Organizers: Bonnie Wheeler, Southern Methodist University, and Laura V. Blanchard, University of Pennsylvania. Presider: Robert Coolidge, Montreal, Quebec.
Organizers: Bonnie Wheeler, Southern Methodist University, and Laura V. Blanchard, U. Penn. Presider: James Carley, York University.
Organizer and Presider: Charles T. Wood, Dartmouth College.
Participants include Laura V. Blanchard, Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collection Libraries; Helen Damico, University of New Mexico; Otto Gründler, Western Michigan University; Ronald B. Herzman, SUNY-Geneseo; and William Chester Jordan, Princeton University.
Organizer and Presider: Mark Amsler, University of Delaware.
Why Medieval? Why Now? (William Askins, Community College of Philadelphia)
Sociograms in the Medieval Class (Gregory Sadlek, University of Nebraska-Omaha)
Teaching Medieval/Learning Modern (Ruth Evans, University of Wales)
Organizer and Presider: Elizabeth D. Kirk, Brown University.
Panelists include David Benson, University of Connecticut; Elizabeth Robertson, University of Colorado-Boulder; and Karen Bock, University of Toronto Law School.
Organizer: Alan T. Gaylord, Dartmouth University. Presider: Gregory Sadlek, University of Nebraska-Omaha.
The aim of the Workshop is to practice reading Chaucer out loud, with special attention to matters of pronunciation, scansion, and oral interpretation — not to mention the fun of the poetry! The Workshop is particularly aimed at teachers desiring to brush up their classroom delivery. The Workshop will be run in several concurrent sections. An experienced teacher/ reader-out-loud will host each section, and the sections will be kept small. Those interested should pre-register with Alan Gaylord, Dept. of English, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755; E-Mail at alan.t.gaylord@dartmouth.edu.
Co-sponsored with the Society for the Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages. Organizer/ Presider: E. Ann Matter, University of Pennsylvania.
Organizer and Presider: Carol E. Harding, Western Oregon University.
| For nearly two decades TEAMS has served to support and encourage teachers of medieval studies in all disciplines. Many of our efforts and publications have been aimed at college students and instructors. In response to the growing interest in teaching medieval studies to younger students, TEAMS has launched an outreach initiative that will focus on pre-college programs. The two articles which appear in this issue come from last spring's TEAMS-sponsored session at the Congress. Look for more information in the fall newsletter. |
Most students react well to what is active, relevant, and concrete. Once their interest is caught, then a more scholarly approach with more examples, readings, research, and special projects is welcome.
I believe it is important to use to our advantage the fact that students want relevancy and pleasure in their educational experience. It pays to connect the material we want to teach with their contemporary world, interests and problems. Besides the concrete and the anecdotal, they like what forces them to make discoveries and connections. They are highly receptive to what breaks compartmentalization between disciplines.
For that, we don't necessarily need complicated technology or fancy material. I want to give an example which has succeeded at the high school level as well as the college level. You can imagine thousands of others relating to your courses. For an introduction to a unit on cathedrals in the Middle Ages, I use color slides of two buildings in Brussels, Belgium. One is the cathedral of St. Michel and Gudule (12th-13th century); the other is a modern construction, built during the 1990s across the street from the cathedral. I ask students to compare and talk about the two buildings. Very quickly they see the connections between the two, how the modern one tries to imitate the style of the cathedral and how the result is an architectural blending with the environment of the cathedral.
We talk about the reasons for such an endeavor, the kind of principles that supported the decision made by the city of Brussels, and we explore whether similar or opposite decisions have been made in the students' own cities.
Then we talk about the Gothic style — which is the actual goal of the lesson — starting with the common elements between the two buildings, pointing to the rhythm of the facade, the mock-flying buttresses, the gables, the towers, the rhythm and the fluting effect of the columns on the building, the rhythm of the windows, the alternation of bricks to create a running mold between levels, etc. We continue with considerations about the building site, the length of the construction spread over several centuries, with different architects, foremen, and artisans, and explore what these changes entail.
