Evaluation - Faith & Art

R.E. Learning to Learn Lesson Evaluation

The children had noticed the Christmas music used as they entered the classroom almost immediately on the first day. Whenever I played the music, I also turned off the lights and the children entered the room to lamp light and the lights of the classroom Christmas tree. This in itself had a very calming and almost ‘spiritual’ effect. (Especially during the dark, December afternoons!)

Encounter

The introduction to the lesson went well and the children were enthusiastic about using their multiple intelligences to explore their own learning. As the lesson progressed, we realised that the tune was also important when considering feelings and emotions. The words clearly told aspects of the Christmas story and of celebrating the birth of Jesus. One child remarked that the songs told of a ‘journey’ as told in the Bible. However, the children said that some of the tunes made them feel ‘joyful’ while softer music made them feel thoughtful and even quite sad. One child said that it made her remember all the people that might have been ‘lost’ since last Christmas.

The children really enjoyed the painting activity and said that they’d never done anything like this before. The emphasis was placed on remembering the Christmas story through the words and then expressing feelings and emotions using paint while listening to music and words. The results were mixed. Some paintings were a series of patterns arranged over the paper while other paintings were great splashes of colour all merging together – some of the children abandoned the card ‘brushes’ and used their hands in a riot of colour!

It was a this point that we decided that we would plan our activities for exploring and communicating our own learning using the multiple intelligences and would use another session to give full justice to the learning intentions - and the children’s enthusiasm.

Response

I was surprised that so many children chose to perform their own music to explore their own learning about the way that Christians use music as a way of expressing their faith during worship. One group asked if they could perform a rap. This was because they thought that it might not be appropriate and sparked a good discussion about what format could/should be used. Many children felt that ‘traditional’ Christmas worship songs were performed to organ music and were ‘churchy’. Others argued that it was the words sung and their meaning that made it an act of worship rather than the style of music. Many said that the Christmas story could and should be told using a wide range of music styles – a valid point!

The children chose whether to work in a group, as a pair or individually. Some produced lovely drawings; another pair conducted a survey of favourite religious Christmas music. They commented that many people they asked had expressed a preference about the tune rather than the words. Another child chose to find references to the natural world in the Christmas song lyrics, his findings yielded a very high incidence of references.

The children emphasised that they had gained a much deeper understanding of how and why Christians might use music and songs as part of their worship and to express faith. They also said that the lesson had made them focus on the Christmas story and the many messages about the story that were given in the songs. For several days after the lesson, when listening to a Christmas CD (mixed religious and non religious) the children discussed among themselves whether it would be good for Christian worship or not. Some songs e.g. ‘Do they know its Christmas?’, were not strictly religious but had very important messages for all people including Christians.

I was really pleased by the way the children responded and their comments were very reflective and thoughtful. Furthermore, they had said that the lesson had been good fun and enjoyable!