School is Done!

Sometimes it is hard to believe that I have spent the last eight years in college and cannot get enough education.

New Beginnings!

Focus: Oranization and strong beginnings!

Use the story and re-write the beginning a couple different ways with a partner and talk about your favorite and why.

The River Styx
by Rachel, 11th grade writer

I knew that I was going to have to experience this eventually, but who knew it would be so soon. The water of the river looked just as thick and as black as oil. I could hardly see it through the thick blanket of fog covering it. I saw no animals, possibly nothing was living. Even the trees that spotted the shore seemed to be dead. Everything was silent.

I could see something moving in the distance out on the river. As it inched its way closer, I saw a tall, thin, mysterious figure. It was wearing a cloak as black as the river itself. It was in a small ferry rowing up close to the shore where I stood wide-eyed and scared to death. It was Charon, the ferry driver of the river. I slowly stepped inside, half scared of what I had stepped into and half scared of the man beneath the cloak. We rode along slowly. Neither looks nor words were exchanged.

I could hear a faint cry of a man not to far away. As we got closer, I saw what I thought to be as the skinniest man I’d ever seen. I could see streams of tears running down his thin face as he reached as far as his arms could stretch just for a piece of fruit. But no matter how hard he strained, he would never be able to have the fruit touch his pale, cracked lips. Even the water seemed to go out of its way to be out of reach. After passing him, I could still hear his shouts and cries of hunger. (Tantalus)

I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. But the man I saw next could possibly have had it worse. A tall, muscular man wearing little to no clothing was pushing a boulder up a large hill. He was sweating profusely. He seemed angry, tired and determined, all at the same time. As he got close to the top of the hill, the boulder fell from his grasp and landed all the way back to the ground. He cried out in anger. It apparently wasn't the first time it had happened. He climbed back down the hill and began pushing the boulder back to the top. (Sisyphus)

There was another long stretch of silence and cold, black river. A sudden gleam of light made my eyes strain to stay open. The river was coming to an end, and I could already feel the feelings of depression and sadness just fall away into the blackness, which I would never return to. I would never want to have these feelings again, not even on the day I die and take the trip back down the River Styx to Hades.

Agenda:

• Brainstorm differnt ways to start a story as a whole class
• Read story out loud as a whole class
• Discuss the good and bad parts about the beginning of the story
• Students re-write a differnt beginning to the story in partners
• Each partner will be in charge of claiming on example as thier idea so that everyone has a chance to gain points for particiaption
• Then the partners dicuss why they like the other options or why not with supporting details
• the whole class shares a few students samples of the "new beginnings".

The River Styx
by Rachel, 11th grade writer

http://writingfix.com/Picture_Book_Prompts/Daisy_Comes_Home4.htm

I knew that I was going to have to experience this eventually, but who knew it would be so soon. The water of the river looked just as thick and as black as oil. I could hardly see it through the thick blanket of fog covering it. I saw no animals, possibly nothing was living. Even the trees that spotted the shore seemed to be dead. Everything was silent.

I could see something moving in the distance out on the river. As it inched its way closer, I saw a tall, thin, mysterious figure. It was wearing a cloak as black as the river itself. It was in a small ferry rowing up close to the shore where I stood wide-eyed and scared to death. It was Charon, the ferry driver of the river. I slowly stepped inside, half scared of what I had stepped into and half scared of the man beneath the cloak. We rode along slowly. Neither looks nor words were exchanged.

I could hear a faint cry of a man not to far away. As we got closer, I saw what I thought to be as the skinniest man I’d ever seen. I could see streams of tears running down his thin face as he reached as far as his arms could stretch just for a piece of fruit. But no matter how hard he strained, he would never be able to have the fruit touch his pale, cracked lips. Even the water seemed to go out of its way to be out of reach. After passing him, I could still hear his shouts and cries of hunger. (Tantalus)

I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. But the man I saw next could possibly have had it worse. A tall, muscular man wearing little to no clothing was pushing a boulder up a large hill. He was sweating profusely. He seemed angry, tired and determined, all at the same time. As he got close to the top of the hill, the boulder fell from his grasp and landed all the way back to the ground. He cried out in anger. It apparently wasn't the first time it had happened. He climbed back down the hill and began pushing the boulder back to the top. (Sisyphus)

There was another long stretch of silence and cold, black river. A sudden gleam of light made my eyes strain to stay open. The river was coming to an end, and I could already feel the feelings of depression and sadness just fall away into the blackness, which I would never return to. I would never want to have these feelings again, not even on the day I die and take the trip back down the River Styx to Hades.

