Process to Product Choreography

radio silence and assessment

Hi all

Apologies for silence – I'm only just starting to get back on track.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about assessment-related things and would like you to read this: http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/fdtd-g.htm

Here's one of the critical bits:

"Grades tend to reduce the quality of students’ thinking. Given that students may lose interest in what they’re learning as a result of grades, it makes sense that they’re also apt to think less deeply.  One series of studies, for example, found that students given numerical grades were significantly less creative than those who received qualitative feedback but no grades.  The more the task required creative thinking, in fact, the worse the performance of students who knew they were going to be graded.  Providing students with comments in addition to a grade didn’t help:  the highest achievement occurred only when comments were given instead of numerical scores (Butler, 1987; Butler, 1988; Butler and Nisan, 1986)."

It's pretty fascinating stuff, and it certainly undermines the value of giving grades at any level of education. However, as much as I am a reluctant participant in the 'grading' craziness, I am aware that there is little we can do in HE in the UK to make significant changes to the system.

There is though another option ...

What if you were to attempt to reduce your dependence on knowing and getting grades? That is, rather than spend so much energy on "getting good grades" and finding out your grades, what if you were to simply ignore this part of the process? Would this be difficult? Would you feel more or less empowered? What would change in your P2P work if you didn't find out your grade from the second project? To what extent is your understanding of yourself wrapped up in the kind of grades you get? I have lots more questions here, but I think you get the idea ...

So, what I'd like to propose is that you take a small risk by not seeking out your grade for the duet project – as a small experiment.

If you just can't stomach the idea of not knowing, then of course I am happy to send you the grade. But, I strongly urge you to find a way to rethink your relationship to learning – and developing creativity and ideas – that is not ensconced in the rather stressful approach to being at University that is based on the question "What do I need to do in choreography (or whatever module) to get good grades?" The inevitable outcome of this question is that your self-worth starts to be defined by grading processes, and this is, well, just crap.

What do you think?

ske

Assessment criteria for duet

This is my first go at 'summarising' last Thursday's discussion about
assessment criteria. I'm interested to hear if you have any thoughts,
or can see any glaring problems with how we might go about using these
to arrive at marks for the Duet.

Assessment Criteria

• Evidence of consideration and understanding of various
'relationships' in the work: movement, sound, light, space, time.

• Degree to which the physical actions/movement (or the work's
'texts') have been deeply investigated, strongly constructed, and
well-rehearsed

• Evidence that the work has been carefully developed, and that the your
(choreographic) choices made invite multiple and complex experiences
for the viewer.

Thoughts?

ske

Small task for this Thursday

Hi all

I hope you had (and are still having) a grand weekend.

I've been baking.

This has nothing to do with Process to Product except to say that
there is something about how I go about baking that seems to mimic how
I go about making work. There's a lot of preparation, there's a very
rigorous and thoughtful approach, and then there's this point –
slightly terrifying, incredibly exciting – when I hand it all over to
the Oven Gods and see what comes out.

Mind you, the big big difference is that a lot more experimentation
and play goes on in making choreography than in making cakes, bread
etc ...

So, to your task for this Thursday ...

Working in your pairs, I'd like you to:

1. Track down some video (DVD, youtube, vimeo etc) of a duet that you
think has some kind of relationship to the work/rehearsal you have
been doing in the studio. This relationship needn't be about an 'idea'
but might just be a physical state, some movements, a 'tone' etc. I
want you to do some serious research here. That is, by looking at a
lot of different duets, you might start to get a sense of what excites
you, what provokes you, and what sits well with your practice and
making. If I get a whole host of Random Dance duets I'll probably
shoot myself. Well, perhaps not, but what if you took a risk and
showed some duet material by some people no on had ever heard of?

2. Consider the nature of this relationship between your work and the
video material, and prepare a few notes about this

3. Present the video (no more 2 minutes) on Thursday this week, and a
brief few words about it in relation to your project

This will be no more than 7 minutes per 'couple' – ie 2 minutes video,
5 minutes talking/questions

I'll arrange computer and data projector so that you can use youtube, DVD etc.

Any questions?

After that, we'll be talking (briefly) about light, and then, well,
let's see how it's all going.

See you then!

ske