Teaching Idea

For our unit, we will be reading and studying from the book Whirligig by Paul Fleischman.  This is a postmodern novel, meaning it's layout is not at all linear.  The timing of everything is confusing - we never really know at what time certain things are happening.  This though, adds meaning to the overall message/theme of the book.  In the Core Standards, one of the goals is to "Analyze how an author's choice concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g. parallel plots), and maintain time (e.g. pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise" (RL 9-10.6).  As a class, we would get together and attempt to put the events of the story in order.  After discovering that it isn't possible, we would talk in groups and discuss how the format of the story helps to make the point that a person's influence is never ending - it can span time, regardless of whether or not they are alive.

Reading Response 7

I can’t ever remember having a candid and open conversation about media – not in schools and not in my home.  There were unwritten rules that were established, but nothing explicitly stated.  I knew that I had to leave the door of our computer room open at home and that if something inappropriate showed up, I should turn off the screen.  Honestly, this seemed like enough for me.  I was never a techy, never spent extended amounts of time one the Internet, and even still don’t have a Facebook page.  After reading Hobbs though, I’m realizing that there is more involved in media than simply dirty images and blatantly offensive material.  There are subtle messages being taught and displayed in everything that is viewed – in YouTube videos, ads on television, games that are played.  Everywhere a person turns around both online, and in their everyday life, they are being bombarded with messages, both good and bad.

            I agree with Hobbs that there needs to be discussion about what students are viewing and how they are viewing.  I thought about how I would help student’s process this information and how they could decide what was appropriate for them, and I think that for me as a teacher, I would want to have classroom discussions.  I think that it could be really interesting and insightful to show different advertisements and talk about what they are selling, but more than just selling, what means they are using to prove their point.  If you notice home security commercials, they will show a lonely woman sitting by herself, which has nothing to do with thieves or home security.  But that image instills fear and helps the viewer seem vulnerable.  If I could show students different commercials like that, we could begin to talk about the messages that are being given.  After talking about the hints that are being given, we could talk about the different things that students view online – like the YouTube videos that Hobbs mentions – and then discuss how they feel about the things they view and participate in.

            The more I think about this topic, the more I realize that there is really no way to monitor every single thing that students do while they are online – as the students teacher or as their parent.  Really the only thing to do is to teach the students how to monitor themselves.  The more I have been in teaching classes, the more I have realized how important it is to me as a teacher to have my students form their own opinions and have confidence in what they are doing.  In order to do this, I think that students need to be presented with an unbiased description of the consequences of their decisions.  I would hope that as a teacher, I will be able to help students feel comfortable and confident in themselves enough to decide for themselves what they will view and how they will interpret the things they see.  I would also hope that students will be able to have enough faith me in and in themselves to share what is happening with them online.  I would hope that they would report cyber bullying or want to discuss what they are doing online when no one can see.

            I guess the problem is that I just don’t really know how…

Importance of Play and Simulation

The whole time I was reading this article, I kept thinking about how much freer and how much more engaged students could feel if teachers would only bring new technology, and the teaching methods that would be based on that technology, into their classrooms.  Teens are already a part of the participatory culture, which allows them to have artistic expression, to create new things, to share what they have created, and to pass their knowledge on to others.  This is the environment that I believe most people would want to learn in, why not bring it into a classroom?  I think that teachers have been creating atmospheres like this, but there is a whole new medium that they must get on board with.  Students are a part of this new, cyber community and it would be detrimental to their development as citizens of their community if we do not allow and help them learn to be active (and informed) members. 

            Teachers need to incorporate media learning into their curriculum for more reasons than just creating a more engaging environment.  As Jenkins mentions, there is a “need for policy and pedagogical interventions” to help solve “the participation gap, the transparency problem, (and) the ethics challenge.”  I love the quote that says, “Educators must work together to ensure that every American young person has access to the skill and experiences needed to become a full participant, can articulate their understanding of how media shapes perceptions, and has been socialized into the emerging ethical standards that should shape their practices as media makers and participants in online communities” (pg 4).  While many students pick things like this up at home, through their own experience, or from their peers, there is often a need for guided learning.  What better place than in a classroom? I hope, as a future teacher, to give my students opportunities to use the skills they have, and also to teach them how to most effectively approach the online mediums they have access to.

