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Brian Warmoth
Education Dive
Pop culture is a gateway to connect academics to real world
Lauren Barack
Aug. 5, 2020
Dive Brief:
Teachers Amy Schwartzbach-King and Edward Kang dip into pop culture,
specifically zombies, to help teach the science behind brain function
to students in Chicago Public Schools, they wrote in Edutopia. They
stylize the class as a week-long zombie camp or as two-hour individual
classes.
The two begin by having students look at how zombies act, and then have
them consider what part of the brain needs to be affected to create
that behavior. The class is then challenged to mix and match these
characteristics to create theoretical, brain-impacted zombies. Students
then create adventure stories and outcomes based on the kind of zombie
they’ve crafted.
The lessons incorporate subjects from creative writing to math, even
asking students to calculate the time it would take to get back to
hiding places as zombies appeared.
Dive Insight:
Students are connoisseurs of popular culture, able to riff nimbly on
subjects from Taylor Swift to TikTok. Getting them to apply that same
focus and intensity on academics is every educator's hope. Experts say
teachers can harness that dedication by tapping into their students’
interests, whether that’s BTS or zombies, and channeling them into
lessons that can bridge to the practical and educational.
For example, educators have used beatboxing to teach financial literacy
— a very practical, if not timely bit of information. Song writing can
be used to teach history, as the National Council of Teachers of
English, for example, has a lesson plan that teaches students about pop
culture of the past by examine Cole Porter’s song, “You’re the Top,”
and even replacing items with more relevant subjects.
The nonprofit Pop Culture Classroom taps into graphic novels, with free
downloadable examples on its website that can be used as lessons. It
also provides reading guides that walk teachers and educators through
different themes including prejudice, diversity and leadership.
By adopting material students are familiar with, such as cartoons,
music, popular TV shows and video games, teachers may be able to better
engage students in the classroom, experts say. Many forms of pop
culture have a story element embedded within them, and students can
successfully be tapped as a launch pad for lessons on identifying
themes to analytical thinking, as Jamie Weld noted in her 2011 master's
degree thesis, “Connecting Literacy and Popular Culture.”
While some educators may dismiss pop culture as trivial and perhaps
simplistic, they may be missing out on a crucial motivator for their
class, according to one journal article. By giving a nod to students’
interests, they “validate” them, the author wrote. With that step,
educators help to better connect students to their academic learning
and engage them further.
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