Practicum Observation Regarding Relating to Students

The other day, I was observing at Firestone High School when students in the 3rd period class were trying to make connections between the themes in their text with current films. When they asked my cooperating teacher about the validity of the connections, she responded that she had not seen any of the films. Her excuse was that she doesn't watch current films and doesn't have time to do so. The students stopped connecting the concepts from the text to films they had seen.

In order to connect with students today, "reading" is more than reading a book on the couch or listening to a book tape. Literacy comes in many forms, just like communication. In order to be able to communicate visually, we must be able to identify themes in films. We need to be able to analyze something acted out in front of us just as much as the elements of a novel. More importantly, we need our students to be able to do so. In order to help develop students who can utilize today's media properly, as educators, we must utilize today's media properly. By viewing films, watching television, and using social networking, educators cannot just understand their students better, but they can also help them establish stronger connections to texts.