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Does media influence popular culture
How can popular culture influence society’s perceptions
Does media influence popular culture
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In Sandie Friedman’s “This Way for Vampires: Teaching First-Year Composition in ‘Challenging Times,’” she opposes Adler-Kassner’s claim that popular culture should not be used in a composition classroom. Throughout the article, Friedman presents colleagues in agreeance with her beliefs. She explains that the use of popular culture could boost the interest of students leading to them actually being engaged in what they are learning. Friedman believes that a non-traditional topic could not only entice students, but also encourage teachers to adapt to a new form of teaching. Based on the text, Friedman feels that the hint of freedom in a required course could help students feel less pressured and give them a new view on their educational ventures. This kind of new approach could portray class as less of a requisite for a career and more as a new and exciting experience in life (77-83). I agree with Friedman that using popular culture as topics of interest could keep students engaged, produce new and effective ways of teaching, and give students a new way of viewing their educational ventures. During my time in writing, I’ve noticed that having an interesting topic would easily encourage my writing and keep me focused. Without interest in the task, it is difficult …show more content…
Friedman says, "To put it bluntly, not all students will be interested in researching writing itself, and engagement is essential to learning; if students are not interested, even the soundest pedagogy is of no use" (81). Even some of the greatest teachers need readjustments and pop culture as a topic could push teachers to try something new. Also, seeing a teacher leave his or her comfort zone could show students that teachers are humans too. New teaching could produce new outcomes for learners and possibly ease anxiety due to the fact that students would not be the only ones doing something fresh, new, and
Edmundson was considered one of the “interesting” teachers because of the fact he would tell jokes in order to keep the students interested, since it was the one way he figured worked; however, he did not “teach to amuse…or for that matter, to be merely interesting” (Edmundson, Greene-Lidinsky 390). College students get to pick their professors and they have to ability to find out if the professor is to their liking, or else they can just drop the class and/or find a better-suited professor. Edmundson felt as though the student’s “passion seems to be spent,” and that “university culture” is becoming more and more “devoted to consumption and entertainment” (Edmundson, Greene-Lidinsky 391). Furthermore, colleges make it even worse due to the fact that they make the campuses beautiful in order to attract students to apply, so students attend those campuses imagining that the classes will be just as
According to Runciman, there are many plausible reasons that students and other people don’t enjoy writing. Evidence, assumptions, and language and tone are the basis for which Runciman makes his argument. Overall, this argument is effective because reliable and well known sources are used in a logical fashion. Also, the assumptions made about the audience are accurate and believable. Runciman used his assumptions wisely when writing his claim and in turn created a compelling, attention capturing argument. The article was written so that students and teachers at any level could understand and easily read it. This argument is interesting, captivating, relevant through its age, and can relate to students and teachers at almost every academic level.
In Patricia Limerick’s article “Dancing with Professors”, she argues the problems that college students must face in the present regarding writing. Essays are daunting to most college students, and given the typical lengths of college papers, students are not motivated to write the assigned essays. One of the major arguments in Limerick’s article is how “It is, in truth, difficult to persuade students to write well when they find so few good examples in their assigned reading.” To college students, this argument is true with most of their ...
Once this becomes the norm for teachers they tend to become uninteresting, and students are the ones reaping the consequences. Rose acknowledged this cycle of learning apathy, writing, “But mostly the teachers had no idea of how to engage the imaginations of us kids who were scuttling along at the bottom of the pond”(1989, p.2).
They must form lessons that should aid students in understanding composition, definitions, transition words, and symbolism. There is no denying the significance these lectures bring; however, for some students, it is not enough to repetitively apply the mentioned rules to discussions they find disinterest in, deciding for themselves unwilling to participate in the conversation teachers beg for students to join. As mentioned, Fish proclaims that to diverge from teaching subject matter any other way that is not specifically academic, deviates too much and distracts from the correct process of intellectual thought. In his The New York Times piece, "What Should Colleges Teach?", Fish states his stance expressing one must "teach the subject matter" alone and not to "adulterate it with substitutes". He continues praising "the virtue of imitation," asking students to "reproduce [great author's] forms with a different content". Already, Fish demands from students derivative mimicry in which they must glean an understanding of another's process. I echo Fish's own question: "How can [one] maintain... that there is only one way to teach writing?" As students, we desire to express ourselves, and to follow the principles Fish speaks of, to "[repeat] over and over again in the same stylized motions", confines us from discovering the beauty and potential writing can bring. Rather, students are taught we must so closely follow fastidious rules and decorative wording, teaching English may as well, as Fish writes, "make students fear that they are walking through a minefield of error," and to use such a method makes students believe to write any other way will cause them to "step on something that will wound them", the odds of students learning anything are diminished (Stanley Fish, "What Should
When I scheduled my classes last winter, I knew I had to fulfill my requirements for general education and take English Composition II. I had heard from my oldest daughter that Comp II was no fun at all and when she took it, she was bored to tears. Not knowing any better, I took her word and prepared myself for a rather boring and uneventful semester of “robot writing”. The kind of writing that was dull and made one’s eyes cross from boredom. I soon found out that this didn’t have to be the case. Academic writing and research could be enjoyable and it was not at all boring.
