The story.
Back at the initial creation of the English for Creative Arts program, the English for Arts Fundamentals course was offered in conjunction with a reputable English as an Additional Language school outside of the Vancouver Film School. As the program evolved, it was decided to offer all components of the program in-house. Enter my next development project - the creation of a unique, English Language focused complement to the mixed media arts and language foundational programming we were already running. This new iteration of English for Arts Fundamentals would run part of the previously established programming using Cambridge-based FCE and CAE testing materials with our own blend of art-based projects focused on communication.
Within a short time however, we discovered that there were not enough instructional hours to fully run a Cambridge based program with all of the additional ideas we had for what would make the program unique. A second iteration would be developed and I began what I hoped would be a more definitive writing of the course in January 2021, completed end of August, 2021. This new iteration uses National Geographic Cengage Grammar in Context 3 as a supporting grammar text. The grammar is firmly embedded within authentic media arts contexts, texts, audio/video and other multimedia. As the pilot runs this fall, I hope to receive enough feedback to make any edits required to the program to ensure it runs smoothly each term afterward.
English for Arts Fundamentals
The accompanying English language focused course to Creative Arts Fundamentals, this course works to provide learners with the language, fluency, and accuracy to perform well in demanding future VFS post-secondary programming. The course also uses the Moodle learning management system alongside the National Geographic Cengage Grammar in Context suite with accompanying online platform.
The process: Call me iterative.
The great thing about this design process was that it was and is truly iterative. I began with the feedback from the previous versions of the course and analysed its existing elements. From those elements I identified desired changes and brainstormed a full range of ideas from the very simple to the truly impossible. Next came the design document where I laid out the intent of the course, its structure, its pedagogy, and its goals and learning outcomes by adapting criteria from the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The document included the assessment types, assessment goals, and where possible emphasized possibilities for student choice and control of their own learning.
Then it was time to develop the programming. Using each text unit of Grammar in Context 3, I matched the units of grammar with each unit of Creative Arts Fundamentals. Rather than relying wholesale on the text, I used it as a support for media arts based lessons and discussions, melding it with authentic reading and listening tasks. I started with the assessments and designed backward to ensure the lessons were scaffolded appropriately for students to fully engage with the creative and linguistically challenging weekly evaluations. The challenges were many but the biggest was in meeting implementation deadlines as each week of content was delivered and implemented immediately. Now, we’re in the evaluation phase and may re-visit any of the individual lessons, or the flow of the course as a whole.
Skills.
-
Iterative design.
-
Backward design.
-
Universal Design for Learning.
The takeaways.
This course was on my mind for a long time. It took just under four years to really identify and design the content that we as an instructional team wanted to deliver and that would be most useful for students.
My main takeaway was understanding that good things come to those who wait. I wanted to throw out the materials often in this process, but staying with it and truly iterating on it has made it a much better product with a clear identity and purpose.
It also highlighted the importance for me of feedback from the rest of my team. I didn’t receive very much of it and it wasn’t timely which made the development process so much more challenging. Next time, I’ll be scheduling regular check-ins, trying to find ways to make giving feedback easier, and hoping to hear more from the other instructors facilitating the program as well as asking for more specific feedback from the students as the new term unrolls.