Mitchell, Diana & Christenbury, Leila (2000). Both art and craft: Teaching ideas that spark learning. Urbana, IL: NCTE.

1 Both Art and Craft in the World of Teaching Ideas

Leila Christenbury

When I first began teaching English, I was literally desperate for ideas. I hadn�t planned on being a teacher and thus had little preparation for my first teaching job. While it was no one�s fault but my own, I had taken no courses in educational psychology or human development or teaching methods, and I had had no student teaching. Other than two degrees in English and a lot of optimism and enthusiasm, I was really not ready for 120 teenagers and three class preparations. The principal who hired me was encouraging about my potential, but it became evident early on that I needed a whole lot of instructional ideas and a whole lot of help.

And when neither were immediately forthcoming, I found my­self struggling on a daily basis. Confronted with the typical high school teacher�s schedule�five periods a day, five days a week�there never seemed to be the time to come up with creative and workable or even appropriate ideas. I used the questions in the literature textbook; I recycled activities dimly remembered from my own experience as a stu­dent; I concocted some impossible assignments and found myself revis­ing and altering them every day, occasionally in the middle of class. Used to academic success as a student, I was more than mildly shocked at the difficulties I was having as a beginning teacher and, truth be told, embarrassed at what was going on�and not going on�in my class­room.

When I got up the courage, I tried to talk with other teachers in my school, but no one had enough time to help me at least to the extent I needed it that first semester of teaching. Even the professional reading I attempted early on seemed abstract and unconnected to what I saw sitting in the desks in front of me. My despair deepened.

Early one morning, I threw myself on the mercy of the English teacher next door. Although a generally aloof colleague, she was very popular with her students and also had an enviable two years of teaching under her belt, exactly twice my classroom experience. As usual, she was not particularly interested in my teaching struggles, but, in this one (and not repeated) instance of collegial generosity, she did offer an idea.

As we stood in the hall at 7:45 A.M. before classes began for the day, she suggested that I have my students participate in a �trust game.� She had seen this activity in a workshop, and it involved dividing the entire class into pairs. One student would blindfold the other and, us­ing verbal cues only, would guide him or her around the room, down rows, under desks, and even out into the hall. Then the students would exchange roles. The activity was fun, she observed, and she had done it yesterday in her afternoon classes with great success.

I was immediately grateful for the suggestion, happy for the unusual gesture of camaraderie. No wonder my colleague was enduringly popular with her students. After a moment, though, I asked her what had precipitated the use of the game, how it connected to what she was doing in class, what she did afterward as a follow-up. My colleague just smiled. Those two years of experience quickly reasserted themselves as an unbridgeable gulf between us. Once again I, the novice, appeared to be missing the point. My colleague patiently explained that the game idea had been spontaneous, the students had enjoyed it, and it took up the whole period. That was that, she said, and she went back into her classroom.

Yes, the activity seemed like fun�but when I returned to my class­room for first period, although I was tempted I knew I wouldn�t be do­ing any trust games that day. Even at that point in my career, even as desperate as I was for teaching ideas, I realized that this activity bore no conceivable relation to what I was trying to do in my classes. Frankly, I suspected the same was true of my colleague next door, but, in her case, a game which students enjoyed for the entire class period appeared to be justification enough. Well, for me, it wasn�t. Inspirationless, I trudged through another difficult teaching day.

Looking back on that early incident in my career, I can draw some conclusions. I was not a well-prepared teacher, but despite my very real and daily struggles, I did understand the general concept of curriculum and how it should shape and govern teaching activities and truly spark learning. I was trying, I think, to set up experiences in which students could connect the ideas in our work to their own lives and to their other readings. I wanted students to explore and argue and experiment and bring to whatever we were doing in class�from the �The Scarlet Ibis� we read in eighth-grade English to the argument essay we were writing in honors eleventh�some kind of personal and intellectual connection. I think even then I knew that teaching activities had to be intimately related to classroom goals and to student needs. And a disembodied, disconnected activity, even the fun trust game, did not come near ful­filling that criterion.

