Do It First, Then We’ll Talk
This semester marks a pretty radical shift in my teaching. I’m adopting two new philosophies for each of my courses, rearranging lecture content and schedules, changing project parameters, all around two new principles.
The first is simple. I’ve made it a goal to never “lecture” for more than 20 minutes at a time. At the 20 minute mark, I stop, and we do something else. Either a class discussion, or a small project, or a break, something else. I’ve been on a steady diet of TED talks for the past 12 months, and I’ve been trying to capture the power of that strict time limit, the intensity of a well-crafted 20 minutes. I think it represents the upper limit of my students’ attention span, and rather than fighting it, I’ve decided to embrace it and use it to my advantage.
The second principle is more fundamental, and for me much more difficult. Most of the time, my thinking moves from principle to extrapolation. Once I learn the structure of MIDI messages, I can then move on to figure out how you might use them to deliver different kinds of musical information, how you might edit or filter them, a whole host of ideas can follow out of understanding that underlying principle. I organized my classes along similar lines, first teaching all of the core principles of a field of study, and then putting them into practice in the back half of the semester with projects. The result was that I bored my students to death in the first 6 weeks of the semester, bombarding with stuff that I knew was important, but that they really didn’t care much about.
I’m flipping that around this semester. I’m following a “do first, understand later” plan. In music technology, that means getting students to record and mix something the very first week, before they have any clue what they’re doing, and waiting until November before we even start getting into vocabulary, graphing, any of the more technical parts of the course. In Music & Ethics, it means pushing case studies to the front, and systematic moral philosophy to the back end.
I’m hoping that two things happen. First, I’m hoping to make some students more comfortable with unstructured progress, the ability to learn how to function with uncertainty. I’m coming to believe more and more that this is a critical skill to success in life, and something that they have not learned well to this point in their schooling. The skill used to figure out how to record a song with a piece of software without knowing “how it works” is the same skill set that they will later use to plan a semester of music classes, or produce a recording, the same skill set that will let them survive their first year of professional life, when they don’t know how anything works. The ability to jump into something with only a vague sense of how it works, and to emerge successful, is on the top tier of necessary skills for the professional musician.
My second hope is that it will spark a series of questions, that it will ignite curiosity in the students, and that the back half of the course, the systematic, academic, vocabulary and principles part of the course will become a series of answers to questions that they actually want to know the answer to. Instead of saying “this is a continuous controller message, here’s how it’s structured, memorize this, it’ll be on the test,” it will become “on those projects you’ve been working on, you kept using the mod wheel to change the sounds in interesting ways, here’s what you did, this is why it worked, here’s how you can use it to do other cool things, because it’s structured in this way.”
Basically, I’m trying to trick my students into being curious about the things that I think they should know.
I’m interested to hear from those of you who are teachers, in any capacity. What do you think about these ideas? Any of you go through big upheavals in how you view learning, based on your own experiences? Am I being hopelessly optimistic that these changes will make a difference in how my students learn?
Dude. I am SO ripping you off. What an awesome approach… the “do first, explain later” approach.
And then I’ll approach from the side, with an approach they’ll never expect to approach them.
Surprise attack from the side… like velociraptors.
That sounds very approachable.
But seriously, it SOUNDS like a good idea. Could be frustrating for those with zero experience, but I agree that half of being successful is knowing how to “fake it”.
All I can say is that your optimism is 2-0…why not swing away….
I like how much you love your job, Mike. I’d guess it translates to the students (a little more than a calculated approach) and I feel that you’re already equipping them to be successful. The people in my world who are most successful at music are forward thinking, optimistic, and upbeat. You inspire me, and I’m not in any of your classes.
gay.
yup. Kinda pissed that I can no longer edit comments. I woulda deleted most of it. My blocking gnomes are blind to the extra gay stuff, I guess.
The longer I teach, the more I am convinced that the joy must come first. All great ideas! Go, Mike.
I’m just kidding, Corey. I love you, man.
I think first and second grade can be a lot like college :) It is always a good idea, no matter what the age, to keep your listener engaged. The mind/brain can really only concentrate on a single thing for a short period of time. When you’re 6 that’s like 5 minutes, when your 18/19 hopefully 20 minutes. (no, not a single scientific/proved fact stated above). So I think you’re on the right track.
