Over the past few years of teaching I have had the privilege to participate in fantastic professional development that was culturally relevant. One particular course that I was enrolled in centered around the work of Ernest Morrell and focused on the integration of pop culture into the regular classroom. Essentially, his research found that if teachers spend time learning about their students' interests in music, television, movies, etc., and then find creative ways to use it for teaching, students' interest levels increase and so does their achievement level.
I've done this in various ways since taking the class, but one of my favorites was in my lesson plans for this week, so I thought I would share it with you.
In Language Arts we have been learning about how author's use figurative language to create interest and then how we as writers can use it in a similar fashion. Throughout the course of the week, we've read various books aloud, applied the lessons to a scavenger hunt in novels of our choice, listened for it in our own conversations and that of others, and a slew of other things. However, the most anticipated and best received happened on Wednesday when Katy Perry visited my room. Not her literally, but her music made an appearance. I'm sure that when she wrote or recorded her lyrics, she had no idea that a lowly 5th grade teacher in South Carolina would use it to teach Reading - little did she know - or any other performing artist for that matter.
I began the day with playing several "current" songs that play on the radio on a regular basis (and are clean lyrically) as my students entered that morning. Music is always a big portion of our day and my students know that I listen to "their" music and they are willing to listen to mine, but since our focus was figurative language this week, lightbulbs began going off and conversations began. This was the perfect segue into Reading for the day.
I chose to use Katy Perry's song, "Fireworks" as an example since we had focused on metaphor and simile the days prior. This song is full, and I mean CHOCK FULL of great examples of both. Not only that, but it's catchy and my students knew the lyrics. *Just a disclaimer, do not show the video unless you are willing to invite controversy into your classroom.
The lesson began with a simple listening. Students paid attention to the words and focused on what was being said and what was meant. Then, each student received a copy of the lyrics. After a few minutes of modeling, students gathered in small groups and took 3 different colored highlighters and set to work finding similes, metaphors, and personification. We then discussed what was found and what the author meant when they were used. After the small group work, individuals then went to their own novels and read to find examples of how authors used figurative language.
Overall, the lesson was a huge success. All 19 students were able to correctly identify examples of figurative language in published works and were able to successfully integrate it into their own writing. It was a proud mama moment for me! Congrats kiddos!!
