Field Blog Post 9/ West Geauga

Question I will be exploring:  Ayers asserts that life should be lived in the present tense and life in school should be life itself (45). Here, Ayers diminishes the commonly held notion that school life is distinct and seperate from reality. Do teachers sucessfully link lessons to current society and culture? If so, how is this accomplished?

 
       When I observed Mrs. Kirchner on Wednesday, I realized that the entire class was designed to show students that Hamlet is relevant today. Mrs. Kirchner began the class by informing the students that many current works allude to Hamlet. First, she showed the students the Reduced Shakespeare Company's abridged and comedic version of Hamlet. This film took up a majority of the class. After the film, she asked the students if they had seen any other references to Hamlet since beginning the play. One student described the associations between Hamlet and Sons of Anarchy. He described which characters from Sons of Anarchy were linked to which characters from Hamlet. After, Mr. Connell gave a similar example. He described how much of the plot of the television show Bonanza was derived from Shakespeare's King Lear.

     Mrs. Kirchner's class that I observed today had a similar purpose, so I have decided to blog about them together. Today, she had the students create a poster that connected Hamlet to our society. First, she had students come up with universal themes in Hamlet. Next she had students list specific examples of this theme that occurred in the play. Finally, she had students list examples of the universal theme in current society.

      I believe that it is very important to link lessons to current society because it makes the material less abstract for the students. It also demonstrates to the students why we still study historic works today. Through her lesson plans, Mrs. Kirchner changed the students’ view of Hamlet. What was once an antiquated and irrelevant work in the students’ mind became a living and relevant text. I think lessons in all subject areas should be linked to current society. This link helps peak students’ interest. For example, in my Women Scientist and Radioactivity course, we always talk about the current applications of previous scientific discoveries. Discussing current applications makes the material more pertinent to my life and thus attracts my attention. This linking lessons to culture has also been used in our education course. For example, Dr. Shutkin linked Pink Floyd’s The Wall to our lesson about banking education.