This document discusses using popular culture to help motivate struggling writers and help students build their identity. It suggests having students reflect on cultural topics like movies, music, and television to find writing topics that interest them. Using cultural references can make writing feel more relevant and help students see themselves as writers. The document also stresses the importance of building strong teacher-student relationships to create a safe environment for students to share their writing.

1. Using Popular Culture to help students build
their identities and inspire writing

3. After reading –reflective and inferential questions:
» What did this story make you think about?
» What do you think the author was trying to
teach us?
» What was the most important part of the story?
Why?

5. Typical Student responses
» Non-verbal communication (shoulder shrug)
» “I don’t know what you want me to write”
» “It don’t make me think about nothing”
» “Who cares about that dumb story!”

6. “Writing now more regularly activates reading. In
front of computer screens and keyboards, people
typically read from prior positions as composers
and messagers.”
Holding on to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones, 46)

8. » If I want my students to see themselves as writers, I
have to help them feel like they have something to
say.
“If these (sports affiliations, hip-hop, movies, televisions, etc.)
cultural resources are dismissed for whatever reason, (too
exploitive, too commercial, too tied to television, too ‘low
class’), if the middle/professional-class type of book culture is
perceived as the only useful literacy experience, the result is
profoundly alienating and inequitable.
(Holding on to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones, p.96)

9. » Student identity is significantly influenced by
popular culture.
“Children appropriate cultural material to
participate in and explore their worlds.”
(Literacy as Social Practice, p.114)

10. Option 1: Think about the story of your name,
does your name fit you, why or why not?
Option 2: Think of a favorite movie or TV show.
Which character is most like you? Or Which
character would you be. Why?

12. Help them “build” their writing identity, they need to
increase their own cultural capacity and awareness
» Similar to a reflection journal or writer’s notebook
but a little less mobile and more concrete and
tangible
» Marks their space
» Things about how they see themselves on the
inside and how others see them on the outside,
form of a hand, star, circles, etc.
» Contents lend themselves to writing topics and
connections to literacy activities over time

13. I Am Poem Robeson Poet-Tree

14. » Virtual identity
box/pin board
» Inspiration for writing
pieces with images,
topics of interest
» Must be done with
adult supervision

15. » Begin at the beginning of the year and add
throughout each unit, quarter, etc. (how have I
changed)
» Character study for literature, historical
contexts
» Expand across all curricular subjects

16. » If students are going to take risks by conferring,
sharing and writing, they have to feel safe and
valued.
“The most important part of teaching and learning is
directly related to the relationship that exists between the
teacher and the student.”
(Do You Know Me Enough to Teach Me, 37)

17. “It is impossible to teach a child before you
first capture and inspire that child. The
special relationships that exist among
teachers, students, and administrators are
the keys that unlock the door to success and
excellence in any school at any level.”
(Do You Know Enough About Me to Teach Me? p.2)

18. Create shared experiences for community building
Try it Out
» Change the lyrics to a common song to reflect
thoughts about some aspect of the school day
ex: lunch, recess, P.E. Math, etc.
» Share by reading or singing

19. » Share favorite song ahead of time
» Play that song during daily writing time, identify their
favorite part
» Discuss what it means as a class
» Invite the all students to pick their own thought-provoking
part of the song
» Comment in Google Document
-what is the author trying to say?
-what does it make you think about?
» Find opportunities throughout the day and beyond to refer
back to the song. Lends itself to many extensions to this,
poetry, mechanics, grammar, refer to it or its meaning or
help them make connections to the literature

20. Never Say Never
by Justin Beiber

21. Karis’ Favorite Part
I gotta be the best,
and yes
We're the flyest
Like David and
Goliath
I conquered the
giant

22. In karite kid jaden was david and these other kids were trying to
bully him. But the kids challenged jaden in a karate match.
Jaden was worried that he wouldn’t beat them but he did and
he felt happy.
This makes me think about veggie tales because Goliath was a
cucumber and david was brocli. David beat Goliath. This story
reminds me of when I first started playing soccer when I was
little. When I first started to play soccer I thotght that I couldn’t
play as well as the other kids. I was SCARED! Then when I got
older I got really good at it. I jounied a new team. That team
was called Comets! My coach said that I was one of the most
agresive players. Now that the seasons over I could take a break
from all the soccer practice in the rain and my games. But I
really miss it and I want to play again.

23. » How do you motivate your struggling writers?
» How do u help students ‘see’ themselves?
» How do you feel about the use of popular
culture in classroom?

24. » CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or
texts, supporting a point of view with reasons
» CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.2 Write informative/explanatory texts
to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
» CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.3 Write narratives to develop real or
imagined experiences or events using effective technique,
descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
» CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.6 With guidance and support from
adults, use technology to produce and publish writing (using
keyboarding skills) as well as to interact and collaborate with
others.

25. » Looking Like Me By Walter Dean Myers
» Do You Know Enough About Me to Teach Me by
Stephen G. Peters
» Holding on to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones by
Thomas Newkirk
» Literacy as Social Practice Edited by Vivian Vasquez,
Kathryn Egawa, Jerome Harste, Richard Thompson
» http://www.readwritethink.org
» http://www2.facinghistory.org/Campus/rm.nsf/sc
/IDCharts