The easiest way for me to connect this chapter to my life would be from when I was in high school. My school didn't exactly have a media studies class, we had a class called "Film as Literature". In this class we were supposed to watch movies and analyze them as if they were a piece of literature, as if we were reading a book. We watched and analyzed some old movies, such as Citizen Kane and some new ones as well. We picked out themes and underlying messages that were portrayed in the movies. Later, while I was in college, my younger sister ended up doing a study of Disney movies and their portrayal of women in their classic cartoons. I was shocked by the underlying messages that were brought out by looking at all of these movies closely, with a critical eye. Its amazing the things that the media throws at us, and we blindly eat it all up! We as a society truly are "zombified" when it comes to popular culture. I was so impressed that Mr. Michie brought up these issues with his kids and had them actually think about what they are singing along to on the radio. I've seen women listening and singing along to incredibly offensive and demeaning lyrics just because they are popular songs and I think to myself "do you even know what they're saying about you? And you're singing right along with them!" I think that courses like this should be offered at every school, and in the community as well. Society needs a wake-up call!
“I had to find ways to engage them. I had to find things for them to do—things that were relevant, things that would interest them, things that could not be accomplished without the one element that sometimes seems foreign to school classrooms: real, live, unadulterated learning.” –p. 92
I know that Stephanie used this quote as well, but I think its a good one to use. It really is important, especially with older kids, to use material that can be related to their lives. For younger children, you can make foreign things to them interesting, because they're new, but when that new shine wears off you need to be able to bring it back to the real world and let your students know that this is for them too. That its not just true in the perfect ideal setting, that its true in their world as well. I don't have any inspirational experience with relating information to my students lives, but I do know that when I'm reading a story, or talking about a certain topic with my preschoolers, they are so much more excited when they can tell me a story about how something related happened to them or someone in their family. They love to connect things to their world. At that age, that's all they really know to exist.
"Frankie had called me out on the carpet and I had come out looking dumb"
As new teachers (and some experienced) I'm sure that we have all felt this way at some point or another. We have this great plan in our heads of how things will play out. You try to prepare for the mistakes that might happen, but then something completely over the top happens... and you're left looking like an idiot. This actually happened to me today at school. I was doing portfolio work with my kids in small groups, identifying and tracing shapes and cutting on straight and wavy lines. I plan to use this information for my own records as well as for conferences coming up next month. I figured that with 4 children at once this really shouldn't be a big deal. I passed out the first paper and a pencil and explained what they were supposed to do. One little boy finished his first sheet really quickly, so I moved him on to the second task so he wouldn't get bored. I handed him his paper and some safety scissors, then went back to helping the other 3 kids at the table. I figured it was a pretty simple activity. There wasn't too much room for error, since I was just gauging the kids abilities. So long as they don't get up and run around with the pencil or scissors there shouldn't be a problem. Well of course, while I had my back turned to Ryan, he decided that he needed a new haircut. And doesn't my director walk in the door just as he's putting a nice chunk of hair on the table. I don't think we'll be using scissors for the next couple of days.
Essence Extractor: To make learning real for students, it needs to be real and close to their lives.
It seems like a no brainer: Come up with things that your students will want to learn. But in real life its a challenging task for many teachers. I remember high school algebra when people would ask - why do we have to learn this? I would get anxious for the teacher and just tell them to stop asking that because we know its going to be on the test and that should be a good enough answer for us.
ReplyDeleteOh how wrong I was. Thank God I've learned.
that was Kathleen by the way, i always forget!
ReplyDeleteHannah - I can share your first connection with you! I also took a version of a media literacy class in high school and was taught to look at media in such an obscure way! It's amazing all of the underlying messages sent across the television everyday, especially for the younger generations then us these days, from Jersey Shore to Teen Mom. I will never look at TV or films the same way after what I learned in that media class and the discussions we had will stay in my mind forever! More than I ever learned in my mathematics class... Interesting... :) -Rachel
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