The regularity with which I have been composing these blogs has thus far left something to be desired. That changes today. I am on top of it from here on out! A lot has happened over the past couple of weeks in regards to both the EDUC 498 class, readings and of course, the field experience that ties it all together.
So, I suppose I will begin with a bit of an overview Kelly Gallagher's Deeper Reading: Chapter two and three. Gallagher provides a lot of information that outlines the importance of "framing the text" prior to teaching the work to students. Getting students to think about a personal story that will apply to what they are about to read will automatically engage them in the material. Framing the text may also provide the students with a more valuable perspective from which to examine the text as they read.
I had the chance to doing a bit of "framing" this past week at Evan Hardy. One of the teachers there provided me with the opportunity to formulate an informal lesson to students. My contribution was required to help transition the students towards their next topic of study; Pierre Trudeau. Because the class is a Native Studies 30 course, I had to keep the subject matter closely tied to issues surrounding First Nations. To get the students motivated about my lesson, I first posed questions to the classroom asking them whether anyone had been to a reserve and what they thought of them. This generated a lot of passionate discussion. By the time I got to speaking about the "White Paper" and the threat that this document posed to not only reserves but treaties in general, the students were actively engaged in the lesson at hand. In this scenario, Gallagher's "framing" strategy worked better than I could have imagined and it definitely made my first lesson at my partner school a success.
Appleman's text talked a lot about student perspective and the impact this has on how students will read a particular text. Each student's unique background provides different individual meanings for each student. In class we had a chance to put this idea to the text following having watched an extravagant advertisement for Pantene. Because I am something of a musician, I looked at the video from a performer's point of view and the satisfaction she would have received from her performance at the end of the clip. A female classmate looked at the video as though the focus was empowering women. Empowering women is a valid motive behind the video as well, however I did not even pick up on that. As a male student, my personal perspective did not pick up on that as a primary purpose of the video. Food for thought.
That's all folks.
Hey Borden,
ReplyDeleteI think your way of introducing the Pierre Trudeau lesson is very intriguing. By presenting the main focus of the lesson in a roundabout way the students were invested in the material and consequences before they had even begun the lesson. I found it very cool that you were able to engage the students personally as a starting point and then present the lesson to them using their own experiences to show how their past influences their perspectives.
From your own perspective (an artist) I wonder how you felt when you were made aware that the ad was a Pantene commercial. Did you want to congratulate Pantene for creating an ad meant to inspire and motivate people, or were you disappointed that it was an ad meant to manipulate the viewer?
Ps- Good luck in attempting to blog with regularity!