One of my colleges courses had an assignment that both baffled and delighted me. As part of the discussion post for one of our short stories, ‘Daisy Miller, A Study‘, my professor wanted us to make and submit a meme to share with the class.

The whole time I was reading, my mind was searching for any symbols, interactions, or important themes that I could make my meme on. I was particualrly interested by the way Daisy Miller was perceived by the main character, and centered my meme on this concept. Bellow is the meme submitted!

I had a lot of fun getting to comment on discussion posts and see what my classmates had created. And it was a great way for us to use pop culture in our discussions, as well as break down themes, symbols, and core concepts in a way that is easy to convey and digest. It was a very fun assignment, and it stuck with me.

Fast forward many months. When I did my student teaching last fall, there was an awkward half-day in the middle of the week, and in the middle of reading Of Mice and Men. I knew that many students would be gone this day, and the 25 minute class period would not be long enough to do anything too complex. So, I decided to borrow this assignment idea from my professor and make my students create memes of their own!

Since the students weren’t done with the book, I wanted to ensure that there were no crucial spoilers involved. I made sure the class knew to only make a meme based on events from chapters 1-4, and that they did not, under any circumstances, google Of Mice and Men memes, since many are related to the ending. So, my mentor teacher and I made the following memes as spoiler-free examples:

In addition to the examples, I also provided a link to a free website with blank templates that they could easily use. This made it very accessible for students who may not be used to image editing. They also were instructed to not goo too crazy. “No skibidi toilet brainrot”, were more or less the words I used. I also asked them to focus on a specific character, scene, or theme for their meme. Once they made theirs, they were instructed to post them to the discussion board, along with a few sentences explaining why they chose the format and character/scene/theme that they did. Then I had them comment on a few classmate’s posts, to ensure there was some interaction going on.

This was such a fun assignment, and I think I may have enjoyed it more than they did. Not only was it a great way to spend a short class period, but it also had some additional benefits. They were engaged with an assignment and got to learn a skill without even realizing it. It required them to think back on their favorite moments from the book. They learned how to convey themes or ideas using images and pop culture. How many of us have learned about news through memes or tweets? How many of us communicate with an abundance of GIFs? Or how many of us have seen the economy explained by monkey videos? We communicate a lot with these pictures and silly videos. My students got experience with using them to break down events in order to describe them simply. And they had fun while doing it!

I think this is just one example of how lessons and assignments can work with the skills and interests that students already have. Another asissgnemnt I gave required them to make some sort of visual for the American Dream, and I had a few groups turn in Minecraft versions of Lennie and George’s dream farm. While subbing this week, sixth graders got to share Blookets with their class, which are quiz games that add competition and fun to learning new information. I’ve also seen students use Gimkit in classes, which are gamified lessons/learning practice tools. When we make learning fun, kids enjoy it more and become engaged.

This is one lesson I will 100% use again in my classes. It could be fun to have students to a meme for every chapter, that way they’re paying attention the whole time, trying to concoct the perfect meme to share. Then they can have memes in their notes for every chapter, which could be good visual tools for retention and note finding. The possibilities are limitless.

Updates for October Writing Goals: I’m almost halfway to 15,000 words, so I’m on pace for my first goal! My second goal is not so lucky. I’ve made ZERO submissions so far… I know, I know. But in my defense, I got sick yet again and had some busy days at work. So I’ll try to do better. Goal number three, writing three short stories, is going much better! Expect some of those to be shared here soon. And the bonus goal of getting some extra articles posted is going okay, I have a fun one planned for next week that just needs some polishing.

Thanks as always, dear readers! As thanks for making it this far, here are just some of the memes my students made for this project. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

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