PART 2: Activities to Promote Inclusivity

 Classroom Patchwork

The objective is to provide students with an opportunity to create a visual and artistic representation of something significant or important to them . This is done by getting each one to create a single square of a patchwork quilt. It highlights their individuality and their talents and is an opportunity to share and be proud of something special about them. Students then learn something significant about each of their classmates and by combining all of the squares together, students feel a stronger sense of belonging and inclusion in their class. This activity is appropriate for worçking towards the inclusion of students with intraindividual variations and is a great way for participants to improve their social interactions and enhance their levels of empathy.

fine arts

90mins

1 square of card per student

tape

Variety of arts materials to provide options for students (paints and brushes, colouring pencils, glitter, stickers, paper for collage, drawing pencils, ink and stamps, calligraphy pens, string etc)

Adapted from https://inclusiveschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Student_Connection_Activities_and_Icebreakers.pdf p.14

Advanced control of focus/ development of ability to concentrate;

Development of articulation and the vocal apparatus; development of the skill and art of the use of voice;

Memory training;

Creativity training;

Self-perception and expansion of personality boundaries;

Leaving one’s comfort zone;

Development of ability to improvise and to be AT THE PRESENT MOMENT.

Social and cognitive challenges.

Performative arts: events of public performance, most commonly taking place in the theatre (theatre and mimics).

90 minutes per week  |  135 minutes per week  |  45–90 minutes per week

Creative use of the surrounding spaces:

Chairs; benches; table; stage; lighting;

Music:

Classical; instrumental music required for exercises; music suggested by the students;

Additional resources required for exercises:

Yoga mats or rugs/ floor covers (when performing relaxation and visualisation exercises).

The students’ ability to concentrate improved, their speech became clearer, the articulation of speech and the clarity of idea expression improved. Their memorization skills were upgraded, and, in the course of exercises, they became better at learning sequences of events. Also, they developed a more creative look at their solutions taken on the stage as well as in real life. They got to know themselves better; their improved self-awareness allowed them to verbalise their real wishes, aims, objectives and desires. They managed to leave their comfort zone and do actions which are uncommon (from the first glance) while performing exercises. They managed to be better relaxed, and became more open-minded when in the group. Also, they shared their real-life experiences (both positive and negative ones).

Did this branch of art help students experience involvement?

The students willingly get involved in the process of exercises or clearly outlined tasks; if something is unclear, they bravely ask and seek to perceive what they are expected to do in the course of theatre classes.

Was attention directed towards skills and positivity?

Attention is systematically focused on the skills and abilities of the students; their development is expected to be tender and gradual, step-by-step, in the course of classes, as a process;

After each exercise or a set of exercises, a brief discussion is held regarding the way one feels, what was easy or hard. It is concluded with praises and remarks.

o   K. Stanislavski's, Aktoriaus saviruoša, 1947, Valstybinė grožinės literatūros leidykla;

o   L. Petit, The Michael Chekhov Handbook: For the Actor, 2009, Routledge;

o   H. Guskin, How to Stop Acting: A Renown Acting Coach Shares His Revolutionary Approach to Landing Roles, Developing Them and Keeping them Alive, 2003, Faber & Faber;

o   D. Vaigauskaitė, Balso lavinimo technika, 2007, Klaipėdos universiteto leidykla;

o   A. Bola, Games for Actors and Non-Actors, 2003, Routledge;

o   K. Johnstone, Impro for Storytellers, 1999, Faber & Faber;

o   D. Brulé, Tiesiog kvėpuokite, 2017, Mijalba.

Writing a poetry book with background music

To write a poetry by activating emotions and thoughts

Turkish-Literature

40 minutes

-The class sits back in silence.

-Everyone is asked to close their eyes and dive into the world of dreams, for which the background music will be played soon.

-When the background music is over, everyone is asked to open their eyes.

- All students want to say  one word about how they feel in turn.

-The words are written on the board.

-Background music is turned on again.

-Students are asked to write a poem with the word or words they choose.

-Background music plays throughout the event.

-Every student who finishes his/her poem reads his/her poem to his/her friends accompanied by background music.

-The poems of those who read their poems are taken and bound as a book.

Plain paper

blackboard-pencil

Background music

1. Were your emotions activated while listening to the music?

2. Did the words written on the board made you want to write?

3. Have you discovered that you have a talent for writing poetry?

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An inclusive mural art project

Support the integration of students, experiencing challenges and making them seen and known by the entire school community.

