In this reading of popular culture in an urban secondary
English classroom, they bring up the fact that they do not just teach classic
canonical literature, though that is a big part of the English classroom. One
of my favorite ideas from this text is that some texts, “offered more insights
to the American psyche than most United States History texts.” This is true for
a lot of books even outside of the US, and I think that it is an important
thing to keep in mind as a teacher.
I also really loved that they took poetry and poets and were
able to get students to make comparisons to hip hop artists that they listened
to. I really think that this gets them more involved in their learning and gets
them excited to work on the lesson that you have assigned. They use concepts
that they want to talk about in their lessons, such as racism or heroism, and
they take a book that can be used as an example of these topics.
By incorporating things that students can relate to, a
teacher is showing she knows her students and knows they might need something
more “recent” to get them to understand what they are learning. I want to be
able to do this as a teacher; be able to know what my students are interested
in and be able to use it as a tool to catch their curiosity. I don’t think that
kids anymore are spending enough time reading, instead opting to play video
games or spend their time online. That is all good and well, but I want to be
the kind of teacher that doesn’t “force feed” their students literature, but
instead encourages them to enjoy it and ask questions. If that means that I use
a rap or pop artist to relate to them, as long as their music is appropriate, I
will do whatever I possibly can to get them to enjoy reading.
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