ACERT Conference 21 March 2015

Dark Matter and the Jazz of Teaching

Adrian Underhill

Related links:demandhighelt.wordpress.comfacebook.com/demandhighelt

adrianpronchart.wordpress.comthecreativitygroup.weebly.com

Improvisation

Teaching: a performance art, co-constructed, live in the moment… The student’s ‘learning edge’ unfolds in front of us

Because we can’t predict what will happen in class, improvisation is an important way of responding

We all improvise in teaching, in conversation, in life

Improvisation: not part of ELT methodology

ELT methodology discusses preparation, but not improvisation.

Spontaneous interaction is not easily represented in the lesson plan, the course material, or in the observation/feedback discussion.

Impro doesn’t tick boxes. It’s difficult to ‘measure’.

The dark matter of teaching

So the art of improvisation escapes being discussed, critiqued or developed.

Yet …. this improvisation makes up the bulk of most lessons.

Therefore I call it The dark matter of teaching

Other performance arts discuss improvisation, and how to improve it ….eg Jazz and Drama

Count Basie and Oscar Peterson

Two pianists improvising together…

Watch their hands and faces while you listen…

How do they cue and respond to each other?

What’s going on between them?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIs1vcoPQbw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3drqJ1bUmEA

Improvisation has structure

A background structure provides a framework for foreground spontaneity

Picture yourself writing a lesson plan….What does the plan do for you?

When do you stick to the plan?When do you depart from the plan?

And then who is at the helm?

Departing from the planAs the unpredictable starts to occur in our lessons …we depart from the plan to attend to what is needed

The class becomes a living interaction rather than the enactment of a script

When did you last depart from your plan? Why?Was it a distraction, a nuisance?

Was it a threat to your control?Was it an opportunity for

engagement?

Like teachers, jazz improvisers also depart from their plan (the sheet music) to create variations on the melody.

Like teachers, this makes up most of their performance

Like teachers, they don’t do it alone… Their improvisation is a living and playful conversation with the other musicians

And this impro is discussed, critiqued or developed.

Spontaneous conversation

1. Play the sheet music

1. Stretch the sheet music

2. Add decorations

3. Introduce other notes and rhythms

4. Develop new melodies, make references

5. Total departure, yet retain basic structure

6. Departure from basic structure too

Degrees of departure from the sheet music:

Improviation does not mean anything goes

Improvisation does not mean goodPreparation does not mean bad

In fact preparedness is needed for good improvisation

What is good improvisation?in jazz?

in teaching? in conversation?

What is quality in improvisation?

In improvisation a cardinal rule concerns accepting ‘the offer’. It’s like ‘going with the energy….

The offer is what the other person/student/actor, musician, says, or does, or… the space they leave

I can refuse the offer, preferring my idea Or I accept the offer.

And even if I accept it, is my response to it fresh? Or do I fall back on previous responses, past cliches?

Accepting ‘the offer’

Improvisation V “Hot licks”

Quality improvisation: My response fits the offer

Hot lick/Cliche: My response misses the offer

The tension between Improvisation and Hot licks, can be aplied to jazz…. or theatre …. or teaching …. Or having a conversation….

To be free from hot licks we need The Queen of Skills….

In Jazz the Queen of Skills is … Listening

Listening connects us with what the other musicians are doing… It reveals the offer. But I have to let go of something….

My preconceptions: if my idea is too strong it gets harder to hear yours…

And the same goes for teaching

So how do I develop the Queen of Skills?

6 great ways to make a mess of listening1. While listening, formulate what you want to say

2. Search for the killer reply, and start rehearsing it,

3. Look for a gap to insert it

4. Make inner judgments about the speaker/clothes etc

5. Worry what the speaker is thinking about you

6. Use the time to plan dinner or the shopping list, or just daydream, while looking attentive

Conversations: The cocktail party

The tension between Impro and Hot licks also applies to cocktail parties

Would you prepare a script for what to say at a cocktail party?

To have a conversation I need to hear the other person, to hear ‘the offer’

But that’s hard to do when I’m working from a script

Viola Spolin on spontaneity:

“…Through spontaneity we are re-formed into ourselves. It creates an explosion that for the moment frees us from handed-down frames of reference, memory choked with old facts and information and undigested theories and techniques of other people's findings.

Spontaneity is the moment of personal freedom when we are faced with reality, and see it, explore it and act accordingly…”

A Tai chi perspective:

“…Planning may be necessary in many circumstances but it can also be a hindrance.

When a person prepares for an activity they encounter a minute tensing of the muscles and a tightening of the joints….

The subtle act of preparation actually reduces your ability to move and slows the body considerably…”

Tai Chi website

Improvisation and reflection

“Living itself … is an improvisatory art… Men and women … are strengthened to meet uncertainty if they can claim a history of improvisation and a habit of reflection…”

Catherine BatesonWriter and cultural anthropologist

Nothing in the way…

“…Jazz summarises the power of the present It's the foundation … learn how to improvise…there is nothing you can't do, there is nothing in the way…”

Sonny RollinsJazz tenor saxophonist

The present moment does not arrive, independent of us, ready made, ready to go.

It does not arrive like a tennis ball over the net… and we just have to hit it back.

We co-author it. We draw it into existence

Through the quality of our own presence we draw one or another present moment into existence

The present moment is not a given…

How can we make spontaneity more visible and discussible in teacher training and supervision?

Is it possible in preservice training, or only later on, with more experience….?

Does it just ‘come with experience’?

7 suggestions (with Alan Maley)

Spontaneity in training and supervision

Spontaneity in training and supervision

1.. Presentation skills2.. Theatre and impro games 3.. Reflect on methodologies which avoid pre-planning: Silent Way, CLL, Dogme4..Provoke unpredictability in class eg John Fanselow’s ‘Do the opposite’, ‘Find your rules and break them’5.. Include spontaneity and improvisation in reflection and feedback discussions 6.. Learn to teach‘as an act of inquiry’ rather than ‘as an act of being right’7.. Spend less time controlling people and more time connecting people together

1. Practise spotting ‘the offer’. Notice if you accept/refuse2. Work with what’s happening, rather than with what you wish was happening3. Start conversations about whatever matters to whoever is there4. Give up trying to be interesting, and reach out and connect5. Make plans but don’t expect them to work out. 6. Welcome the unexpected 7. Bother less about trying to control, reach out and connect

Personal preparation for spontaneity

6. Use intuition, follow hunches, be vulnerable, risk fear, leave gaps, be messy, hang loose, welcome student spontaneity

7. See the school as an adventure park for your learning. See yourself as an improviser…

8. See what’s going on ……Do something different

…Learn from it

What is the Jazz of your Teaching?

Lies not with the plan, But with the sticking…

First step? Get a non-stick plan…

Second step? Be aware of my preconceptions about what the learner needs….

The problem with sticking to the plan…

Start seeing the your improvisation

… so we can talk about it

… so we can develop it

We improvise in teaching as in life…

ACERT Conference 21 March 2015

Dark Matter and the Jazz of Teaching

THANK YOU!Adrian Underhill

Related links:demandhighelt.wordpress.comfacebook.com/demandhighelt

adrianpronchart.wordpress.comthecreativitygroup.weebly.com