A look at Margot Pepper's "Tuning In to Violence"

 

I chose to read Margot Pepper's "Tuning In to Violence: Students use math to analyze what TV is teaching them" because I am always looking for ways to broaden the perspectives of my 4th grade students around math. I think that schools compartmentalize math far too often, sacrificing real-world context and connection for the sake of "filling" students' minds with "skills" and later "drilling" them with standardized tests. And though I teach at a tiny progressive independent school, my General Studies colleagues and I definitely feel an urgency around "getting through" as much as the curriculum as possible.

Pepper reminds us that students will gladly and eagerly learn math skills through real-world application that is meaningful to them. In her 2nd and 3rd grade classes, she teaches graphing through asking students to watch television for 30 minutes a day, and then fill in a box on a special grid sheet that she's created every time they see, for example, "hitting, hurting, or killing" or "instances of put downs." Over the course of seven days the students collect the information, and then analyze the data in small groups, and compare it to data that Pepper has collected from past classes. Organically, they learn that graphing can be a tool to gather and synthesize important information about culture and society. 

I especially liked how Pepper's lesson helps students "tune in" to their own actions. She writes that "[w]henever students exhibit disruptive behavior, appearing to ape television--pretend shooting, arms flailing, mouths ceaselessly chattering gibberish, etc--I ask them to please turn off the television in their head if they happen to have left it running. Students often chuckle and, following my lead, turn off an imaginary knob in their ear." YES! I see this type of behavior so often in my classroom and I love the idea of helping students see that the influence of not just TV shows but YouTube, TikTok, games, and more might contribute to disruptive behavior.

I found Pepper's lesson quite appealing and plan to try it with my own class this year, though I think it needs an update. Pepper is writing about 2007, and in the 14 years that have passed there has been such an explosion of internet-based media that I need to update her lesson to include YouTube and TikTok and games like Fortnite. I would work with my students to come up with a list of media that they enjoy to analyze. I imagine that this lesson would be far more effective than me saying (as I've done many times before) "I'm tired of Mr. Beast! Even though he seems like a 'good guy,' I can't stand watching him blow things up in his backyard." 

Ultimately my goal is to use math to help open students' eyes not just to culture, but to "boy culture," so I would be sure to ask them questions about the gender identity of the perpetuators of acts of violence and aggression and disruptive behavior.

I think this could be an amazing lesson and I look forward to seeing how it works out.