Why Use Popular Culture in the Classroom?

While I was on March Break, I was sitting around with some friends discussing my blog. When I explained that its purpose was to encourage teachers to the use of popular culture in the classroom by tapping into our students lives and interests outside of school, things like: music, current TV shows, Pokemon and all the forms it includes, comics and cartoons. This started a bit of a debate. My friend feels that if students are allowed to bring the 'unofficial world' into the classroom on a regular basis, they will end up using it as a crutch. Suffice it to say, we agreed to disagree. Interestingly however, she did agree that using pop culture in the classroom is a great way of enticing the reluctant reader or writer to engage with the literacy process. I'm not sure why it's good for one type of student and not the other, in my eyes each student benefits by its addition.

I have often wondered and I guess walked along the path that questions why children are so engaged in: video games, music, trading card games, Pokemon etc. As a parent whose son loves t play his DS, I admit to wondering about the damage the DS was having on his learning. After many fights with him about leaving is DS behind, or stopping playing it, I decided to find out more about Pokemon, other video games and what they involve. Thanks to the power of Google, I came upon several articles on literacy and Pokemon, and video games and literacy. If you are interested in seeing what they have to say please see the link to the pages What the Experts Say. They say hindsight is 20/20 - guess I have to agree because as I look back, it was Pokemon (the DS game, the trading cards and books) that got my son excited about reading.