Mark McBeth's Lecture, 10/15/10

Last Friday, I attended Mark McBeth's lecture at the CUNY Graduate Center entitled, "Prompts, Props, Performativities: Enacting Education.

I found the entire lecture very entertaining. Prof. McBeth is a very lively speaker. He read his paper to us without sounding robotic and had a large screen behind him showing images as he spoke. He made me think of the classroom as a stage, where everyone plays a part. Props, such as a dunce cap, can have a different meaning, something positive and rewarding. Three interesting ideas he presented:

1) He compared students to drag queens. Hysterical idea! The lecture consisted of thinking of students as amateurs. Like drag queens, when they first start off, they're a little shaky and unsure of themselves. With experience, drag queens become divas who own the stage and capture their audience. This happens to all of us who have ever been students. Students are not dumb. They start off as amateurs and then become advanced amateurs. Even we, as teachers, can be advanced amateurs. This relates to what I was rambling about last week - we can learn from everyone!

2) The desk. Prof. McBeth talked about the classroom and how the desk gives the teacher "authority." It's not necessary. The teacher can be "dumb" and sit with the students, that way the teacher doesn't intimidate the students and welcomes more participation. Everyone has something to contribute. I guess the idea is that we're all in this together, so lets sit together. Standing behind a podium or sitting behind the desk creates divisions. Instead, lets all be amateurs together.

3) Ask the students to write 8 pages of crap. I love this idea!! You ask them to give you 8 pages full of the worst writing they could possibly think of. You give them permission to be advanced amateurs by doing this. He says that when you ask students to give you the worst writing they could think of, somehow, this works as reverse psychology and you're able to find "golden nuggets" within the writing. You highlight the "golden nuggets" and ask the students to elaborate upon these points. This assignment is graded. If you hand in 8 complete pages, you get an A. For anything less than 8 pages, the grade goes down. I can totally see this activity working with students who feel unsure about their writing skills because they won't feel so much pressure to hand in a perfect paper. 8 pages is a lot of writing, there's bound to be some really deep and interesting thinking somewhere in there. It's a starting point for better writing.

I really enjoyed the lecture and look forward to attending as many as I can this year. Always so much to learn. I love that Prof. McBeth offered us a bibliography of his research. I look forward to checking out some of the reading.