Pop Culture in the Classroom
I really enjoyed the group presentation on the use of pop culture in the classroom and certainly could relate to some of the examples provided. At the top of the presentation when the group members staged a conversation that exemplified “speaking in code” as it might seem to someone that is not familiar with the pop culture reference being discussed, I could relate it to my experience of watching a sporting event. While I will occasionally watch a hockey game for entertainment, I in fact know very little about the rules of the game itself. Therefore, when I am watching with a group of people that enjoy analyzing the game and responding to the calls that are made, I often feel very isolated and disconnected from the whole experience. Yes, I could ask questions about the rules or do my own research so that I would have a better understanding and be able to contribute. However, if this same situation happened in the classroom with a student feeling lost and disengaged from the conversation involving a pop culture reference, I’m not convinced of the likelihood of a student taking the initiative to research or ask questions about the reference.
I do think that bringing pop culture into the classroom can be a great learning tool, but as the teacher I would want to do as much as I can to set up the lesson in such a way that I am not excluding students from the learning experience. I believe that even with a little bit of background explanation of the pop culture material I am referring to, it will make a huge difference to the accessibility for all students. For example, if I were teaching a lesson on the structure of writing stories and wanted to draw reference to “How I Met Your Mother” as an example of telling a story through flashbacks, I would not simply just refer to the show as an example and assume that most of the class would understand. Instead, I might frame the discussion by describing what the show is and how it uses flashbacks as a tool to tell the story, and perhaps then show a clip from the show so that everyone could understand my reference.
Sara Martens