I have decided to stick with incorporating high school student culture/ personal identity/ history. I'm not entirely sure how I want to approach this. Now that I have been sitting with this idea for while, I want to see if doing this empowers students and impacts their voices in the classroom/community. As a result, I'm going to have to reshape my question and think of my methods more specifically.
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Thinking of HOW..
How do I bring in student identity into the curriculum? How do I get to know the students in such a limited amount of time?..should I interview them, hold a dialog. Should I structure this as an after school club at a high school to supplement the curriculum?
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What sort of material/content would I bring? Where can I get it?
I'm interested in exploring literature, art, street art, film, poetry, songs, etc. Is this too much? I've looked at some free digital media resources that seem to be useful from KQED that was introduced to me at the Arts Really Teach conference. I feel that is a great starting point.
What I'm worried about?
I remember once sitting in a classroom feeling insulted by a teacher who tried to incorporate student culture in the curriculum. I hope to find approaches that would make students not feel patronized. I think focusing on topics and experiences that are universal.
SORRY FOR POTENTIALLY BEING INCOHERENT..Just doing a brain dump =)
So happy I've committed!
Viva!
-Daisy
Hi Daisy,
ReplyDeleteYay for committing! Congrats :) Libby really opened my eyes to an aspect of student's culture and identity and stuff last class. She was talking about how using books that illustrate very different family structures can reach even more students in your classes. If some of the students in your class have unusual family structures, I could really see it helping them feel more connected to the class, and not so different. Personally, when teachers used to do cultural things in class, I always felt like I had "no" culture and pretty un-special compared to other kids who had such cool traditions and such. Maybe incorporating books on family structures, as well as usual cultural topics, can help students connect with their own personal definitions of their culture. Might be interesting to see how they define themselves after being exposed to cultural literature/art/etc in class.
I am SO happy you committed too! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteAs you know, my research is kind of related to yours because I want to teach multiculturalism with art integration. The question of how to integrate their culture into the curriculum is a good one. Because I too do not have great experiences when a teacher tries to teach culture since I feel like I don't have much of a background. Maybe we could brainstorm ideas and exchange lesson plans. Mine will be art based, but I think they could overlap :) I don't know exactly what I want to incorporate in the lesson yet, especially since I don't know what the school content will be, but I would love to do some of the same things that you talked about.
Let's discuss! Especially once we get closer to actually developing the lessons!
Woohoo!