The idea of using pop culture as a successful teaching tool is one that I am all for. As a biology teacher, I find it more difficult to relate some of our discussion during the Socratic seminar to my specific content area, but I still see the value of discussing it as a means for teaching and gaining literacy. At the end of our discussion about the Socratic seminar yesterday in our Content Literacy class, we briefly talked about Harry Potter (and even more briefly Twilight). Having just seen the 6th Harry Potter movie last weekend, I thought it was intriguing that we would bring it up in Literacy.
What I'm thinking is that although Harry Potter is not by any means an "academic literary work" it's existence in the literary world is extremely valuable. Now, I may be a little biased because I grew up with Harry Potter - quite literally. When Harry Potter was first introduced and gaining popularity, I was about the same age (+/- a year) as Harry Potter was in that first book. And while I've always loved reading, the series brought on a whirlwind of reading activity amongst my peers. Not only was it entertaining, but many of the magical creatures had a mythological basis and the characters were interesting and easy to relate to. For all these reasons and more, I think Harry Potter was able to draw young children into reading. It's ability to interest young readers is what I think makes it such a valuable resource to the literary world.
Making references to the book, characters, movies, are just one way in which we can engage our students. A thought that just now popped into my head was to try relating Botany to Professor Sprout's Herbology class - what interesting plants can we talk about and why are they important? Plants are so useful in creating a number of medical concotions and even industrial products...The sap of a tree whose name eludes me is referred to the indigenous amazonian people of Ecuador as "dragon's blood" when applied is white and creamy, dissappears after a few seconds of rubbing and can stop a mosquito bite from itching faster than any steroid cream a doctor has ever given me. And like so many researchers like to say, the cure for cancer is probably out there in one of those plants that need to be studied in the rainforest.
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I really like this idea, Tiffany....keep thinking it through, as you're really on to something.
ReplyDeleteWe're going to see more about this on the MAC Facebook site, but one thing that might intrigue you is an effort by a fellow MACer named Ryan Goble (who teaches at the same HS where Lauren Fardig teaches--the woman whose students were going to visit us last week).
I'll send you an invite to check it out. Jeff