The extent to which our students, and indeed we, are manipulated by popular culture and a normative perception of an ideal way to be is an issue of increasing import. The changes we make to our teaching to engage students in this issue must be conducive to meaningful learning and subsequent academic achievement. The changes we make are based on…

This article argues that theoretical understandings of multimodality have enormous potential for assessment purposes in secondary school contexts. Informed by the work of three researchers in three North American high schools, the article offers vignettes of the effective assessment of communicative competence in English classrooms that draws on…

This book offers ideas that secondary teachers, university content faculty, and teacher educators can use to challenge traditional literacy practices and demonstrate creative, innovative ways of incorporating new literacies into the classroom, all within a strong theoretical framework. Teachers are trying to catch up to the new challenges of the…

Points out that song lyrics are poetry that has moved people to love, march to war, march against war, and respond to religious impulses. Suggests that studying the lyrics of popular songs can help students develop an awareness of language and the power of poetry. (TJ)

Describes a successful approach to teaching poetry--teaching poems in pairs or other small groupings, putting them in conversation with one another so that their ideas resonate and illuminate the experience of being in the poem. Demonstrates how poetry can be woven into the the classroom and into the lives of the students. (RS)

Describes several popular song anthologies that make the lyrics of today's music accessible to the classroom and which can provide a sense of understanding for today's culture. (MM)

Examines the problems of spoken poetry, both from the poet's viewpoint and from the viewpoint of adolescents in literature classes. Considers the efficacy of conceptualizing poetry, especially spoken poetry, as popular art. (RL)

Examining the attitudes and behaviors of his adolescent students in rural Yorkshire, the author finds in them a strange lack of respect for adults, which he attributes to disruptions of consciousness caused by the constant bombardment of pop music and television. Two other authors comment on pp128-30. (SJL)

Describes a French-teaching unit using chansons, mentioning problems of musical and language suitability, and the peculiar poetic status of chanson texts. Exercise forms are suggested and hints for teachlng are given. (IFS/WGA)

This paper presents a rationale for using popular music in the classroom and provides suggestions for teaching popular music lyrics in the poetry class. The question of whether pop music is an end in itself or a means to understanding traditional literature is also addressed. It is suggested that the teaching of the poetry of rock can be…

This issue of the "Arizona English Bulletin" contains 38 articles related to popular culture and the teaching of English. The articles discuss such topics as language in the popular arts, establishing a popular culture library, defining sexism in popular culture, detective literature and its uses in the traditional classroom, popular…

The third in a series of four resource guides containing annotated citations of books, records, and audiovisual materials for African-American children and adolescents is presented. The materials offer positive images of black youth, and realistic depictions of black culture, heritage, and life experiences that are relevant to black children and…