I know we hear that our students are increasingly turning to digital outlets and have little-to-no attention span. However, I think no amount of GIFs in our Crucible presentation are going to help our students think Arthur Miller is cool.
Instead, I think what our students (all students) really want (and need) are high and relevant expectations and the appropriate tools to meet these expectations. I think students crave the ability to think critically, problem solve, and make connections between class content (like literature), the world around them, and themselves. I think we as teachers need to not underestimate our students while still meeting them “where they are at.”
Here are five ways I use content and resources outside the literature itself to help my students better engage with core curriculum.
Videos
Videos don’t just have to be something you have your sub pop in because you are out with the flu (or that you pop in because you have been up all night with a kid sick with the flu!). Instead, here are three suggestions for using videos in the class.
- Clips. YouTube (and the internet in general) is a great way to find quick clips to help build schema, reinforce an idea, or generate discussion. Also, our students digest a lot of digital media this way. Being mindful of showing students how to use sources like this for academic purposes can help students use this platform more effectively in the future.
- Documentaries. Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon (to name a few) have some great documentaries that can be super helpful in the classroom. Consider themes for your unit and see if there is a documentary that connects! For example, my students consistently talk about enjoying this activity for a Minimalism documentary I use for our Fahrenheit 451 unit.
- Movies on Books. Again, the goal is not to just pop in the movie and call it a day! Instead, use movies/performances based on the literature you are working with to help your students get a deeper understanding of the text itself and/or key standards for the unit. For example, I use a guide like this for The Great Gatsby to help students get some practice with this Common Core Standard: Analyze multiple interpretations of a story and evaluate how each version interprets the source text.
IMPORTANT TIP! If you are showing something longer than a clip, I find it really helpful to stop every 10 minutes or so to check in and debrief. This helps the students (and you) stay engaged!
Podcasts and Audio Media
I run, walk, and drive A LOT and am definitely an auditory learner. It’s no surprise, therefore, that I am a big fan of the Podcast! I often use clips from Podcasts in centers. For example, I use this episode of Radiolab (from 3:25-10:18) for Macbeth centers to discuss appearance versus reality. Like videos, they can be long format or short clips.
Nonfiction Resources and Text Sets
It is an awesome time for nonfiction resources! One resource I am particularly fond of is Newsela. It’s easy to use for teachers and students, has functions that allow you to level texts appropriately for your students, and even has some translated work, which is super helpful for an EL teacher like me. A particularly great function is the “Text Set” Feature. This allows you to collect relevant articles, add instructions, and distribute to students as an assignment if you choose later on. I have used it to help students build schema, make connections, and tackle some important and sometimes difficult themes in the literature we are approaching.
Assessments
Something to keep in mind is how to make assessments work better for you and your students. Although assessments are fundamentally a way to assess student learning, I think it’s also helpful to consider them as learning tools as well. For example, with multiple choice tests, consider how you can encourage students to look back at specific moments of the text to analyze and how working on these assessments can help them better understand the literature itself. I also suggest considering open book quizzes. Students should get the opportunity to look back in the text; this is an important skill to develop.
Reading Guides
The thing about being a teacher, is we tend to be pretty good with our content. However, it is important to realize what comes naturally to us now, likely does not come naturally to our students. It’s important not to assume that students know how to do things like set purpose for their reading without explicitly guiding them through this process. Something I find really helpful is providing reading and annotation guides like this for my students. It not only helps guide their purpose for reading and helps ensure they are actively reading, it also serves as a great tool for generating review and discussion in class.
Happy reading!