Micro-teaching, Reflection

Richard Avedon portrait of Alfred Hitchcock, master of detail

During the last session we did our micro-teaching where I taught the class of five the formatting of screenplays.

Immediately I must acknowledge that I failed to check the classroom beforehand, I was expecting to be in a classroom with a computer which unfortunately was not the case. I had prepared a powerpoint presentation which held the structure and reinforcement of what I was saying of the lesson, and so without it I was flagging a little. I do have a tablet device which I managed to show the students the slides, however it was wholly impractical and didn't have the same kind of effect.

In the last blog post I was worrying over the timings of the session and as I predicted I did run over my time, however I think this might partially be down to that I was first and nervous, but that I was also thrown by not having my presentation to back me up.

The successful part of the session I think was the questions section at the end as it got to show what I knew of formatting and was more natural at answering these questions. Rather than the talking going one way, I think I may consider in the future creating more of a dialogue between myself and students as that's where I perform best.

There were elements of how I was teaching that could have been improved, I stood awkwardly and to one side, it'd have been better if I stood centrally and considered the whole room, in hand with moving between groups to provoke discussion. Group discussion was difficult with the numbers of students and so I had to participate a lot more than I initially planned. This also included some heavy prompting as a few students had very little exposure to scripts beforehand and so when I challenged them to point out what was wrong with the poor example script, they found nothing wrong because they didn't have an idea of what was right. Hopefully, after the session they may know a little bit more than they did.

Micro-Teaching Planning

William Klein

I've been thinking about our planning for micro teaching. Teaching a subject in ten minutes is a difficult task, an introduction alone can take ten minutes so it calls for quite a rigid lesson plan and strong will to progress through the required steps I've considered appropriate to learn what I'm teaching.

I am concerned about the dryness of my subject matter, the formatting of script, as it demands conveying a set of rules and instructions, something notoriously dull.

For the first two minutes, I am going to try and engage the students immediately in the introduction by asking what makes a script a script, this will get groups thinking and allows participation and discourse between myself and the students. The only cause for concern would be the possibility of overrunning, so I will have to be on top of the time and direct the discourse quickly and efficiently.

After this an example page of script will be handed out to groups of three or two and I will ask the students to spot what they think is wrong with the formatting, what is done right and what needs changing. This kind of activity, lasting four minutes, will engage the students in working with the scripts and letting them produce ideas of what they think is correct and what isn't, hopefully this will provoke good discussion.

Following the discussions in groups, for the final four minutes, I will then do a presentation defining the specificities of the formatting and highlight what the example script got right and got wrong and validate the students and their ideas.

My worry is timings but I will aim to be forcible in pushing the lesson forward and keep discussion moving. I look forward to seeing how I alter discussion and keep in control without getting derailed.

--ST

Student Writing In Higher Education: An Academic Literacies Approach

Jeremy Fish

This journal focuses on the idea that the standard of student 'literacy' is falling, but it is not fit to try and solve individual problems, rather to look at the wider institutional approach towards the complex writing practises that occur at degree level.

The Approach Models of Student Writing:

Study Skills - Student writing as technical and instrumental skill.

Focus on 'fixing' 'surface' features, grammar and spelling. However, that is to assume literacy is these surface features, and it is not the case.

Academic Socialisation - Student writing as transparent medium of representation.

Orientates students to interpret learning tasks through 'deep', 'surface' and 'strategic' lenses. This makes the assumption though that once these practises are learnt, they are a one size-fits-all approach for the entire institution.

Academic Literacies - Student writing as meaning-making and contested.

A series of social practices, the student switches between practices deploying the appropriate repertoire of linguistics to the requirement of the writing. Problems in student writing might be attributed to the gulf between academic staff expectations and student interpretation of what is involved.

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This journal essentially covers the process of how a student approaches academic writing and the difference between teacher expectations and a student's interpretation, and I do feel there is a gap.

The journal explains that academics and tutors are restricted by their own academic frameworks and if some writing does not make sense to their installed frameworks then they reach for familiar descriptive categories like 'structure and argument', 'clarity' and 'analysis' in order to give feedback. In reality students are limited by their own individual perspective and these categories are less meaningful.

Students enter academic writing having to learn the different constructs of each subject, each with disparate requirements. They can not apply one structure for all, 'one-size-fits-all' and so get poorly marked with poor feedback because the tutors have not expressed clearly how the student should approach the essay. Furthermore, the essay that would have been submitted would not fit within the tutors academic framework so the feedback would not clarify anything further because of the familiar descriptive categories which mean nothing.

Comment 

I have personally felt this gap in my time as a student learning how to write well-written academic writing, in the first year especially the approach was very difficult to transition to from the A Level way of writing, in hand with poor instruction of how to write in the precise right way did not help. The phrase I heard most was 'you'll get used to it', which virtually left me as a student to 'figure' it out by myself. This might mean, as I have 'self-taught' myself, any inherent problems that have been left unrefined in my writing is now installed unchecked with no tutor correcting but simply putting 'lack of clarity' or 'need of analysis'.


