Sex, drug abuse, abortion, family conflicts, discrimination... Many authors agree that young adolescents feel attracted to stories reflecting these realities they must face in their everyday lives. However, does this mean we can touch upon those topics in your ESL classrooms? In what conditions? To what extent? Many are the questions, and much is the time we have to exchange our opinions. So, what do you think?
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17 comments:
hi!
there are so many aspects to take into consideration when selecting material for our classes that this issue is very difficult to manage...
I think that theachers should take just one aspect each time (for example in each class) because student will discuss every desition you take about the topic you choose.
maybe I'm forgetting some other things but maybe I can post something else later.
decision? decition? I don't know... I'll check.
I've checked: decision.
I think that the topics previously mentioned (family conflicts, abortion, discrimination, etc) should be touched in the clasrooms because these are topics that are closely related to teenagers nowadays. The idea of teaching a language allows us to select material in which these topics are presents. So, we can use it as an excuse to deal with certain topics that may be considered taboo when dealing with them openly. We us teachers have the power when we decide about the material we will use in our classrooms. We should take positive advantage of that!
No doubt having the possibility to choose the material we want to work with in the classroom is an advantage but in my opinion, most important is that we take into account our students' interests and concerns. This will encourage them to discuss freely and consecuently they will find the class appealing for them. Of course this can be risky sometimes, specially for those parents who may find certain topics as taboo, but as long as students can get a benefit from it or find certain information significant for their lives, it will be worthwhile.
I think that if the students are interested in the topic you choosed, the discussion you promote will help them to think about their own reality, at least for some minutes. but it is also a problem. the teacher has to be very aware of what a discussion imply and has to have a very good capacity to guide the group in a propper way.
To be honest, I don't know if I am ready to deal with so controversial issues in my classroom. But I think I will try because it is very important for adolescents to have an adult to guide them or al least to listen to them. And we should always take into account the context of our students.
I think these topics are rather tricky to deal with if you're not prepare to do so. It's advisable to have a good preparation in this kind of issues, so you can cope easily with them. Definitely, in spite of the controversy that these topics generate, they should be tackle in adolescent's classrooms
I agree with Silvina. We should let students choose what they want to read based on their interests and concerns. We as teacher can present our students with really interesting and controversial topics but if students don’t like the topic we’ve chosen there will be no place for discussion and it will be difficult to meet our goal.
In relation to the question if we can touch topics such as discrimination, drug abuse, abortion, etc in your ESL classrooms, I think that these and many other topics can be dealt in our classrooms but, as Karina said, first teachers need to know how to deal with them by having a good preparation.
I think that we as teachers should give students the opportunity to bring their own material or let them choose the topics they would like to read about. And once we had their ideas, select the books. However, it’s important to check the material or if it is appropriate to adolescents.
We should take into account our students interests and concerns. If students like what they read, perhaps they will read again.
I think that teachers should select material related to drugs, abortion, discrimination, etc in their lessons since they can create an interesting debate and they give students the possibility of talking about these topics freely.
Teachers should be prepared to deal with these topics in a delicate way.
I think that it is possible to deal with so controversial issues, but we must always be aware of the unexpected results. If we want to create a debate about one of those topics, at least we have to know the realities of our students, because it is possible to hear something for which we are not prepare to deal with. Although we choose the correct material, before proposing it in our classroom, we have to think in all the possible answers, and how we are going to face them. Also, we must be conscious that if our students feel that they can talk with us about controversial topics, they may feel enough confident...so we have to think about that previously in order to be ready to react in a good way.
As most of you have already said, it is possible and students may feel engage, but we must be prepared.
Giselle Albim
To start with, I think that teachers should know a lot about their students' life conditions (as well as their families')before letting them choose a book that deals with these particular topics. This will be useful when planning discussion and reflection time and will also help them avoid awkwards moments. For sure kids are ready to talk about almost anything, as they are constantly exposed to them, sand sometimes they even need to feel that they are heard and their opinion is important. But the difficult part is to measure the consequences because bringing certain issues up within a classroom context can require family permission.
In my experience, being prepared to deal with these "special" topics is not just to be able to give an opinion or express a belief, it also has to do with accepting other's opinions, whether they agree or disagree with us.
I think that these controvercail issues have to be talked by a specailist taht knows how to deal with them. To be honest, I don´t feel with enough capacity to deal with these topics. Patricia
I think that these controversial issues have to be talked by a specialist that knows how to deal with them. To be honest, I don't feel with enough capacity to deal with these topics.
Patricia
I agree with all the people that say that we as teacher have to be very aware of our students' reality and at the same time to know very well the topic we are going to deal with, the controversies it may produce and all the parameters that this topic can bring.
Nowadays it`s very difficult for a teacher of any subject to deal with controversial topics because they deal with heterogeneous groups of students who may have different problems. The teacher must know the students very well so as not to affect them with these topics.
Renèe.
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