In elementary school we’re trained on the different learning styles and how to vary our teaching and approach to reach all styles and modes of learning. Tactile, auditory, visual etc. I think this approach gets lost starting in Jr. High and High School and is definitely gone by college. Yet, those same students are still the same “type” of learner later in college. I totally get something better if I can see it done, or get to do it myself. Just hearing about it, doesn’t work for me.
So blah blah blah, go Mike!
Or,
You can just use the Official Chad Method, which is do first… then never really understand what you did.
Works like a charm!
Hey Chad…me too!
“Go Mike” reminds me a little too much of the “Go Meat” campaign.
My art profs in college were all for this teaching technique. By one’s junior year, ya kinda got it and would dive in, clueless. Freshmen though…oh my. Walking into a Drawing I class full of freshman was like walking into some kind of torture chamber filled with angsty robots. Stiff arms, stiff faces, barely muffled crying, and the exasperated profs yelling things like “Movement people…MOVE YOUR WHOLE ARM! If I see one more person moving ONLY their wrist while they draw, I am outta here!” And yes, they often would stomp off to their offices, leaving the extra-clueless freshmen weeping into their charcoal.
Good times, good times.
Oh, this wasn’t about me…uh…yeah…Go Meaty Mike!
I agree, I really respect you being willing to try something new in your teaching. This is one of the same reasons that I teach my elementary/middle school kids to get a sound out and start playing their instruments before I begin introducing theory.
In my husband’s first-day-of-band powerpoint, he includes that “you will sound like a dying farm animal” (big cow face looking at you). And, that fifth graders are more excited to sound bad than high schoolers are to sound good.
Joy first. Theory second.
Oh man, I love that phrase. “Joy first, theory second.”
You know, it never occurred to me until just this moment how much becoming a parent has started to inform my teaching. Huh. More to ponder.
Aaaaah. I miss my farm animals! I actually miss 25 violins screeching like fingernails on the chalkboard with smiley faces behind them. I am with Sharolyn! “Joy first, theory second.”
Go Mike!!!!
This is pretty brilliant.
GREAT thoughts…
Ok, so in all seriousness….
The funny thing was that my experience in Theory 1 was that it was like all of these sounds that I already “knew” all of a sudden had a name, and explanation. It was like the lights came on.
And then, when we got to Theory IV, all of the sudden all of the names and explanations produced sounds that nobody could have possibly done on purpose, or would ever want to hear again.
Serialism my a**.
Indeed. (What Chad said.) Another perk to this approach is that it can be a huge ego boost to the students who have some amount of intuitiveness going on. I remember a prof admiring one of my first paintings that he had required we complete using only two colors. He slapped my piece up on the wall and said “Anyone here see what she managed to create that no one else did?!” (I probably remember this because it may be the only time an art prof said something so positive about my work. The art profs thrived on being harsh and accusing.) We all did (it was a fairly true gray that I had managed to get via mixing…true gray can be hard to come by, as it turns out.) I recall literally starting to sweat as I thought to myself “Oh dear God, please don’t let him ask me HOW I did that…cuz’ I have NO IDEA!” Then he went on to explain to everyone how I had done it. I was probably the one MOST thankful for the explanation.
All this to say, yes, I think you’re onto a good plan Mike. Also, having your students do this will give you/them a built-in “before and after” display of where they started and what they’ve learned by the end of the semester. That’s always an ego boost for anyone!
Uh-oh. Baton down the hatches, we’ve been linked to from another biggie. The blog may slow down a bit for the rest of the day, sorry.
http://blog.ted.com/2008/09/teaching_on_the.php
[...] Lee att han ändrar sina musiklektioner denna höst på två sätt. Dels talar han aldrig mer än 20 minuter i sträck och dels låter han eleverna göra först och [...]
Wow, what a compliment to Mike.
Um, honey, you’re kind of a big deal now.
shoot. Are you going to make us start calling you Master Lee again?
O! M! G!
I taught a class over the past summer (intro to engineering for 11th-12th grade students) while using curiosity as the main motivator (throw people in to the point they are almost overwhelmed, then stimulate the curiosity that usually flows). This open ended approach seems to work well if you have motivated students without too many standards to keep up with.
Best wishes for your experiment!
“Um, honey, you’re kind of a big deal now.
shoot. Are you going to make us start calling you Master Lee again?”
