Talking about race does not have to be incredibly awkward. In this book, Gooding offers twelve clear, cogent, and concise racial rubrics to help users of mainstream media more readily discern patterns hidden in plain sight. The text primarily leverages popular movies as the medium of analysis--since they are unparalleled in their cultural…

Current K-12 and undergraduate students have grown up with constant exposure to visual popular culture (e.g., movies, TV programs, graphic novels, etc.). Because youth find pop culture references in the classroom to be engaging, many science and engineering instructors have shown that examples found in visual pop culture can be used to teach…

It takes a lot more than just telling students that a topic is important for them to find value in the lesson. In order to get students as enthused about a subject, it is important to utilize topics that the students are already interested in, then create a link between that and the science objective. The framework for this type of instruction is…

Many Marvel superheroes have a strong connection to science and STEM-related fields. As a result, these popular films are a growing resource for increasing student engagement and enhancing science instruction. The nature of science (NOS) is defined as "a way of knowing, or the values and beliefs inherent to the development of scientific…

Movies are mostly viewed for entertainment. Mixing entertainment and physics gets students excited as we look at a famous movie scene from a different point of view. The following is a link to a fragment from the 2010 motion picture "Inception": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3tBBhYJeAw. The following problem, based on images in facing…

The purpose of this article is to provide teachers and students useful methods for utilizing the power of comic books as literacy sponsors in ELA classrooms. Given the continued boom in the popularity of comics in popular culture, this provides a relevant way to introduce students to visual and critical analysis. Engaging in meaningful analysis of…

The concept of gender stereotypes permeates the lives of youth in the United States. This article provides background information and rationale for incorporating gender stereotype analysis into family and consumer sciences (FCS) coursework. The critical analysis of gender stereotypes includes numerous activities and assessments that encourage…

Art has a way of helping students better understand and appreciate the world around them, particularly the things that are most important to them. Hip hop is one of those generational genres that capture the attention of young students like few other things do. Drawing on this genre to get students to create art is an excellent way to demonstrate…

Today's students tweet, text, and navigate apps up to 12 hours each day, but they may not know how to effectively analyze a TV show or website. Award-winning author Renee Hobbs demonstrates how to incorporate media literacy into the secondary classroom, providing the tools teachers need to: (1) Effectively foster students' critical thinking,…

In this article, the authors present a classroom activity called Pop Culture Peep. In this particular activity, students are required to first research famous artists and/or famous artworks to have an image to use as a reference. Students then plan out how they would decorate the Peep, deciding what materials they would use to create the Peep in…

Music is not often utilized in teaching geography, despite the fact that many scholars orient their research around analyzing both the historical and spatial dimensions of musical expression. This article reports on the use of a teaching module that utilizes blues culture as a lens to understand the geographical history of the United States. The…

Choosing appropriate music for a school choir can be a daunting task. So much needs to be taken into account--the dictates of the curriculum, the pedagogical goals, the cultural and religious contexts of the students and the community. Juggling all of these needs and influences is crucial to creating a successful, lively performance program, not…

The first day of school used to be exhausting for the author. To change this, the author needed to capitalize on the enthusiasm of the first day, so now she shortens the time devoted to rules so she can begin to build on real learning right away. In this article, the author shares three of her favorite opening activities. Using popular culture and…

Students' backpacks bulge not just with oversize textbooks, but with paperbacks, graphic novels, street lit, and electronics such as iPods and handheld video games. This book is about unpacking those texts to explore previously unexamined assumptions regarding their usefulness to classroom learning. With a strong theoretical grounding and many…

The nation's focus on the literacy skills of students--especially boys--has produced many notions of reform. School districts reorganized and changed curricula to meet the needs of struggling readers and writers. In New York City, where this author was teaching, "Balanced Literacy" (a reading and writing workshop) had been implemented in…