Hey all! This is my first post.
Late,
but it is here. I'll share with you some of the questions and
insecurities I had before the first workshop started in terms of
outreach, accommodation, and maintaining a student body. My first
challenge after having developed the curriculum for the workshop was
around outreach. The first method I tried in obtaining participants was
to send out fliers and letters of introduction to relevant organizations
and mental health providers. This got no results. The more interactive,
ground up approach worked. I went into community college classrooms and
talked directly to the people who would attend. Although I received
about 100 individuals' contact information, the effort resulted in four
applications returned to me. These four became the founding participants
of the project!
My
second concern was coming up with strategies to help adult students
with their developing skills in reading and writing. My experience in
teaching has been limited to high school students, and I had to think
about how to use what I know in the context of an adult classroom. I
thought that perhaps the use of graphic organizers, reading prompts, and
reading aloud would feel like condescending strategies for adults. I
knew that if I were to read that vibe, I'd have to adjust my plans to
offer the support they need while still respecting their levels of
expertise as individuals who have been learners for quite a while, and
as experts of much of the content we would be discussing in class. I
knew, that on day one, I'd have to do a quick reading of the class.
I
had to assess whether I were challenging participants at the right
level, offering rigorous and useful learning experiences while providing
the scaffolding structures to allow them to gain from the experiences.
If I couldn't manage this, I knew, I'd lose participants, and I had only
started out with four. I planned to do plenty of checking in throughout
the first day, while keeping the need to be flexible in my planning in
mind. In the following post I will detail how I dealt with some of these
concerns.
Rosa
In response to: "I thought that perhaps the use of graphic organizers, reading prompts, and reading aloud would feel like condescending strategies for adults. I knew that if I were to read that vibe, I'd have to adjust my plans to offer the support they need while still respecting their levels of expertise as individuals who have been learners for quite a while, and as experts of much of the content we would be discussing in class. I knew, that on day one, I'd have to do a quick reading of the class.
ReplyDeleteI had to assess whether I were challenging participants at the right level, " I want to applaud you for being so aware of a pitfall we can all fall into easily and that is not meeting participants where they are. For me this passage also reminded me of the fact that we have to be careful not to make assumptions. We also have to remember we are facilitating not teaching.
whoa. you did an insane amount of work for this. you got contact info from 100 people in person? clearly you're extremely passionate about this--good for you.
ReplyDeleteRosa, I'm so glad the face-to-face approach was so successful for you, inspiring! I'm curious to hear the advice you would give to future CTP organizers who are interested in doing similar workshops to yours. I also like the application process, that seems like it could be very helpful in generating interest, gauging interest, and encouraging participation. What did the application process include? What kinds of questions/information was on the application? How did you distribute it?
ReplyDeleteVenus, I consider myself a teacher. I'm pretty conventional I guess in my approach, although the material I bring in may or may not be considered conventional. I believe in the process of teaching craft, the art of language, in a clear, organized and accessible way, as an important part of feeding the process of healing and meaning making.
ReplyDeleteHousten, I could see myself doing this for the rest of my life, really.
Leslie, I wanted to get demographics mostly, so I can think about who I'm servicing, who is interested, and how do I make this workshop accessible to the demographic that shows the most interest. I also asked questions about what violence means to them, what forms of violence participants are survivors or witnesses of, and what their interests in writing are. The long answer questions were used to gauge real interest and initial investment in the workshop, as well as get a glimpse of participants' level of critical analysis and self reflection.
Rosa- it's good for me to read this after knowing how successful your workshop has been. I feel like I'm in a similar place you were- of realizing the importance of showing up and getting contact information/sign ups face to face. And to hear that you contacted 100 people and 4 signed up! I'll remember that in a few months when I start inviting people to participate in my workshop.
ReplyDelete