Working on the part-time access programme

I’m doing a few sessions with the part-time access programme on evenings, something I’m really happy to do as I was involved with setting the access programme up and this will I’m afraid be the last run of something I have always felt was a fantastic opportunity for adults to come back into education. Whatever I might feel about this opportunity disappearing, it’s still important to give this final year of students the best that can be offered.

Because I’m only doing one session a week I am working with someone else who takes over on Thursdays and a key issue is how the direction is maintained and how to ensure both tutors are singing from the same hymnbook. Jonathan, the other tutor is an ex access student himself so will bond easily with the group and be sympathetic to their particular needs, however he is still a relatively new tutor. He came into my session last night and sat in on my briefing, which was great, however I’m too busy to do the same on his, so we agreed that I would keep him in the picture by e-mail.

The initial project involves students responding to sounds made by objects they brought in last week. I kicked this off with a lecture and got them going last Tuesday night and Jonathan has had one Thursday session alone with them but I did manage to pop in to college before his session started to go through what I thought were the main issues. 

Below is a copy of the text I sent to him this morning, hopefully it will allow for a relatively seamless progression for the group.

Hi Jonathan

It went well last night again and they have started to craft their images much more and are thinking about structure. I kept stressing control and careful manipulation of their marks, trying to get them to not overwork sheets and to think about how the sheets would be presented in a portfolio so that they would tell a story about their investigations. For several I suggested they include either an invisible or drawn single line as an anchor or measure against which they could decide whether marks were above this, below, to the left or right; (for instance deep bass sounds below and sharp high notes above). They had to craft this line as much as any other mark. The best ones were able to bend the space slightly by changing the quality of the line very subtly as it traversed the paper. 

The last part of the session was devoted to getting students to think more about space and 3D form. 

For those who wanted to stay flat.

I gave them 4 ways to think about this.

1. To think about the way one thing could overlap another, so that one mark appears to be passing behind another. Perhaps putting masking tape down and working some marks up to the sharp edge and then removing this, so a different mark could be made that looks as if it sits in front or behind the first one.

2. To mix a range of tonalities of ink or paint to make marks with so that they can start to use the implications of atmospheric perspective, dark marks coming forward and paler ones receding. 

3. Size constancy. To vary mark size and spacing so that a 'perspective' can be achieved. I reminded them that they had been told how to make a simple perspective grid and could work using something like that (to pencil in very faintly so it could be rubbed out afterwards) or they could use cameras to photograph marks from a low angle, print these off and use a photocopier to generate lots of different sizes etc.

4. Shape and mark energy. Perhaps trying to increase mark energy as they come forward or reshape marks or areas of marks so they they appear to bend in space.

Concentration on one or any combination of these would also be good.

For those more into 3D it was suggested that they could make marks over surfaces that could then be folded/constructed into responses to their initial objects. The new object's shape being a reflection of the possibilities raised by their initial mark investigation. (This to make sure they don't just copy their object) Lots of talk about how objects could be distorted in response to perhaps a cross between initial format and the dynamics being opened out in drawings. 

They could start to use a variety of 3D materials to draw in space (wire etc) as well as exploring nets which could be worked on flat and then folded and stuck together. 

Typical discussions: The student who has a round tin with tacks inside was spinning it like a coin. We discussed how the movement could be expressed by making a twisted cone, and the sound by covering the cone with spiky forms. The student with the small football rattle was making some very interesting large drawings using tape and scratched blue paint over chalk drawing, we talked about how she might remake the rattle so that it was very distorted and triangular rather than rectangular and the handle could bulge is a similar way to the way she had drawn a sound increasing. 

I also had a theme for the evening about paper. Trying to get them to think more carefully how they use it, how they choose it (reminding them of the different weights, surface textures etc that you can buy) prepare it, (pouncing, sanding etc) and where they might get it from.

Basically still getting them to go back and listen but now starting to push either more space into 2D responses or to let the 3D thinkers start to prove that they are makers.

Regards Garry

The other side of the coin of course is that two members of staff offer the students a diversity of approaches and sometimes being contradictory can be useful as it stops students thinking that there are neat answers. However this early on in the term it is perhaps best to try and avoid confusion.

In many ways this sort of work is far easier than working on the degree programme. I met the new first years this week and I’m very aware that their previous experiences are really diverse. Some have been on very good Foundation and ND programmes and some have come direct from ‘A’ level, some are mature learners (access again) and others coming back into education. Because the intake has been put up to 80, this is going to demand some serious layered learning and I have been writing handouts trying to respond to the issue this week to support my level 4 contextual studies lectures. My main worry is that I need to put together something that will really stretch strong students and yet not put students with less experience off. I’m also not sure that we have had enough time to plan practical sessions with layered learning in mind. This is something we will all have to keep on top of. I noticed a couple of students already starting to look isolated, their social skills perhaps not been up to coping with 80. This will be a real test of widening participation and I hope we can pass it.