My scores based off of the 6-traits of writing rubric.

Ideas: 4
Organization: 4
Voice: 3
Word Choice: 4
Fluency: 4
Conventions: 5

The ideas are clearly formulated with details. The only thing that drops the idea aspect down from a five to a four is the fourth paragraph about an man pushing a boulder up a hill. I have heard that story plenty of times.

I gave this story a 4 for organization because it was easy to follow in a sequential manner. There are a few transitions but are not strong and natural.

This piece has voice such as; "I couldn't help but feel sorry for him", or " I stood wide-eyed and scared to death.", but it is not apparent throughout the entire piece, it "pops out on occasion". It is apparent the writer is experimenting with voice, which gives us the pleasant feel, but not enough strong influence to hold the paper together.

The writer plays with some good choices in words and descriptions such as explaining the river like oil or "the trees that spotted the shore". The only thing that makes it lower than the top 5 score is the choice of transition words or sentence beginning words. Some of the paragraphs start with the repetitive "I could".

The sentences flow together rather well and do not carry on as run-on sentences. One of the reasons this sample did not score a five is due to the beginning sentences and the repetitiveness.

This paper scored a five on conventions because it used all punctuation and spelling correctly, even adding quotes and more difficult sentence structures.

spice it up

Focus: Idea Development and getting attention

This lesson gets students thinking about adding some creativity to the details. It is based off of advice given to a character from the book Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street by Roni Schotter.
The advice is:

• Focus on an interesting detail or two
• Find poetry in your words
• Spice it up with action
• ask what if to find your story

Students will choose 3 specific nouns to write about in a short story. They will chose a person, a place, and a thing that will represent this person. Then they run down the list and fill in how they would describe each noun using each piece of advice.http://writingfix.com/PDFs/Pic_Book_Prompt_Worksheets/90th_Street_pre-write.pdf

Then the teacher will read the sample story right before students turn the worksheet into a smooth beginning of a short story.

http://writingfix.com/PDFs/Pic_Book_Prompt_Worksheets/90th_6th_Samples.pdf

Take Action

Focus: Idea Development and adding "showing" details
This lesson will take a look at verbs and how they are used to show personality traits in a charcter sketch.

Half of the class will recieve one writing sample and the other half will receive the other. http://writingfix.com/PDFs/Chapter_Book_Worksheets/Walk_2_Moons_8th_Samples.doc.pdf

The class first brainstorms about some ways to show that a person is generous. Teacher writes the responses on the board. An example, a generous person would give money to charity.

Then each classmate finds a partner with the "other" sample and reads out loud to each other. Then they have a discussion about the character and how the writer shows the character traits.

Here are some guiding questions for pair and share discussion:

• What verbs do you see?
• What personality traits do you think are being described?
• How does the writer show us these traits?
• What kinds of things does this person do that shows you what kind of peronality trait they have?

picture perfect story

Focus: Idea Development and adding sensory details

In this lesson students will write a short story about a picture by adding sensory details.

Show the sample picture to the students.

Read the sample story out loud.

http://writingfix.com/Chapter_Book_Prompts/Frindle4.htm

There will be five pictures to choose from.

Each student will pick their favorite picture and start answering the basic sensory questions.

What colors do see?

What sounds do you hear?

Is anyone talking? If so, what are they saying?

What kind of day is it?

What is the weather like?

What do you feel on your skin?

Where are you?

What emotions do you feel?

What can you taste?

What do you smell?

What other things do you see or hear Beyond the picture?

Once the students have answered the questions for a couple minutes, then they free write a short story.

Being a Writing Teacher

One thing that scares me about being a writing teacher is scoring the creative minds in the classroom. I know that is one of the biggest things I will struggle with when I start teaching, besides classroom management. I want my students to get real feedback on their writing and in a way that makes them learn from their mistakes. I must admit that the 6-traits of writing will help make this process of grading a writing piece much easier. Now I can have a specific and concrete checklist for students to check their own work and have specific ways to respond as well. Once I create a rubric based off of the 6-traits of writing, then I shall not struggle with questioning what I am scoring and how to explain it to the students. A rubric will also help eliminate personal preferences in writing and make me double check my writing bias. Many students refer to page numbers and appearance for a good paper but should be focusing on ideas and details. Sometimes longer is not better. In fact, in drafting, we should be eliminating the non-important stuff while enhancing the important details. Sometimes that makes a piece shorter, but as long as it follows the rubric it will be OK.

sample of me

The Landscape of Sickened Security

My gritty nails seize the barbed fence

Almost snapped apart like fish line

tempting to catch your siege and

cast it into the corroded cesspool.