As I stumbled through my first years of teaching, I of course got more experience in the classroom. I encountered other teachers who were more willing to share and teach me. I began to read widely in professional journals and books about what others did in their classes and, unlike my early reading, it began to make sense. I went to English and education conferences and picked up materials there and elsewhere. I became a scavenger of teaching ideas and practices and, slowly but steadily, I improved as a teacher.

Over the years, I took my nascent intuitive sense and some of my natural presentation skills�my classroom art, as it were and combined them with my developing craft. The craft, which was emerging through repeated practice and skill, involved my ability to create and pace activities for a large group and to adjust those activities when needed. The combination, the balance, of art and craft has sustained me through my years in the classroom.

Teaching as Both Art and Craft

We titled this book Both Art and Craft because certainly the heart of teaching involves both. A successful teacher uses art and is often a bit of a magician, a person who can motivate and inspire a group and get the members, at times almost despite themselves, to work and achieve and also feel a sense of satisfaction in the process. A successful teacher is also a draftsperson, an artisan, someone who can deliberately select from a solid repertoire of intellectual and curricular components and then combine, rearrange, and refine to fit the needs of the classroom curriculum and the needs of the students.

Teaching as Art

Discussing the art of teaching is a bit dangerous because many otherwise sensible people wax mystical when they consider the topic of teaching as art. For some, teaching is essentially an alchemy which is accessible only to certain types of charismatic or otherwise gifted individuals. They believe that teachers are indeed born, not made, and that these individuals� personal magnetism, and most likely their strong ability to inspire others, are the sole sources of classroom success. Carried to an extreme, this belief in teaching as art can lead to the conclusion that success in the classroom can be achieved without much study or preparation or even practice and that, indeed, one�s fitness for a career in teaching can be determined early on, mostly by personality traits. Fed in many ways by media images of brave and charismatic teachers�who are not only talented but also photogenic�many people believe such gifted individuals can conquer (usually in one or two dramatic confrontations) the ennui and disaffection of not only their own students but often of the entire school, if not the whole educational system.

There is art in teaching, but it is my opinion that this art is not related to an inherent gift for teaching, and those who have been in the classroom for some time know that this image of teachers is unfaithful to the reality. Successful teaching requires a more arduous process than those represented by most popular movies about and images of teach­ing, and it is filled, as veteran teachers know only too well, with countless instances of failure and stasis. Even the most charismatic, the most artful teacher can often fail, and fail repeatedly, to engage certain stu­dents and certain classes and to ignite that spark of learning.

Yet, while there is more than likely less art in teaching than many outside the classroom assume, the art is there. It involves the ability to capture imagination and to create infectious enthusiasm. It takes the form of being able to motivate a group. It consists of being able, often in a fairly quick manner and at times apparently subliminally, to predict and �read� an instructional situation and intervene. It also extends to the ability to create an often palpable feeling of comfort and success for students in the classroom, an environment that is not just supportive but also stimulating and, when appropriate, challenging. Often this teacher art is born of years of watching students and thinking about and experimenting with instruction. Conversely, sometimes it comes in the form of relatively instantaneous inspiration in the classroom. Re­gardless, there is in teaching a certain element of art.

Teaching as Craft

The craft of teaching is in some ways easier to discuss than the art of teaching. Craft is a more concrete concept: it involves study; it takes some years of practice. Teachers who have mastered craft have acquired a repertoire of skills that has expanded far beyond the things they would �naturally� be able to�or even want to�do or plan. Craft is largely independent of what most would call inspiration and comes from knowledge and experience.

Practically speaking, a teacher who practices craft can lead a large group discussion, structure a small group, or monitor individual work with equal skill and comfort. When craft is involved, a teacher can meet a curricular requirement through a number of equally appropriate strat­egies and approaches. Most tellingly, craft also involves the ability to anticipate what students will need for a specific lesson or unit of study and to provide it in a clear and understandable manner. Thus, having a repertoire of skills, knowing how to implement a variety of activities in a coherent and thoughtful manner, and understanding that those real and messy entities, our students, can�and will and should�change the shape of the most �perfect� lesson are part of the craft of teaching.

