This week, thanks to my Digital Literacy class, I have been thinking lots about the use of Popular Culture in the classroom.
What is Pop Culture?
Quite simply, Pop Culture refers to mainstream cultural references. This Youtube video shared by Adrian Hogendoorn, Christine Upton, and Lauren Fridman, provides a good overview. Some of the examples are somewhat dated now, but it provides a great overview of what Pop Culture is and Why it Matters!
I know I have been one to trivialize pop culture in the past. But I am definitely rethinking the potential of using pop culture in the classroom to tap into and validate student interests. It’s also a way for teachers to share their own passions with their students to foster relationships that transcend the academic realm.
Memes
My 15 year old is all about memes. She and her friends share them all the time! So naturally, incorporating these into the classroom in meaningful ways might be of value. Recently, my friend, Rob Cannone had his students create memes to consolidate their understanding of the play, Man of La Mancha and my friend Cara Lodoen had her students do this for Hamlet. There are two examples below.
Adam Schoenbart shared ideas for using memes for student feedback. He has created a collaborative doc for crowdsourcing memes for student feedback: a brilliant idea! Read his post here.
Alice Keeler, who is an amazing Google Guru (among other things) wrote this post on Using Google Draw for students to create memes. What is awesome about this is the fact that students can work together to create a meme together or they can provide feedback to one another using the suite of tools found within GAFE.
GIFS
GIFs are all the rage right now as well, and I have been thinking about how they might be a great way to construct artifacts which can be used to assess understanding in a variety of subject areas. Here is my first ever attempt at creating a GIF (I used a very simple GIF generator site called Make A Gif), which I created based on the alleged Taylor Swift curse a couple of summers ago. Although an extremely rudimentary attempt (my daughter said it was the worst GIF she’s ever seen!), I wonder if showing an interest in GIFs is another example of how to connect with students who experience this form of text in their non-academic lives And if they think your GIF is cheesy, they may be interested in showing you how to do a better job; a win/win for teacher/student relationships!
Check out A Comprehensive Guide to Creating Explanatory Animated Gifs by Richard Byrne which is a great resource!
How about having kids come up with the story behind the GIF? Check out a great resource here (though preview it for younger kids).
Fan Fiction Writing
As a former English teacher, I know that in the past I have looked at Fan Fiction as something entirely separate from the writing I expected my students to produce. I think that this was a mistake. Writing creatively can help students to flex their creative muscles, which in turn can help them with other more formal kinds of writing. The article, Writing in the Wild: Writer’s Motivation in Fan-based Affinity Spaces by Jen Scott Curwood et. al, speaks to the extent to which the participatory nature of fan-fiction writing (they use the example of HungerGamesTrilogy.net) allows writers the opportunity to build literacy skills and “authentic writing practice” (Curwood et. al, 2013, pg 681).
Fanfiction.net and Wattpad are sites that encourage the participation of writers of fan fiction. Whether it’s Harry Potter, The Maze Runner, The Hunger Games, or Divergent, a book studied in class, Star Wars, Marvel comics, or the Supernatural series, the authentic audience moves writing beyond the walls of the classroom! In the case of Wattpad, two students from my District collaborated to actually publish a book they started there a few years ago.
N.B. Parents should know what you are doing and all freedom of information and privacy terms should be explored on these public sites.
Additional Resources
The greatest resource for including Pop Culture in your classroom is your students. Tapping into their interests and thinking about how these fit in with some of the Big Ideas in your Curriculum will go a long way to building relationships and community!
What’s Trending on Twitter? Instagram? From time to time, checking out trends may lead to some useful pop culture references.
This video, for example, was shared on Twitter the other day by Lisa Falconi. It is about a Phys Ed teacher, Jared Pascal from Alabama who uses the Whip/Nae Nae song for a cardio workout:
You may also find some of these resources useful:
Who is Taylor Swift? Using Pop Culture for Deep Learning by Stacey Goodman.
Five ways to use Memes in the classroom by Tracee Orman
PopCultureClassroom.org I didn’t even know this site existed! Check it out, it is awesome!
Five-Minute Film Festival: Comics in the Classroom Reading comics is reading. Period. Reading and creating graphic novels and comics are literacy-rich activities that may appeal to many students.
Cautionary Note
When using Pop Culture references in the classroom, we can’t assume that all of our students (especially our ELL students) will know what we or other students are talking about. Being explicit and using a tone and attitude that is not condescending will go a long way to helping students get excited about the Pop Culture reference without making them feel stupid for not knowing it.
How do you incorporate Popular Culture into your classroom? What resources do you suggest? Would love to hear about them!
Citations:
Curwood, J.S., Magnifico, A., & Lammers, J. Writing in the wild: writers’ motivation in fan-based affinity spaces. JAAL, 56(8), 677-685