The tipsy tremulous twine

unable to grasp the weight,

of plastic cards and Mercedes keys,

powdered glass and pip thieves,

bubble baggies and crack teeth.

My future cannot mend the cartilage

hardened like clay molded into a porcelain doll

with past parties gnawing on my bones.

My mucky limb extends, quivering

stretching to reach and conquer

summit’s intoxicating effect.

Ready to climb sunken valleys

and crawl over fallen trees

that clasp on and drag.

I should carve roots into soil

before the first frozen wind

twirls the last brown leaf.

Heres What I Have to Say About the 6-traits of Writing

The only way that we can assess students on writing is by being very specific about what we expect of them. The 6-trait writing tool is the perfect way to attack those specifics. Many teachers I learned from assessed my writing on grammar and punctuation more than on what I was trying to say. Sometimes I would just ramble on to achieve the length of requirement but not really say much at all. As long as I wrote in complete sentences, had the correct spelling, grammar and punctuation, then I was set for an A in the class. The entire reason many of us can relate to this same experience is because grammar and punctuation are the rules to writing and are easier to assess without a rubric. Many teachers assume that the ideas will come through the correct grammatical use. Yet, when students get a paper back with red ink all over it they feel defeated. There were very few times when I was told that I had something important to say or that I should expand on a wonderful idea I came up with. How can a student get empowered to write if they are not praised about what they have to say? We need to consider other things besides writing conventions like ideas and voice. According to Vicki Spandel, students write to find their voice so that is the most important trait in writing that we as teachers need to focus on developing in our writing assignments.

When Spandel discusses the idea of prompt writing I can’t help but think back to my years of pre-developed ideas. I had a teacher that was the master of prompt writing and used it frequently. In class she would start the ideas to write about in our journals and we would expand and develop the details. It was very informal writing and she told us not to worry about the conventions, just the ideas. That helped my mind get more creative and worry more about the voice and ideas than the boring conventions. I have read many students’ papers that follow all of the conventions but do not have a creative voice or anything important to say. Unfortunately though, these kids sore through school because they can follow the rules. We need to use this theory of the 6-traits to create rules for the most important aspects of writing; the ideas behind it all.

English Classes

There have been many positive classroom structures that included writing in my career as a student, but there have been many negative as well. The positive experiences have helped me become a better writer through the use of real and meaningful writing lessons. I remember learning that I enjoy writing when I was in seventh grade. The teacher had us keep a journal and would use the free-writing strategy quite often. I thought it was so cool when she told the class we could write, “I don’t know what to write”, as many times as we needed to. I think this is the first “writing-as-process” (Nagin, 36) strategy that I encountered. I remember the teacher explaining that as long as we just keep on writing something will come to us. She said that many writers write junk first and that junk is what usually springs the good stuff out. That made me believe that I did not have to be the best writer at first. Throughout the years I kept believing that and mastered the game of English class grades. The other eye opening experience I had in a language arts classroom setting was in college. It was in my poetry class. I had never had to write so much and share it all with the rest of class. It was the first time I had ever shared my poetry with anyone that gave me any feedback. It made the writing real. The structure of the class was based on writing, revising, and critiquing. We also had to model many of the poems we were reading and create our own using a technique we found in the poems we read. I learned more about poetry by copying others and also learned about my own writing and developing by hearing feedback from others. It was a win-win situation.

Many experiences that I encountered separated writing from learning and clouded my enjoyment of language. Throughout all of my high school English classes, we had D.O.L. also known as daily oral language. The teacher would put sentences on the overhead that had grammatical errors and the students were supposed to correct them. I did not care about that assignment. It separated teaching grammar from learning anything else. All that taught us was how to underline a letter that needed to be capitalized and properly add punctuation in non-relevant unrelated situations. Writing is supposed to flow, but this daily oral language approach separated the grammar from the writing process. It should be included. I also had very pointless papers and essays that did not create any uniformity with the writing to learn or learning to write process. My learning to write process was separate from learning and vice-versa unlike what Nagin writes about in his book Because Writing Matters. It was pretty much the opposite throughout much of the experiences I encountered unfortunately.

