In order to structure the limited time available in each weekly singing session, and to clarify the overall purpose of the sessions I decided to focus on the Learning Outcomes for the Voice module that singing lessons sit in.
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LEARNING OUTCOME 1 DEMONSTRATE AN ENHANCED UNDERSTANDING OF INDIVIDUAL VOCAL PRODUCTION.
LO2 DEMONSTRATE AN ABILITY TO DESIGN AN INDIVIDUAL PROGRAMME OF EXERCISES FOR THE FURTHER ENHANCEMENT OF VOCAL DEVELOPMENT.
LO3 SHOW AN ABILITY TO REFLECT CRITICALLY ON PERSONAL STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES.
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At the beginning of the year I decided, when I had received the names of the learners I would be working with, to send them a welcome email, introduce myself and ask them to consider specific areas, goals and a focus for us to work toward.
“Let me welcome you back. I wonder if I can ask you to each email me a paragraph describing what you think you are interested in covering personally, and are hoping to gain from the learning outcomes of the module?
I like to work with specific issues and tailor the curriculum around them. I want you all to feel that the learning is personal and relevant, so a few words letting me know your fears, your goals, any repertoire you want to look at, what you have been working on (anything that gives me an opportunity to focus the sessions on your needs).
I hope you have a restful few days of summer break left before returning, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Gordon Adams
Lecturer
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland”
The introduction of this email is a tool I will continue to use. Some of the learner responses were detailed, personal, showed reflection, clear and deliberate processing of what the outcomes of the sessions should be and focused the minds of both the learners and myself on individual and shared goals. Those responses that were less specific or where the learners had set only general goals were useful for me to read to then give learners the chance to better understand the process of setting goals, knowing what the learning outcomes meant and what their role in achieving them could be.
In the first week of delivery I decided to ask the learners if they would allow some time to sit and rewrite the learning outcomes (LO) of the module. We talked through what each LO might mean to them, to me, what were the possible benefits of achieving its aim and if it covered what the learner personally felt they individually wanted to achieve. Once we had discussed their goals I asked them to write out each LO and reword it into language and a justification that was purely their own.
What occurred in these moments was doubly transformational. I began to see how vague and incomplete the nature of a learning outcome could be, and the learner began to see how they could help themselves achieve incremental progression.
I begin each session with a clear introduction to the intentions of the session and quickly engage the student in some autonomous decision-making around the content that we will be working with. The learners are then given weekly opportunities to reflect either on the topic proposed by me, agreed on by us both or suggested by them. For those learners that felt somewhat indecisive or overwhelmed with the amount they would like to explore I would suggest areas of interest, normally breath work, warmth or resonance. (I’m keen to catch these moments when they do allow me to suggest or offer options. There are certain aspects of helping learners take control of their journey that reduce my input, or steer me away from areas of their vocal work that I would always like to explore, and often these are not the exciting, immediately stimulating or ‘sexy’ topics so I grab the opportunity to experiment whenever the learner feels ready and open to allowing the suggestion. Historically I would have tried to press these topics harder, sometimes even strongly advising students hellbent on high effort, high impact voicing to wait a while).
For those learners that embrace the decision making process we have installed the mid-week follow-up email and with ‘triage’ they quickly begin to take full responsibility for what they want, when they want it and what they want it for. Part of the challenge in one-to-one teaching, for me at least, is in trying to keep track of what you and your learner have set as tasks for each other. Following up on those tasks, and tying the work done (by the learner in the task) back into the work of the next session feels like a major opportunity to structure, scaffold and test the budding autonomy of the learner.
I write hand scribbled notes of what we have discussed, but only really in bullet point form, and to be honest sometimes only a word or two to describe the sense of what we were talking about. With so many scribbled notes each week, and so little time to write them out in full, I have discovered that emailing the learner as quickly as possible after the session actually saves time. Not only does it immediately elicit a response from the learner (still buzzing from all the endorphins released during a singing lesson), they still have the sense of urgency and the drive to engage with whatever we have just collaborated on. They even have time to research and spin off into rich territory that feeds their imagination. They can discover other works that relate to or contrast, they find artistic and social commentary that gives them more threads to weave together into the character they create in song.
