A funny thing happened on the way...Part Two

I knew the “what,” but I couldn’t master the “how” of sketch writing in three weeks. I don’t doubt that given more time, I could have produced a sketch that met all criteria of good sketch writing. This is where practice would have made perfect or close to it. I would have to do many rewrites, which would require my sustained motivation, focus and determination to produce a sketch that met curriculum goals. I would need to incorporate the constructive criticism of the teacher and my peers into every rewrite, which would require note taking. I would have to have something at stake to keep coming back for more constructive criticism and more rewrites. This tedious, multi-step writing process would pose many challenges for my 2e learners, no matter what type of writing they were asked to produce. So, in fact I learned that instruction in any type of writing process must meet their specific cognitive, social and emotional needs to support their task completion. The structure of sketch writing most definitely meets their short-term objective needs, dealing with their weaknesses in processing, memory and focus, and the use of humor would keep them engaged for a while, but in the end, it will be the ability to accept the writing challenges and to persevere that will produce successful written expression.

The strategies I would use to create a safe and engaging learning environment for both those who will face challenges in the writing process and those who won’t are: explicit classroom protocol, individual rubrics, explicit instruction, opportunity for diverse learning styles, differentiation, both collaborative and individual work and creative behavior management. I would begin by presenting “following the fear” as part of any challenging learning process, not a consequence of an individual learner’s deficit. It would be listed as a goal on the sketch-writing rubric.

Rubrics for sketch writing will help my students break down the production process into explicit skills and short-term goals. I will use a new rubric for every phase of the production process, and also align the rubric to specific student’s goals. Differentiation is vital during any writing process for 2e teachers. This approach openly suggests that not all learners will begin at the same level or reach a goal at the same time. This focuses the student on his individual progress and ability to meet the goals set specifically for him or her.
Many 2e students are visual/spatial learners and need visual input. There are no DVDs of essay writing that are entertaining and engaging, but there are many sketches, both online and on DVDs to watch and to analyze. It would be a great help for the teacher to find sketches of well-known comedy groups to view, and explicitly identify the elements of sketch writing as they view it. First let them view a sketch in its entirety, and then go through it identifying the elements and beats necessary to produce good sketch writing, following their rubrics.

I would begin the sketch writing process with improvisation, a kinesthetic approach to writing. Just as they viewed the sketch on a DVD, now they will step into the shoes of the sketch writer and create a scene, on their feet, collaboratively with their acting partners. This teamwork would allow those with stronger skills to contribute and lead the group, affording the less skilled less anxiety than they would have producing independently. After the scene is improvised, we would go through the sketch writing elements again and apply them, if needed, to the improvisation. After each beat is created, we would have a recorder write the dialogue up to that beat, and proceed from beat to beat until we reached the end of the sketch. This is the explicit instruction that I was missing in my class; understandably, there was just no time for it. This strategy would give the teacher ample opportunity to assess each student’s individual skill mastery and could proceed based on that information.Student writers who are ready to write independently should do so now. Those who still need outside support should be paired with a peer. Let the writing begin!

When impasses are hit, students can experiment with improvisation, again transferring the learning to the kinesthetic mode and see if they can’t solve the problem. This is when the class as a whole can contribute constructive criticism, a protocol that needs to be preset before any writing process can begin.

It is critical for any teacher to create a positive and safe learning environment, especially if “following the fear” is going to be a goal in the classroom. Taking risks in front of one’s peers is scary and the only solution is to have a strict behavior code set by the students and the teacher. It must be a group effort; they must buy into it and usually when they set their own rules, students are more willing to follow rules. It is age appropriate for middle school students to give criticism by telling a peer what they did wrong. It is up to the instructor to teach the correct way to give criticism, literally putting the right words into students’ mouths. This will keep the classroom a safe place for all writers to stay motivated and determined to complete the writing task.

Though I expected to be more adept at sketch writing, the reality was that I needed more time. Patience. I have a feeling that I learned more about teaching my students this engaging writing process than I would have if I had been sketch writer magnifique! Yes, I was reminded of my own students’ challenges and how these challenges impact their self-esteem. I was reminded that it is difficult not to compare one’s own skills to those of peers and keep enough self-confidence afloat to publicly make mistakes and carry on anyway. I still believe that basic writing skills are similar for many types of writing, and meeting any goals, no matter if they are different goals, requires the same emotional disposition and executive functioning skill mastery...even before a word hits the paper.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way...Part One

In the proposal for my fellowship, I stated my long-term goal as using the strategies, structure and humor of sketch comedy to teach my middle school 2e students basic writing skills. I would take an intensive sketch comedy class as my professional development and smoothly slip back into my classroom with all of the knowhow to teach sketch comedy writing; but the word “propose” is not finite. The reality was that know and how are two very different aspects of learning. British philosopher, Gilbert Ryle describes these two distinct elements of content mastery as “knowing that” and “knowing how.” I thought I had learned and understood the concepts of the curriculum, “knowing that,” but I could not appropriately produce this knowledge, “knowing how.” I was catapulted into the real world of my 2e learners when working in their areas of weakness. Somebody up there in 2e teacher heaven was laughing.

However, this trip into an area of weakness allowed me to explore the emotional, social and cognitive challenges that arise when a 2e student is unable to consistently meet instructional goals and comes face to face with an impasse. There are three separate forces working against successful task completion and I was not immune to their destruction. Even as an adult with matured self-advocacy skills, a solid identity in my areas of strength, the world, and supporting a fairly healthy ego, I, admittedly, wasn’t ecstatic about going into a classroom where I did not shine. My class participation began to diminish; I began as a strong contributor to class discussions and soon became anxious about reading my sketches aloud and hesitant in offering constructive criticism to my peers. If I couldn’t write a sketch myself, why would they trust my opinions about their sketches? Was I lacking the “know that” or the “know how?”  Where did the breakdown happen, and what could the teacher have done to prevent or at least diminish the negative experience for me? Ah, new research questions, whose answers are vital in completing my original goal of using the sketch comedy model to teach basic writing skills to my 2e learners; a side road to my long-term goal that I never anticipated.

2e learners have high expectations of themselves and the disappointment in not being able to meet these expectations is reason enough to stop trying; but to fail publicly, in front of peers and teachers, puts 2e learners in a situation where their only means of personal and social survival is giving up and becoming silent and/or getting out of the classroom as often as possible. So, their confidence in task completion is being chipped away by their negative personal voice, their perceptions of their peers’ and teachers’ negative voices and either weak cognitive ability, or weak skill acquisition, the “know that” and the “know how.” How can 2e teachers help 2e learners shift away from their path toward disengagement and keep them invested in knowledge, and help nurture acceptance and patience with skill acquisition when working in their areas of weakness? How do we as teachers of these sensitive perfectionists convince them that following their fear is the only choice that will bring them closer to skill mastery?