< A thought on resumés | Main | Classroom management: the merits of explaining rules and knowing what you're doing >
September 22, 2009
The mysteries of classroom improvisation
I'm the apprentice to the masters in this practicum experience, learning the alchemical processes for recreating what is beginning to feel more like magic and myth than concrete learning. Some of the stuff in these chapters (3-6) makes me feel like I'm on the outside looking in, like the author is explaining the impossible to me in hopes of making it more attainable. The subjects of these formidable chapters? Lesson planning, materials development, and curriculum planning.
The thing that struck me first is how there are so many formulae for creating classroom widgets (be they lessons, materials, or in the large scope of curriculum). But none of them should be followed prescriptively--that only lands a beginning teacher in the clutches of rote or, perhaps more terrifyingly, confusion and not feeling good enough.
One of my favorite impossible passages in chapter 6 is on improvisation. I admire those who can "improv," as it's said, because clearly they know their material and their audience, whether the improviser is a stage comedian or a teacher. Whatever happens in improvisation is sometimes more brilliant than anything they could have truly planned. There's danger in relying on improvisation to pull one through a lack of planning, though, too. (My reflection: nothing is 100% fool-proof in teaching. It seems that teaching must be a mélange of abstract approaches towards a set of tangible goals and objectives.)
On page 107 Crookes gives readers a quotable quote on improvisation in teaching:
the improvisational actor with a definition of the general situation and a set of guidelines for performing his or her role, rather than working from a detailed written script . . . [and similarly] when improvising, a teacher begins with an outline of the instructional activity. Details are filled in during the class session as the teacher responds to what the students know and can do. Preparation for such an improvisation entails the creation of general guidelines for lessons that are designed to be responsive to the unpredictability of classroom events. (Borko and Livingston, 1989, pp. 476-477)
So planning a lesson entails a variable percentage of doing well or flopping. And in those successes or failures, there is another quite unreliable percentage that could benefit from improvisation--but the success of improvisation depends upon the teacher's abilities, comfort with the material, and preparation. Funny how preparation just became an attribute of improvisation, which is something that I would guess most of the world sees as "off the cuff," totally without preparation.
At least this passage decrypts the concept of classroom improvisation a little bit.
I know I've had to improvise during classroom presentations before. If something doesn't go right or if I skip over something I meant to say, it takes quick thinking and crafty words to create an opportunity to make things look seamless. I guess improvising in the classroom is probably a lot like what my band teacher used to say about missing notes in a concert: you're probably the only one that will notice.
Posted by KarissaKilgore at September 22, 2009 8:55 AM