By Richard Dougherty
Transformers, “Let it Go, Let it go” (don’t lie, you sang it) from the movie Frozen, Kim Kardashian, Game of Thrones, Batman, explosions, excitement, teaching, and writing . . . wait what?
When thinking of Transformers or Queen Elsa from Frozen, these types of characters do not come up in public, charter, or private school teaching or writing activities. Usually, there is a mile wide gap between popular culture and classroom education. The list above reminds me of a song from Sesame Street: “One (two, as in the list containing writing and teaching) of these just doesn’t belong here, one of these things are not the same” pretty much sums up the present situation. Yet, children can write about characters from popular culture they have seen in cartoons, or they can act out a scene from a film or from television which can be used in class rooms to enhance learning.
What is popular culture? Popular culture contains cultural activities or products like art, film, television programs, music, comic books, memes, and video games to name a few that are aimed at the tastes of the public, especially in Western Culture. Children come into contact with popular culture through everything they see. Some examples are books, television, film, and the internet to name same of the media that children use. Previously, children were not allowed to use popular culture in the classroom. Anne Haas Dyson stated that popular culture was “not welcomed in the official teacher-governed” classroom in her book Writing Superheroes. Some adults believe that popular culture is centered on stories with aggression and gender stereotyped plots like men being the heroes and women who are constantly in danger. How could Frozen be violent except for the fact Hans tried to kill Elsa near the end of the movie.
Children Using Pop Culture
Kristin, a teacher mentioned in Anne Dyson’s Writing Superheroes, encourages the use of popular culture to increase students’ literacy. Kristen allows her students to use popular culture in their free writing time and their “Author’s Theatre” where the students choose other students to act out their stories. Mr. Pappalardo, who is an elementary teacher who teaches in Pennsylvania, also allows his students to use popular culture in their writing. Mr. Pappalardo has one student who constantly asks him if he can write about Transformers, who are robots from the planet Cybertron who want to enslave humans or who want to protect the humans. Using popular culture in a classroom allows students to use popular culture as a medium to inspire writing.
Ask two students who attend Clear Creek Elementary School in Bloomington, Indiana what they love to read and write about. I experienced both of these students during my education field experience in college. The first student is a kindergarten student named Blane who loves Minecraft. Minecraft is a game where the player can build structures on the computer by harvesting certain elements like brick, iron, or diamond which the player can download from the internet. Blane was asked to write about any subject he wanted to. He chose to write a step by step instruction manual on how to play Minecraft. This child could have written about anything his heart desired. He could have written about a dog looking for a bone. He could have drawn a picture about a bird or a rocket ship; but no, he wrote about Minecraft. Blane wrote about Minecraft because this game is engrained in the popular culture where most students like Luke are at home playing Minecraft on their home computer when they are not doing homework, eating, or watching television.
The second student I encountered is a fifth grader named Jose who reads about football, especially the National Football League or NFL. Jose reads books that contain information about NFL teams and players in the NFL. He is currently reading a book about the rivalry between the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins. Jose chose to read about an NFL rivalry because he likes to watch NFL games. The NFL is another corporation that has been a cornerstone of popular culture in the United States by being on the television from August to February, and then the NFL takes up most of the sports news throughout the rest of the year.
As a future teacher in field experience, the students I help out all have IPads, and the background on their IPads are usually pictures of them or memes. Memes are cultural ideas that are mimicked and are considered popular culture. Some of the memes I have noticed are Grumpy cat, which is a cat that looks angry, or “Keep Calm and Exterminate” (a Doctor Who reference). Meme’s can be a stepping stone for children to read about the background of different memes and why they are relevant and funny. (There are more memes for other classes below).
