So, it’s time we have a serious talk that is honestly a little sad for me to admit.
*deep breath*
Okay, so, even in the day and age that I have grown up in, I’m still incredibly bad at working technology and digital media into the classroom.
There I said it.
“Well, good for you. At least there’s tons of articles and information out there to help you better integrate it.”
Yes, but that still doesn’t take away from the immense shame that I feel at being bad at using tech regardless. I think growing up in my era has made that transition harder, actually. At least for me.
Referring back to my last post, I just feel like my teachers personally were quite out of date in the tech and advocacy that they had us focus on. With that in mind, I feel like I’m afraid that I would be pushing something similar onto my students where they have a hard time staying interested because it’s not relevant enough.
On the brightside, I did find an article with an assignment that uses tech for student advocacy that I really enjoyed.
Lauren King and Kristen Hawley Turner’s essay “Access, Readiness, and the Ethical Imperative of Advocacy” discussed the way in which using being able to teach technology and advocacy, especially in a Title I school can be difficult. Title I schools tend to lack the shared digital resources that make these types of assignments conducive, but it’s so important for students to learn how to advocate for themselves and find their voice, so we really have to work around it.
King and Turner talk about a project where students looked at a real world issue in their community, and studied Public Service Announcements so that they could make their own about something that’s important to them.
I really fell in love with this idea as soon as I heard it for so many reasons
- Students are encouraged to talk about the difficult issues that they are facing in their lives right now and raise awareness about them. They are getting their voices heard which is awesome.
- The teacher didn’t just make it a persuasive essay assignment! This is amazing because as much as I enjoyed writing those, who was EVER going to read them? I never understood why I was getting so passionate about an issue that I was never actually doing anything about.
- The use of a video is probably so much more relevant and easier on students to work on their literacy skills. It takes away from the scary essay format, and it allows them to explain their ideas and thoughts in a normal, nonacademic way. You never know what I student will say if they don’t have to put it in size 12 Times New Roman, double spaced font. Seriously, so many more of the students in the essay succeeded because this assignment wasn’t just a normal essay.
Honestly, one of the things I’m most excited about as an English teacher is to move away from the idea that every assignment HAS to be an analysis of literature or a research paper. Video projects and websites and presentations can help students improve their literacy as well. They are just as important. And the odds are, if given a choice, your students are going to be more interested in what they are doing and they’re going to do better on it. Especially when we’re covering these subjects like advocacy. Why are we only having them share their research and opinions with us, the teacher? What good is that doing? It’s time we encourage and help our students to be heard.
Please Don't Call Me "Miss Shorter" 