I completely acknowledge that my train of thought on the subject of relating lessons to media which is omnipresent in the students' lives is not new and it certainly did not originate with me. In my class today, my mentor put together a lesson using articles on video games, Big Hero 6 and the viral blue/black, white/gold dress pic. These are topics and items that are of incredible interest to these kids and they proved that by working intently, writing responses to articles about them all period.

It isn't that the students are being tricked into learning by working on assignments concerning things which entertain them. They know it's a school lesson. They know that they are learning and what they are learning. It's just that that much easier because the information is interesting to them, or rather the information is glazed in a topic or series of topics that interest them. Making connections from writing and reponding to articles, using RATE, citing textual evidence, etc. to topics like Big Hero 6 and the dress pic allows them to retain the information in their long-term memory as they are not likely to forget something so pervasive and interesting any time soon.

Patrick Magoohan as Edward I "Longshanks"

Students are more connected to media now than to real world situations, or rather that the real world situations they can relate to almost always involve some sort of media. In my research this semester I am finding that my students (8^th graders only) are spending an inordinate amount of time at home, by themselves watching Netflix or “playing” on their phones. I want to be clear, I am not in the camp that believes this to be a problem. I believe that times change and culture and social habits must and do change with the times. And just as those habits change, so must teaching methodology. The research seems to show that kids are relatively the same as they were 20 years ago. When I was in middle school I spent a lot of time by myself as well. And the things I was doing by myself differed from those of today’s youth only in terms of technological advancement.

In terms of teaching, I do try and relate as much as I can to movies and TV, partially because it has to do with my research but mostly because I love movies and TV and I find the kids do too. That story I related about Braveheart and the meaning of “shank” is a prime example of how long-term memory can function and retain information when properly motivated. I don’t think I remember what the word shank means because it’s particularly interesting in and of itself and to be honest I hadn’t thought of that movie or that definition until I saw the word on the page during class. I think I retained the information because I love Braveheart and because I paid attention when I watched it. This is where my theory begins to unravel, but only slightly. I, as an adult who is interested in film and TV media tend to research the films and TV shows I watch on sites varying from Wikipedia to IMDB.

The relation of literature to current media such as TV, movies, music, video games, etc. seems pretty clear. The only danger I see in that students should be warned about is that of movie or TV adaptations of literature that may not be accurate, i.e. they excise important details and/or characters, scenes from the text. My original research topic dealt with these issues.