Gretchen,
Just shot coffee out of my nose!
I never stopped. People just don’t obey me like they used to.
Gretchen,
Tom tried to get us to call him Maestro!
I feel your pain!
[...] Do It First, Then We’ll Talk | Addison Road. [...]
Wait….I’m supposed to be curious about what you teach me?
AND ask questions?
oh man…this college thing is too hard.
Great idea; it’s an illustration of variation theory. Links to more on that at http://www.doceo.co.uk/reflection/2008/09/on-new-academic-year-resolutions.htm
@Pauline
Nah, general apathy and slovenly thinking are totally sufficient.
[...] forgetting a semester removed. I read something from a professor I think a canadian school, he said “Joy First Theory Second”. And forgive me for saying this but in eee its, “Theory First, Your lucky if you find [...]
Hi Michael,
I’m neither a teacher or a musician. But I am an adult student currently, the most ‘adult’ one in the class, if you know what I mean. If only all the instructors I’ve encountered could heed this advice and incorporate it to the best of their ability. Four hours of lecture in medical/anatomical terms is enough to make anyone apathetic and slovenly in their thinking, regardless of age.
The nod from Ted is what brought me here and well deserved. This is a really good approach, especially for educators of the youngest minds. I think if it were implemented, there would be nothing but brilliant minds emerging from schools, for they all started out that way in the first place. If only I were six again and could have a do-over!
Great job, really.
Well, checking in after a few weeks, and the “do first, understand later” approach has worked pretty well in the music technology course, not quite as well in the Music Ethics course.
In music tech, there are still some students who just clearly don’t want to be there, and they sneer or snore the whole time. Nothing I can do about that, although I almost asked one girl to leave yesterday. Nothing I can do will light up everybody, but this new method has a lower miss rate, I think.
I’ll be interested to see how the first exam goes. If the projects are any indication, they should do pretty well.
Dear Michael,
Your idea is solid. I work for a language training company. Our situation is like yours but compressed into 40-minute blocks of time. Think of it as a micro-semester.
In a lesson, we use the following pattern; fail, present, practice, perform, perform again. This pattern allows us to learn where the student weak points are and then challenge them accordingly and allowing them to fail. Then we show them how to do it in their own way. This last part is how we make it learner centered. If it is not, the meaningfulness will be missing and the chance for long term retention is greatly reduced. Before the end of the lesson, we perform the main task one more time and ask for questions from the student.
Good luck with your class!
Kind regards,
Matthew
I love it. I’ve been teaching for 8 years and coached for 7…the more I enter my classroom the more I want to run it like a “practice”. The students need to be DOING and having FUN not listening to me blather on! They need DO. They need variety. They need practice. Just like I do when I learn.
I think the TED style 20 is brilliant and it’s ramifications on the rest of the logistics is also SO important…everything from the rest of THAT class period to just how many hours should a course be??? How does that change BIG schedules??? I hope you can keep us abreast of noticed changes both big and small!
Good Luck!
[...] just finished grading Intro to Music Tech mid-term exams from the inaugural class of the new “Joy First, Theory Second” teaching method. The results were … [...]
Michael, you are not alone! Ive been teaching various subjects & grade levels for 15 years, and I am ALWAYS revamping how I teach! I may be “stuck” with certain curriculums but I am certainly never “stuck” on teaching them in any particular way, except to make sure I am reaching my students. In college I remember one anal student who had a fit and who later dropped the class (thank heaven) b/c our prof was not a controlling type of teacher: he WANTED us to think and to be spontaneous and even though he had certain goals he had to reach, i.e. deadlines for tests or papers, his classes were ever-evolving and mindblowing to all of us. Everybody got a chance to contribute and we learned so much from each other as well as from him. I vowed to be like him and for the most part, I think I have. Structures are for earthquake-proofing our buildings but not for limiting minds, especially young ones that are just starting out. Just as I might occasionally rearrange the furniture to make the room setting more conducive for social interactions, so, too, I rearrange the way I teach so I can meet the needs of all of my students, not just those who think like I do. I have learned so much from my students over the years, about learning styles and learning preferences– I am usually a popular teacher b/c, as one student told me, I “teach realism from the heart instead of idealism from a book.” That being said, I never claimed to be the be-all and end-all authority on any particular subject, so who am I to demand that my students listen to me lecture when they have minds that can think and ideas that need to be shared, too? — Sara B., Bishop, CA
Your idea sounds positive. As a student I would be a little puzzled at the beginning about the appropriate expectation. However, with encouragement to just “give it a try,” I think I would adjust. With my ED students, making them comfortable with the process, works wonders. My students are confident and secure with me and my teaching style. I do believe I can alter some of my methodologies to include “give it a try and we’ll talk later”.