            The article also discusses the importance of play and simulation in a student’s process of gaining media literacy skills.  Play shapes “children’s relationship to their bodies, tools, communities, surroundings, and knowledge.”  It requires experimentation and, often, the knowledge that if things don’t work out, they can start over again.  This can be applied to classroom settings.  I think that as a teacher, it would be smart to give students time to experiment and play around with the new concepts you are teaching in a variety of ways.  They should be able to apply their new knowledge to something that they are interested in, which means that as a teacher you need to know what your students are interested in so that you can assign projects and assignments that will benefit them. 

            Simulation is also an important part of media literacy skills.  Video or online games place the player in a situation where they are forced to experiment and try things to get out of the problem.  People learn from doing.  As teacher, we can have a more interactive classroom if we will put students in positions where they have to problem solve their way into an answer.  I have heard of classrooms where a character from a book is on trial, and every member of the class is an active part in determining whether or not the character is guilty.  Every student is involved in the decision process and is a part of figuring out what is true or not.  It forces them to use different thinking patterns than they would if there were simply listening to a lecture.  As Jenkins states, “Educators have always known that students learn more through direct observation and experimentation than from reading about something in a textbook or listening to a lecture” (pg 25).  I believe that as a teacher, we need to come up with more interactive ways of teaching and learning, incorporating the skills that students know (or should know), and allowing them to have freedom in the activities they are engaging in.

            I have recently read the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, which is a young adult novel that tells the story of a girl struggling with depression after she has been raped.  As an English teacher, reading a book like this would be an opportunity to help students realize the reality of these situations and encourage them to determine their own opinions and ideas relating to tough issues.  Books can open up new worlds, some of them harder and more painful to understand than others.  Still, books are something that a person needs to seek out, while other forms of media are all around us and inescapable.  People are bombarded with song lyrics, news articles, movies, television shows, Internet sites, and so many other things that discuss ideas from all types of life.  CPMLE and the Core English Standards work together is so many ways to encourage students to be able to come up with their own opinions on things, think critically, and is a way to address “topics like violence, gender, sexuality, racism, stereotyping, and other issues of representation.”  Students will always be encountering topics and ideas that may not be in line with their personal beliefs, but by discussing theme and point of view, students will hopefully be able to  “become aware of and reflect on the meaning that they make of media messages, including how the meaning they make relates to their own values.”  I will try to make sure that students in my classroom will be able to understand that ideas will differ between individuals, that lives are lived differently in every situation, choices are never the same, but that it’s alright and that there are “diverse voices, perspectives and communities.”  I think that it is important to make sure that students know how to process and take in the information that they will be hearing all around them.  We help them understand difficult topics in books and texts in class, we need to use CPMLE to carry over the skills they learn in regards to books and apply it to all forms of texts/media they will encounter in their lives. 

            CPMLE will also help when it comes to teaching informational texts, as well as literature.  There are so many resources to access information.  In an English classroom, students could be encouraged to see how many different forms of media will cover the same information.  CPMLE focuses on helping students make wise choices on their media use, something that can be guided in a classroom setting.

            English and Media Literacy work together well.  They have the same goal in mind, which is to keep students thinking critically and to help them be “skeptical, not cynical.”  Obviously we need to keep things at an age appropriate level, but we need to help them understand that they can question what they see and hear.  Students should be trained to be able to accept the difference in opinion while not feeling pressure to change their own stand.  CPMLE focuses in on having students feel safe, respected, and believed.  I will make sure that in my future classrooms I try to bring in the ideas of CPMLE, all types of media, and a variety of teaching methods in order to reach my entire classroom and diverse learners.