available method available right now is homeshooling. One would need to revolutionise the whole education system in order for it to work, and creating an arts based education system would be one step in doing so. Children should be able to carve their own paths in education, not be shaped too closely by it. Positive arts experiences would give children a sense of self-worth, freedom to experiment so they would know what best suited their individual needs and help them to feel the success of achievement that is not available in the current climate, which is fairly much mapped out for them. Forging an individualised path is enabling a greater sense of freedom, fostering a policy for children to be free thinking and allow for children of different types of learning styles to fully use thier strengths.
In relation to Susan Wright's exploration of the 3 kinds of arts-based intelligence (according to Howard Gardner multi-intelligence theory which has seven), which are musical intelligence, spatial intelligence and bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence.
Musical Intelligence relates to one's musical ability or talent, it "has been defined as the controlled movement of sound in time" (Wright, S. (2003), 'Ways of Knowing in the Arts" page 4). To imbue that sound with emotion is a step above the clinical approach to music, making it far richer. An example of children using their musical intelligence would be to create sounds and rythmns of a chorus of animals ie stamp like an elephant, click like a cricket or to sing like a bird.
Spatial Intelligence is about percieving the world around and making a physcial expression of it, whether by a 2D image or a 3D object. An example of Spatial Intelligence would be observation of a fish tank and either making a drawing representation of it, or creating a physical representation out of a collection of materials.
Bodily-Kinaesthetic Intelligence is how one uses ones body to create solutions to problems and making an orginal work with one's body. An example of which could be manipulating or shaping one's body movements to imitate a flower waking and pushing its petals to the sun or dancing to music.
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