Originally published on Desert Sun - April 1st, 2024
As National Reading Month comes to an end, Molly Hamill, a virtual teacher based in La Quinta, shares her approach to infusing humor into history lessons for her fifth grade students through the production of satirical videos.
"We could value the formats that children care about because there is merit to it," she said, "and it gives them something to connect with when you're trying to teach them."
Molly Hamill launched her comedy career in Los Angeles in her early 20s. By day, she assisted talent agents, while by night, she honed her skills in sketch comedy and improv. These days, she entertains the same audience every Monday through Friday. From Palm Desert to the Salton Sea and across Southern California, 31 fifth graders tune in to their computer screens as she teaches them from her home in La Quinta.
Formerly a first grade teacher at Desert Sands Unified School District, Hamill now works at California Virtual Academy, or CAVA, the state's largest online public charter school. While the experience of getting a roomful of people to laugh at something she said may not be as easily replicated through a screen, Hamill joyfully parodies video formats familiar to her students, using them to contextualize history lessons.
“It can be hard for them to visualize history,” she said. "What did it even look like then? What was the situation? Adding in all of these visuals and examples really helps them picture it when they have to read on their own.”
Hamill's goal is to promote literacy through various forms of representation, from a "get ready with me" video spoofing a Puritan woman's skincare routine during the Salem witch trails to a reimagining of the Real Housewives of the American Revolution.
"If given the opportunity, kids can be excited about material if you can make it fun for them," she said. "Valuing what the children value makes a big difference, right? Valuing the formats and the students' ways of communicating, especially linguistically, makes a huge difference."
The topics of discussion aren't always as cheerful as it seems, however. "It can also be depressing because I don't sugarcoat history. I'm not whitewashing it," she said. "I'm telling them what is really happening, and I think it's a way they can engage with it a little bit more."
For example, the video she produced on Salem witch trials allowed her students to grasp the broader implications of the historical event. "One of my special education students was like, 'Wait, that was really unfair to women.'" Hamill said.
And that’s the point, she said. Her students are more willing to talk about more serious topics when they can simultaneously laugh at their teacher’s bad wig. Her students also engage in their own theatrics through reader's theaters — a strategy that prompts struggling readers to craft their own performances to reveal the conflicts embedded within a text.
"Older generations can kind of look down on the way children communicate and what they value now, in terms of digital stuff,” Hamill said, “but I think if you can show that you respect and value that, too, then you get more buy-in from them."
To learn more about California Virtual Academy, visit https://cava.k12.com/.