Describe and evaluate the strategies employed by the adults to engage young children in music and comment on their effectiveness in engaging the children.

TITLE:
Task 1: Music Arts Portfolio

WORD COUNT:
Equivalent
to 1650 words

PURPOSE:
Teachers in early
childhood and primary settings are required
to plan, implement and evaluate arts curricula. The purpose of this task is for Teacher Candidates to demonstrate their understanding of
arts-based teaching and learning with children. Teacher Candidates will
draw on knowledge gained from the art form – Music and develop and present an Arts Portfolio. The aim is
for Teacher Candidates to examine their experience of music practice and
teaching and develop and extend themselves as teachers of arts curriculum with
children.

This Music Portfolio requires Teacher Candidates
to plan an engaging music experience for an individual child or small group of
children, with a focus on performance, composition and/or listening. This plan
will be accompanied by a written exegesis that outlines the Teacher Candidate’s
planning influences and choices, with support from relevant literature.

TASK:

PLAN
(approx. 800 words equivalent)
Using
the template provided, plan an engaging music experience for a small group of 3-5-year
old children or an individual child, focusing on performance, composition and/or
listening. You may choose to develop one of the experiences undertaken in the
music workshops, something you observed on placement, or you can develop your
own idea, based on the particular learning needs of your focus child/ren.

Rationale

In
the rationale section of the template the suggested word count is 50 words. You
are asked to connect your planning to a focus child(ren), so that you are
demonstrating planning for, and using as a starting point, the interests of a
focus child. It is envisaged that you write one or two sentences that connect
your planning to the interests of the focus child(ren) in the rationale
section. For your focus child, use the “Case
study of a focus child for music assessment” which has been uploaded for
you.

JUSTIFICATION
AND CRITICAL REFLECTION (approx. 850 words)
This task can be written in first person.

Part 1:
Justification
Write an accompanying justification of the
planning choices you have made with reference to key readings. Evaluate the
teaching strategies you have selected in your plan. Include a justification of your
stated objectives.

Part 2:
Critical reflection – connecting your planning to your own experiences
Reflect on your own musical experiences as a
young person, and in the 4 workshops you attended. How are these reflected (or
not) in your plan? Include personal thoughts and opinions. You can also include
reflections from current or previous placement experiences with young children of any age, or if you have
worked in an early-years setting, you can also connect your planning to your
recollections from these experiences. You can use your experience in the workshops for your reflection (Workshop outline attached)

You may include any of the following in your
reflection:

Describe and evaluate the strategies employed
by the adults to engage young children in music and comment on their
effectiveness in engaging the children. What did you notice? Have you
incorporated aspects of what you have previously observed in your planning? For
example, you may decide that what you observed previously is not included in
your planning because you feel it is not relevant because it was with a
different age group or you might feel that it was not effective. Alternatively,
you may find that there are aspects of what you observed previously that you
have incorporated and/or adapted in your planning.

Your justification and critical reflection
should make reference of up to 6 readings (minimum of 4). These can be readings
drawn from this subject or other readings you have encountered in the Master of Teaching degree.

Images of related resources (eg. picture
books, children’s artworks) can also be attached to this assignment.

ASSESSMENT:
Your Music Arts
Portfolio will be assessed using the following criteria:
·
Articulates insights and learning into arts
practices, processes, and environment design (25%)
·
Describes and reflects critically on effective
strategies to engage and guide young children in the arts (15%)
·
Demonstrates an ability to plan and organise
engaging arts experiences (20%)
·
Demonstrates a capacity to analyse and critically
engage with arts education theory relevant to young children (25%)
·
Identifies materials and resources appropriate for
early years arts-based learning and teaching (15%)

Last Completed Projects