Microteaching Lesson Plan

Microteaching Brief:

8 minute ‘microteaching’: Objects and Artefacts
‘Interaction with artefacts deepens students’ learning.’ (Schultz 2012, p.185)

‘Object-Based Learning’ may be used to develop any of the following (not an exhaustive list):

• Observational skills
• Visual literacy (ability to ‘read’ objects, to find meaning from them)
• Design awareness and knowledge
• Team working
• Critical analytical skills
• Drawing skills
• Communication
• Aesthetic judgement. 
• Understanding of key concepts (e.g. branding, style, ethics). 
• Research skills and confidence
• Inspiration

Your task is to prepare and deliver an eight-minute learning activity for your tutor group (via Collaborate Ultra), based around an object. You can approach this activity imagining your tutor group are your students, or as they are (a group of teachers from different disciplines and with different levels of experience); it’s up to you.

Tip: When choosing your object, think about your desired learning outcome(s) – the above list may help. Then think of an activity (for example, a question you want them to discuss and answer about the object) that will lead to the outcome(s) you are hoping for.

For more information and some case studies about Object-Based Learning, check out this report from the HEA: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/kirsten_hardie_final.pdf.

Inspiration

Prior to the lockdown, I had mentally prepared to conduct this session in-person but I hadn’t written a lesson plan for it. At the time of writing I have just moved house which I do not recommend anyone should do in a pandemic. I am wondering if I will actually be able to locate the objects I want to use for my microteaching session in time!

The objects I plan to use are some porcelain life casts I created for my degree show titled the Diaspora Series. Inspired by my own positionality as a mixed race woman with a complex family dynamic who is frequently read as white, I took casts of my face and the faces of my half siblings and deliberately fragmented them as a reference to the way the identities of mixed people are perceived to be fractionary by others. The work is an attempt to deconstruct theories of race, racial ambiguity and stereotyping – specifically focussing on assumptions we make about a person’s race based on how they look. I always found describing these casts quite difficult, as there is so much charge around how we describe the facial and body features of black people and POC. Because I enjoy a challenge, and think it it useful to embrace difficult conversations in a teaching context, I wanted to use these objects in my microteaching.

During the Inclusive Teaching and Learning unit we were asked to respond to this video by Christine Sun Kim, a deaf artist who uses the vibrations from sound to make her work. In the video, Kim references the fact that the culture of the world privileges hearing and how that affects her life and work. Thinking about this in the context of the Diaspora Series I began thinking about the “white gaze” and how racism is largely dependent on the human tendency to privilege sight above other senses. I considered my own disability, remembering a time when I had double vision and thought I would lose my sight completely due to complications caused by Lupus. I was in my first year studying Fine Art at Middlesex and terrified that my career as an artist would be over if I lost my vision. An example of the profound effect internalised ableism can have on a disabled person.

Thinking further on this, I realised that I actually knew of very few disabled artists in general, and of no blind or partially sighted artists at all. After a bit of research, I came across the work of Joseè Andrei, a painter, sculptor, photographer and psychologist, who also happens to be blind. Andrei uses touch and sound to describe her works, vocalising what the objects “look” like since she cannot describe them the way a sighted person would. Sadly there is little more information about Andrei available to me beyond this, except for the trailer for Fabrizio Terranova’s 2010 documentary called Joseè Andrei: An Insane Portrait (sadly I have not been able to locate a copy of this film online to watch it in full). After viewing the trailer I decided I wanted to explore alternative ways of describing objects in my microteaching session.

In my original – pre Covid- plan, participants would have been asked to either wear a blindfold or close their eyes and describe the way the Diaspora sculptures felt in their hands by calling out their descriptions. For example: smooth, cool, delicate, thin. We would then have repeated the exercise with the blindfolds off to compare and contrast the way participants described the objects once they were able to see them. Inviting them to consider how they may be unwittingly privileging sight over other senses in their teaching practices and therefore potentially excluding any blind or partially sighted students they may have in the classroom. However, due to all teaching sessions being moved online, I now have to rethink my plan.

Lesson Plan

Phase 1 – Setup

• Set up two cameras, one which will focus on me and the other which will enable participants to see the face casts on screen at all times.
• Lay out sculptures in well lit area so that participants are able to see them and have a clear idea of them in terms of texture, colour, shape and material.
• Set up a Padlet document ahead of the session and post the link to the Padlet in the chat so that people can participate in the activity.

Phase 2 – Context (2 mins)

• Switch on first camera but turn off video for the second.
• Briefly provide participants with history of and context for the objects. Why did I make them? Why are they relevant?
• Include information about the Christine Sun Kim video which provides further context for the session.
• Possibly share my own positionality as a disabled person who has experienced partial sight due to being sick.

Phase 3 – Padlet (2 mins)

• Switch on second camera and show participants the sculptures.
• Ask them to describe the ‘positive’ porcelain sculptures on the Padlet using whichever words come to mind. Wait for responses.
• Prompt participants to consider how they would describe these objects to someone who is partially sighted or blind. How can they describe the objects using more inclusive language? Wait for Padlet responses.

Phase 4 – Negative (2 mins)

• Highlight the way the topic of description opens up when we remove the ‘privilege’ of sight from our language.
• Invite participants to explore describing the ‘negatives’ or moulds I used to create the porcelain casts using this new method. Wait for Padlet responses.

Phase 5 – Round Up (2 mins)

• Explain how making small changes to our language and teaching methods can make a big difference in terms of accessibility.
• Invite participants to challenge their methods of making and teaching to embrace accessibility.

Takeaways

• Participants leave session thinking about accessibility in the arts, particularly within a teaching and learning context.
• Participants consider how they can make their lessons more accessible for partially sighted or blind people
• Participants understand that the semiotics and semantics of language matter in the context description, whether that be audio or close captioning.