The longer I leave this email, the more their attention is required elsewhere, the less they feel attached to the learning experience and the further down their list of priorities the task goes. If I fail to send the email altogether, I actually need to put time aside out of the next session to discuss what we have both found and worked on, whereas if the email goes out straightaway, it generates an email conversation over the week that means we are both able to pick it up and put it down at our leisure, but it is all there documented. It’s simple really.
I don’t know why I hadn’t tried it before. I think I probably resented having to spend such a lot more time working outside of the studio, when I could be driving home to avoid the traffic. Now I find that I send a few before I move onto the next student, I send a few at lunch, I mail quite a few straight after I finish at night, and wait until the traffic has calmed a little, then I’m thinking of all the resources that might help the learner all the way home on the 90 minute commute. It’s brilliant.
This is an example.
LESSON #8 from Sunday In The Park With George – Stephen Sondheim (George has travelled from New York to Paris. We find him in an industrial area on the banks of the Seine where, originally, one of Georges Seurat’s pointillist paintings was set. He is reading from an old grammar book.) (Excerpt from email to learner)
“So, as well as finding out where you get the grammar book from, as in ‘how’ or ‘why’ you bring it with you from NY, I think your tasks this week are to discover…
Is Dot using the book to learn English, or to learn to read at all (as in learning to read in French)? so is the book in English or French?
Perhaps not all that important a difference, but after our discussion about how much more intimate a jotter or school book can be than the observed contrivance of a diary (that you expect someday to be read), I thought it worth considering.
Georges mentions more than once that Dot can’t read. Like we talked about this week she is the embodiment of the working class that Seurat was depicting, so
What does him mentioning her illiteracy tell us about him, about her, about what they shared together and why they didn’t stay together?
Do the scribblings in the margins touch you/George or humour you/George because of the actual ‘connection’ that you’re searching for?
What is your actual relationship to Marie?
I think that to get enough context of the second act you might have to find these answers.
The chords of the opening of Lesson #8 are interesting. Seurat was experimenting with the brain’s ability to process colour. Modern George is too. Sondheim is translating this into music by expressing colourful dissonance through light, the colour tones express regret, ache, longing, Bflatmajor9 root position (doesn’t have a fifth) means that the middle of the chord is pulled out, it’s missing, the 3rd of the chord is popped above the top note, and the fifth is gone, it’s not included. This leaves our ear free to feel the space between the notes, and miss the security of the fifth. Let’s play with this next time, I’ll show you what I mean, but meanwhile I think the obvious conclusion is to really concentrate on what is missing, what’s been lost, what has never been there for George, and these chords tell us of this longing, so let’s find real specifics of thought and emotion to attach to them.
The same chord structure is plonked under the text of “Yes she looks for me” in Finishing The Hat “Your eyes George” in Sunday In The Park “Child is so sweet” in Children And Art, so really feel the colour and emotional pull of whatever you decide that chord means for you, whether it’s as simple as regret, as complex as nostalgia, or as earthy as longing, find what you want to communicate in those opening chords. As modern George uses the book to think out loud, he starts to relate the ache in himself. Has he ever professed missing anything in the past, in his art, in his use of colour and his chromolight thingy?
The responses from the learner are sometimes more easily broken down into bite sized chunks, simply because they don’t take the time to look through the printed music, or their notebook, but they do scroll through their email threads to remind them of impending tasks. I can harness that habit simply by sending them a brief description of what we talked about. They can do what they like with it, but it seems that they do more than when they just write down the tasks in the score or on their notebook in the session. Result; more autonomous behaviour.
Deciding what they personally would like to work on in terms of repertoire that engages with the focus of their needs gives them full control of their learning with me. I’m convinced that it allows confident, mature and responsible decision making to lead them through an autonomous process. There has, to date, been only two students who have railed against the process. Their concerns and journey are documented earlier in a previous post. Reference will be made to these again later. I’ve found that the midweek email focuses the learning and the independent study. By the time the next session arrives the learner not only knows what they want to explore, they know why, how and they have linked it either to previous learning (with me or performance class or rehearsal) or to a personal sense of lacking something. Both situations make the learning moment much more vital for them. They are more convinced of why the topic is important because they have come to the decision out of personal need or lack.
The triage simply focuses their reflective prowess and ability to articulate their need.