My Autobiography as a Writer

I do not consider myself a good writer; however, I have gotten better over the years. I have found that the more I read, the more I want to be a better writer and improve my vocabulary and sentence structure creativity. I was always interested in writing since I was young before I could even read or understand what it meant to write letters on a page. Now I do not have time to write freely as much as I used to but look forward to the day when I can.

As a child, I kept a diary. I used to write down the experiences that had the biggest impact on my emotions or that made me feel better about myself. I would reflect what happened in the events and how it made me feel. Unfortunately, though, most of my journal entries were about the boys I had a crush on and how we interacted. As I got older, my journal entries were a little farther between the dates and consisted of new theories about myself and my resolutions to improve who I was.

I started writing poetry in junior high. This was the year when writing was my way of expressing my inner turmoil of my life at home and who I wanted to be at school. Many of my poems were expressing how I wanted more freedom and felt trapped by all of the rules my stepmother imposed. At the same time, I read a lot of Emily Dickenson and felt that my poems had a dark side of loneliness like much of her poetry. I did not want to be like everybody else and felt frustrations when the society did not support who I wanted to be. I still catch myself writing poems that reflect my frustrations with society.

There have been a few teachers in my life that have truly helped me become a better writer. The first teacher that encouraged me to just write my thoughts so I can have them on paper to turn back to was my seventh grade English teacher. She encouraged us to free write in a journal in class for five minutes every once in a while. She gave us topics to free write about and encouraged us to write “I don’t know what to write”, as many times as we needed to until we found something to say within those five minutes. I loved it. Now I catch myself free-writing for almost every paper I write. There was not a specific teacher in high school that helped with my writing but that is when I started to gain confidence in my academic writing versus creative writing. Ninth grade was the year I remember mastering the five part essay. My essays were used as examples on the over-head projector for other students to follow. I felt confident when I heard the teacher mentioning everything I did correctly to show the students how an essay was supposed to look. It wasn’t until I got to college when I found out that my organization and grammar needed some work. In my first college English course, my papers were given back to me with tons of red ink corrections. In fact, one of my papers was on the over-head projector as an example of something not to do. All of a sudden, I lost all confidence in my academic writing. I could not figure out how I could go from being a good example to a bad example. A couple semesters later, an education teacher took some time to go through a paper with me and help me figure out what I was doing wrong. She helped me realize I needed to work on organizing my thoughts better. At first, I did not want to take her advice because I was upset that she felt she needed to tell me how to write a better paper. Then I realized that I would feel better about my writing if I made a few changes in my approach and organized my thoughts differently. I still find that I have so much to say floating around in my head and can’t seem to type fast enough o say it all. I think that is why I free write before I attempt any academic writing now.

23 things on a stick

I knew the basics of many of the things listed on this list but I had never heard of Library Thing. This is a social networking technique to discuss books you read with other people and also get recommendations based on what you have read before. I thought it was interesting because there have been many times I have read a book for pleasure and wanted to thoroughly discuss it. Unfortunately though, many of my friends do not read much so it will be enlightening to discuss portions of books with others. This would be great to incorporate into the classroom as a yearlong activity. Students can find other books that relate to the topics they like to read about and discuss it with others when they are not in the classroom.

Poetry Webquest

I participated in the poetry webquest from our reading in “Teaching Media Literacy”. The webquest takes you on a journey through the past, present, and future stages of your life. It helps you gather images and details to represent in specific poems. As you look into those different aspects of your life you incorporate the details and imagery into the poem structure. Then by modeling after another poet for a specific format you come to create a masterpiece. The poems that this site uses to offer templates are: Fifteen, where I’m From, I Am, Just a Daydream, and Dreams Deferred.

I thought this site was confusing as first. The first task did not seem to explain the expectations very clear. Then I discovered the templates, worksheets, and questions that were aligned with each task and thought that made it very clear. I had a ton of fun writing about different periods in my life and thinking poetically about it. I found that my dad and his Harley always seem to find a way into my past and that I enjoy describing his bike using words like, glimmer, shimmer, shiny, bright, anything that reveals the reflection from the sunlight in the summer off the brand new chrome all over the bike. I really enjoyed writing a poem and then finding a piece of art work that goes along with it. I am an art teacher currently and have always thought literacy and art go hand in hand and thought that was a fantastic way to mingle the two together.

