This week, reading Morrell, really
made me think about how teachers can better connect to the popular culture of their
students and how those teachers can bring that culture into the classroom. Bing
a teacher candidate, I am always looking for new ways to connect to students
and bring interesting lessons into the classroom. In this article Morrell
introduced several ways that teachers can relate to popular culture and help to
connect students to the material. Morrell introduces readers to ways that have
been successful, the document details how teachers can have students
participate in a debate.
The debate was one of the main
highlights of the text and shows teachers how to make that type of activity
successful for all students. One of my favorite aspects of this activity was
that even students who don’t feel comfortable with speaking in front of all the
class can participate by being researchers for the others, who are more
comfortable with speaking to a large group. I really liked the way that the
whole class was involved in this debate and the activity really “made” students
participate and read the material. This sounds like a very successful activity,
and I know that I will try and implement a similar activity in my classroom.
Lastly, I really worry about
connecting to students’ popular culture. As it stands now, I am not well versed
in popular culture of my own social groups. I know that as a teacher I need to
try and understand my students to the best of my abilities, and so
understanding popular culture will help me to better connect to those students.
One of my biggest fears about teaching is getting students to feel comfortable enough
to speak up in the classroom if I don’t make a strong connection to popular
culture. I hope that as a teacher I can connect to the students and make them
feel as though they can talk to me or speak up in class.
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