Week 1--Reading: TV Reality Shows

What a great way to start a book!!! I have just started reading Henry Jenkins' book Convergence Culture and I am intrigued by the first couple chapters. I find it interesting the number of people that follow reality television shows and spend a multitude of time trying to figure out the show before it even begins. I may not be one of these analytical viewers, but I will admit that I am completely sucked into the world of reality TV. I am a consistent viewer and supporter of American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, Hell's Kitchen, and Survivor. I never thought that I would get this involved in any television program, especially one that deals with the lives of other people.

I find that the discussion of reality TV is everywhere, including my classroom. We were having a class meeting the other day and one of my students began talking about Survivor and making predictions about what was going to happen on the next episode. This opened an entire conversation about the show, both past and present, and everyone's opinions about each team and member, who should stay, who should go, feelings about everyone's integrity or lack thereof, etc. It was amazing. My students were predicting, analyzing, summarizing, inferring, comparing and contrasting, explaining about cause and effect, and just generally comprehending the show. I never recognized the connection to reading skills that this type of discussion could bring before, but I will be using this in the future with my students for engaging activities. They didn't even realize the skills they were using until I attached labels to each skill. This may be a breakthrough...especially for my reading students.