Week 8 Reading

"-- namely, the notion that it is possible to arrive at an understanding of how adolescents make meaning of popular culture texts by observing them in action."

 

I selected this quote because I think it is accurate, to some extent. To understand how students learn, we need to observe how they respond to a variety of different popular culture texts. However, I do not know how easy it is to completely understand how the students make meaning of the texts. Like Dreyfus and Rainbow said later in the article, it is hard for a person to know "what what they do does." Even though a student can tell you why they like something, you do not necessarily see the connections the student used to make that media successful for them.  It may be hard to understand why what an adult can see as an annoying noise helps an adolescent remember something for a test. Observing them does help because after enough observations you can find patterns, but I think it takes a little more to see why certain pop culture texts work better than others for today's youth.

 

 

Retrieved from www.theofantastique.com

 

 

I chose this picture because it reminds me of what I was interested in as a kid.  If we choose what students are interested in and create assignments according to those things, then we are more likely to ensure the lessons taught can be carried with the students as they leave the class.  The Justice League shows great examples of teamwork and how it takes more than one member to pull the weight of the team. 

 





1. What is your stance on using popular culture texts in school?

I think popular culture texts are a useful tool in the classroom. Our society today is based on technology, which the students have grown accustomed to. If this technology is incorporated into the learning process, it is likely that the students will better retain the information. This means better grades and a more successful future for the kids.

 

2. What are your concerns about using popular culture texts in school?

While if used correctly popular culture texts can be a benefit, they could also be distracting. For example, a video could be used to help the students understand certain material. If there was one part in the video that a student thought was funny, the whole class could get thrown off topic and the rest of the video might not be as useful.

 

3. How can popular cultural texts support school-based writing?

There are many different types of learners in a classroom. Finding pictures to go along with an explanation can help visual learners connect the dots of what is being taught. Also, putting a song to a chunk of text that needs to be memorized can help audio learners better remember than reading it from their texts books.

 

4. Find and link to a  web-based popular culture text you might use to support writing in your teaching context.

Interactive games and puzzles for geometry. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.regentsprep.org/Regents/math/geometry/games/geometrygames.htm