Harmony Week

Unit plan and unit overview all together it has to be 3000 words

Unit title: Harmony Week

Year level:3-4

Rationale/aims for the unit

The unit plan is aimed at facilitating the achievement of specific as well as general goals and objectives. One of the key and valuable purpose of the Unit plan is facilitating a general understanding of the various activities that are likely and anticipated to be engaged in throughout the course of the learning process. Understanding these activities in advance would be essential for purposes of ensuring that kids are prepared adequately in advance with regards to the various art related activities they are to engage themselves in the course of learning. The preparation of the kids with respect to various art related activities that they are expected to engage themselves, an aspect that is facilitated through the development of a unit plan is also essential since it ensures that they can easily plan earlier in advance an aspect that facilitates and influences the ability of the art students to register success (Wreford, 2010).

The purpose of the unit plan is to also ensure that time is allocated in an appropriate manner given that it is a relatively limited resource in the learning process. A unit plan primarily dictates when different learning activities are bound to take place ensuring that a certain learning task is accomplished and fulfilled at its own time. This is a key aspect that influences and enhances the level of organization of a tutor and facilitates covering of all the required contents of the unit.

The Unit plan primarily provides an advance preparation of various resources that should and are to be used in the process facilitating learning for the kids. In teaching arts, the number of resources that are required are relatively many. Art is a relatively diverse unit given the various types and forms of art. A unit plan facilitates understanding of the specific resource that is required to be utilized at a given time and subsequent procurement of the respective resources (Phenice, & Hildebrand, 1988).

A unit plan is important for purposes of ensuring that learning is primarily successful since all requirements are put in place appropriately. A unit plan is a valuable tool, especially to the tutor since it helps facilitate effective organization in advance before learning takes place. This expected to facilitate the registration of success in the learning process of kids in arts (Australia, & Council for Multicultural Australia, 2001)

Aims of the Unit

The unit has key goals as well as objectives that it aims at achieving and fulfilling. These aims or objectives are and include;

Facilitating the acquisition of knowledge and more importantly, information regarding arts is a key aim of the course. Arts is one of the key aspects that the kids are to interact with as they grow up and as they pursue their studies. The unit creates what can be best referred to as a strong foundation for purposes of better understanding of works of art and decoding meaning in various works of art.

Another aim of the unit is to enable the kids to understand the relationship between various works of art and life in general. Art and various aspects of life are closely interconnected and interrelated and understanding this ca be best facilitated through the enlightenment of the kids through the unit.

The unit is aimed at facilitating the integration of the concept of experiential learning in facilitating the understanding of information and knowledge. The art class is expected to use actual works of art an aspect that is anticipated to enhance the ability of kids to learn experientially, a skill that could be of great value and significance to them in later learning (Australia, & Council for Multicultural Australia, 2001).

A key aim of the unit is facilitating discovery learning among the kids. Discovery learning primarily allows the students to, individually, be capable of creating and building their knowledge with respect to various issues. The unit offers an opportunity through which the kids can manipulate various objects physically and get to discover new knowledge and information. This is key to facilitating the ability of the kids to successfully and effectively learn in other subjects other than arts (Farr, 2000).

There exists a close relationship between arts and culture. The best and most effective way that the kids can be capable of effectively and fully understanding their cultures is through art, an opportunity that is provided and made available through the unit (Phenice, & Hildebrand, 1988).

References

Australia, & Council for Multicultural Australia. (2001). Harmony Day. Canberra: Dept. of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs.

Farr, F. (2000). Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia. African Arts, 22(3), 84. doi:10.2307/3336788

Phenice, L., & Hildebrand, V. (1988). Multicultural education: A pathway to global harmony. Early Childhood Educ J, 16(2), 15-17. doi:10.1007/bf01622977

Wreford, G. (2010). The state of arts and health in Australia. Arts & Health, 2(1), 8-22. doi:10.1080/17533010903421484

Indented learning objectives (Australian curriculum)

Visual arts

Ø With respect to works of art by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, there is a relatively rich and diverse number of works of art and these takes many different forms. The many different types of art primarily represents the diverse cultures in the Australian society and art, through Harmony day, is directed towards the creation of unity through original representation of the respective communities in the country.

Ø Artwork among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists has been in existence for many years and is actually stated as being the most advanced with regards to age in the history of human beings (Marrie, 1987).

Music

Ø Listening to music is primarily directed towards facilitating different purposes and objectives. Music is a way of giving information regarding a given narrative as it is for music by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. They use music for purposes of giving account of the experiences they have had and to give meaning with respect to various issues.

Ø Music is used to mainly address the issues that are viewed as being valuable and of great significance to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as it is for other people from a general perspective (Marrie, 1987).

Ø Music has various elements that facilitate the passing across of the intended message and these are and include unique rhythm, the pitch and more importantly, dynamics among other aspects of music.

Ø Key types of music practised by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is rock and folk and these are used primarily for purposes of facilitating the maintenance of the culture and more importantly, the culture of the Australians. The use of traditional musical instruments such as the Didgeridoo and clapsticks is a common characteristic of their Music (Marrie, 1987).

References

Marrie, A. (1987). A topical bibliography of Australian Aboriginal visual arts: Including a bibliography concerning Aboriginal heritage issues. Underdale, SA: South Australian College of Advanced Education, Aboriginial Studies and Teacher Education Centre.

Pedagogical Approaches Used

There are a wide range of pedagogical approaches that have been exploited in the lesson plans and these include; experiential learning where experiences that are direct and experiential are used and discovery learning where the experiences of learning are primarily constructed for purposes of a student to build their own knowledge. Another pedagogical approach used is cooperative learning and more importantly, valued classification. These approaches have been used for the purposes of facilitating the achievement of the aims of learning.

Overview of lessons/topic breakdowns:

Lesson 1: explore about harmony day and different cultures

Lesson 2: paintings about harmony day and put it up on the wall

Lesson 3 : Henna tattoos

Lesson 4: explore songs that are related to HD and listen to those songs. Practise it.

Lesson 5: perform those song from previous lesson in groups using instrument.

Lesson 1

Aim (learning outcomes):

At the end of the lesson, the learner should be capable of understanding the significance of harmony day through discovery learning from watching a Harmony day video clip on YouTube with regards to various works of art bringing together diverse cultures.

Link to the curriculum:

In the Australian art curriculum, Harmony day is considered as being a key aspect of understanding various works of art.

Harmony day indicates the manner in which works of art bring together people irrespective of their diversity in their cultures, a role that is expected to also be played by the curriculum.

Resources:

– Samples of diverse works of art as projected in the harmony day on You Tube.

– A projector to facilitate projection of previous Harmony Days video as it streams on YouTube.

Preparation (that teacher needs to do before class)

Activities: during the lesson

Ø Introduction

– The first thing is to acquire a video from YouTube on a Harmony Day event.

– Recording the video in case there is likelihood of inconveniences in streaming a video.

– Organizing the class in order to ensure that there is proper lighting during the projection of the video to help ensure that there is clarity for all students is to be done before class

Ø Body

– Introduction, to the classroom, on the relationship that exists between Harmony day art and the concept of cultural diversity.

– The setting up of equipment’s to show the Harmony day YouTube Video to the classroom.

– Showing of the Harmony day video recording briefly through a projector.

– Asking and answering questions based on what is observed and deduced by the students from the video.