I'm joining some active local advisers later today for a planning meeting for a journalism workshop we are leading next week, and we only do this once a year... so every time seems like the first time.
Here is the key choice that we always seem to come back to in creating a schedule and deciding on what to include (or leave out) in our limited time with students and teachers.
Which is the better strategy?- Examples first. Before you try anything on your own, study examples of how other people solve similar problems.
- Problems first. Before looking at any examples, try to solve the problem independently. If you fail or don’t get very far, then learn how others approach it.
Summer workshops need to attempt strategies that don't just copy the regular school year. Otherwise, kids don't find them attractive, nor do advisers. Even the presenters would prefer to break away from the standard schedules and procedures. So things are looser, with fun activities built in, with no looming deadlines to cripple creativity.
Sometimes summer workshop students and teachers want the opportunity to try something completely new, with no limitations, and to have light bulbs go off, so to speak. Other summer workshop students would really like a recipe for future success, thus alleviating some anxiety about their coming year on a staff. The latter is the more common situation.
The "examples first" option relies on Direct Instruction, using a basic pattern of "see", "do," and "feedback," before the loop begins again. The "see" step usually includes specific examples that might act as a menu of sorts. The "do" step is guided and independent practice, where students can tinker with what has been presented in the hopes of finding their own versions of other people's solutions. The "feedback" is the natural way to assess how things are going, suggest or ask about additional options, and create new direct instruction opportunities.
The "problems first" approach is related to Discovery Learning, where we simply trust students to hammer out solutions without much preparation. They are motivated, but they are forced to create their own strategies and tactics and often will become frustrated. On the other hand, "problems first" can produce more creative and unique solutions to long-standing challenges.
In short, the basic pattern here is "do," feedback, and "see" -- with the feedback step being where we check in on our goals and success or lack of same, and finally "see" what some other thinkers have previously come up with.
I favor direct instruction followed by loads of practice... which produces more learning and more questions. I advise student journalists to copy what the professionals do, and to then make adjustments to fit their particular needs and interests. There really ARE some best practices for journalists and designers and photographers.
The more restrictive the skills we need to learn, the more starting with direct instruction can help. For instance, when I want to learn some skill on the computer, I value the gazillion YouTube videos that can provide pragmatic and thoughtful advice. A vision of what hell might be like would be opening up Adobe Premiere Pro software for the first time (for video editing) and simply using trial and error to create a project.
It is possible we would never get very good at that software, missing some of the "tricks" and shortcuts and somewhat obscure techniques that seem so obvious once we see them in action.
In a perfect world, summer workshops might be the place where smart kids tap their "prior knowledge" of some topic to develop new, previously unthought of solutions and tactics. As you can imagine, this takes time and often leaves students feeling a bit overwhelmed or simply frustrated.
In our imperfect world, we will rely on direct instruction next week, though we hope to provide the valuable feedback that allows students to continue digging for better solutions, techniques, and skills.
Schools would become quite chaotic without direct instruction.
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