Graeme

So far I've only been let loose on undergraduate workshops, but I do have
experience of taking part in post-grad workshops at both masters and PhD
level.

With undergraduates I find it is important to model the process of
workshopping explicitly, especially in the first and second year. So I use
techniques like these:

Putting students into pairs. Giving them explicit instructions about how to
feed back to their partner when they are in 'reviewing' mode. Then asking
them to swap. Then asking them to reflect not only on what they learned
about this particular piece, but on what they learned about giving feedback.
Putting students into groups of four and giving them each a specific role,
e.g. author, critic, best friend, mediator. In the whole class we discuss
what these roles might involve. Then we workshop, with the roles circulating
among people in the group. Again I ask them to reflect on what it's like to
play the different roles, and how each role can be useful. Students often
feel liberated by the roleplay i.e. they can be either more critical, or
more supportive, or take more responsibility for mediating, than they might
naturally do.
'Goldfish bowl' - as with either of the previous two techniques, but with
one pair or group working in the middle of a circle and other students
watching. You can ask students to step into different roles in the centre of
the bowl as you go along. It can help students to reflect on the value of
different roles in the workshop if they can externalise the process i.e.
watch other people doing it.
Negotiating ground rules. Even if students are relatively experienced at
workshoping I always start out with a discussion about what we think the
ground rules ought to be - what works and what doesn't work? We usually come
up with the same list, but it makes the students feel they have owned it.
Checklist - I give out a checklist of 'questions to ask of a poem' (or other
piece of work). I encourage them to use this both as a crib list if they run
out of things to say, and also as a guide to the kind of language I expect
them to use - or become proficient at using - when they are talking about a
piece. It also helps to focus attention on the words and away from the
person. I've noticed students referring to this under the table.
Putting students into groups in different ways - I think this is a really
important and under-explored aspect of what we do. Small gruops are so
important to workshopping, but the tendency of students to drift into the
same small group every week can lead to stagnation. So after the first few
weeks, when they are more comfortable, I use different strategies to put
students into groups other than the one they are used to.
Sit on your hands - I like to give students whose work is being workshopped
a task to focus their note-taking - this helps to make sure they are not
trying to interpret or explain their work for the other students, but are
listening actively to the responses. I remind them that they will have to
write a critical commentary and that other students' comments will be
important to this, so usually the task I suggest is focused around some
reflective questions that will help them build their commentary.

Most of this is probably obvious to more experienced teachers. I could say
more but hope this is the kind of thing you were looking for. The difference
with a graduate workshop is (I hope) that the process is more innate, that
students have a wider repertoire of roles to draw upon and identities to
inhabit when they are talking about each other's work.

Helen Partridge

(poet and part-time lecturer, Bath Spa University - learned most of what I
know about workshopping from Philip Gross who is also on this list - Hi
Philip!)


----- Original Message -----
From: "Graeme Harper" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2005 1:21 PM
Subject: Re: sound bites


> The whole idea of how to approach workshops needs to be developed
> much further. Creative Writing is a more complex, engaging and
> encompassing enterprise than many workshop methods currently seem to
> suggest; and, indeed, Creative Writing involves accessing a more
> multi-faceted sphere of knowledge than many university and college
> syllabi presently recognise or allow.
>
> Hi Kathy - the bio note you mention:
>
> Professor Graeme Harper
> Head of the School of Creative Arts, Film and Media
> University of Portsmouth
> Some publications: Small Maps of the World (Parlor, 2005) Cinema and
> Medicine, with A Moor (Wallflower, 2005), and Dancing on the Moon
> (Eclipse/NESTA 2002)
>
> On 13 May 2005 at 13:01, Gross P (HLaSS) wrote:
>
>> Postgraduate workshops: You can feel safe in assuming commitment, and a
>> sense of the value of mutual feedback. Less tendency to regard the
>> tutor/leader as absolute authority; more genuine interest in the
>> life-experience and writing of fellow participants. Undergraduates:
> at
>> least the list above shows what we have to work to build. That, and
> the
>> absolute necessity of reading.
>>
>> Philip Gross
>> Prof. of Creative Writing
>> University of Glamorgan
>>
>> Latest publications: Mappa Mundi (Bloodaxe, 2003) - poetry; The
> Lastling
>> (OUP, 2004) - fiction for young people.
>> See also: www.philipgross.co.uk
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Creative Writing in Universities and Colleges
>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kathy Flann
>> Sent: 13 May 2005 12:03
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: sound bites
>>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> I'm working on an article about the differences between teaching
>> undergraduate and post-graduate workshops. I would like to get some
>> quotes from other people.
>>
>> Would anyone be interested in writing a couple of sentences or a
>> paragraph (tops)?
>>
>> If you send something to the listserv, could you include your name,
> your
>> institution, and a couple of your publications?
>>
>> Hope to hear from you!
>> Kathy Flann
>> Course Leader for Creative Writing
>> St Martin's College
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
> --
> Professor Graeme Harper BA MLitt DCA PhD FRGS
> Head, School of Creative Arts, Film and Media,
> University of Portsmouth, UK
> http://www.port.ac.uk/departments/academic/scafm
> [log in to unmask] Ph: 00 44 23 92846132
> Join the Top Ten - See our School website for Details.
> Visit: http://www.brookebiaz.co.uk -- [log in to unmask]
>