There are too many things to write about this week! The previous week was full of fantastic teaching and learning opportunities. Remind me if I lack a topic to mention to come back to one of these:
- my fun kindergarten co-teaching lessons with a master educator (yes Steve, I stand by my words)
- setting up students for success in dance (and conversely, dance anxiety)
- my latest STEAM challenge center for the intermediate students (Ozobots)
- my experiences leading Ukulele Club
- the thrill (not exaggerating or being sarcastic) of helping AQ candidates and Grade 7s create engaging inquiry questions
Today I want to reflect a bit on my recent Media lessons with my primary division students. Last term, we focused on algorithms. I presented on this topic at the Global Media Education Summit and I will be sharing it again at TDSB's Unleashing Learning conference this week. (See last week's blog for the ad.) For this term, I decided on a more student-centered topic: Pokémon. This may sound like a "fluff" lesson, but there are so many engaging and intriguing parts to this unit that I'm doing or have planned that even my own grown children are excited about helping out.
We began with individual KWL charts as well as a group brainstorm to establish student prior knowledge of Pokémon. Our guiding inquiry question came from a Grade 2 girl who asked, "Why is Pokémon so popular?" Many students will declare to anyone who will listen that they are absolute Pokémon experts, but like the digital native / digital immigrant myth, young people of a certain age do not know it all about this juggernaut brand. We read a non-fiction book about the history of Pokémon and then examined the codes and conventions of just one example of Pokémon merchandise - the Pokémon cards.
The students, even those who weren't interested or into Pokémon prior to this unit, easily spend lots of time pouring over these cards. We've learned about the icons that denote the types of Pokémon and we've examined the clever ways that Pokémon names are constructed. They compare the cards. They sort the cards. They like to claim they can tell which cards are "fake". (The joke is on them - all of the cards I'm using are real, but because they are from older generations, back when my own young adult offspring were young collectors, the card design looks slightly different.) Some of them have even tried to steal the cards. (We'll need to talk more about how and why some schools used to ban Pokémon cards from the classrooms and playgrounds.) Here are some photos of the students (no faces shown) eagerly exploring these beloved media texts.
The next steps in my Pokémon unit are:
1) to have students design their own unique Pokémon card, using what they've learned about naming techniques, layout, and required elements. (My own children have volunteered to make samples on chart paper for the students to use as models.)
2) to watch a few of the Pokémon anime TV shows and analyze them.
3) to play a few of the Pokémon video games - especially from different eras like the Switch, 3DS, and other Nintendo systems. (Again, my own children have volunteered to come in to lead those sessions.)
4) to play the Pokémon RPG with them and examine what parts appeal to what personality types.
5) possibly to have some parents in the community (whose children told me play Pokémon Go) take small groups out to go hunting for Pokémon locally.
6) eventually to summarize why Pokémon appeals to such a large demographic of people.
This is what I've written in my long range plans (and with the relevant curriculum expectations):
April = Pokémon cards (math and language connections)
May = Pokémon RPGs and Pokémon Go (social and physical)
June = Pokémon manga and anime (narratives)
Ministry
of Education Curriculum Expectations
TERM 2
= Strand: Media Literacy
·
1.2 –
Overt & Implied Messages
·
1.3 –
Responding to and Evaluating Texts (+1.4 Audience Responses)
·
2.2 –
Conventions and Techniques
·
3.4 –
Producing Media Texts
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