Containers

I am trying to write something each week but time goes by so quickly and I sometimes feel I have not moved on from the last thoughts in the last blog post. So for this week I am going to share my notes from listening to a talk and watching some work on-line by Ralph Lemon.

The talk was loosely about two pieces

‘come on Charley Patton’ and ‘How can you stay in the house all day and not go anywhere?’

His process means that a work takes years to make.

He talked about a container: the puzzle that is the inquiry that holds to together a activity. You can’t solve it, it’s a thing you read about, think about explore but it is not to be solved. The container is what holds a dance; it is an opportunity.

I am thinking about the containers we are so used to we don’t notice them – the things we do because we just always do and the assumptions we no longer question. What Janet was saying on Hopal’s blog about considering yourself a certain way like seeing yourself as ‘good’ and how that container is so helpful in that it houses you safely but also so restricting in that it houses you safely. What Hopal was saying about time as a container. Thinking about paradigms such as positivism is about the kind of container you use to organise being xxxx but this is also about the container being the assumptions you are willing not to question. Things you will let slide. In terms of research the container is the framework the assumptions you are aligning yourself with the assumptions that will inform your questioning.

He spoke about self-exploration as ‘tourism of My Self’. He talked about the gap where you want to follow your own rules but can’t. I think this is the space artists are brave enough to face again and again. In dance we explore what we do once we have figured out how to balance by tilting ourselves off balance again.

It was amazing how in questions and answers people had talked about habits, impulse, inhabiting the body – all of this Dewey writes about and yet the world of dance and ontological theory very rarely meet and share ideas.

When asked how he manages to keep up the tiring task that all artists have of questioning yourself he mentioned the importance of coming to terms with your Self – being kind

“I am beholden to trying to be as kind to myself as possible”

My final notes to myself in terms of teaching technique are: I am teaching toward - being a good dancer is not about virtuosity it is about being true to yourself, your body and your intent, to the possibility of your practice. That is what I want my students to learn when I teach a technique class. To that end I try to set exercises that through up physical questions that can be answered with the integrity of technique – or that is what I am working on anyway.

So what are your containers as you look at your past experience, or plan an inquiry project or carry one out??

What do you think?

Adesola

Mapping!

We are in week 5 and for my blog post on BAPP I reminded people that it is a good time to take a breath to recognise the process by thinking about where you are heading. To be sure you know what you are required to hand in for assessment and when that is due. I am particularly thinking about this because I have been taking a course at MDX and I find myself thinking ‘just tell me what you want so I can get this done and move on to…’ I am my worst student nightmare!!! But there is a balance between work that feels like it’s for ‘you’ and work that feels like its for ‘them’.  And by ‘for you’ are we really thinking about what we’ll get at the end to show for what we did or thinking about the process as being a moment to moment engagement in something ‘for us’. When it’s ‘for them’ the approval of the teachers who hold the key to being able to move on In both cases it is so easy for learning to become a commodity. So what makes it meaning –full? When it reverberates around your life – pricks some part of you in a way that transforms the world. A threshold moment you cannot un-remember. When it causes the collision of two ideas you had never known could collide. I think these moments are beautiful and unteachable. I think that we try to set up the situation for them, so at this point in the term taking that moment to step back from the hoops and wonder at the journey allows you to make a space for the threshold moment. For me this is the empty incredible space of analysis. It is analysis that will synthesise your learning and what we are hoping for in what you hand-in at the end of term. What am I doing and why? – like stopping the hike for a moment to look at the map: not to change the journey or calculate how fast you are going just to contemplate the process and what it means to you. 

Then maybe think about what is to come and prepare with momentum to move forward in a practical manor in order to get to the hand-in point.

What do you think?

Adesola

Rubric

I found this rubric as I was looking though some work. It is a good example of expectations for writing, might be especially useful for those writing their area's of learning although I think it is interesting reading for writing in the context of MAPP and BAPP in general. What do you think?

