Thanks to social media memes are ubiquitous in our culture, but they aren't a new phenomenon. From illuminated manuscripts to Killroy memes have entertained us for generations, but how can we use them in the classroom? My brilliant friend Taneesha Thomas (@T_A_Taneesha) inspired me to think of new ways to use memes in my classroom. Last school year, my students used a meme generator to develop our classroom norms. |
First, I had my students discuss in their small groups how we should all behave in class in order to have a successful year. After a few minutes, I showed students a few examples of memes and asked them to share out ones that they have seen on social media or in various marketing campaigns. I then challenged students to create their own memes based on their small group discussions.
Students had 10 minutes to create as many memes as they could on their Chromebooks using Memeful, a free meme generator. Group members then came back together and shared their memes with one another. Each group then selected their top three memes and placed them in a Slide deck I had shared with the class via Google Classroom. The class then came back together and we upvoted our favorite memes that we then adopted as our class norms. You can see some of their work below.
How will you use memes to engage students in your class?
Students had 10 minutes to create as many memes as they could on their Chromebooks using Memeful, a free meme generator. Group members then came back together and shared their memes with one another. Each group then selected their top three memes and placed them in a Slide deck I had shared with the class via Google Classroom. The class then came back together and we upvoted our favorite memes that we then adopted as our class norms. You can see some of their work below.
How will you use memes to engage students in your class?