In one session the observing Tutor noted that
“This reflective process helped the student identify the gaps in their performance and the goals they are working towards as part of their broader learning and performance challenges, as well as firmly placing the student in the centre of their own learning, with you taking on the role of facilitator of learning rather than the more traditional deliverer of teaching. Throughout the session you engaged the student in a series of questions to help them get to the essence of what would improve their performance. You employed open questions when asking the student to explore their experience in more general terms and introduced closed questions where you wanted the student to be very clear about the changes they were making.”
Tutor feedback on an observed session
My focus on autonomy and scaffolding learning experiences for learners had, thus far, been focused on reducing extraneous talk, refining my ability to ask pertinent and easily digestible questions and committing the learners to an action. Once the balance of power switched from me as ‘lecturer’ and them as ‘passive learner’ (which took some convincing and hand-holding for some more than others) to one of
“an environment where the student and I are both practitioners together’’
(Gordon Adams – Lesson #12 Context setting paper 2015)
the results were positive when the learners were comfortably in charge of the pace, direction and focus of their learning. These, for me, seemed the first steps in displaying autonomy for learning.
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Learner responses are more engaged simply because they understand what is being asked of them a little more clearly.
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Assumptions on how, why or for how long things need to be engaged with are dispensed with; I ask them what they have understood about what we have covered, I invite questions that challenge me to redefine everything that feels unclear for them, I ask them to summarise back to me as if I am the learner, then I ask them if they can reproduce what we have done together on their own.
I am much more specific about creating a space for them to tell me what challenges will disrupt that recreation, what will stand in the way of their doing it on their own and how they will effectively deal with those challenges. I’d like to learn more coaching models to support this, but at present am just learning to listen and ask.
“Throughout the session you engaged the student in a series of questions to help them get to the essence of what would improve their performance. You employed open questions when asking the student to explore their experience in more general terms and introduced closed questions where you wanted the student to be very clear about the changes they were making.”
Tutor feedback on an observed session
Responses to these overly simplified questions were, at first, dismissive and evasive. Perhaps I seemed patronising and annoyingly interested in committing them to engage, but as the Tutor observing the session said
“the session organically developed along this theme, and you supported the student throughout with enthusiasm, passion and clarity of purpose. It was clear from your exchanges that you had already built a strong level of trust with the student.”
Tutor feedback on an observed session
It can seem exhaustingly detailed to constantly repeat what has already been said in a session and most learners have had to adjust to the slower pace of apparent progression in each session, but what they now acknowledge is the ease with which they personally progress individually outside of each session.
Singing lessons have had, historically, the feel of an escape from learning. They are a moment of abandon, of play, of non-thought, of expression, sometimes even therapy, but all these things still within the context of learning. I was anxious not to disturb that sense of free experiment by constraining the learners within the confines of some pseudo-corporate commitment pattern, but building relationships of trust has been key to getting them on-board.
“Through this balance of open and closed questions, you were able to relate the student’s experience to the key techniques and terminology outlined in your lesson plan without making it feel that the session was prescribed in any way. Whilst you appeared to do this with a natural flow and ease, you have clearly put a lot of effort into developing this approach and maintaining the level of responsiveness throughout the session takes a great deal of focus and discipline. At each point where the student tried a new approach, you remained non-judgemental which appeared to help the student to reflect in a genuine way. This pattern of ‘change something – reflect, change something – reflect…’ created a cycle of incremental enhancements in the student’s performance, confidence and knowledge of how subtle physical changes affect not just the voice but importantly the characterisation of the performance.”
Tutor feedback on an observed session
“At times where the student asked a question, you provided clear answers but also brought in other questions that they might consider, again shifting the focus from you back to them. I particularly thought that the question ‘Did you feel that you lost or gained anything in making that change?’ demonstrated the manner in which you were able to make this an autonomous experience for the student. Other effective questioning approaches you employed were to begin a sentence and invite the student to complete it e.g. ‘You want to add a bit of that because…?’ In each case I didn’t get the impression that you were leading the student to the ‘right’ answer but rather towards making a choice about how to continue exploring their learning.”
