Survival Guide,
Part 4:
Learn
Their Names and Use Them
Names
connect you to these young people. Study the class list before you
go in, so that you're used to what may be unusual or hard-to-pronounce
names and can match the kids up as quickly as possible.
This investment pays off immediately.
Pictures
are worth you-know-what.
Fill the classroom with images. Use our vocabulary chart, or make your
own, or have the kids make one that will stay in the room for the
whole eight weeks (and longer, we hope).
Draw
pictures on big paper pads (the blackboard will get erased). Label
the elements in the classroom. Give the students magazines to cut
up for their own pictorial dictionaries.
These
images -- labeled, of course -- will be permanent reference points
for your course of study. They will reinforce the concepts you're
dealing with and build vocabulary. They will show the students that
there are many good answers to design problems as they display different
versions of "turret," "castle," "garden," "neighborhood" or "post
and lintel."
You can
add to these images over the eight weeks and get the students to add
to them, too. These images will be crucial to drawing and construction
projects because they give the kids a pictorial menu of ideas to choose
from.
Many
kids can speak better than they can do.
Although
you may encounter some remarkably smart students, don't be fooled
by fancy words and apparently sophisticated ideas. Kids
can often talk a good game, but equally as often are quite naive about
actual working mechanisms, systems and relationships in the world.
They
may make insightful statements, and plan elaborate projects and not
know how to use scissors effectively. They may be "very bright" and
fall to pieces when you ask them to measure a line six inches long.
They may spout off on a particular topic and go comatose when you
ask them something about it that is not in their verbal drawer.
This is as it should be; they may be smart, but they are not experienced.
(That's what makes them kids and you the grown-up.)
Reward
what they do know and don't start getting the idea that they can't
benefit from more investigation.
There
are certain topics that bring just about any group of students to
their knees:
•
Scale: This extremely important and valuable subject is also extremely
difficult for students to grasp. There are plenty of great ways to
approach it, too long to describe here. Talk to us.
• Measurement: Ditto.
• Estimating: Ditto.
• Perspective: Do NOT try to explain vanishing points or
one- and two-point perspective. Just forget it, unless you can come
up with some brilliant method that nobody else has figured out. It's
just not worth the trouble. Use overlap and size diminution if you
want them to get an effect of depth into their drawings and projects.
Show
them lots of slides, but not too many.
When
you show slides, get the kids to explain them first.
Ask them
questions: What is this building? Where does it seem to be? What's
it made of? How is it stuck into the ground? Who uses it? What for?
How can you tell? How do you like it? -- and don't "correct" their
answers.
They'll
think that this is another guessing game, and it gives them a chance
to tell you what they know or can figure out from the image itself.
It's also a great way for you to gauge how sophisticated or naive
they are about architectural form.
You will,
obviously, eventually tell them what the building or space "really"
is, but the difference is that they've already invested their own
curiosity and imagination into the process. They will be gratified
that they knew, or surprised or indignant that the building is used
so differently from what they expected.
Assure
them that they're not wrong, because they're not.
In fact,
the issue here is that you have quietly engaged them in "reading"
architecture and evaluating it in a meaningful way: "Everybody recognized
what this building is for and liked it. But this building had many
of you confused, and lots of you thought it was creepy-looking. What
is it that makes it look that way? Is there any good reason for making
a building look creepy on purpose?"
These
are not yes/no answers. They're lead-ins to a meaningful exchange
about the effects of design choices, which is what this program is
all about. (One of the things, anyway.)
The slides
you show (try about 15, with a few extras ready if they really enjoy
them -- stop when they've lost interest -- you can always show more
later) should be reinforced in some permanent way.
You can
make a poster of simple sketches or have the kids sketch the images
to keep at hand. You can always show the same slides again. In one
project, the team showed a variety of slides early on and discussed
them at length with the students. As the students worked on their
projects, the team showed the same series quickly, with no talk, at
the beginning of each session to keep feeding them a range of visual
ideas that they were familiar and comfortable with.
