Making Meaningful Connections

Yesterday, I was able to observe my mentor teacher create connections in a unique and awesome way. We are studying the phases of the moon and the relationship between the moon, the earth, and the sun. We have been focusing a lot on academic language and the vocabulary words the students need to know to talk about this topic. One of the most important words is illuminate, since it is important to use this word to describe how the moon appears to be bright in the night sky since it is illuminated by the sun. The definition we generally use is “lit up.” My teacher was introducing this content for the first time yesterday, the Tuesday after MLK weekend. After she gave the definition and example, she announced to each class that she had read a quote over the weekend that she found my Martin Luther King, Jr. The quote had nothing to do with the science content but was related to current events and the recent holiday.

“Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.”

After a moment of pausing to let the students think about the quote, she asked if someone could explain what Martin Luther King, Jr. meant when he said love illuminates the life. Many students raised their hands and were able to share a clear connection between the word, the context, and the science context. I was incredibly impressed by how she was able to have students form connections in such an applicable way and how it really deepened the students’ understanding of the meaning. Seeing how she used an example unrelated to the content but related to a timely holiday inspired me to be more creative about how I am prompting students to form better connections in my lessons.

Has anyone else seen great examples of this? Since I saw this, I have been trying to form connections more often and in more real-world contexts, but I would love to hear about anyone else's experiences with this!