Week One Post

Technology has expanded the reach of popular culture in countless ways during past years and today, and teachers are often reluctant to accept the impact of this popular culture explosion on students, since this may mean that they must update lesson plans and teaching methods to best serve students. Today's students live in an "electronic environment that 'literally bathes them in digital media'" (White and Walker 15). It is important, then, to note that "wishing that popular culture was not as pervasive and powerful as it is will not make it any less so" (White and Walker 15). This quotation impacted me immensely. Haven't we all had teachers who were stagnant in their teaching methods and would not change with the times? Though we were frustrated by their lack of flexibility as students, as teachers we may be tempted to say, "If a lesson plan or curriculum works with students one year, there is no reason to change it in years to come." In reality, though, this widens the gap between the in-school experiences of students and the out-of-school experiences of students, which will only make education less and less relevant as time progresses. On another note, students really appreciate being "met in the middle" when teachers attempt to speak the language of modern popular culture, even if it is a language in which the students are fluent and the teacher is not.

The Sesame Street idea that "if you can gain and hold the attention of children, they will learn" must constantly be in the minds of teachers (16). Engagement is a huge factor in whether or not students learn, and incorporating popular culture into the classroom is a highly effective way to boost engagement and make school...shhhh some people won't want to hear this....fun for students. Some of the best lesson plans allow students to learn from nontraditional sources and experiences, and bringing popular culture into the classroom is one way to achieve this goal. At the same time, analysis and engagement with popular culture in the classroom helps students build a toolkit of skills for facing the pop culture overload that has come to be modern life in America and much of the world.

This must go far beyond showing an episode of "The Simpsons" here and there or letting students watch a film version of the novel they just read. The issue of consumerism must, in my opinion, be raised if popular culture is to be addressed in the classroom at all. If advertisers are treating students as though they are "kidults," then we must help them think like adults in order to process the information coming at them. The fact that the film "Spiderman" has over 15 product placements should be proof alone that students must be armed with skills to navigate the new popular culture/technology landscape. Or consider another type of "product placement." What exactly are Disney animated films trying to "sell?" Conservative ideologies? "Glorified pagan earth worship" (26)? Homosexuality? Different perspectives suggest very different stories. Therefore, we must offer students empowerment in the classroom to make educated decisions about media outside of the classroom.

In my own limited teaching experience, I have found that incorporating popular culture into classrooms is enormously successful. Granted, with more experience I will become more comfortable delving into it much more deeply and adopting a "critical media literacy approach." But even by scratching the surface I was able to glean some insights. In a middle school classroom, I taught students Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." I then proceeded to show the students clips from a few different film versions of the play. These included an early black and white version, a 1960s classic version that did not stray far from the original text, and the modernized 1990s version with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. With each version, the students had to analyze how the directors were interpreting the original text. What did the directors include or omit? Why? How are they trying to position you as an audience? Not only were the students thrilled that they got to watch films, as all students are, but they came up with some great, surprisingly complex ideas. If I had more time with them, I would have loved to explore this idea more deeply, because they showed remarkable interest and thoughtfulness about media consumption.

I am going to be student teaching in a few months, and after reading these chapters I really began to think about the extent to which I want to explore critical media literacy and popular culture in my classroom. I think I will feel more comfortable with it when I have my own "official" classroom, but even on this limited, abbreviated scale I would like to incorporate it in some way. But I definitely agree with White and Walker when they discussed the challenges of using this approach in a curriculum already overstuffed with expectations and standards, and how using the approach can feel like "just one more thing" to be covered. I am challenging myself not to think in that manner, however, and instead think about the increased level of engagement and appreciation that I can expect from my students. I am most likely going to address media literacy in the unit I am planning on teaching about "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom. I plan on showing clips from the real Morrie Schwartz's interviews with Ted Koppel, among other things. I will then ask the students how the news program they watched portrayed Morrie differently or similarly than the novel, and why. I will also ask students to think about the idea that if one person is portrayed differently by different media sources, which one is most accurate and why. Are any of them accurate, and how can consumers know or decide? How does race and/or culture fit in? Though I know that I could always incorporate media literacy more fully and make it more of a focus, as a first-time teacher I feel like I am tackling it in a manageable way. Who knows? Maybe as I continue to read "Tooning In" and other texts which support using popular culture and media in education, I will feel more and more comfortable with the idea in my classroom.

One thing I will do for sure, however, is help students see the relevance of schooling. This is one of my biggest goals, and although I have not figured out how I will implement this idea on a day to day basis, I know that it must become a part of the everyday fabric of my classroom. At first it might be as simple as playing music from popular culture in the background as my students work, but I know that it will become more complex as I gain experience.