Memes to Connect with Your Class

Overview

A meme is formally defined as: an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation.

While this definition (coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins) is particularly philosophical, for most of us the term ‘meme’ instantly conjures images of grumpy cats and videos of Charlie biting fingers. But how can this culturally significant phenomena be used for learning? How can we use the popularity of memes to engage our students? Let’s take a look at some school meme ideas.

A Quick Look

What is it?

This video from How Stuff Works’ Jonathan Strickland, gives a very neat history of how memes have evolved and just what they mean in popular culture.

How to create a meme

There are a number of ways to begin creating memes. You can use nearly any painting or word processing program, or, choose the quick and easy option and try one of the many free online tools:

In Practice

1. Relevant lesson content

Whether you are introducing a new topic or trying to add some life to an old one, a meme is a very quick and simple way to inject some fun into a discussion. Try using a meme at the start of a lesson and you will find that something as light hearted as a Bad Joke Eel can lead to some much deeper conversations, discussion and thinking.

Eel meme

2. Fill in the blank

A much more interesting and engaging way of asking questions, try creating a ‘half-meme’ that is relevant to a classroom topic or subject. Ask your students to use their own thoughts on the subject to fill in the blank. Not only can you gear this to push your classes critical thinking, but you will find that students have much more thoughtful opinions when questions are presented just a little differently.

Fry meme

3. Rules and advice

Setting and enforcing rules is a necessary but not particularly cheerful or friendly side of running an effective classroom. One excellent idea from educator Tracee Orman is to use classroom memes for delivering class rules or procedural messages: Instead of your traditional class rules poster, use memes to deliver your message with humor.

Ski Instructor meme

4. Create their own

Using the tools mentioned above, your students can very quickly create their own memes based on topics and areas of study. The concise and generally witty nature of memes will require your students to think carefully about their subject and the visual nature of memes makes for colorful and captivating classroom displays. It is worth noting that some memes can verge on inappropriate for students, so a level of supervision is recommended.

Hamlet meme

5. Classroom ‘Likes’, ‘ReTweets’ and ‘Upvotes’

This activity is a nice way of providing peer feedback to your students while also replicating the viral nature of memes in your classroom. Have your students pin all of their self created student memes up on a board or wall. Then, give each student ten post-it notes or stickers and explain that each note is their personal ‘Like’, Retweet or Upvote button. Students can then look at each others work and stick notes to their favourite memes with a small positive message written on the back. The meme with the most notes is then declared the ‘viral’ hit.

 

Links and Next Steps

 

Could you see memes working in your classroom? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

6 Comments

    1. Brilliant! Love the “Teacher arrives home” one! There is no better way to learn ‘meming’ than the forceful feedback from those in the know :)

  1. This has really opened my eyes – thanks! There is a really big issue with plagiarism currently across UK HEI’s & im looking for new ways to tackle it. This article has offered some great options.

    1. Glad to help Geraldine! Yeah, plagiarism is a very challenging area and a little fun and engagement is certainly an innovative approach.

      One of my favourite methods for battling plagiarism is one used by college professor Keith Hamon. He uses Google Docs with his writing classes to monitor progress and spot any concerning trends. He published a post for us on how he does it:
      https://www.fractuslearning.com/2013/10/21/teaching-writing-google-docs/

      Best of luck Geraldine!

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