I would love to incorporate a web quest into my lesson plans. I would want the web quest to be based on a thematic unit where students will have to do more researching. I was thinking possibly having a webquest for the Harlem Renaissance poets and have them research aspects of the time period and connect the two together.
This would give the students control of what they want to learn about the Harlem Renaissance and give them ownership of their learning.

sharing links

http://www.wsu.edu/~amerstu/pop/tvrguide.html This link is from teachingmedialiteracy.com

This is one of the many useful links this website refers to that offers educators advice on how to teach and incorporate many media forms into the classroom. This particular site is about integrating popular culture and critical thinking. It focuses on "issues of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, cultural imperialism and censorship, as shaped by and reflected in various mass media." This site gives you the option to look more closely with tons more links about different types of popular culture like fashion or advertisements. The advertisements section brings up information about advertisements and offers many links to view current popular ads or commercials. It also gives you insight as to how to critically analyze popular culture and what type of lens to wear. This would be a great site to use on a daily basis when teaching these children that will be experts on popular culture.

Beach's Media Literacy Reflection

I am a digital immigrant. I did not have a computer until I bought one my second year in college. In fact, I was interviewed on an infomercial for the electronic portfolio website we all use as an example of how simple it is. I had to explain that I did not even have an e-mail account set up or a computer at home to work from. Then they had me show all of the stuff I added to the electronic portfolio and explain how easy it truly was to use. I was impressed with myself that I could scan pictures in and put it on my portfolio as well as downloading papers or adding links. I think that if it wasn't for the urban teacher program or education in general making me use the computer, I would still be clueless. When I was younger I remember telling my brother that I did not like computers and hope they do not become very popular. Now, I cannot seem to go a single day without Googling something, or checking my e-mail, or checking facebook, or working on my electronic portfolio, etc. I have become dependent on technology over the last eight years and can only assume we are all going to be virtual.

Reflection for Burke's chapters 12 & 13

These chapters are important to read when an educator needs to find ways to incorporate multimedia into the Language arts classroom. Chapter 12 gives great insight into the ten standards that teachers should know about technology. I guess I never considered standards for media literacy before. I assumed teachers would know the basics, but now the basics are becoming more in depth with the growth of technology. Many of our students will know how to do much more on the computers, so we need to try to stay in-tune with the technology or else our students will find loop holes or bring something to the table that is unexpected. In the classroom we need to be aware of some of the issues that may appear and be one step ahead. Educators also need to be prepared to not only teach subject matter but also the digital literacy and incorporate it as part of assignment expectations. Chapter 13 focuses on how to incorporate media literacy into an already jam packed curriculum. It is important to teach students how to filter through the mass amounts of information that passes through them as they surf the net. Some scam artists find teens as a great audience and feed them lies. This chapter goes into great detail how to teach students to filter through the filth that I will try to implement in my classroom some day!

Frontline

“The frontline” is a PBS show that discussed issues of advertisement and multimedia in two different episodes. The first section, “The Persuaders”, discusses how advertisement companies work and how we have become immune to many of the persuasive slogans we encounter. That means that advertisement companies have to make the advertisements bigger and better in order to connect to the audience. The other episode, “Merchants of Cool”, mentions how companies and products try to connect to that audience. In fact, it states that the audience is what gives inspiration to new ideas for products. The best thing that teachers can take from these videos and use in the classroom is the awareness of the influences of multimedia in our daily lives. At the same time, educators can use the media and advertisements to relate to students with popular culture.

If we walk down any major street in the heart of the city there is nowhere to look without spotting an advertisement. They have become background clutter. What educators need to do with all of this clutter is point it out. Students need to learn that advertisements are even in the movies and TV shows that they watch. We can use this video to show students why they might want to choose a specific product over another. Students can learn that they usually choose a brand for a sense of community because that is the biggest seller. Advertisements sell more than products, they sell solidarity. It is up to the teachers to help students understand consumerism. Students have the right to know that advertisements are, “what people want to hear, not what you want to tell them”. Educators need to be the connectors for students to understand who the audience a specific product is for or what the advertisement is secretly trying to sell in order for students to learn to devise their own sense of filters through the clutter. I plan to use the quote, “As long as we are thinking about ourselves we are better consumers.” I would want students to look at it from the aspect of consumers and then again from the perspective of producers and determine who would benefit more from the quote.

