Visual Journal Entry 3

An activity that we did in our Multiliteracies class last week struck me as an effective and memorable approach to teaching. Each student brought one object (or photo of an object) to class that could be used in the classroom to represent a particular concept or subject. As I am a biology teacher candidate, I brought a photo of my Aloe Vera plant. This plant is succulent, green, majestic, thick, and fleshy. It produces a liquid inside its stems that, when released, can be used for cosmetic or medicinal purposes. I chose this plant because it represents many biological and cross-curricular concepts. It is used differently in different socioeconomic and sociocultural settings, tying in its biological relevance to its cultural relevance.

An idea for teaching stemmed from this class activity. A class partner and I thought it would be interesting to get students in a biology classroom (for example, Life Sciences 11) to take a picture of one plant in or near their home that they felt a connection to. Once in class, they could share the picture with the class and explain why they picked that plant. Then, taking each student’s plant, the class could be spent classifying the different organisms as sexual or asexual reproducers (a content area for Life Sciences 11). This type of classroom activity allows for student inquiry as well as content-related learning.