How do I make world cultures and countries relevant to my population of students?

Question

I teach highschool Juniors at an urban highschool in Massachusetts. I have been teaching World Literature for just a couple of years and I've found that with all the technology in the world, that my students don't have an idea about what is going on outside their everyday lives. After discussing this with fellow teachers a question was formed; how can you teach about the ocean when your students have never seen, smelled, heard, tasted, or felt the ocean. We expect students to be able to read and learn about certain texts from around the world, yet how do we put those texts into context. The context is what I'm trying to teach. My students are always asking me about the importance of learning about the world, how do I make what I'm teaching relevent to them? That is the basis of my overarching question.

Answer 1

Hmm.

I teach world cultures in almost the exact opposite environment. I teach in a very rural district.

What I find works for me is lots of current events. Make the people and places across the world come to life. Metaphors are great.

As for your overarching question, its one that we all struggle with. There are times when I'm teaching about, say, Charlemagne, when I think, "will they survive through life without knowing that Charlemagne became king of the lombards?"

In short, I find the more energy and enthusiasm I put into my teaching, the more willing my students are willing to go along with me. The best teachers at my school all seem to follow the credo that you can never make yourself too vulnerable, intellectually, to your students. If YOU are crazy about the ocean, and go on and on about it, THEY will get the idea.

Don't panic about not getting everything to them. Just be excited, enthusiastic, and do your best. You will always have the kids in the back who stare out the window. And you know what? That's okay. If you've done what you can, you'll do fine.

One thing I learned in student teaching (which I did in an urban environment) was a game that was student directed. We would take our current topic, and somehow relate it to something in their daily lives, and then bounce a ball back and forth to allow them to discuss the issue. It was a structureless class (we did it maybe twice a quarter), but it at least gave you a chance to see how the students were thinking on a higher level.

I know I've been sort of rambling, but it's a hard topic to handle. Giving students the "compelling why" is always challenging. It's what you have to establish from the get go.

Have you seen "Freedom Writers"? See, the words and thoughts of our students are no less important than the words and thoughts of the greats. The great writers and thinkers just phrased them better and had more power to make people listen. (and, of course, probably more education to make them more comprehensive).

So maybe try an experiment like that, where you make your students connect with the authors their reading as PEOPLE, and not dead old white men writing about things far far away.

In the meantime, hang on to the little moments. My school was vandalized by a rival school a few weeks back, and I was so proud that my students wanted to "sprinkle salt" on the football field of the rival school in retaliation, "just like the Romans did to Carthage". (I of course discouraged that behavior).

LIkewise, I had a student get visably upset when he read about Oliver Cromwell's treatment of the Irish during the commonwealth period in England. It make me realize that even when we don't think about it, the little things do affect our students.

The fact that you're ASKING shows what a wonderful teacher you are. We both know teachers who are burned out and could care less if a student had a bloody nose in front of them, so long as they turned their assignment in on time.

Answer 2

When I was teaching an intro for languages to 8th graders I was trying to impress upon them the importance of a second language. We started with careers and discussed how they need to be global in those careers. Then we looked at where those careers could take them. We even looked at a multinational company, only to have the students discover that this company had offices/factories/holdings on 5 continents and in almost every major country!! Talk about eye opening!!
Current events are also helpful, as the previous writer stated. We also looked up "this date in history". They did research on famous people and sites. We looked at the culture, especially as it pertained to the language. We also researched the life of a teen in these countries - school, social life, music, dance, sports, etc. Made them see how alike and how different we all are.

Good luck... you would think that with globalization this would be easier, but it only seems to be getting harder.


Good luck!!

Answer 3

Well , thats a tough one. I find the best thing to do is first give them a topic on something in the world that you are going to teach them and ask then to write down what each of them know about it. Then listen to wht they come up with. Then maybe give them reasons why these things affect them. As for things like the sea etc why not get a video on these topics or do a role play kind of activity which will show them how these things work or why these things are necessary to learn about. Find out about things in their culture which may be similar in some ways to what you are telling them.Make it about them more than about the subject and thats the way to get them really interested in it. Like the sea, maybe get sounds of the sea and let them close their eyes and listen to it and then they guess what they think it is and then you put up a moving picture with the sound playing and then they see what it is. Im sorry if i have confused you, I tried!! Hope it helps a bit

Answer 4

Try finding a teacher where the issue at hand is an every day fact. Like if you're reading "Death in Venice'', or ''Boccaccio'', try finding an Italian teacher who would be willing to exchange letters or emails on behalf of her/his class. It could be like a sister class thing. Your students could formulate questions to ask and mail them, then they could do the same. I bet the studends would be in to it, and you could try posting questions on the Yahoo Italy Answers forum.
If you're in Mass., can't you guys take a field trip to Quebec or something, or the Ocean? When I was in school we took some week long field trips, it was pretty sweet.