ILLUMINATING LITERACY

What better way to hook your students and facilitate meaningful learning than to use excerpts from popular media in the classroom?  Obviously, in today's age, you must choose your texts carefully, but I have learned that using all genres of media can get kids interested and engaged, and they will also retain skills better.  Here are some sample lessons I have used in my classroom to teach reading comprehension, poetry concepts, and public speaking.  Note that some of these lessons are controversial in nature; I reserved these materials for grades 10-12 and only used them in trusting classroom settings with set boundaries and discussion rules.