We\u2019re working on a major revamp of our courses programme at the moment. Lots to do but, in due course, plenty to announce. One of the things that we\u2019ve been thinking about a lot is simply: how do we learn?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A good, obvious first stage answer is simply: deliver useful information appealingly presented<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hence, our blogs, our books, our (premium) video courses. Those things obviously appeal, because the blogs get read, the books get bought, the courses get taken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The learning model that underlies that basic approach feels, in some ways, a bit Victorian. It feels like I\u2019m a Victorian schoolmarm, sweeping up and down a dais in my long skirts, telling a whole room full of silent pupils what they are meant to do. And that\u2019s the issue: the pupils in this model are silent, not doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So we adapt our model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We combine instruction with doing<\/em>. So, here\u2019s a particular topic (characterisation, or plotting, or prose style or whatever) and here is an assignment which will help you develop the skills in question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And good, that\u2019s already better. My How To Write video course (available to Premium members) doesn\u2019t have homework assignments exactly, but it does hugely emphasise the practical. The approximate message is, \u201cHere\u2019s an easily learned technique which you can apply to your manuscript right now and which will definitely improve it.\u201d The feedback I most appreciate on this course is anything which says, \u201cI had to stop watching the video so I could mess around with my manuscript.\u201d That\u2019s perfect. That\u2019s exactly the kind of reaction I wanted to generate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But \u2026?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our schoolroom has got better, but it\u2019s still imperfect. The ranks of kids (grubby-kneed boys, some alarmingly pinafored girls) are now bending over their schoolbooks and practising their skills, but isn\u2019t there something strange about the silence?<\/p>\n\n\n\n A modern classroom isn\u2019t quiet. It\u2019s noisy. It\u2019s productive. It\u2019s social<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a commonplace to say that writing is a solitary activity, and I suppose it is. But writers are generally a tad introvert (I am) and the idea of a solitary activity being a bad one has never really made much sense to me. I like<\/em> writing. That\u2019s why I do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But writing is one thing, learning is another. The social element in learning brings a kind of glue. My kids run off to school eagerly each morning, not because they\u2019re desperate for another spelling test, but because they want to see their friends. If learning becomes a social task, it becomes easier to do. Less an act of will than a pleasure in itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s something else here as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Analysing weaknesses in your own book is an emotional endeavour. Your instinct is to avoid finding fault. But with your friends and fellow students? Ha. Let\u2019s be honest, finding fault is part of the pleasure. \u201cAh yes, love that extract, but I did wonder if maybe \u2026\u201d (Insert knife, twist, repeat<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The opportunity to look at work other than your own gives you a kind of safe-play area. The more you practise, the better you get. That\u2019s why our peer-to-peer courses (like our Write With Jericho one, again just for premium members) offer a step-up on the basic model. We have instruction, we have assignments, we have a social, interactive peer-to-peer element as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But \u2026?<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a reason why we have teachers, not just classrooms. My kids\u2019 teachers are not about to replaced by robots spewing videos and homework assignments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And what is the teacher there to do?Yes, they\u2019re there to deliver the course material, but what else?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The easy answer is that they\u2019re there to give feedback on the students\u2019 work. And, OK, that\u2019s important. But the thought which has been most enlightening for us is this one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n What if the teacher is largely there to give feedback on the feedback?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In a peer-to-peer course, people will be offering advice to one another, but the quality of that advice is vastly important. Compare these two comments:<\/p>\n\n\n\n GENERIC: \u201cI loved your piece because I thought it was very atmospheric, but I didn\u2019t really get the feel that your character was really scared.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n SPECIFIC: \u201cGreat. There were some lovely words here (mullioned, brocade, umber) which lent a really rich, somewhat creepy atmosphere, but your character\u2019s emotions were indicated entirely through rather cliched bodily responses (her teeth chattered, hairs rising on the back of the neck). I wonder if you could reduce or get rid of those bodily comments and just describe exactly what your character was feeling.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s obvious that the second type of comment is of greater value to the recipient. But it\u2019s also helpful to the giver<\/u><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The more you practise the effective (detailed, specific) analysis of text the more instinctively you\u2019ll bring those skills to your own book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a comment from James Mitchner which gets a lot of play on the internet: \u201cI\u2019m not a very good writer, but I\u2019m an excellent rewriter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s helpful, but in truth these skills merge. Writing, editing, rewriting: there comes a point where all those things blur together. You start out by writing a sentence on the page, coming back to it two months later, rewriting it, and so on. As you get more experienced, you edit the sentence as you lay it out on the page \u2013 tweaking it multiple times before you hit that full-stop. And then you find that the edits happen in your head before you even hit the page. Yes, of course, you go on editing afterwards, but it\u2019s the same basic activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, for our courses, we\u2019re going to work to see that people learn feedback-giving skills as well as what looks more obviously like writing-skills. Giving great feedback and writing better \u2013 it turns out that\u2019s more or less the same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yes: courses are a great place to learn that stuff, but you don\u2019t have to take a course. Any time you read a book, or a chapter, or a page, or a line that doesn\u2019t quite hit the mark, just ask yourself why. The right answer will follow the SPECIFIC model above. The GENERIC one is next to useless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is it from me. I have a schoolroom to tidy and a cane to polish \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Til soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harry<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u2019re working on a major revamp of our courses programme at the moment. Lots to do but, in due course, plenty to announce. One of the things that we\u2019ve been thinking about a lot is simply: how do we learn? A good, obvious first stage answer is simply: deliver useful information appealingly presented. Hence, our<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29292],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-harrys-friday-email"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n