Tutor feedback on an observed session
Tutor feedback drew attention to a shortfall in my lesson plan in the actual level of detail about what occurred in the observed studio sessions. I had initially really struggled to compile a lesson plan document because of the very nature of sessions being so unpredictable and responsive. I hadn’t wanted to expose my teaching as simply reactionary and unplanned, but from a deeper understanding of the benefits of dealing with the reality of what occurs in sessions I now feel more confident in my belief that I work primarily from a carefully synthesised portfolio of approaches, garnered over many years of having working in different art forms.
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I have a palette of responses, I mix colours from many different techniques, I apply brush strokes in various styles and ultimately I am working in mixed media, on many differently absorbent surfaces. If this felt unstructured and chaotic when approaching the writing of a lesson plan, it was because, although there are certain key points that need discussion over the three trimesters of a Master’s degree in Musical Theatre I have been uncertain of where to timetable these sessions, depending on the level of an individual’s previous absorption, synthesis and prior knowledge. I have also been firmly of the mind-set that I prefer not to be the brand of singing teacher that decides on a technical or holistic topic for the day and covers it with each and every student, regardless of its efficacy or relevance for the learner.
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Previously I had felt anxious about structuring and documenting any one particular session as I wasn’t convinced that I believed topics could be treated as some prescriptive box ticked in curriculum coverage, so while
“it is clear that your teaching context is less rigid and defined than this, [i]n this context you have created an environment where the student can address the challenges they actually face right now with the pieces they are working on”
Tutor feedback on an observed session
and especially now as the emphasis on autonomy means that the key points are decided on by the learner in consultation with me as their fellow practitioner, it was suggested by the observing Tutor that
“[w]hilst it is hard to pre-schedule this experience, you might want to try writing the lesson plan retrospectively to analyse what you actually did in relation to what you said you would in the plan.”
Tutor feedback on an observed session
I think it would be useful to write up a lesson plan which describes what I actually did in the session. When I have documented enough of the varied approaches to what is brought into the room, perhaps I will have enough material to publish a book.
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I shouldn’t have doubted the learners’ ability to respond. They are clearly a lot more capable of delivering under pressure than I seem to be.
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Peer feedback from the Voice department saw through the under-evidenced theoretical parts of the lesson plan and past the educational incoherence (in the lack of planning) to the strangely homogeneous nature of what Voice users/lecturers do to elicit response. For me the benefit of peer feedback is that greater working understanding of the actual knowledge-base means that more can be critiqued and commented upon. The last time any peer observation was engaged in, my peer (line manager) was interviewing me for the position I now hold. They weren’t, at that time, my peer, they were my prospective employer and of course now that relationship brings the added worry of the observation being able to either justify or undermine your line manager’s decision to continue giving you work, so I was pleased that my lesson plan delivery, my approach, my focus on autonomy and
“the unfolding of this in practice was extremely evident and clear at all times, resulting in very impressive teaching and highly successful learning. Each identifiable theory was present in your lesson[,] you clearly evidenced a deep understanding of the effectiveness of these theories in practice in a moment; you had complete ownership of these theories and approaches – they belonged utterly and completely to you. [Y]our planning documentation reflected your deep commitment to creating what you considered to be the most appropriate learning environment for this type of learning activity. Your focus on active reflection, positive reinforcement, questioning, guided learning, shared experience, discussion, and more, was wholly appropriate and expertly executed throughout. Every moment in the lesson counted. The relaxed focus was wholly appropriate for the stage of learner (MAMT). The lesson proceeded in what felt like a spontaneous manner, but your level of expertise in the subject specialism is so extraordinarily high, it was clear to me that you were gently guiding the learner towards their next possible moment of understanding.”
Peer feedback on an observed session
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I have discovered that within my contract of employment reference is made to the intended on-going peer observation of my work, and I wonder if part of my initial reluctance to allow any peer or tutor observation of my teaching (indeed it was the reason that I withdrew from study when I enrolled on this PgCert course the first time one year ago) comes somewhat from not having had regular observation throughout my tenure. When the time came for this observation to happen this year I was intensely anxious. I felt that I would finally be discovered a fraudulent sham of a teacher and some kind of cretinous charlatan. I didn’t want to be observed. Indeed I feel that being observed changes the very nature of ‘doing’, but I do recognise now the benefit of having done so. I think I can now stop expending energy worrying about whether my practice is ‘up-to-scratch’ or relevant or ‘industry-worthy’. What I can do is focus my energy on delivering easily understandable and ‘easy to replicate’ tasks that build learner confidence so that they feel personal progression. Peer feedback has allowed me to accept that
“[a]t a subject level, the progress the learner made during the session was clear to both
parties, understood by both at every step of the way, and instruction given for next time was very clearly focussed (with an invitation to send an interim ‘check-in’ video during
the week – an impressive addition, consciously designed to consolidate, extend and
enhance learning.)”
