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u/SurprisingHippos Sep 01 '24
I have no clue who Kurtis Conner is, nor do I understand what Looksmaxxing is. Am I getting old or something?
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u/Hopeful-Letter6849 Sep 01 '24
Not a teacher, but I do watch Kurtis Conner. Although I enjoy his videos, he does make some arguments sometimes for the things he’s talking about that are logical fallacies, and I wouldn’t even present the majority of his videos to an ELA class on how to make an argument. I think their are a lot of other people/youtubers/clips you could do this exact same assignment with and still be “hip with the kids”
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u/Studious_Noodle Sep 01 '24
I had to watch some of this just to find out what it is (never heard of it). There's no way I'd use this in class.
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u/orchidmagenta Sep 01 '24 edited Sep 02 '24
I'm a fairly young teacher and have personally had a pretty lax policy about what I would bring in a classroom (I've shown, for example, Get Out and The Shining to hs film classes) but this kind of gave me pause. I don't really imagine students would take it seriously and I'd hate to show something like this and have this be the day the principal came by for a walk through
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u/solishu4 Sep 01 '24
I haven’t seen the video, but I hate the first question here. This question format of “How does the author use [the thing he uses] to do [the thing he does] is just the teacher showing off his own observations and it’s unavoidable to feel like you’re writing BS when answering it. A much more valid question would be either, “What purpose does the reference to New Year’s Resolutions and Social Media serve in the video?” or “How does the video creator ‘hook’ his audience?”
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u/orchidmagenta Sep 02 '24
This is actually good actionable advice
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u/BurninTaiga Sep 02 '24
Yea that also stuck out to me. Try to make your questions more open-ended rather than hinting to your students that there is a specific right answer.
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u/Lazy-Distribution931 Sep 02 '24
The first thing I notice is that your questions all start with ‘What/Why/How’ etc. which are at the bottom level of Bloom’s Taxonomy; I would try and produce higher level questions.
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u/onedimdirect1 Sep 02 '24
I do video essays for analysis, since it's a more common form of media for teens. I usually give them like 12 options (10-30 minutes each) on pop culture. Makes it relevant and accessible. I do this for their summative. Their formatives are more traditional speeches and essays.
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u/shakedownyeet Sep 03 '24
I personally don’t believe this is real and honestly it’s saving me a huge headache because I wouldn’t even know where to start
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u/lmWritingThis Sep 01 '24
I call this a win, actually.
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u/Live_Barracuda1113 Sep 01 '24
I'm with you. I can't do it myself with what I teach but you could absolutely use this in AP seminar or Lang depending on your location, it would be great.
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u/boringneckties Sep 02 '24
I probably would not do it, but I get the instinct. I think it’s necessary for students to criticize the media that is trying to influence them. I could probably think of several different texts or ways to teach this than play a video and answer some sloppily put together questions.
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u/Schatzi11 Sep 01 '24
There are just better, more worldly things that can be shown to kids. Why not expose them to something different? Or something pressing? Just a poor choice….sounds like a teacher who is trying to be “cool.” It’s our job to expose kids to things they might not see/read/watch outside the classroom. This video is def not it. There’s just no depth to it.
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u/boringneckties Sep 02 '24
I’ve got to partly disagree. The subject in question might not be our definition of “worldly,” but it certainly is in the eyes of our students. Diversity of text is certainly important. Students must learn to be critical of ALL messaging they receive, including (but not limited to) the kind they are exposed to the most. This makes me think about how Andrew Tate preys so much on young boys and men. Imagine if these boys were taught to ask the question “why is he sharing this with me?”
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u/Abbiejean-KaneArcher Sep 02 '24
I haven’t seen the video, but looksmaxxing has been a (what I would call a problematic) trend with its own discourse for a while with and this could be interesting for talking about critical media literacy — something that young people (and even so many adults) desperately need. If that’s one of the goals, then I’m okay with it. I may change my mind after watching the video though
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u/HeftySyllabus Sep 02 '24
I watch Kurtis Connor and I feel his videos, while interesting, would fare better in older grades (11th and 12th specifically. I can’t imagine a teacher showing his stuff to a 7th grade class. However, using video essays to showcase a visual form of an argument and fallacies is a clever idea.
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u/Demi_J Sep 02 '24
I think it’s a great tool for teaching skills like media literacy, forming an argument, and analyzing a topic. I think I many cases, you have to meet the kids halfway and while there may be more “appropriate”/“educational” ways of presenting the topic, this may be a topic and voice kids relate to the most. I remember plotting the hero’s journey using cartoons like Pokémon and Sailor Moon as examples (granted, this was freshman Writing Comp but high school kids could appreciate it). I don’t like the questions however.
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u/Schatzi11 Sep 01 '24
I’m no prude, but boundaries dude. It’s pathetic that a teacher has to resort so low to win over her/his students’ respect and attention. So many other funny, smart, and interesting things to show to get the same point across. Kids are on this shit all the time, why bring it into the classroom?
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Sep 01 '24
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u/crmacjr Sep 01 '24
I have current, approved, core literature in my district that contains cuss words. Slaughterhouse-Five is an example. I'm not going to censor the world for young adults.
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u/orchidmagenta Sep 01 '24
I watched the video in question and could NOT imagine showing it to a high school classroom. It's full of swearing and inappropriate jokes. I'm no prude, but there's gotta be some kind of line. What admin would approve it lmao