Describing your consumer choice may change you as a consumer.
Today, children are immersed in cultures of consumption such that every aspect of their lives is touched by a buy-and-consume modality. In particular, children in North America are increasingly experiencing the effects of consumer culture at unprecedented levels of involvement. It becomes necessary, therefore, to examine the impact of consumerism in order to assess identity formation and development in youth. Young people are receiving an endless barrage of material messages encouraging them to spend in order to bolster their self-image. Indeed, children from the ages of 4 to 12 have increasingly been defined and viewed by their spending capacity. Girls especially are targeted by marketers to sell them a whole line of products they 'need' to emulate a feminine ideal. There is mounting evidence to suggest that the structure of childhood is eroding and children are suffering from serious physical, emotional and social deficits directly related to consumerism.(6)
The one activity that I feel will answer and connect the students to the essential questions of this unit will occur when students bring in their "chosen" object from home and begin to explain the object and its significance. I feel that through our rich discussions, student will be able to gain a deeper understanding of consumer choices and the thought that goes into making them. The forum for this conversation will take place over many classroom meetings, the meetings being one of the six components of a research based program that has been implemented in our school as "The Responsive Classroom."
As mentioned above, the implementation of the RC program in its initial stages and the of the six components, we have implemented two of these behavior modifications. I described the importance and usefulness of conducting classroom meetings and the second behavior modification is the importance of using "teacher language." Teacher language involves being cognizant of how we speak and communicate with students, families, and staff within our school family. More information on RC program appear in my lesson plans that follow.
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