Example MAPP for blog Assessment Rubric (from 3/12/2008)

	Beginner fail (below level three) 17-2O	Expected pass 9- 16	Developed merit 5-8	Progressing distinction 1-4	Notes
External sources of Knowledge: Aware academic / professional ideas of other and seeing how they fit into your work.	Cite one or no external ideas.	Cite others work  two- three	Cite others work appropriately (examples) four or five Aware of others doing similar work as you	Cite others work effectively – (developed ideas on) more than five
Internal conception of knowledge: Recognising own practise as a source of knowledge.	Telling the story of something that happened that helped you	Realisation: Articulating an event or incident when self practise developed, (without the aid a teacher).	Trust: Articulate a time when you acted on your practice (self knowledge / things you have learnt) without confirmation or direction of someone else.	Giving / Risk: being able to articulate a through-line (show us how it manifests) of your practice in life outside of the arts or work.
Selection and Justification of approaches to tasks	Wrote the work	Work has a number of drafts, final draft could track the development of the drafts (work went through development stages)	Work reflects other forms of thinking used in the process of composing the essay.	Work is a vehicle that summarises a whole process of learning. Almost like a report on the learning that has been done (persons went through development stages)
Ethical Understanding	Know external frameworks.	Work articulates how student can see the impact of themselves and their practice on others. Aware of external frameworks (rules) and apply them.	Articulate how practice is informed by awareness of particular views and experiences, aware of the effect they have on others.  Know external ethical frameworks and incorporate them into this knowledge of their actions.	Articulate a clear understanding of responsibilities: Practice is informed by student’s perceived place in society – student shows a range of ways to engage with others because of the impact research / study might have. Analyse external frameworks and develop them for themselves.
Analysis and synthesis	Ideas are evident.	Can track where ideas have developed and how they have been influenced by experiences.	Show how ideas have linked in the past and the range of ways ideas emerge. Show the different ways in which ideas can be used. (concepts, principles, systems, models)	Articulate the personal process for developing and applying ideas, shows awareness of other peoples’ processes as well.
Self appraisal / reflection on practise	Explain how a teacher has helped their develop	Explain how a past experience has informed the way the student does things now. The Student explains how their impression of their work has differed from a teacher’s.	Explain how past experience has been used to inform a wide range of elements of practice.	Shows how the student has developed their practice through intentional use of self reflection (not instigated by someone or something else). Instances of this.
Action Planning leading to effective and appropriate action (B3)	Table or schedule of events	Evidence of how they plan, including prioritising and setting of aims and objectives.	Showing evidence of having planned for themselves and others. Plan would accommodate a number of people and schedules &/or use existing action planning tool/s.	Shows understanding of ethical implications and the impact of their work has on others. Their work theorises or cites other planning methods.
Evaluation of information (B4)	Student describes information that they think is relevant.	Presents ways that have been used to access information and identify what is important to their personal practice.	Present a range of existing evaluation tools/ formulas that they have found valuable.	Show personally devised ways and systems that are used to evaluate information.
Application of learning in number of contexts	Shows that student learnt stuff.	Learnt something and show how student used it in a different circumstance.	Learnt something and used it in two other contexts (home-life, teaching, technique class, relationships).	Learnt something and used it in more than two contexts, or at a very deep level.
Use of resources will be effective and wide ranging	Has put aside some time each week to study.	Shows understanding of relevant resources and how they would be useful.	Gathered a number of resources (such as people, things, ideas, funding) in support of their work.	Sees impact of their work on others. Can describe the strategic implications of their work as a resource for others.
Effective Communication	Good at story telling.	Uses the standard methods of written and oral presentation for academia. (sentence construction, argumentation and citation)	Articulation of the use of a range of approaches to communication / presentation and some are used.	Successful and clearly decided approaches to support impact of ideas and concepts in their work. Articulation of why this approach was used.
Working and learning autonomously and with others	Evidence of being organised and punctual.	Organised work, with a method of working developed from past experience. Can identify the people they work with ‘best’	Shows strategies for working autonomously and with others. Is willing to take a number of roles within a group (challenge, reflect, support).	Shows knowledge of when to engage with others, is aware of their responses to different group settings. Shows awareness of when and how to challenge and support others. Can articulate personal perspectives in relation to working autonomously and with others.