Surprise Guest Activity - Doable or Disaster? (In our own voices ch 7)
This excerpt from In Our Own Voices was highly relatable and provided valuable information, in my opinion. Reading from others with nearly identical experiences to ours is helpful and gives me hope that we can be effective teachers while balancing our own studies. I particularly liked the focus on intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation. Students who are focused solely on “moving to the next thing” or “getting the A” or “getting the degree” get much less out of their learning than students who are intrinsically motivated. As a goal-oriented learner myself, this made me think about how I structure my class. I found that some of my motivation or encouragement for the students are designed to be extrinsically motivated (extra credit points, getting a better grade) and therefore might be less valuable in long-term learning or overall educational value. I should structure my activities, teaching, learning around learning itself. This way, students have less outside pressure and will hopefully understand the value of learning and exploring ideas for the sake of it, instead of what it can bring them. Bower even mentioned Bartholomae and Bizzell, mentioning that their arguments “fail to consider intrinsic motivation. Students may not immediately see the importance of and their part in a college’s discourse community, especially if their writing self-image is poor and they feel they do not have something vital to add,” (182). This really struck me and helped me see that before students can contribute in an academic and practiced way, they need to understand their own value and the value of their writing overall. I really liked this study!
The listed activities and lesson plans at the end were also pretty intriguing to me - I wanted to know what you all thought of the “Surprise Guest” activity they posed. I love trying new and strange lesson plan ideas, and I think it might be hilarious to try out in a 103/4 classroom. What do you all think? Could this work in an RB 107 classroom, with our students?
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| ^^ Doable? Maybe a little wild? Terrible idea? Who's to say? |
I found many of the suggested activities to be less than useful, but this one in particular.
ReplyDeleteThe general idea is sound (have students observe the same scenario and show how they perceive the situation differently), but this is far too over the top. What happens if a student doesn't understand that what has transpired is theater? What happens if your actor gets attacked?
You could probably accomplish something similar by taking your class to a common area and having them observe what is happening in a certain area.
Overall, I think the suggested activities are not student-centered. Instead, they seem like ideas someone thought up to keep from being bored as they teach. At the end of the semester, are students going to remember the lesson about how we perceive things differently, or are they going to remember their instructor getting slapped and how weird/funny/terrifying that was?
Hey Lucas!
DeleteWhile I think this activity has potential... I agree with you. I think if I was a student I would have been mortified and anxiety ridden. There are many emotions that can aid learning but I think anxiety attacks are not in the spectrum. That being said... I feel like this activity could be scaled back and made useful.
Have a friend bring something, like a folder, and then leave. Go from there. Students will see the person, but nobody is injured in the process. I agree that it is not student-centered as it seems like it discounts the actual emotional and psychological event you are inflicting, as well as seem unnecessarily traumatic.
Hi Kristen,
ReplyDeleteI think given the social environment of today's world, with intruder and active shooter drills, the given scenario is a bit too much and could even be triggering for students. They may take it a bit too seriously and may even, as Lucas pointed out, try and help you or get the person away from you.
I think there are ways to engage students and help them see the value of learning without triggering them or forcing them into uncomfortable situations in the classroom. Keeping things new, interesting, and exciting can be helpful and even engaging for students, but I think there is a clear and distinct line between learning and giving a wow-factor for the sake of attention.
Abbie
Hi Kristen,
DeleteI also agree with Abbie and Lucas. This might turn into a disaster if students don't get it. However, everything is planned to happen so swiftly, so students' reactions should also be assumed to start at that speed. I don't think, this would be a good idea to implement this in class. However, some students might get triggered at experiencing the instant accident. That might hurt someone mentally.
However, activities should be planned based on the students' and teacher's values too. Additionally, we should not incorporate something in a classroom which presents violence.
Hi Kristen,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with the ideas from Abbie, Lucas, and Nilima about the problems with using this scenario in class. I think that there are a lot of potential risks with this activity. However, I did find some of the other lessons they suggest interesting. For example, I think that the "Paragraph Puzzle" idea seems like a unique way to model effective paragraph structure and get students thinking about how to organize their ideas in a logical way. You could even do this activity with the students' own paragraphs and have their partner or group members try to organize the sentences as they originally had them. If their peers organize their paragraph differently, this could then be an indication to the writer that maybe they need to develop the connection between ideas or rearrange the sentences in the paragraph to better reflect the logic of their argument.
Thanks for your post!
-Taylor
HA, HA! RB 107. That’s exactly the room I was picturing when I was reading about this activity!
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I thought it could be rather hilarious to do and it made me wonder how it could play out if I tried to do this (or something similar) in my own classes. While Lucas seems to think it could result in a lawsuit or some such (if not the loss of an eye or maybe a tooth), I think the result could actually be very useful in a learning sense. I wouldn't take it so far as getting into a physical altercation with the “intruder,” but a trivial office dispute would work just as well. Perhaps the unauthorized pilfering of tea from from a colleague's desk?
I think that such an “incident” could be rather useful in whatever way you want to use it. One of the biggest, overarching benefits is that it could keep your students on their toes and wondering what might happen next. I certainly know that my favorite professors have been the ones who do peculiar, unexpected, absurd things.
One of my all-time favorite professors would often times bring in stacks of books. Periodically during the lecture, he would rifle around for the one he wanted, open it up to a passage (sometimes not even marked), then read out the quote he wanted to address. He would become so passionate about what he was saying that he would wave the book around and occasionally beat the projector screen. More often than not he would throw the book back down onto the table or even the floor––so loudly and so suddenly that even if you were already paying attention it made you want to be as passionate about history as he.
