COMEDIAN
My fifth graders are at that point in their development in which they are beginning to make sense of various aspects of society, as well as their own understandings of themselves, in order to make meaning of their role within the world around them. Therefore, it is more important than ever that I provide the most holistic and meaningful education as I possibly can. In order to accomplish this goal, I utilized one of the most overlooked yet beneficial resources that I have: the students themselves. As any teacher will admit: the vast majority of students are not afraid to ask for what they want, and oftentimes this translates into what most teachers would describe as a complaint or whine. However, I took a step back and asked myself: what if I indulge them? What would that look like?
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First and foremost, I needed to analyze what students wanted in school, and plan to implement opportunities accordingly. Between the instance of a student pondering aloud "when are we going to do fun things in this class like we do in Science?" and the all too often response from others that "reading just isn't fun," it became quite obvious that my students had a previously formed negative association with reading class, one that came about long before they set foot in my classroom. Due to this, in planning to provide my students with access to a variety of people, programs, and resources, I wanted to implement an opportunity that would not only open doors academically, but that were also meaningful to my students in terms of facilitating positive connections with the skills and content that they are being exposed to on a daily basis in the English Language Arts classroom.
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The idea for this opportunity actually came relatively organically, because I am new to the area and was seeking out interesting events and activities for myself in order to gain a better understanding of the community in which I live and teach. One night, my husband and I found ourselves at the local comedy club, and I had an epiphany of sorts: this would be incredibly cool for my students to take part in! But how can I make it come to fruition?
Throughout the next few weeks, I communicated with the comedian in discussions about what kind of figurative language I wanted to be in the set as well as some best practices in terms of how to make meaningful connections for my students in the identification of kinds of language that we'd been studying. We decided that a powerpoint would be great to really cement those connections between his set and what we'd been working on in the classroom. Below is the finished powerpoint that our comedian went over at the end of his set to facilitate those meaningful connections.
See the Lesson Plan below for specific understandings in terms of figurative language that I taught in order for students to fully comprehend the jokes in our previously created set, thus enhancing their first experience at a comedy show.
In addition to the fact that I had an absolute blast in implementing this opportunity for my students, I do believe that the planning and implementation of having a comedian visit our school and perform for my fifth graders was something that they will always remember. This is their last year here before moving on to middle and high school, and I am incredibly grateful to be given the chance to provide them with opportunities like this that will impact them throughout their academic careers and beyond.
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In seeking out an out-of-the-box opportunity like a comedian, I was able to open doors for my students to do the same. This event allowed me to model creative problem solving and facilitated an understanding that learning doesn't have to look or sound like what everyone thinks it is. My students understand now that the quest for knowledge can be fun and unique and not necessarily traditional, but still incredibly meaningful and worthwhile.
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In facilitating student growth towards becoming critically thinking, creative, and open-minded individuals, I am not only positively impacting their futures, but the future of our community as well.