HI Michael,
Your ideas feel like the brainchild of a teacher coming into his own. When you finally learn that students don’t want you to teach them, they want to learn, you embrace the heart of teaching. I love project based teaching and feel it is the best way to do exactly what you describe, get students active in the learning process, taking risks and experimenting. You will be surprised I think that toward the end of the semester when you think you will be teaching the concepts you were going to teach in the beginning that your students already understand so much more than if you taught them first. You will be teaching them all year as your students will be learning on an as the need comes up basis. Then they will ask questions. I find my students remember so much more when they NEED to know the information, when I answer their question, they remember the answer.
I feel that you are correct in seeing the value to their professional lives of jumping in with a project without a foundation of what to expect. I think most of my life and I know most of the last 4 years have been that way, and it has been the most learning and the most fun I have had learning in my adult life!
Anyway, I feel your on to something there! Hang on, sounds like a good year!
I’m guessing LP1 spawned from this concept. “Here’s Logic and a drum loop…have fun!”
And you’re absolutely right about getting students comfortable with learning things on their own. For Beatty’s Music Business I Final project, you basically get told “Produce a CD” or “Plan a Tour” or something of that nature, with little to no specific instruction as to how to go about it. And the awesome thing: students do research on what it is they want to do specifically. So, instead of spending 2 weeks bringing everyone in the class through the process of budgeting for recording, I did all the research myself, and probably went more in depth than he could have in a class lecture.
That’s the same thing we do in Production Techniques. The whole point of the class is to put you in an environment where you just do the stuff you’ve been learning about.
I agree that many students will just tune you out or zone out after 20 minutes of listening to a lecture…as that is what I have always done as a student. I think that is great that you are trying to not “lecture” more than 20 minutes at a time. Giving the students activities to get them to get up and “think” in between lectures is so important – no matter what age. That is what we do at the elementary level – and I think it is important at any age or grade, even college level.
I also like your “do first” and then “understand later.” I believe that will make the students more interested and able to understand a bit more when it is time for lecture. I do think that will spark questions during your lecture as they will have a deeper understanding of what you are talking about. I also think having students work on unstructured activiites is important as I think it makes them “think outiside of the box” and be able to figure some things out on their own before they really know what they are doing. I like your approach. I think you will see the results you are hoping for at the end.
I teach third and fourth grade learning handicapped students. I read this article about a week ago, and, out of desperation, decided to give your ideas a try. It’s getting to be towards the end of the school year, and the kids have just about given up on learning anything. Well, to make a long story short, I think next school year is going to be a lot better! Instead of doing a long, boring lecture about the California missions, I decided to get a bunch of mission kits and let the kids go to town with them. What do you know? Suddenly, I had a room full of kids who actually wanted to know the story behind the Mission Era! I had absolutely no behavior problems that day and my aide and I did not take one Excedrin (very unusual). Truly a great day! I really think you are on to something great. I love how giving the kids something to work on up front sparks curiousity. I think it’s great to trick kids into being interested in subject! They don’t mind a bit!
Michael,
I teach special education students, and their attention span is far from long. Your lecture for 20 minutes and then stop is great. I wish more of my students and my I own child’s teachers would use this philosophy. For some reason some expect students to just sit there and internalize information like a sponge. When in fact very few students have that type of learning capacity. The short pieces is a great philosophy.
I also like how you are trying to change and keep up. You are not trying to fit into a mold and stay there since it is comfortable. Kids like learning and doing new things all the time. Your idea of teaching backwards and getting the kids right into the “meat” of the lesson is spectacular. keep it going.
I also teach special need students and lectures do not hold their attention for more than a few minutes. When I present a lesson, i explain what we are gong to do, review inportant data briefly then I present a hands on or collaborative activity that includes individaul groups or the class as a whole. If the studnets are directly involved they are more likely to stay on task and even learn a little.
