I implemented the practice lesson with four Korean friends. They are composed of two women and two men. Since I used my first language, Korean during my lesson, I feel much more comfortable than using English. Especially, paraphrasing was good when I listen to the record and checked what I said but linking is not that good. I think I better focus on practicing how to link the separated opinions.
1. Did your colleagues notice what you noticed in the painting?
Yes. Most of them exactly point out what I have noticed at the very first moment. I thought about the picture, Dad’s coming that “There’s no father”, “Maybe they are waiting for daddy”, “They are not happy because nobody smiles”. They picked same points as I did but, as time goes by, they build much more profound perspective through interacting with each other.
2. Did they notice details or offer insights you had not considered? How did you respond to these?
Yes. They notice very detail distinctions of the picture and provide various thoughts. After one friend provides some clues, others were making up the story by using the evidence. They were reaching agreement through influencing on each other. I was trying to hide my surprise to keep the neutral stance, when I heard something interesting from them. I responded to these in the same ways as to others without difficulties but I couldn’t handle my feeling that I want to add my thoughts. Yes, I made some mistake that I put my thoughts few times. Anyway, I was very impressed by the things I haven’t thought about before.
3. How did you feel about facilitating this discussion and what did you learn from the experience?
Even if speaking Korean rather than speaking English is much easier for me, I had to translate the main three questions. As all languages do that, there are a lot of sentences which has similar meaning. So I should have made some specific sentences which have the most similar meaning to the three questions. There are two ways for me to translate which are literal translation and liberal translation. If I literally translate the question “What do you see that makes you say that, it could be a very strange sentence to Korean students because Korean doesn’t say like that. I need to liberally translate but make it has same meaning and effects. Also the questions have to seem like natural and not difficult to students. For next lesson, I will definitely create the questions in Korean and try to be familiar with that.
4. Were you surprised by anything related to this discussion?
As I already say, I was inspired the way participants reach agreement. As a instructor, I think I need to be more prepared. 5. What would you like to work on in your next facilitation and how might you do that?
First of all, I have to be done creating questions in Korean and to be familiar with those. And I’d better practice linking which is the hardest part of VTS skills.
Comment on feedback you received from practice lesson participants during your practice session.
I summarized their comment on feedback I received. These are literally translated.
“I was accustomed to learning perspective or artist’s intention from teachers during my school days. This is a totally new instruction. I like these open-ended questions and enjoy participating in this lesson. The way the instructor encourages and accepts every opinion is very interesting.”(Yunhi)
“I was dying to know about the artists’ intention. First time I saw these pictures, these are just ordinary things and not my style of picture. No wonder I didn’t have any curiosity about that. However, as I try to find something on the pictures, it is getting interesting. Children can get to have interest in art as well as learning language skill." (Sooyoung)
“Children can learn how to respect other opinion different from theirs and how to reach agreement through interacting or arguing. It is also effective for children to develop imaginative power as well as thinking skill. I was impressed by the way Jooyoung paraphrased and respected every small tiny thoughts.” (Dongbeom)
“Even for inattentive children who are not interested in ordinary class, this instruction could be the best. Because every person has a chance to speak, there’s no answer and teacher seems like they can accept whatever students say. They must be enjoying this kind of class." (Hongi)
Jooyoung,
ReplyDeleteI was FASCINATED to read about your VTS practice session with your peers!Did I understand correctly that you recorded the lesson and listened to it afterwards? If so, that is a wonderful way to review every detail of the experience. It gives you the opportunity to accurately analyze the verbal exchanges, but also examine the facial expressions and body language you may have missed while facilitating the discussion; aspects which can communicate just as much if not more than the dialogue! If you did record your practice session, I'd love to meet with you sometime and have you share it with me (and interpret for me.)
I had to smile when I read your observation that "they build much more profound perspectives through interacting with each other." It proved that VTS accomplishes what it claims to, regardless of the ages or languages of the participants. Hiding surprise when participants notice something you had not is
always a struggle and I think that proof of a good discussion is WANTING to join in. With practice, maintaining a neutral stance will get easier. I believe you were wise to choose the liberal translation over the literal one when translating the questions into Korean. The English questions were designed to elicit open interpretation and narrative, but must also sound normal and conversational to your group of participants. As you decide on the wording, review the discussion of why the questions are worded as they are in the Basic VTS Manual to guide your choices. In our Sept 24th class meeting, I'll be anxious to hear how you ultimately decided to word the questions and how they compare to the English ones. Sooyoung's comment about not being interested in the images at first, but becoming more interested as the discussion progressed shows that the third question, "What more can we find" is important and strengthen's student engagement(and ultimately, their learning!) Dongbeom's comment that "I was impressed with the way Jooyoung paraphrased and respected every small tiny thought" is evidence, too, that your paraphrasing skills are good! WOW! You are doing an exceptional job! I'll email you this weekend to get your ideas on creating a "class" of Korean students to work with throughout this course. It will be very exciting to follow your progress with the added dimension of translating the practice and theory into your first language!