Hi all!

Question - How do you guys embed E and D into your sessions? I.E. do you plan discussions within a session, deal with issues as they occur, or plan seperate sessions using materials provided by your organisation? Comments welcome! Rebecca

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Hi Stuart

That sounds like a really interesting session!! It's taking things a step further so, I agree with you also - that for me I actually crave the guidance and information [though I then like to be left alone to ponder things before getting back and doing the work or producing what is needed]. But for the students to become more and more independent might help them to increase the ways in which they feel able to learn - by starting in a secure and sound facility - it could all be related to later, real life and work situations.

Thanks for sharing and see you tomorrow!

 

Tina

Hi Tina/Stuart.

Rotation worked out very well for me too.  I can't claim any credit for the idea - it came from my PGCE mentor.  I'd just conducted an observed(!) session in our TV studio where a group of 16 students were spread around just 3 TV studio cameras with a view to getting them all to experiment with different ways of changing Depth of Field (how much stuff in the shot is in focus).

The session itself was ok - my mentor we pleased with the content of the session and how I'd delivered it, but suggested that I number the people in each group and call up the "1's" first and get them to demonstrate the three techniques we had discussed, then rotate.

This worked very well in the session that immediately followed my observation! (Different group, same material).  This meant that I was sure that all of the learners had taken a turn at trying the three techniques, it also meant that as each learner started their 'turn' they were more focused than those in the previous session.  It also coerced them into asking questions about the use of the equipment that might otherwise have gone un-asked if they weren't fully commiting themselves to the use of the equipment.

On embedding E and D, I used to deal with issues as they arose - but I'm taking a more thought out approach. For example, a recent topic in the course book was "tourists". To promote a discussion of racial stereotypes, I presented the class with pictures (bull fighting spaniards, Frenchman on bicycle with garlic) and they discussed in groups and fed back to the class.Then came up with a stereotypical English person - with amusing results as each pair had a different view. I try to keep it light hearted as much as possible! I know my subject lends itself to such discussions, and they often further learning objectives (speaking and listening practise, learning vocab, using adjectives in the describe a typical English person example), but echoing Tina's question - how do you fit it into a music lesson or welding lesson?

Chris - on encouraging shy students - i use pair work a lot - students always get the chance to check their answers with a partner before feeding back to the group. This makes them braver and also means they can discuss their work and self correct.

Rebecca

Also, Chris, just another thought crossed my mind re your shy student. I had a similar situation, it's ongoing and being resolved with lots of praise, encouragement, targetted support through written feedback - medal/mission (I can show you my case study from the last module) Confidence and skills are improving and the student has requested a dyslexia assessment (after a bit of gentle coaxing!) Does your learner have a similar barrier to learning? I'm sure you've done a bit of digging already, and there's so little time before/after lessons for 1 to 1s. Maybe they have a preferred learning style - or short attention span?

rebecca

Hi Chris and Rebecca

Thought I would jump in on the conversation! This is certainly something that I have experienced and was in fact brought to my attention in my second observation. I found that for me it was all too easy to let the more confident students take the lead especially in peer feedback which a lot of the session involved. It felt to me like the sessions had great pace and energy but of course this was not the case for all students.

Hey Peep's

I've found this too. in both studio and performance. I try to give the students the option to choose the direction of the lessons in terms of material, genres etc. But I've found the stronger personalities in talking and group decisions are often the academically weaker adventurous ones. So if left unchecked they tend to direct the project in unrealistic directions and the others are left to pick up the piece and make good of the projects. I've experimented a little with this recently and the weaker students concluded that too much freedom was not conducive to them being productive. They need to be given more specific guidelines. the stronger but less vocal students really prospered with the extra freedom.

Hi Stu

I think this is a good point. In trying to encourage 'scaffolding' through peer-led group work I have found that this is only successful if there is a regular assessment of the work that is going on in these groups. I have recently made more time for formative assessment performances throughout the module and whilst I sometimes feel this eats into time we do not have, it has made sure that the learners are where they need to be, or shown that I need to get them to some other place. I would agree that learners need to be checked and then if needed be given more structure and guidelines.

I do have trouble holding back in a lessons. I want the students to experience as much as possible but recently that has impacted on the students opportunity to reflect as a group. because I only teach the students for a 5th of the their weekly sessions I'm reliant on feedback from other teachers with regards of assessment. This half term I have to get the students focused of developing their solo performance skills for their portfolios. now do I just push them to do as many performances and song as much as possible to improve experience or should I get them to focus on one maybe two. develop it. perform it, reflect in the group, develop it some more?

Hey Chris. Is that Skinners Praise and Reward Theory?

Hi Stuart

With regard to your students about developing their solo performance, do you need to apply this to all, can you not differentiate within their learning needs, and get some to develop by lots of performance and maybe the more experience or more confident increase the level they are working at by giving harder pieces but less. This would make it harder for you to deliver or maybe impossible. - just a thought, not sure if you do any one to one within your teaching lessons.

Sue

I think I feel where you're coming from - each of us has a wealth of knowledge and we want to share it all with our learners- "ooh, try this, ooh try that.  Have you heard/seen/done this??" - but I suppose we all have to practise some kind of restraint to avoid overloading  them.  They will end up teaching themselves a lot of things without much input from the teacher (which is good for teacher workload as well as being good for the learner's experience).  There's also (usually) another lesson, or another year of their course still to come, so one can always plant the seed and let it grow over time - at least you get some kind of satifaction when that seed has grown and you can see the the metaphorical plant has grown into the type of plant you intended it to in the first place with just a bit of watering here and there!

In my non-teaching full-time job at the moment, one of the things we do is show people how to use the TV studio (aka a TV Studio Induction), and I've started to apply the things I've learned on my PGCE course in my main job.  For starters, I've stopped trying to show EVERYONE how EVERYTHING works.  Two reasons-  one is that the TV Studio Induction is there to ensure safe and competant use of the TV studio for the safety of the students and the studio, and not in depth understanding of the workings of all of the equipment.  Also, through my PGCE course I've observed and learned that by going through EVERYTHING, quite often the important safety and 'house rules' information discussed at the start of the session has gone out the window because I've overloaded TV studio inductees with other stuff.

What I have also started doing is recapping important points. And then summarising/recapping again.  As long as the users know the H&S rules and the house rules about keeping the studio locked etc, the rest they will pick up in due course IF and when they need to use it.

 Hi Chris 

I have been trying out the Medal and Mission theory with some of my learners over there past assignment , and i must say it is having a positive effect. I found that with lower levels of classes prefer not to be assessed against grading criteria, but benefit from there medals and independently promote missions and with peers. 

Is it just me, or does medal and mission make you think REALLY quickly on your feet? This is only very loosely tied with medal and mission, but when somebody answers a question in class that isn't quite the full way there yet, I quickly find a way where possible to put a positive spin on what they've said or to link their answer to the direction we're going, and then try to hint at where I'm trying to get them to go to keep their thought processes on the right path.

It's more about positive reinforcement, which in my case made sure that the same learners weren't afraid of asking more questions, but I do squeeze medal and mission into everything where I can.

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