Below are the notes given to me by Linda who reviewed my MA Film intro workshop document for me, the full ROT form can be found at the bottom of the post. The workshop document can be found in the link below:
MA Film Introduction to the Alexa Mini Workshop Plan – https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Wtm55e9X1wDt5ofAljJXiTNCNFE5nOiRBaeDPPGq3so/edit?usp=sharing
Thank you, Matt, for sharing your teaching materials with me and for our discussion about these; it was great to hear about your experiences and gain insight into your teaching approach and your aims for developing it.
From our discussion, the following are sone of the key points we identified and discussed and / or suggestions that may help with some of the issues that you’ve asked for feedback on:
- Factoring in an ice-breaker is usually always a good idea. Usually it’s best to do this after you’ve introduced yourself as this is quite a straightforward way of starting to create a ‘safe space’ in the classroom – although some tutors prefer to wait until after the ice-breaker, perhaps so as not to seem to dominate or centre themselves. Perhaps you could think of your introduction as a kind of mini-ice-breaker ? What I mean is, introducing yourself and taking a transparent approach through which to frame the whole session eg.making it clear that you actively encourage feedback and questions at any point in the session and that you want people to feel included and comfortable in the class so, if there is any reason that they don’t, please tell you.
You could then introduce an ice-breaker task – and keep up the transparent approach by telling the students that you are introducing an ice-breaker to try to encourage an inclusive atmosphere. The ice-breaker often works best in either pairs or small groups and it can be helpful to get people moving around, away from their desks; one ice-breaker I’ve experienced as a student was when our tutor asked us to write down three things about ourselves and then stand up, move around the group and introduce ourselves by telling the other person these three things. This initially seemed awkward and cringy, but eventually brought about laughter and lots of curiosity about one another – and it gave people something to refer back to during the break, when we all went to the canteen. Physically moving people around helps to change the pace of a class, and changing pace is a good way to maintain engagement levels.
- The idea of getting students to switch partners / groups during the class, depending on how much experience they’ve had, is a really good one. This could be strengthened through the transparent teaching approach ie. by straightforwardly telling them that you want them to co-teach with you because you don’t want them to feel there is any hierarchy in the classroom, and you also want them to learn from one another and work as a team because this is what will be expected in industry.
- It’s never a bad thing to have too much content ‘on hand’ in case it’s needed. However, it’s surprisingly easy to overwhelm students, even at MA level. Again, taking a transparent approach and asking them to tell you when they are starting to feel overwhelmed will help, as will stating clearly that there is a degree of flexibility in what you cover in the session; this relates to co-teaching and the idea of allowing students to have a say in how they are taught and recruiting them in teaching along with you.
- Relatedly, the issue of some students having quite vast knowledges and others being new to the topics you cover is potentially very challenging in terms of consumption of your time. Would it be helpful to ask for a ‘show of hands’ to assess who has the most experience and then position those students within smaller groups – of three or four students – and then work your way around each group as they work through a task together? In this way, you effectively recruit the most experienced students as co-tutors – and students usually love this task – and you then effectively refine their approach as you go around each group to teach them. Again, it’s worth stating that you are tasking the more experienced one’s with this role ie. co-teaching with you.
- Verbal rewards: in all of the above it’s always worth pausing when a student offers input and offering a ‘verbal reward’ – that is, a compliment or praise or acknowledgment of the importance of what they are saying; this builds students’ confidence and creates an inclusive atmosphere because other students see you respond well to input and feel safer offering their own input. Make sure, however, that you don’t only praise the more experienced students – anything that any student says is potentially valuable to the class and paraphrasing what they’ve said, or asking for confirmation that you’ve understood them correctly, is a great way to ensure that they feel listened to and significant in your class. If you are not sure how to extend praise, you can say something like “That sounds really interesting, could you tell us more about what you mean by that / how you would do that / where you have used that approach before…etc”.
Link to full ROT form – https://docs.google.com/document/d/10MVE5V9kVhpNHV_UFx29R-8S3qoJq56_/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=110209103505110704763&rtpof=true&sd=true