The top image reflects my recent visit to the American Museum in Bath last week. It was good.

Reflect: Signature Pedagogies

Urs Fisher
Challenging the ideas of surface

I have been thinking about the surface structures of pedagogies. The operational acts of teaching and learning.

With teaching writing one couldn't follow the principles of a maths or science based course, these fields demands accurate, erudite knowledge, particular in engineering and medicine, and even the non-maths based law course.

Tutors teach by means of selecting singular students and opening with a question that the students has to answer to the fullest of their ability, and then the teacher carries out follow up questions. This line of enquiry expires when the tutor is satisfied. These techniques would be a disservice when operating in the field of the arts.

As I am three years in to my own course it has become visibly clear that a creative could not, or should not, have this kind of technique applied as most areas of discussion are subjective and dependent upon who's viewing or reading them. And so nothing is black nor white. Furthermore, practises vary too, there is no standard a writer can abide by, it's a personal craft dependent and unique to whom is creating it. Some people micro manage, others plan everything out in full detail on post-it notes all over their walls before they even start a sentence.

I do think the current system we have encountered of group-based work is the best structure for teaching writing, however, I think I would have the teacher interject further and prop up workshopping with particular elements students should pay attention to, like sentence construction, word choice, metaphors, how one achieves their voice. I think these techniques need to have a better understanding and focus in teaching.

--ST

Lesson: Teaching An Introduction to Scriptwriting

I am the vice-president of the Bath Spa Film Society and I run the subsidiary Film Club, a weekly workshop dedicated to film making.

We have mostly first years participating and many of them are new to the field, many have not handled a camera nor attempted at writing a script. We decided the first few sessions should focus on scriptwriting as then the members can work away on them while we start the camera and editing tutorials in later weeks.

For the inaugural session I prepared a presentation using clips from films I've made and other student films too, and then progressing through story structures, characters, format on the page and knowing what a script does and does not do.

I spoke with some fluidity but felt limited in desired movement by the constraints of the teaching equipment. I had to remain standing behind a desk the entire time because I had to control the presentation in hand with speaking.

Next week we hope to have more members participate as this week's only had seven members, however that may have been due to the little promotion we gave that first session.

Critical Thinking in Young Minds by Victor Quinn

This week I was unable to find the book I exactly wanted in the library, and so after rooting around, this book by Victor Quinn proved to be an interesting choice. It's focus is on children learning but the techniques explained and reasons why are worth looking into.


Chapter 12: Climate and Pedagogy (a focus on teaching children)

 1. Humour - brings together the relationship between teacher and student, captivates and is useful for extended periods of deep speaking

 2. Provocation-in-role - use of provocation, abuse, derision, is to help them develop confidence and to counter edginess, not by matching irritation and aggression, but by reason and argument proper.

 3. Listening - systematically disorientate with paralanguage so they don't rely on teacher's clues and respond with the expected answer. Provoked into saying their real views.

 4. Challenge - classroom should challenge their ideas, beliefs, attitudes, and aspirations. And develop giving and receiving criticism.

 5. Intelligence - academic: deals with the conventions and routine of the subject. The intellectual has to do with exercise, development, exploration, and articulation of intelligence.

 6. Pedagogy for judgement - being prompted appropriately by the circumstances of the task , the engagement, the life - not the teacher. It is to see thinking skills as requiring repeated, developmental practise before they become educational attainments, that is before they become judgement or critical thinking.

 7. Common sense - to avoid sterility of a subject  it is necessary to make it a development out of common sense, rather than a superimposition upon existing understanding.   If the learning is mere academic learning, and does not affect their common sense grasp of the world, then the teaching is failing.

 8. Acceptance - allow challenges and foolishness because students want to venture and explore and that it is important to listen to the dismissive adult, to resist him, and to counter his dismissal.

A lot of these ideas deal with young children and the importance of the climate of learning. Some of these points are transferable across all ages.

--ST

The Key Models to Teach Creative Writing

Richard Serra in the Grand Palais, Paris

There are six key approaches to teaching creative writing:

Atelier Approach - Apprentice to a master
Great Works Approach - imitation of great works
Inspiration Approach - improvisation
 Techniques Approach - studies methodologies of successful writers
Workshop Approach - critique by other writers
Embryonic Feminist Approach - no one really knows!

The most common of these is the workshop approach as it promotes analytical thinking and critiquing while working as a group which enables a more comfortable environment. 

My preferred way of learning is the techniques approach as it advances my knowledge of the tools available at hand to the writer. The understanding of different techniques develop our appreciation of great writers and acknowledge the mechanics of their work, but it can also inject great strength into the construction of our own writing. We'll know the type of build we want and we'll the materials at hand help us construct.

The Teaching Writing Learning Journal of Sean Thomas

3/10/2012 - Teaching Writing Week 1

Introduction to the course with the handbook processed and understood. 

Were asked what capacity of teaching we want to enter after university and I felt I would like to teach creative writing at degree level. 

Homework: buy them books.