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I Ain’t Never
Gonna Need This...
Contextual Teaching in the Classroom
Through the Use of Printed Media
By
Scott Barkley
Research
When hearing the words “Language Arts”, the same
pictures jump into the minds of students. To them it equals sitting
in a desk, copying definitions from a dictionary, and reading
stories that, for some unexplained reason, have been deemed classics
and now must be learned by every living soul on the planet. In
other words, the same tactics used thirty years ago are used today
to a vastly different audience. In the past decade, social institutions
have changed dramatically. Adults are reminded of how old they
are getting with each new “I Love the (fill in your decade
here)” special by VH-1. This is a new day and a new crowd
to which we are trying to communicate. The Jeffersons
are now The Osbornes. That’s Incredible is now Jackass.
“Children with all backgrounds
bring with them to school extensive involvement in literacy_” (Zemelman et al.58). In all
English classrooms, there are the students who have no interest
whatsoever in reading or writing the assigned material. However,
there is something to which they do have an interest, and
this particular something has a written piece on it somewhere.
The hobbies of the people in our classes are as varied as the
people occupying the desks. It is imperative to find avenues
which tap into these numerous areas represented by our students.
Students who are involved in the topic actively will work
harder on being sure the final piece is of high quality. They
care about the topic, therefore they care about the end product.
This also results in ownership of the product by the student.
In the end, they are assessors of it just as much as the teacher.
This doesn’t mean that the teacher completely fades into
the background. Instead, they are instructing on how students
may improve their work. “Good teaching means helping students
learn these true authoring processes” (Zemelman et al 60).
In no way are literary classics to be abandoned in this process.
The study of books, journals, essays, and the like can still be
appreciated by today’s student. The only difference is that
now teens will understand how the ability to write and communicate
on several different levels to the reader may be just as useful
in a sports magazine as it is in Great Expectations.
The purpose of education is to enrich the individual and give
that person the desire to learn later in life when their motivation
is wanting to know, and not to keep from getting a bad grade and
therefore lose car key privileges. The passion for learning is
the goal. Without it, there are people who might be pretty good
at following orders and not much else. Educators are to provide
a model for learning that will stick to the student, for “knowledge
that is simply poured into the human mind, that in no way modifies
behavior or creates a reaction or causes an expression, is likely
knowledge gone to waste” (Parnell 14).
National Standards/QCCs
Standard 1: Students read poems, short
stories, essays, novels, magazines, nespapers, charts, graphs,
and technical documents for pleasure and self-improvement.
Standard 9: Students acquire new vocabulary
through reading and listening while demonstrating progress through
speaking and writing.
Standard 15: Students write in Standard
English sentences with correct grammar and mechanics.
Standard 18: Students participate in
the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing,
proofreading, and publishing.
Standard 24: Students work as team
members to solve problems.
Standard 25: Students compose and revise
on a computer.
Overview of Assignment
Students will be placed in various groups and put together
a newspaper featuring a topic of their choice. Groups will not
exceed more than five people. Each newspaper will be divided
into different sections so students will receive a variety of
experiences which will cover several areas of the curriculum.
Within each newspaper, there will be one editor and several
writers. Students are to determine who will handle a particular
“beat” and write according to their interest –
whether it be sports, entertainment, or news. The group works
together in producing the layout of the product, but the editor
has the final say in production.
Materials
Day 1
Objective: Students will be placed into groups and brainstorm
concepts for putting together an original magazine or newspaper.
Groups are formed. Positions are arranged among the group
members before students engage in a brainstorming session on the
topic areas of their magazine.
Day 2
Objective: Students will begin gathering information on their
specific area of the magazine. This may be done during school,
but mostly will be completed during the afternoon and evening
hours.
Day 3
Objective: Writers will present the first draft of their stories
to other members of the group as well as their editor. Corrections
are made to produce the second draft.
Day 4
Objective: Editors will make final suggestions on lengthening/tightening
stories. Layout is finalized.
Day 5
Students make final drafts and editing to stories. In the
computer lab, stories are typed up and ready to be sent off to
print.
Assessment
A money system will be used to determine a portion of the
grade for the project. At this point, groups from other classes
will be given twenty fake dollars for investing in advertising
to be placed in the separate newspapers. The newspapers which
are more attractive to the investing groups will end up with more
money. Groups may invest no more than ten dollars with any one
newspaper/magazine. This will account for 50% of the grade.
The other 50% will be determined by the teacher according to the
following rubric.
Written Material 1 2 3 4 5
Creativity 1 2 3 4 5
Arrangement of Copy 1 2 3 4
5
Professionalism 1 2 3 4 5
Bibliography
Daniels, Harvey, Arthur Hyde, and Steven Zemelman. Best
Practice: New Standards for Teaching and Learning in America’s
Schools. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinneman. 1998
Parnell, Dale. Why Do I Have to Learn This?. Waco,
TX. Cord. 1995.
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