Mary K. Donahue
In the classroom, teachers are increasingly met with the challenge of getting the material to relate to the students on a personal level. For most, growing up is a very social occupation, made more so by the pressures that society seems to place on each of us to become a consumer. Therefore, around the later grades in middle school and in all of high school, when students are becoming more affected by these pressures, it is important for them to become cognizant of it. What could possibly relate to a students’ life more than the study of the themes and tones in our very society? I decided to design a unit that focuses mainly on the analysis and interpretation of society’s impact on the individual. This unit will intertwine pieces of art and literature to allow students to begin to look critically at our society.
Adolescents are among one of the most susceptible groups to this sort of societal pressure. The hormones running rampant in their bodies already have them confused as to what sort of individual they want to be. In addition, companies recognize that around this age, teens become a large portion of the market. They are just beginning to have cash of their own to spend. They have easier access to magazines and malls; therefore there is a huge push to design advertising campaigns around the wants of the younger generation of shopper. All we have to do is take a look at all the visual representations of society around us to confirm this.
According to Howard Gardner (1983) there are several different kinds of intelligences. The idea of multiple intelligences presents a unique problem to a teacher of any subject, but specifically to a subject as textually grounded as English. Gardner believes that there are several basic intelligences, which can then be supplemented with other types as a function of culture and upbringing. The several main types are: linguistic, logical-mathematical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, and spatial. It becomes a challenge to attempt to incorporate all of these in a curriculum that is borne mostly out of books. However as a teacher, it is necessary to ensure that all the different kinds are being covered in the classroom. Every student must learn the fundamentals of language and communication, and we, as teachers, must be able to play on all types of intelligences to maximize my ability to reach all my students.