Marie Lewis week 8

Throughout 401 and 402 our teachers always stressed the importance of making lessons meaningful for each student.  In order to do this, we must choose texts and activities that interest and motivate them.  Today as I spoke with my mentor teacher, she brought up a dilemma regarding this idea: it is extremely difficult to make lessons meaningful and connect when students do not have the background knowledge to relate.  The past few years my mentor teacher has taught “Number the Stars”, a story focusing on the Holocaust, Judaism, and mass execution.  During guided reading groups, my students had no exposure or understanding of the experience of jumping into a murky lake from a dock.  These simple things to me are unheard of to my students. My mentor teacher explained how hard it was to teach about this text because the student had trouble using schema to connect. I am wondering what I can do as a teacher to create meaningful lessons, while still introducing the students to new ideas, themes, and experiences.  

As I approach my literacy unit revolving around Greek Mythology, I am open to ideas to creating a connection with the students while holding true to the theme and new ideas that will be introduced.  How do we teach knowledge we take for granted to students who are completely unaware of certain things.  I look forward to challenging myself to explore literature while making a connection with my students and their understanding of the world.