Visual art

60 minutes per session for a minimum of 8 sessions

The guiding principles, which should be observed by educators, working with classes or groups with students, experiencing challenges, should include:

• high expectations towards all participants

• promotion of communication competences

• application of the principles of Universal Design for Learning

• selecting and using appropriate accommodations for different learners

• targeting the instruction and monitoring/recording students’ performance

The proposed series of activities cover all of the above and represent a combination of several different good practices, both from within and beyond the InCrea+ collection.

The proposed series of activities are intended for supporting the inclusion of students experiencing various challenges. Where specific recommendations or tips are given, relevant for a certain challenge, the respective challenge will be specifically listed.

Phase I: Preparations

Setting up the group. Up to 20 students, if the project is organised as an extra-curricular activity, or a full class, where the project runs as a part of the curriculum.

Evaluating the individual needs and constraints of the students in the group based on all challenges or at least the obvious or known ones. Making a list of exercises and activities, which can be offered to the group, in order for all children to feel accommodated and unwanted incidents to be brought to the minimum.

Organising the list, possible sources and funding for the necessary materials. In this case we specifically propose a sufficiently large sheet or several sheets (if the mural will be more than one) of Lexan polycarbonate. This particular material, which is offered in a perfectly transparent form, is 250 times stronger than glass, extremely durable and is a perfect painting surface for acrylics. The Lexan sheet can be painted on the backside, so that the paints would not be exposed to scratching or other damage and would also allow repainting with different images at whatever intervals the school decides to carry out the project.

The other materials necessary for the mural itself are the paints, but only get them after you know what colours will be needed, and brushes. For the process of building skills and creating a mural concept will be necessary various drawing, collage making, sketching, cutting, glueing, etc. materials. 

Content-wise preparation with an ability and diversity awareness lesson, which will have the objective of sensitising students on different abilities and diversity. Might be particularly useful in groups that have not worked together before, in classes that are integrating students with disabilities or other challenges. The awareness lesson is not a compulsory activity. The teacher can decide whether to organise it or not, depending on the composition of the group and whether they have been previously sensitised on the matter.

Content-wise preparation may also include visual materials, stories from all over the world, from various ethnic groups, religious groups, indigenous people, parts of lessons (history or geography or geometry) – all depending on the composition of the group (in case of migrant children in the group, or children from a minority) and the specific challenges (exclusion due to learning difficulties, cultural reasons, etc.), which the teacher would like to address with the activity.

Phase II: Building artistic skills, an inclusive community and a mural concept

Activity 1 (one session): Ability and diversity awareness lesson

The lesson can include:

- Explanation about what diversity is and what disabilities are, as well as the fact that there is a huge variety of disabilities.

- Show a video about different disabilities.

- Discuss dos and don’ts for how to interact with and respect people with disabilities.

- Discussing how important it is to search for the abilities and for the commonalities rather than the disabilities and the differences.

Here are several videos about different challenges, such as autism, Asperger, deafness, dyslexia:

Suggestions for dos:

Talk and communicate with the person like you normally do with everyone else.

Behave normally around them.

Talk about what they can do.

Tell them “no thank you,” or “please stop, I don’t like it when you do that '' if they are doing something that you dislike or is socially unacceptable.

Ask if they need help, and offer assistance only if it is needed.

Learn from everyone, including people with a disability.

Suggestions for don’ts

Don’t talk to the person as if they are younger than their actual age.

If they have an assistant, don’t speak to the assistant. Speak to them directly.

Don’t point, laugh or stare at, ignore, or make fun of people who are different.

Don’t focus your attention on what a person can’t do.

Don’t assume that a person needs help. It is important that they learn how to do things on their own and usually are perfectly able to do much more than what others presume.

Don’t think you can’t get help or learn from a person with a disability.

Activity 2 (it may include 2-3 sessions): Learning the hi/story

As a result of this activity the students will be able to discover and understand the events, which have been selected as the focus of the mural work; utilise their bodies to imitate various characteristics of central objects, which are a part of the selected event and use creative movements to explore the event.

Each session should start with warming up exercises, which the teacher can change session per session. Some ideas include:

- Students stand in a large circle. They are asked to stretch way up high and go down as low as they can manage

- The students are asked to move around the room “as if” – as if they were 70 years, as if they were in love, as if they were really sad, as if

- The students are asked to move around the room and again stretch as far as possible using all directions of movement – left, right, up, down, back and front

- Do brain gym by gently tapping from head to toes (fingers, then hands)

- Brain dance, split your body in half (top/bottom and left/right), only move one side at a time, e.g. if you split yourself top/bottom you make all necessary efforts to only move either your lower (waist down) or your upper body. If the split is vertical, you either move only your left arm and leg or your right arm and leg.