Cassia,
DeleteI agree with most of what everyone’s saying, that the initial activity is risky and not a great idea in practicality, but do like the concept and think that your idea of repurposing it with lowered stakes could potentially work. There’s a line you’d have to walk—what’s big enough to get their attention, yet toned down enough that it wouldn’t easily get out of control?
The initial activity seemed to emphasize the “shock-value” of students not knowing what was going on, but I think it might work just as well if you warned them there was going to be a visitor ahead of time and it was all acting—they’d still have to pay attention and describe the incident in their own way, just not with the added risk of someone having a panic attack or getting hurt. Maybe just don’t tell them they’ll have to describe it until after, so they won’t “have an advantage” and sway the results of the activity? Being straightforward about it could even add to the humor/fun of the situation—if they know two professors are pretending they’re mad at each other, well, that’s pretty hilarious in itself, isn’t it?
-Jessie
While funny, this scenario made me anxious just imagining being a student. While it has a purpose, I think that the risk outweighs the reward here. We live in a time where violence, especially towards schools, is prevalent and a very real fear. Having students from all walks of life, it is likely that some of our students are victims of violence somewhere and at some time, even if not in the school environment. Also... this activity is not blind, deaf, or over-stimulatable student friendly. It's really not a good idea. I think that this activity is rash and needlessly violent, when the same discussion could be gotten across by a person walking in, delivery good news loudly, and walking out.
ReplyDeleteI've been doing a lot of reading about emotion in the classroom. While emotions in the classroom are important to evoke as emotional involvement stimulates memory, you have to toe a careful line. You don't want to invoke anxiety and horror (usually anyway). I think that an exciting message would not only leave enough intrigue, but also invite the same curiosity as a person decking me in the face - all WITHOUT inflicting any sort of trauma. I suggest a person coming in saying they just can't wait to tell you and then announce something exciting, "I'm engaged! OMG" or "I just got the position of Secretary of Bologna! OMG!" and then leaving. First of all joy is contagious (emotions in crowds are especially transferable, especially if the leader (you) are feeling it) and joy also incites people to be more excited about the activity they are doing - regardless if it is boring or not.
I think that if you want to do this activity nix the violence, nix the volume, chill, and be positive.
I've had psych prof's do this exact experiment except they literally just had a secretary walk in, drop off a folder, exchange a few items, and then leave. That's it. And I think the lecture was just as effective. Less entertaining perhaps, but certainly similarly effective.
While I think role-playing scenarios have potential in the classroom, I think this may be taking it too far. If I did this in my classroom with my students, they would be horrified. We have no idea what kinds of experiences our students are bringing with them into the classroom. They could have been abused (physically and verbally) at home by a parent of loved one, which could trigger a negative response for them if they see violence in this way (as Sarah mentioned above). I would hate to trigger one of my students for the sake of an experimental lesson, even if there was some benefit to it. In addition to it being a trigger, I would honestly be afraid that one of my students would take it seriously and go after the perpetrator. My students stood up for me in class all the time when students would interrupt or get out of line. I couldn't imagine putting them in this type of situation when there are just way too many unknown outcomes. This almost seems like promoting violence as a way to teach, even if it's fake. There's enough real violence in the world to pull from if I want my students to think deeper about a situation.
ReplyDeleteI think this brings back the whole "how performative should teaching be" question. I try to be as real and honest with my students as possible, and it seems to pay off. My students have been more open with me the more open I am with them. I don't think I could pull off acting like this in front of them because that's just not who I am as a teacher. This lesson does not fit within my values as it is, but I think it could be possibly be adapted into a safer and less emotionally risky scenario by giving the students control of creating the surprise scenario for each other, with the full knowledge that a scenario is about to take place. This could be done by splitting them into groups, allowing them to come up with some type of performance, having them perform it in class, and leading the other students through a writing activity about what they saw.
Hi Kristen,
ReplyDeleteAs I started reading this activity, I started picturing myself as the "perpetrator". Yet, what if one or some of them came to me to hit me by trying to defend you? That wouldn't be a good scenario because I would try to take care of myself too. I think it's a good idea to be creative and try new activities in the class, I actually love trying new stuff. However, although they show a purpose for that activity, I don't know if it is worth it for the objectives we may have in our own classes.
Motivation is a complex topic and it becomes more complex when we want to help our students build or identify their own sources of motivation. I consider that we could create activities that imply our students' actions beyond writing itself. One of the projects I did with my students required them to interview someone older than them that was of their interest because of any particular reasons. After that, they should create a podcast out of the interview along with some other little tasks. While this was the first time I had done this activity, I was a bit nervous about its outcome. Surprisingly, when I got their reflections on that activity, I saw how my students seemed to have enjoyed that project, just because they were active participants in it. They didn't just follow instructions to write about something, but they chose their person, created their own questions and conducted their own interview. From this activity, I could say that my students' motivation was encouraged by that simple activity. Then, instead trying to do crazy things that may not have a clear and focused purpose, we should think of activities that require our students' creativity while they can have a memorable outcome to take away.
Kristen,
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, as I read this, I realized I had this happen in one of my classes as a student. For some reason, it hadn't stuck with me. I couldn't tell you what grade I was in. But I'm sure it was before schools were such a scary environment to be in with students.
When I read this, while I thought it was an interesting activity that could, in fact, be really useful to teach students about description, I immediately knew I wouldn't attempt something like this. The way things are today, you can't have a stranger barge into a classroom and shout. As some of my peers have already mentioned in the comments above, today we live in fear of school shootings. In my opinion, attempting something like this would be cruel, and could maybe even get you into trouble, if a student were upset enough to go over your head and complain.
While I get the purpose and see it as a useful activity, I don't think it's worth it to potentially trigger trauma for students.