Designed to support English-teaching faculty across high schools and universities, this practical guide presents novel ideas for integrating pop culture into ELA classroom instruction. By establishing a theoretical framework rooted in critical and digital literacies, this book provides a solid foundation for preservice and college teachers to tap into the pop culture that inspires and engages students and teachers alike. Enacting as an essential text for courses in literature instruction and ELA methods, McConnel offers strategies and research-based tools to blend film, fanfiction, and other popular multimodal texts in ways that will reenergize the curriculum, meet standards-based goals, and motivate students. Building Literacy Through Pop Culture in the ELA Classroom is an innovative textbook that belongs on the shelves of current and aspiring English instructors.

Designed to support English-teaching faculty across high schools and universities, this practical guide presents novel ideas for integrating pop culture into ELA classroom instruction. By establishing a theoretical framework rooted in critical and digital literacies, this book provides a solid foundation for preservice and college teachers to tap into the pop culture that inspires and engages students and teachers alike. Enacting as an essential text for courses in literature instruction and ELA methods, McConnel offers strategies and research-based tools to blend film, fan fiction, and other popular multimodal texts in ways that will reenergize the curriculum, meet standards-based goals, and motivate students. Building Literacy Through Pop Culture in the ELA Classroom is an innovative textbook that belongs on the shelves of current and aspiring English instructors.

Most children engage with a range of popular cultural forms outside of school. Their experiences with film, television, computer games and other cultural texts are very motivating, but often find no place within the official curriculum, where children are usually restricted to conventional forms of literacy. This book demonstrates how to use children′s interests in popular culture to develop literacy in the primary classroom. The authors provide a theoretical basis for such work through an exploration of related theory and research, drawing from the fields of education, sociology and cultural studies. Teachers are often concerned about issues of sexism, racism, violence and commercialism within the discourse of children′s media texts. The authors address each of these areas and show how such issues can be explored directly with children. They present classroom examples of the use of popular culture to develop literacy in schools and include interviews with children and teachers regarding this work. This book is relevant to all teachers and students who want to develop their understanding of the nature and potential role of popular culture within the curriculum. It will also be useful to language co-ordinators, advisers, teacher educators and anyone interested in media education in the 5-12 age-range.

Students' backpacks bulge not just with oversize textbooks, but with paperbacks, graphic novels, street lit, and electronics such as iPods and hand-held video games. This book shows teachers how to unpack those texts and use them to engage students in meaningful learning. Whether you are a technology enthusiast or you favor traditional literature, this book is written for you. With classroom activities, adaptable lessons, and study-group questions in every chapter, this book is guaranteed to help you invigorate your teaching and capture your students' attention!

Examines the importance of devloping within children and adolescents a critical awareness of the social, political and economic messages arising from the different forms of popular culture.

Leading authority on media literacy education shows secondary teachers how to incorporate media literacy into the curriculum, teach 21st-century skills, and select meaningful texts.

The Handbook of Research on Teaching Literacy Through the Communicative and Visual Arts, Volume II brings together state-of-the-art research and practice on the evolving view of literacy as encompassing not only reading, writing, speaking, and listening, but also the multiple ways through which learners gain access to knowledge and skills. It forefronts as central to literacy education the visual, communicative, and performative arts, and the extent to which all of the technologies that have vastly expanded the meanings and uses of literacy originate and evolve through the skills and interests of the young. A project of the International Reading Association, published and distributed by Routledge/Taylor & Francis. Visit http://www.reading.org for more information about Internationl Reading Associationbooks, membership, and other services.

It's been a decade since Lynne Dorfman and Rose Cappelli wrote the first edition of Mentor Texts and helped teachers across the country make the most of high-quality children's literature in their writing instruction. In the second edition of this important book Lynne and Rose show teachers how to help students become confident, accomplished writers by using literature as their foundation. The second edition includes brand-new "Your Turn Lessons," built around the gradual release of responsibility model, offering suggestions for demonstrations and shared or guided writing. Reflection is emphasized as a necessary component to understanding why mentor authors chose certain strategies, literary devices, sentence structures, and words. Lynne and Rose offer new children's book titles in each chapter and in a carefully curated and annotated Treasure Chest. At the end of each chapter a "Think About It--Talk About It--Write About It" section invites reflection and conversation with colleagues. The book is organized around the characteristics of good writing--focus, content, organization, style, and conventions. Rose and Lynne write in a friendly and conversational style, employing numerous anecdotes to help teachers visualize the process, and offer strategies that can be immediately implemented in the classroom. This practical resource demonstrates the power of learning to read like writers.

Effective student writing begins with well-designed classroom assignments. In Designing Writing Assignments, veteran educator Traci Gardner offers practical ways for teachers to develop assignments that will allow students to express their creativity and grow as writers and thinkers while still addressing the many demands of resource-stretched classrooms.

This edited volume serves as a place for teachers and scholars to begin seeking ways in which popular culture has been effectively tapped for research and teaching purposes around the country. The contents of the book came together in a way that allowed for a detailed examination of teaching with popular culture on many levels. The first part allows teachers in PreK-12 schools the opportunity to share their successful practices. The second part affords the same opportunity to teachers in community colleges and university settings. The third part shows the impact of US popular culture in classrooms around the world. The fourth part closes the loop, to some extent, showing how universities can prepare teachers to use popular culture with their future PreK-12 students. The final part of the book allows researchers to discuss the impact popular culture plays in their work. It also seeks to address a shortcoming in the field; while there are outlets to publish studies of popular culture, and outlets to publish pedagogical/practitioner pieces, there is no outlet to publish practitioner pieces on studying popular culture, in spite of the increased popularity and legitimacy of the field.