Finally we talk about what it meant for the city of Brussels to put up a building in a style that reminds people of a particular period and how it tends to sustain the national identity linked with glorious moments of its past his-tory — how the cathedral today, as in the Middle Ages but for different reasons and with different values in mind, is also an architectural text to read, a manifesto of identity for everyone to see.
Students like to move back and forth in time, places and centuries while
maintaining the link with their own perspective and experience. It is always
surprising, refreshing and encouraging to hear what they are able to bring
into the discussion.
"As anyone who attends the theater knows, clues and signals are given along the way, but the answers are never revealed in the first act." (Vivian Paley)
I am standing in front of a group of first graders on a spring afternoon. The classroom in which we are meeting is filled with reminders of the topic I am discussing with the students. On one wall is a poster of a unicorn tapestry. Colorfully decorated "shields" hang from the ceiling. The back bulletin board is filled with photos, pictures, and stories about castles the children have built from Cuisenaire Rods. This is a unit on the Middle Ages and I am very proud of the binder that is full of curriculum ideas and materials that I've gathered over the past ten years. As I record the children's thoughts about "Who lived in the Middle Ages?" I try to ignore the doubts that have slowly begun to plague me. What exactly are these youngsters learning about medieval history? As a teacher, I have developed an interest in the topic by exploring it year after year with my classes. I satisfy my thirst for new information through travel, reading, and study. After twelve years I continue to ask questions and look for answers. Am I really able to "transfer" my understanding to a group of elementary students over the course of a three month interdisciplinary study of medieval life? What does it mean for a young child to complete a "castle" project in my classroom or when an older learner writes a paper or takes an examination? Is "knowledge" something passed along from teacher to student?
My curiosity was the impetus for a sabbatical spent studying the research methodology known as Extended Clinical Interviewing developed by Professor Eleanor Duckworth at Harvard University. Combing teaching and inquiry, the researcher explores the development of student knowledge on a topic while simultaneously teaching about it. Duckworth, a student of Jean Piaget, believes that "following the thoughts of learners can be an excellent way of helping them learn." Implicit in the research design is also the assumption that learners connect to ideas in a web, or, using a metaphor from educator David Hawkins, ideas develop like the branches of a tree, rather than in the linear "ladder" model upon which most traditional curriculum is based. Deviating from the familiar "outline" form of classroom presentation, my partner, Mary Kim Fries, and I undertook two projects aimed at teaching middle elementary school students about life in the Middle Ages.
Kim and I initially embarked on a five session investigation into how six elementary level students learned about castles. We began by brainstorming with the children in an attempt to discover what they already knew and endeavored to stimulate their interest by encouraging exploration with books and posters. Immediately we were amazed by the diversity of reference points among our small group. We were soon aware that we as teachers needed to take the lead in focusing on a specific area of study. The children required a goal (the construction and defense of castles) be specifically stated, and that firm guidelines about keeping their investigations based in historical fact be imposed. Our role gradually changed as we recorded the students' conversations and thoughts after each session and used them to plan the next hour of activity. It was important that we continually define: "What do these children understand and what do we want them to get better at?"
Early in the process, the students were loosely organized. This was our project, not theirs. Keeping them attentive and motivated was difficult. By the third session, they began to recognize their own questions and ideas in the material and activities we introduced. We all noticed that each student was an "expert" in different areas. As a group they brought a diversity of past experiences to the learning about, and eventual construction of, medieval castles. Liz recognized the importance of an "inside" well during a siege from past reading; she and Ivy brought the idea of geographical position from images based on castles in Tolkein's "Hobbit" fiction. Nicky, a King Arthur fan and hockey enthusiast, focused on defensive details, a solid portcullis, and arrow loops. John remembered "spikes" built into slave quarters from visiting a museum in the south; he attached his thoughts about escaping slaves to intruding medieval armies. Our role changed from "directors" to guides enforcing structure when the conversation strayed away from our goal, interpreting when to ask the students for clarification of their thinking or activity, and providing appropriate materials for answering the need for new information.