Video Games to Help Learn
Even though these students are isolated incidents of popular culture being a potential motivating force in a student’s education, research has shown that popular culture and learning can go hand in hand. Video games are a fundamental part of popular culture. Video games like Diablo III: Morrowind, Rise of Nations, or Tony Hawk’s Underground are good examples. Each game has an element that children use to learn. Diablo III and Tony Hawk allow students to create an identity for themselves because each game allows the player to create a new player based on the controller’s attributes. This allows students to notice their identity and notice the cultural aspects that can be seen in many video games. Video games like Deus Ex encourage the players solve problems like defeating a dungeon boss, how to defeat an enemy with certain items, or trying to climb a mountain in different ways (Gee, 2005). Gee also suggests that video games are well ordered. Gee explains that good video games have a certain cycle. The game gives the player a set of problems that the player practices until he or she has mastered the set. The game then gives the player a new set of problems that need to be solved with a different solution. These skill sets that are mastered allow the player to hypothesize about whether one skill set would work better than another. One video game series that used this type of method that I liked was the “Legend of Zelda” series. The series had a bunch of puzzles the player had to solve to receive special items or advance in the dungeons. Each puzzle used a different solution, so the player had a basis for what to do in different settings. Teachers can use this type of learning in a mathematics block by giving students a set of problems that can be mastered and then handing them a new set of problems to master. As a student, I would look at a long division problem and use basic division to help me. I would try to divide the first two digits in the dividend by the divisor and get a remainder and repeat the process until I have a remainder of zero. This relates back to Zelda because I have solved simpler problems and by using my background knowledge, I am able to solve different problems with a basic skill set I mastered.
Lessons To Use
Present and future teachers are wondering “How can I include popular culture in a classroom?” or “How would I add popular culture in a lesson?” The answer requires knowledge about pop culture that attracts students and the use of the teacher’s imagination and creativity.
· Mr. Pappalardo uses action figures for his students to use during his writing block to give his students writing ideas. Lessons can extend even farther than action figures.
· One assignment for students to do is to use a popular song and reword the song to have an educational value to it like learning about Galileo or the Emancipation Proclamation. Use Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite” reworded to help the students learn about Galileo and the work he did for science.
· Another example is a rendition of “Let it Go” from Frozen (sorry for another Frozen reference) to help students learn about the Emancipation Proclamation that gave slaves freedom in 1862. Both examples use songs that most students will hear on the radio or in a store, and then equate the beat to the facts that are placed in the song.
· Another way to use popular culture in a lesson is to spark discussion with a film. One film to use is the movie Glory during a Civil War lesson in history. This movie can also spark a discussion about race. The National Education Association has recommended using film clips as a “focal point to spark a discussion”.
· In a poetry lesson, teachers can use popular lyrics like “Smooth” by Carlos Santana or “Shake it Off” by Taylor Swift to encourage students to see the lyrics as poetry.
· Use popular culture like Zombieland to help students understand the Morgantheu Plan and exactly what the Americans did to Germany after World War II.
Popular Culture was not allowed to be used in schools and was treated like a vampire hissing at the sun. Now it is a way for students to understand subjects like math or history. Popular culture can be used in a variety of ways from writing about a video game to reading about the NFL to enhancing lesson plans. Using video games to help establish a child’s learning can lead to children hypothesizing about how to solve a problem. Popular culture is a way for students to connect to learning. If a teacher uses a popular culture reference that every student knows about, the reference can help motivate and reinforce their learning.
Sources
Dyson, A. (1997). Introduction: On the Trail of the Superheroes. In Writing superheroes: Contemporary childhood, popular culture, and classroom literacy (pp. 3–4). New York: Teachers College Press.
James Paul, G. (2005). The Classroom of Popular Culture: What video games can teach us about making students want to learn. Harvard Education Letter, November/December 2005, 1- 4.
Pappalardo, G. (2014, April 13). Five Ideas for Using Pop Culture to Inspire Elementary Students. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
Pop Culture. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved November 11, 2014, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pop culture
Writers, S. (2013, March 5). Cool Teachers’ Guide to Pop Culture in the Classroom — Online Universities.com. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