If we use these videos we can show students that they are the whole reason our economy thrives on popular culture. The second episode in Frontline refers to consumerism as a machine. It is constantly running and even running in circles or, as the TV show states, “feedback loop”. Educators can use popular culture to relate some higher order thinking theories to the students. The multimedia of popular culture can be used in conjunction with teaching persuasive elements and even poetry. We can use it to connect stereotypes to figuring audience in a speech. We can even incorporate advertisements into writing assignments or focus on literacy skills. All of the media that bombards our children can be used constructively if we intertwine it into a thematic unit of critical thinking.

There are some issues with trying to incorporate multimedia and advertisement discussion into the classrooms though. For instance, some schools do not have access to some of the newest technology or even chances to educate teachers to use it. Also, if we had students looking on-line there is a chance they could get bombarded with things that are not allowed in the school setting. Some technology can get distracting as well as forcing popular culture into the classroom. Some people may not agree with the popular culture and may get offended if we discuss advertisements. There is a chance that parents may assume we are trying to teach their child to be like the stereotypes in the advertisements. Also, if the discussions of stereotypes do follow a structure, it can lead to a mess of insults to others. The conversations would need to be controlled.

It is risky to incorporate the popular culture into the classroom because it has not been understood yet. Many teachers have a hard time finding a connection to popular culture and the current curriculum. I think it is important that teachers study the culture so that we can all help our youth become better consumers. If we teach our youth the power of persuasion and impulse buy, then it’s possible we can eliminate some of the individualistic mentality of wanting more materialism. I have not had the opportunity to witness many teachers incorporating popular culture into the classroom. It is a new approach to learning and that is why teachers are afraid of it. It is not yet understood or fully accepted yet, but if we hold strong we can convince the right people that learning the truth is more beneficial in the long wrong.

Introduction to Ernest Morrell's "Linking Literacy and Popular Culture"

What is the book all about?

Ernest Morrell is an educator and researcher that worked with our urban youth. He composed a study to find creative ways to reach our ever growing diverse population within the classroom setting. He conducted his research within two different schools; North Bay High and South Bay High. North Bay High is a large multicultural school with low academic self-esteem. The educators had given up on trying to help these students realize their academic potential because they did not have the tools or determination to relate to these students. On the other hand, South Bay High is an average sized multicultural school with high academic scores. Unfortunately, the scores at South Bay show, “…huge disparities in achievement between students according to ethnic and socioeconomic background” (14). Ernest Morrell explains his experience of bringing popular culture into the classroom and watching the academic confidence rise throughout North Bay and the achievement gap shrink at South Bay.

The first section discusses what popular culture is and why it must be included in our classrooms. There are hidden messages everywhere we go. A person cannot walk down the street without being bombarded or even sit in their room listening to music or watching tv without being told how to feel about a topic or what to buy. It happens so often that it is almost impossible to separate a unique want or idea from the interference of popular culture and the media. Some people are even unaware of how the media affects their decisions, especially our youth. It is important to make our youth aware of the impact the media has so that they can become aware of their own decisions.

In the Second section, Morrell paints a pictures of what it looks like to include popular culture in the classroom. He mentions how he included popular music, film and television, mass media, and sports into the classroom with astonishing achievement of critical thinking. Considering that hip-hop has swept over the nation and become a money market industry, he includes it into his classroom. He discusses a research project that gets students motivated to learn and think critically as well as a presentation. Then he goes onto to discuss how he links classical texts with film and had students analyze the two by themes to attack those higher order thinking skills. He had students questioning the messages in mass media and got students reading and writing with sports.

The last section encourages other educators to take a risk and how to overcome skepticism of inclusion. Sometimes teachers need to be willing to take a risk and teach something that is unfamiliar like popular culture. Some of our educators need to realize that it is ok if we incorporate something not yet categorized or analyzed. Unfortunately, though, many of our educators disregard popular culture in the classroom because they label it as inappropriate. Think back to when you were young and the music, clothes, or even words you liked did not conform to the expectations of elders. Popular culture is always going to be critically looked at and questioned because it is not yet understood. At the same time, the curriculum includes a vast majority of our human weaknesses that are deemed appropriate, so why not the weaknesses of the popular culture? There are many possibilities to get students thinking critically about the world that will grasp their attention better when we include themes related to popular culture. If we are going to capture learning in our classroom and create an understanding relationship with students then we need to encourage our students to explore the impacts of popular culture without creating a negative outlook.