Never Mind the Inspectors by Tait Coles

Author:Tait Coles [Tait Coles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781351642
Publisher: Crown House Publishing
Published: 2014-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

If you’re interested, my colleague set up more rehearsal opportunities and extra practice performances so that her students could act on her critique. Unsurprisingly, the dance group went from strength to strength and won the national final.

We need to create classrooms full of editors, scientists, writers, architects, designers, artists, historians and musicians who willingly critique and see the importance of critique, not only for their own work but that of others. What better way is there to teach how to write a great poem or deliver an amazing presentation or perform a fantastic dance routine than by critiquing a student example of one? Not only will the successes be celebrated and shared, but the analysis and improvements required will be highlighted for all to see.

Here are some ideas to help you with critique in your classroom:

1 Spend time teaching your students the importance and need for critique. For many, the idea of redrafting work over and over again will be an alien concept. Stands to reason, really, as since primary school all that has been asked and expected is to do some work, hand it in (once and once only) and be told it’s good/okay/terrible/not what I’m looking for.

2 Show examples of good and bad critique from popular TV shows and discuss the merits and limitations of each example. Masterchef is great for ‘good’ critique – especially the way in which the judges are hard on the content (the dish) and soft on the person (the chef), while any ‘talent’ show is a perfect example of ‘bad’ critique.

3 Always refer to Berger’s three simple rules of being kind, specific and helpful. A visual display is useful for this. I asked one of my more nihilistic punk learners to write the three words on a large sheet of paper – I still use the handwritten poster to this day. Of course, if you want to spend hours creating a stylish, colourful display using a flash piece of software then that’s up to you.

4 Don’t mess with Berger’s rules, don’t try to squeeze an acronym out of them and don’t turn them into a mneumonic or a ‘cool’ logo. Leave them be – they work because they work. End of.

5 Be confident enough for students to critique your work. You’re not perfect; as soon as you realise that you’re not the smartest person in the room any more the better. This sends out a great message to your class – that critique works and that everyone can produce better work.

6 Always model critique on a piece of work (it could be yours) before a critique session. Use a visualiser to display some work and take some comments from the floor. Let students know the standards you expect.

7 Critique the critique – if it ain’t kind, specific or helpful then there really is no point. Don’t worry about being harsh. It’s so important that your students are giving sound critique.

8 Use vocabulary boards and ask students to write down great words that they overhear from the critique.

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