By the fifth session, the students were in charge. They presented carefully constructed fortresses and explained the significance of their architectural additions. Each set of partners presented a unique construction, yet patterns were recognizable among them. The roles had switched; the children were the teachers and we were the learners. They owned the projects and endeavored to keep us attending to all they wanted to share about them. Our questions challenged the learners to clarify their thinking in both explanation and in the act of building. We noted how ideas had converged; in each castle could be found original details, pieces derived from the books, posters, and movie clips presented along the way, and additions gained through sharing. One student's question or observation became another's discovery. There was a unanimous declaration of enjoyment as we concluded; the group's initial attitude and cohesiveness had shifted.
When two of the students, seventh grade girls, continued to wonder about women, knights, and the intricacies of medieval war, Kim and I seized the opportunity to explore with them further. We continued to refine our methodology with increased focus on the expectation of authenticity and on the type of question that would capture student interest and prompt deeper reflection. As teachers, we decided that the goal of this ten-week investigation would be to explore a social history of the Middle Ages.
Utilizing structural questions such as
A theatrical interest on the part of both students provide the motivation for two activities: improvisations posed by the teachers (where the girls grappled with conflicting ideas picked up in previous session) and an original video play where Ivy and Liz acted out a time travel tome about Joan of Arc escaping death.
The groundwork upon which the girls based their thinking mirrored that of the students in the castle work; it included school connections, memories of songs, stories, movies and theater.. all that life has to offer. We had not started with "blank slates" by any means. Neither did we end neatly! The students had continued to construct their own story, based on past and new learning. The social interaction between teachers and students was an important factor in their engagement in the topic. They affirmed that they had been most surprised by the breadth and diversity of women's work way back then. Liz reported that she liked learning this way more than a "straight" lesson: "I'm better at learning when I do it this way!" She was ready to move on to medieval art and suggested that if we were to do it again, this would be her focus.
This year I am back teaching in the elementary classroom attempting
to transfer what I've learned to the traditional school setting. I have
changed as a teacher in my "quest" to understand how my students are constructing
knowledge.
AnnouncementsYork Cycle ‘98: On Saturday, June 20, 1998, The Poculi Ludique Societas will present the first complete production of the York Cycle since 1977. With the help of theater groups from around the world, the forty-eight biblical plays from late fifteenth-century York will be performed on pageant wagons at four sites around the campus of Victoria College at the University of Toronto. The performance (which starts at dawn) will be framed on Friday, June 19, and Sunday, June 21, by a conference on the York Cycle. For more information, email pls@chass.utoronto.ca or visit the PLS York Cycle web page at http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~medieval/www/pls/.Past issues of News and Notes from TEAMS are archived on the TEAMS web page at http://www.calvin.edu/~ksaupe/teams.htm. And look for the MIP catalogue of TEAMS publications at http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/mip/index.html. |
Documents of Practice Series:
Regular Life: Monastic, Canonical, and Mendicant Rules,
selected and introduced by Douglas J.
McMillan and Kathryn Smith Fladenmuller
Commentary Series:
Nicholas of Lyra's Apocalypse Commentary, translated
with introduction and notes by Philip D. W. Krey.
During the Congress, all titles will be on display and available for purchase at the Medieval Institute Publications display table in Valley II.
TEAMS publications may be ordered from Medieval Institute Publications at the address below, by phone (616-387-8755), or by FAX (616-387-8750).
The Medieval Institute
Western Michigan University
1201 Oliver
Kalamazoo, MI 49008
| News and Notes from TEAMS is published
by The Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages, Inc.
We welcome articles, news items, letters, and announcements related to the teaching of the Middle Ages. Please send items for publication by August 15 or February 15. Editor: Karen Saupe
|