How to Teach a Class in the SCA
Magistra Rosemounde of Mercia (copyright Micaela Burnham 2013)
Magistra Rosemounde of Mercia (copyright Micaela Burnham 2013)
- Preparing in advance
- Know your subject
- Classes on medieval subject matter. You should thoroughly research your subject prior to attempting to teach others about it. Reading Wikipedia entries does not constitute adequate research. It’s only a place to start. Reading one book on a subject does not make you an expert or necessarily qualified to teach it. You should consult multiple sources, primary if possible, secondary, and modern critique and discussion. You should always include a list of your sources in your hand-out.
- Classes on SCA life. If you are teaching a class like this one, you should be calling upon your own experience and that of others who are experienced in the subject matter. Having done something once, does not qualify you as an expert. Get input from others in the field if you lack experience yourself.
- Set goals or objectives for what you want to teach the students and decide how best to convey that information. This will help when deciding what part of your class should be lecture, visual aids, demonstration, etc.
- Make an outline: Once you know your subject, break it down into logical parts.
- It is important to start at the beginning and progress through logical steps to the conclusion. Bouncing back and forth from different topics confuses you students.
- Make a written outline.
- Once you have delineated your parts, put them into outline form as your heading. Then following the outline format, add in your subtopics and general information.
- Follow a logical path. If it is a “how to” class, you clearly start with materials, and then progress through the steps from the beginning. For other subjects you may want to use a chronological format, which is the most common. However, different formats put emphasis on different things. Perhaps you want to address a subject from socio-economic class viewpoint, or from the perspective of a specific person.
- Fill out your outline with all the information that you want to convey.
- Go over your outline: Have you included all pertinent information? Go back to your goals for the class. Does your outline included all the information that you need to meet your goals?
- Put the outline in a form that you can use as your teaching notes.
- Visual aids: Visual aids can be very helpful in conveying certain information.
- Power Point and computer generated information can be great under the right circumstances. They are helpful in getting points across or showing images. But a large class with a tiny computer screen at the from, is not the right environment.
- Posters and Enlargements of photos, time-lines, charts, etc. can be very helpful where there is no electricity.
- Pass arounds. These are my least favorite. Often it is necessary to pass around multiple photos, or actual examples of something, but try to avoid it, as it often creates confusion, and detracts from what you are saying.
- Know how long the class will be. Give the class to yourself, out loud, and see how long it takes. Add some extra time for questions and feedback. You should try to keep most classes to one hour, unless it’s a hands-on or specialty class.
- Naming the class. The class name should tell you what the class in about and whether it is beginner, intermediate, or advanced. Yuo may wish to include whether it is lecture or hands on. Class names should never be a question. So you want to...? Besides being trite, it is nonsensical. You may want it to be catchy, funny, punny, or have references to modern culture. All of these are fine if done well. Also avoid using college numbering systems, 101, 102, etc. This can be confusing to people, and leads to assumptions that it is a multi-part class or classes with prerequisites.
- Know your subject
- Teaching the Class
- Don’t read your material. You should use your outline and/or notes as a guideline only to avoid missing anything, and to keep you in the right order. There is nothing more boring that a teacher who reads to the class either form an outline, or from a Power Point presentation. They can read. Given them more. You should be excited about your subject. Show it.
- Engage with your class. Look at the students.
- If someone looks confused, ask them if they have a question. Encourage questions during your presentation. Questions that are in the right order of the class actually enhance your presentation. Ask questions of the class.
- Get feed-back while you’re teaching, and interact with your students. Always leave time for questions when planning the class.
- Smile. Look like you’re happy to be there.
- Don’t be afraid to ad lib when needed. If everyone in the class is excited about a specific area of the class, spend more time on that.
- Questions you don’t know the answer to. Say “I don’t know.” Never make something up. Don’t guess unless you tell the class that it a guess.
- Hecklers. Unfortunately we will all have hecklers at some point in our SCA teaching careers. Handling interruptions in an important aspect of teaching. Be polite, but firm when dealing with them.
- The “expert” heckler: Sometimes you will get people in your class who know more than you do, or think they do. They may interrupt with their own comments. Give a short response and segue back to where you were. “That’s a good point that we’ll get to later in the class. In the meantime…” Usually they’ll give up after 2-3 attemps. If not, find a way to shut them up. “I have a limited amount of time for this class, so if you don’t mind holding your comments until the end..” Or, “It’s clear that you have a lot of expertise on this subject. Perhaps you will teach a class next year. In the meantime, I need to move on.”
- The “off topic” heckler. These are the ones who ask question or have comments that have nothing to do with the class. Just tell them they’re off topic. “I think that’s a question for a different class.” Sometimes you get crazy questions like “What do dormice taste like?” Make a joke and move on.
- The “enthusiastic” heckler. Those who love the class or topic so much that they can’t contain themselves. Usually if you ask them to hold their comments until the end of class due to the time restraints, they get it. Or tell them if they more advanced questions, you will be happy to talk to them after class.
- “Rude” hecklers. These are the ones who either completely disagree with you and must interrupt frequently to make sure everyone knows it, or they are just disruptive for no apparent reason. Ask them to leave. Most will.
- Hand-outs: students love to have something to take with them.
- Don’t reiterate the entire class. The hand-out should be a supplement.
- Hand-outs should always include
- Bibliography and/or sources
- Your e-mail address or other contact information
- Hand-outs may include
- Suggested reading
- Pictures
- Websites relevant to the topic
- Places to get supplies pertinent to the topic
- Hands-on Classes: These are classes where you teach people how to do something by actually doing it. These are very popular classes at most events.
- How many people can you handle? Before you attempt a hand-on class, determine how many people you can accommodate. Consider how much time you will need to give each person, how much time you will need to lecture, and how much time to demonstrate. The more complex or intricate the work, the fewer people you should have. Always try to accommodate at least 10 people at a large event, 5 at a small event.
- Kits. Most hands-on classes will require materials. If people are going to walk away from the class with something, the most convenient way to handle materials is with kits. You prepare these in advance so you don’t have to waste class time dealing with materials distribution.
- Written instructions. Many hands-on classes will require that you provide some easy to follow written instructions. You will not have to repeat instructions if you hand out written ones.
- Make sure that you can actually talk about the subject while the students are doing things. Many hands-on classes fail in this regard. Make sure that you can convey information about what they are making while they are making it; how was this item used in SCA periods, how did they make it then, does it differ from how the class is doing it, and so on.
- Make-sure to provide for clean-up time after the class.
- Monetary costs—should NEVER exceed your actual costs.
1. Hand-outs. If your hand out is 3 pages or less, try to make it free. If they have color photos, or are longer, it’s OK to charge.
2. Kits and materials. It is expected that there will be a fee, but make sure it’s reasonable for what they will get. $10 should be a maximum limit.