How Both Art and Craft Are Needed

A teacher who relies solely on art will not last long in the classroom. He or she will become discouraged and resentful, as the magic does not work reliably every period, every day, with every student. A teacher solely involved in craft��I read it and considered it and therefore it can be replicated in my classroom with my students��will become similarly disheartened because teaching is never like following a cookbook, never a series of steps which can be unfailingly followed to the letter with all students and all classes.

The most successful teachers are those who possess both craft, a solid repertoire of skills and an understanding of curriculum, and art, the ability to inspire, motivate, and understand student needs and interests. And the combination of art and craft sparks real student learning.

Characteristics of Good Teaching Activities

Beyond the major divisions of art and craft are other criteria to consider. Despite the varied circumstances of your students, classes, and needs, whatever you implement in your classroom needs to have the three characteristics of simplicity, relevance, and workability. You will find all three in the many activities in this book and, as you think of how to expand on these activities and use them in your classroom, you want to keep these three characteristics in mind.

Simplicity

A simple teaching idea is not a simpleminded one but one which has a major thrust and focus. Teaching ideas which rely on multiple, complex components�most of which necessarily would be interconnected�can fall apart due to their own elaborate nature. Both teachers and students can become hopelessly confused if a teaching activity has too many parts, too many concepts, too many grading rubrics, too many components. Keeping an idea and its attendant activities simple�and thus central�will make the idea more successful in almost any setting.

Look, for example, at the section �Scripting for Involvement and Understanding� in Chapter 5. The point of this exercise is to get students to evaluate others� scripts in small groups. This could involve many components and could even lend itself to a fairly involved ranking and rating rubric. Diana, however, presents students with only nine questions to discuss and answer. Further, the questions are central to script­ing: summary, narration, dialogue, interest, and so forth, and the one question on ranking asks students to select the single script which, in their opinion, most effectively mirrors the one chapter on which it is based. In the best sense of the word, this evaluation activity is simple.

Relevance

Relevance is a highly complex topic and, in this context, does not relate to the contemporaneity of an activity. Relevance means that the activity is directly tied to the text or to the concept itself. The trust game discussed earlier in this chapter provides a good test of an activity�s relevance: while such an activity may be otherwise admirable (in a psychology class, for instance?), it was not related to any sort of instructional point in English class.

As another example, look at the section �Fifty Alternatives to the Book Report� in Chapter 4. While the activities are intriguing, note how Diana encourages the use of the activity only if the piece of literature justifies it. Thus, creating a childhood for a character (item 3) is only relevant if the main character is an adult, and the social worker�s report (item 5) should be used only if the literature contains events which might indeed be of interest to such a worker.

Workability

Workability is wholly context dependent and involves the chances of the activity being successful in your school setting and with your students. If, for instance, a completely relevant and simply designed activity calls for significant equipment to which you and your students have only partial or inadequate access, you might want to reconsider the activity. As an example, if students are to use the Internet extensively to complete an activity but you can only get into the computer lab infrequently, it may be a frustrating assignment for all involved. Likewise, putting students in groups to create a short video is a great idea, but if you and your students have access only to a few camcorders and if students have rarely done group work, you will not be happy trying to fulfill the project�s expectations. Finally, if students need to obtain materials from outside sources�a university library, for instance, or a municipal office downtown�and they don�t have ready transportation, the activity may fail before it begins.

Another concern with workability is attention to student skills. Take a look in Chapter 6 at the section �Creating Thematic Units.� Before she even starts the unit, Diana brainstorms the skills students will need, lists them for herself and includes them in her planning, and makes sure they are attended to beforehand and also within the unit itself. In this way, students are not thrown into activities for which they have no real preparation. Anticipating what specific skills are necessary for the students to experience success in the unit is smart planning and ensures the workability of a teaching activity.

Teaching Principles to Guide You

Beyond the characteristics of the art and craft of teaching and beyond the characteristics of good teaching activities, you need to consider your students and your classroom and remember some essential teaching principles, principles which are the foundation of all good practice.

Student Engagement: Interest and Background. It is imperative that any activity you use in your classroom build on, or even emanate from, student interest and background. Only if students have some sort of prior knowledge or interest in acquiring new knowledge will they work and work well. The alternative is to present students with disconnected information for which they see no need and to which they can connect very little. If you want your students to work steadily and productively, you must account for and appeal to their interests and their background.