Before commencing with the focused mural art conceptualising activities, the teacher can dedicate several sessions to presenting the story, which the mural would be organised around. Following the UDL principles, the children should be provided with different stimuli – the story will be told to them, they will be able to read it themselves or to see images from it, they will be allowed to move and to recreate with their bodies, without speech, different shapes and structures that are a part of the story in order to gradually internalise all its elements. The teacher can use movement, dance, performance, art integration, access to different materials and ways for creative expression and will thus make learning fun for all the students. At the same time being mindful of the needs of specific group members. The teacher should also use music. Not necessarily classical music. Children’s favourite songs can be used as motivation and reward for dedication, good behaviour, staying focused and tasks completed.

Desks should be available in the room, so that students that need to have their space and distance from others, will have this possibility.

Activity 3 (it may include 2-3 sessions): Mural concept creation

As a result of this activity the students will be able to create a visual representation of the event, which the mural will be based upon.

Have the students act out the different elements of the event, which will be in the centre of the mural, in order to remind their bodies what has already been practised and get ready for creating the visual representation.

Have the students act out the entire event.

Students then visualise the event, closing their eyes and envisioning what happened. Then the students will be asked to select a part of the event or an aspect they want to make a painting of. The students can be asked to make an imaginary painting in the air with their fingers and outline what they see in their minds into the air — music should be playing in the background. Then the students can be given a large sheet of paper, pencils and crayons.

What did the event look like? Students are encouraged to sketch their ideas and share them with the rest of the class/group. The teacher should inform the students that the outline of the mural will be based on all the students’ contributions.

After the students are ready with their contributions, the teacher goes through all the works and selects the elements to integrate in the mural. These should be passed on large sheets of paper and then transferred on the Lexan sheet, bearing in mind that the image will be on the inside of the Lexan sheet so it needs to be rotated.

N.B. If the group includes students with impaired vision, they can be involved in the conceptualising of the mural. If the school has access to a 3-D printer, a 3-D model of the mural concept can be prepared for them so that they can actually “see” it. This model can remain on display next to the mural itself for further referencing of other students with v.i. If the school has no access to a 3-D another type of 3-D model can be prepared as a part of the visual art activities. The v.i. students can participate in the process.

When the mural outline is ready, the teacher selects the date/s on which it is to be painted by the group of students. This should be coordinated with the school agenda and the headmaster. The place where the Lexan sheet mural is to be fixed should also be fixed. The colours necessary will be known already, so the teacher can order the acrylics to be used for the mural.

On the chosen day, the students will be advised on what and where to paint and will be given the materials necessary.

For preparatory artistic tasks: tempera or watercolour, cardboards, colored paper and cut out ready elements, glues, scissors, modelling clay and plasticine, decorative elements for applications, laptop with speakers, music without lyrics for the background.

For preparing the mural: large sheets of paper, crayons, pencils, laptop with speakers, music without lyrics for the background.

For the mural itself – a Lexan sheet or several sheets – acrylics, brushes.

Valentino, Desiree (2016) Using Fine Arts to Implement Inclusive Education: Inspiring the School through a Schoolwide Art Project, University of Montana

Art chest

To develop children's empathy and to form correct social and moral attitudes and appropriate relationships. Develop children's imagination and creative ingenuity. Peer integration in the classroom, especially students with special needs.

Cognitive and social.

Drama

2 lessons in a row: 90 min.

1. Relaxation exercise. Students sit in a comfortable circle. Close their eyes. Listen to quiet music and read the text.

2. Discussion in progress. Students are asked: What did you hear? What did you imagine? What did you feel?

3. Students in the class are divided into pairs randomly.

4. Each member of the couple shows certain movements with the help of their body and the friend of the couple has to repeat this action. After that, they switch roles.

5. Discussion in progress. Students are asked: How did you feel? What were you thinking at the time?

6. 4 paintings by Baroque and 2 Renaissance and 2 contemporary artists are selected.

7. Students choose one picture and present it with the help of a sculpture.

8. Students are divided into groups of 4.

9. Each group selects 2 pictures.

10. The groups present the performance based on those picture plots without words.

11. Discussion. How did you manage to recreate the character of your artwork?

Computer, multimedia, recording of relaxing music, text developing imagination.

https://soundcloud.com/user-349444234/sets/ramyb-s-sodas

http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/project/art-project?hl=pl