Peer feedback on an observed session
- Video feedback and midweek follow up
Asking learners to email self-recorded video footage and allow tutor follow-up on the tasks set for the week is the greatest implementation of change I can acknowledge through having looked at the current state of my practice. In my journal entries I write that
Part of the challenge in one-to-one teaching, for me at least, is in trying to keep track of what you and your learner have set as tasks for each other. Following up on those tasks, and tying the work done (by the learner in the task) back into the work of the next session feels like a major opportunity to structure, scaffold and test the budding autonomy of the learner.
I write hand scribbled notes of what we have discussed, but only really in bullet point form, and to be honest sometimes only a word or two to describe the sense of what we were talking about. With so many scribbled notes each week, and so little time to write them out in full, I have discovered that emailing the learner as quickly as possible after the session actually saves time. Not only does it immediately elicit a response from the learner (still buzzing from all the endorphins released during a singing lesson), they still have the sense of urgency and the drive to engage with whatever we have just collaborated on. They even have time to research and spin off into rich territory that feeds their imagination.
They can discover other works that relate to or contrast, they find artistic and social commentary that gives them more threads to weave together into the character they create in song. The longer I leave this email, the more their attention is required elsewhere, the less they feel attached to the learning experience and the further down their list of priorities the task goes. If I fail to send the email altogether, I actually need to put time aside out of the next session to discuss what we have both found and worked on, whereas if the email goes out straightaway, it generates an email conversation over the week that means we are both able to pick it up and put it down at our leisure, but it is all there documented.
It’s simple really. I don’t know why I hadn’t tried it before. I think I probably resented having to spend such a lot more time working outside of the studio, when I could be driving home to avoid the traffic. Now I find that I send a few before I move onto the next student, I send a few at lunch, I mail quite a few straight after I finish at night, and wait until the traffic has calmed a little, then I’m thinking of all the resources that might help the learner all the way home on the 90 minute commute. It’s brilliant.
Excerpts from online blog here at scotchcornered.wordpress.com
This in turn has made the reflective ability of the learner greater in studio sessions because they already know what they want to bring in, focus on and why. It means that they are taking the reins, but it also means that they are more easy to draw reflection from as it has become a more integrated part of their journey. I’m pleased that this was a success of the observed session and noted in Peer feedback…
“By asking the learner to spontaneously feedback on a task, you as a teacher are demonstrating personal confidence, but also confidence in the learner, empowering
them to appropriately self-reflect and evaluate for themselves. You listened patiently
and intently to the response on every occasion, and used questioning to illicit further
and deeper learning. You guided the learner towards finding for themselves their own
next steps, but of course, the high level of expertise in your subject specialism means
that these questions were very precisely chosen and worded. Feedback was therefore
a balance of learner evaluation, teacher reinforcement of the learner’s feedback, and
teacher feedback. Next steps were very clearly explained and derived from the work
just presented and the evaluative discussion. The lesson was built on the learner’s
response to the work carried out. This was pitched exactly at MA level and was very
impressive. Again, your documentation detailed your aims for this aspect of their
learning experience, and it was clear you knew exactly how to make this happen – you
evidenced again your plan to design and deliver a learning activity which ‘fosters an
environment where the student and I are both practitioners together.”
Despite the challenges the observed sessions afforded me, and in spite of the change being ‘watched’ causes, I learned to believe more in the delivery of the process I’ve constructed. The Peer and Tutor feedback has highlighted the need to be more theoretically sound and I agree with needing to document that. The greatest learning of this experience, for me, though, has been to believe in what I do and keep building on the trust between the learners and myself. Continuing to ask questions about what they know, how they will manage a task on their own and how they will overcome hurdles that might challenge their ability to reproduce what they have just done with me seems the simplest way to build autonomous adult artists that create their own path.
scotchcornered 