During my first few days of sophomore year at Stuyvesant High School, I saw how the ways of thinking were diverse in each of my classes. In my European Literature class, where, in our first reading assignment, we questioned the purpose of education itself. I always went with the flow in my learning, and never stopped to say to myself, “Why am I doing this to myself?”. However, once I read Live and Learn by Louis Menand, I started to think about Menand’s three theories of college and juxtapose each of them to my experience so far in high school. In the end, I concluded that many of my classes followed the main points of Theory 2, which was the theory that I mostly agreed with when I read the article for the first time.
In this notable Ted Talk video "Do schools kill creativity?", Sir Ken Robinson discusses how public education systems demolish creativity because they believe it is essential to the academic growth and success of students. Robinson created a broad arrange of arguments to persuade the viewers to take action on this highly ignored issue, and he primarily focuses on how important creativity is. There are classes within schools that help utilize creativity, but they are not taken seriously by adults in society. Therefore, the value of creative knowledge decreases. Robinson uses an unusual combination of pathos and ethos to make an enjoyable dispute for implementing an education system that nurtures rather than eats away at creativity.
In determining why The Great Gatsby is so frequently assigned at various education levels, my thoughts reverted to our discussion on the Vendler text and the premise that teachers may be attempting to seduce their students into learning. In connection to this discussion, I reflected on my own classroom and what I hope to achieve with my students. I find the "seduction" of students to be an integral component in teaching students to appreciate the learning process. Not all learning is "fun," but I attempt to teach my students that it can at least be an interesting process.
Mantsios, Gregory. "Class in America." 2003. The Norton Field Guide to Writing. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2010. 697-716. Print.
For example, The Great Gatsby could teach the girls and her students at the university about the United States during the 1920's. In this case, "I had been asked to teach a course on twentieth-century fiction, and this seemed to me a reasonable principle for inclusion. And beyond that, it would give my students a glimpse of that other world that was now receding from us, lost in a clamor of denunciations" (Nafisi 108). Teaching students outside of their own bubble can help put together the pieces and expand their knowledge. Nafisi exposing the students to The Great Gatsby showed them that they can fix their bubble.
“Don’t do that. You’ll never get a job.” Such was the response of one of my favorite teachers to the interest that I had voiced in history as a potential field of study. A teacher whose class a friend and I had enjoyed so much we had taken time out of a weekday afternoon to come visit her. Sure, my response contrasted pretty acutely with that of my friend who wanted to pursue a career in computational linguistics, but history is my genuine interest. In an environment that constantly peddles science and technology careers, it’s hard to love history and literature.
Not every class can be exciting, and we should know that. Now imagine every class is of this level, with no “break”, or elective, classes incorporated into your day. Although this may not apply to all private schools, there are many that focus on specific topics. So even though they are taught more on that subject, there is not much variety in their day.... ... middle of paper ...
The nonfiction genre allows the reader and writer to learn about a topic they particularly enjoy or one that they know nothing about. I learned that the nonfiction genre can become an enjoyable, hands-on experience. Our classroom environment opened my eyes to various ways to have a writer make nonfiction writing their own. Writer’s have the ability to find a topic they want to learn more about and it gives them an outlet to teach others. Student are able to use prior knowledge to develop an idea about a certain topic and create a piece with factual information. I learned that factual information can easily sound like it comes straight out of a textbook, but after learning about the different ways it relates
Shea, Renee, Lawrence Scanlon, and Robin Scanlon. The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2013. 525-529,546-551. Print.