I like the fact that Micahel has realized that anything more than twenty minutes for any student is futile. most students loose interest and will either act out inappropriately causing negative behaviors.
i like the fact that Michaeltryies to instuct to what may occur in real life, such as unstructured activities or events. Reality in my classroom of SH and autistic studnets is that unstructured or ujplanned events cause negative behaviors. many of my autisitc studnets go by picture schedules and need the structure of a schedule and the consistancy that it is the same. Not to say that we do not have unplanned events that are not in our schedule, but when i do something out of schedule or an unplanned incident occurs, I need to talk to my class and let them know what is happening that is different and why. I found thatby preparing my students for things that can happen that are unplanned (whenever possible anyway) they react more appropriately to the event with out negative behaviors or outbursts.
I also teach special need students and lectures do not hold their attention for more than a few minutes. When I present a lesson, i explain what we are going to do, review important data briefly then I present a hands on or collaborative activity that includes individual groups or the class as a whole. If the students are directly involved they are more likely to stay on task and even learn a little.
I like the fact that Michael has realized that anything more than twenty minutes for any student is futile. most students lose interest and will either act out inappropriately causing negative behaviors.
I like the fact that Michael tries to instruct to what may occur in real life, such as unstructured activities or events. Reality in my classroom of SH and autistic students is that unstructured or unplanned events cause negative behaviors. many of my autistic students go by picture schedules and need the structure of a schedule and the consistency that it is the same. Not to say that we do not have unplanned events that are not in our schedule, but when i do something out of schedule or an unplanned incident occurs, I need to talk to my class and let them know what is happening that is different and why. I found thatby preparing my students for things that can happen that are unplanned (whenever possible anyway) they react more appropriately to the event without negative behaviors or outbursts.
I like the do first understand later concept. My special needs students learn best with hands on activities. The need to do to understand, as often I do. I also like the fact that when they are involved in an activity more questions and conversation is sparked. During lecture it is hard for my students to comprehend what i am talking about so they do not ask questions. During a hands on activity they do ask; what, why, when and where questions, and often they don’t even know they are asking productive questions, but they are learning.
I feel that you have given thought and planning into your instruction instead of just doing. I feel that my students are more engaged when activities are planned and structured and have meaning.
I teach 9-12 grades students with Severely handicapped in a self-contained classroom setting. The focus of my program is mainly on Life skills and Functional Academics. Where there are instances where lectures are useful, I feel the majority of the time they can be rather”preachy” and condescending. I understand that the lecturer may have something useful to convey, but I don’t think they realize how boring a lecture can be. As a teacher, I try not to be as talkative to my students unless there are visual aids or things that they can handle as part of my lesson. I feel that this gives them something else to focus on as I talk and they seem to retain more of what thet hear as I go along. I feel that structure is the biggest advantage to reaching my students. They respond to a set schedule, or as close as can get to one and it gives them focus and a better sense of comprehension. I think that is the most challenging thing for any teacher, to not only get the lesson acreoos to the students, but to do so in a way that they’re engaged in the lesson on a level of basic understanding. I remeber my first week as a teacher and how difficult it was for my students and I as we felt each other out like two boxers circling the ring in the first round. Neither one is aware of the others strategy. Neither man is willing to take that chance and make the first move, take the first step. But as a teacher, I have to be the one who makes that way always. It is after all my classroom, and it is my job to lead, to teach and to control the classroom. This is the way to instill the confidence in me that my students needed to feel comfortable enough to open their minds to what i want to teach them. I also agree with the “do first, understand later” concept. I think that it offers students the satisfaction of being physically involved with the lesson as it’s presented. There’s an old saying, “catch a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed his village forever.” We as teachers must consider ourselves as fishers of students. We teach them step by step the tools they will need to be the best they can be, this will allow them to take advantage of what they have learned, and to put it to use.
I don’t know how much the use of electronics can advance the teaching/learning experience in the classroom, but as these students are a part of the age of technology, the time will come when we as teachers will become the “oracles” they look to for answers. As for my students, they have an eagerness to learn that is both challenging and satisfying to me. There is a sense of accomplishment that they feel and what they want is to learn more. I truly feel that we owe it to them and to ourselves to go above and beyond whatever level of achievement is before us. They don’t wan to hear it, or see it…but grab it, hold it in their hands and see what they can make it do.