As an illustration, look at the section �Tapping into Family Sto­ries and Themes to Heighten End-of-Year Engagement� in Chapter 6. In such a unit, students have an opportunity to research, write, compile art and dictionaries, and read relevant literature. The range of activities is broad, and the skills involved are considerable. Most students will attempt this unit willingly, however, because it explicitly capitalizes on their interest in themselves and their background. Further, they bring to the unit a certain undeniable expertise, i.e., knowledge of their own family. And the extensive section in Chapter 5 on �Using Student Work as the Basis for Classroom Activities� helps you see how student ques­tions, student generalizations, and student responses can shape and guide literature study.

Explanations and Modeling. When we ask students to attempt new or unfamiliar activities, they can often appear reluctant, possibly even uncooperative. What many of us fail to remember is the fear almost all students have of trying something new�and failing. While part of our job as teachers is to extend student skill, to nudge them into new territory, we must be willing to give students clear explanations and, when appropriate, specific models of what we want.

Look at the section �Heroes Bring Literature to Life� in Chapter 6. One of the student activities suggested is a resume. While many of us as adults have written and revised countless such documents, for most of our students the concept may be pretty hazy. Giving students a sample�such as the Superman resume provided�will not only allay fears but also will help students fulfill expectations.

Collaboration. �None of us is as smart as all of us� is a popular phrase which has much good sense behind it. Collaboration can help students make connections they otherwise might miss. In addition, our students are generally social creatures, and the opportunity to work with others in the classroom is important for their psychological health as well as their intellectual ability. Negotiating with others� points of view and learning to compromise or ask helpful questions can be some of the most important skills students learn as they work with others in school. Also, many of the projects and ideas presented in this book are complicated; when more than one student has to list, define, explain, argue, or present, there is a greater chance that the resulting work will be multifaceted, complex, and important.

For instance, in the subsection on cutting up words and phrases from the section �Using Newspapers and Magazines�the Multipurpose Teaching Tools� in Chapter 5, students are asked to select fifteen to twenty interesting or intriguing phrases from advertisements and then connect these phrases to anything they have studied or read in the last marking period. As Diana notes, �this activity really pushes students to think and bring into play all they have learned or been exposed to in class.� Certainly the depth of exploration will be far greater when stu­dents work with others in cooperation rather than trying to come up with a list of pertinent topics on their own. In this activity, as in many others offered in this book, collaboration is helpful to success.

Meaningful Work. Because it is in the curriculum guide, because we�ve always done it that way, because I told you to (and I am the teacher)�these are not sufficient rationales for students. When students suspect that what they are doing in class is not important, not significant, not connected to anything else, they will rarely work at a high level. Thus providing meaningful work for our students ensures interest and possibly a higher level of quality.

And what is meaningful work? When, as described in the section �Projects That Promote Authentic Learning� in Chapter 6, students must create handbooks or videos for incoming ninth graders, create poetry books for special persons, or compile research packets for next year�s students, there is a need, an audience, and a reason for the project. From our teaching perspective, these projects use all sorts of skills which are important in English language arts. And, from our students� perspec­tive, the projects themselves, creating guides or books which others can really use, will make this assignment important and useful.

Conclusion

You may never be as desperate for teaching ideas as I was my first year in the classroom, and you may never be as tempted as I was to use an unconnected, albeit lively activity like the trust game. But you will find in Both Art and Craft myriad useful ideas, and you will also find that I these ideas can be significantly altered and adapted to fit more specifically your teaching context and your students� needs. With attention to the characteristics of good activities, with adherence to sound teaching principles, the ideas in this book can help you discover your own individual combination of teaching as both art and craft, teaching that sparks learning.

This lively, readable text offers countless practical ideas for student activities in the areas of literature, reading, writing, and thematic units. From the exploration of ghostly themes, to the writing of resumes for heroes, to devising yearbook entries or Web pages for famous literary characters, Both Art and Craft: Teaching Ideas That Spark Learning provides the middle school or secondary school classroom teacher a wealth of creative activities and strategies for the day, the week, or the semester. An annotated list of teaching resources offers readers further alternatives.