I'll admit my reluctance to watch the film "Take 20" by Todd Taylor. It isn't often I sit down and watch videos in front of the television, and 65 minutes is a sacred amount of time to give. Thus before this task began, I wondered: How can a film help me learn how to teach?
5 minutes into the film I was shouting to an empty room: I'm not alone! The professors did not sit on top of a throne of books, dictating comments and generalizations. I expected to hear that these professors writing and publishing in the field of Composition and Rhetoric were perfect first-time instructors, suffered no anxiety, and knew exactly what they were doing.
Alternatively, I found myself pausing the film to scribble notes.
I value expression in writing. Thus this week I have been at a loss in attempting how to present paraphrase in a way that captured the attention of the students. I want them to feel the freedom to express. One student commented to me this week that what I am teaching is a bunch of rules. In part this is true.
Through the dialogue presented in the film, I learned I can identify the genre of paraphrase, teach the students how to own the topic, and outline a criteria for success applicable to the assignment and course as a whole. I don't know about you, but paraphrase sounds much more appealing when coined as a genre.
Don McQuade stated something lasting: Writing is recursive. Teach students not to fear writing it wrong the first time. They can always do it over.
So maybe I am a sucker for the still black and white shots with the names of the authors we are reading genie flashing to the side and the idiosyncrasies of the professors in full screen, but this film was the most applicable lesson of teaching yet for me.
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3 comments:
I agree with you! I expected (sorry Dr. Rickly) another dry teaching video that would reassure my fears of being crazy old cat lady English teacher. Instead, many of the female teachers commented on what they wore for the first day. I thought I was the only shallow one thinking about this. However, it is important, and I think especially important for young female teachers, to wear some outfit that makes them feel professional and authoritative. It was refreshing to see even the greats and the legends of composition think about something as frivolous as clothes. This made people like Andrea Lunsford become more real to me. She changed the field of composition, but she is a real person just like me. I can do the same.
I totally agree with you in the part where you wrote you pause the video to write down the note. Believe me. I did that, too.
Like you said and in the video, writing is recursive. We can't do it wrong because we can always go back and do it again. However, in reality, I think students are always overlooking the recursive process of writing, and sometimes I am as well. Especially, the class like 1301, it's hard to remind students this concept of writing. Hope for change, but *sigh*
I'm glad that Ed and others here got so much out of Take 20. The personalities of these teachers and of the field in general really came across. It is a nurturing field that values development of student writers as much or more than development of writing.
What I learned from the film is that one can be both experienced and also unsure, open to new ideas. As you mentioned, the honesty of these accomplished professors was comforting.
I recall in a calculus class feeling the same way when my professor would take a chance on a problem at the board and sometimes get lost. He'd retrace his steps, ask if we saw anything wrong, and work his way through it. The fact that he was willing to fail in front of the class made the experience of doing math seem alive and suitably risky, which any intellectual endeavor should be.
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