Discusses how a group of lunchtime gamers mentored their teacher to help her understand and appreciate the art form of anime. Considers how students create a space within the school building and school day to pursue personal literacy practices. Notes that these students were able to take school-based strategies and retool them to fit out-of-school…

Considers how as standards and assessments become ever more rigorous, students become ever more difficult to motivate. Presents three hypothetical student scenarios. Discusses ways to connect to students who are uninterested in literature by using popular culture media from their own lives, such as music lyrics. (SG)

Notes the perception among students that cultural critique is a privileged, elitist mode of inquiry. Argues that a dialogic, Bakhtinian approach to response could help address this problem. Discusses how two Bakhtinian concepts ("anacrisis" and the "superaddresse") might be applied to writing classrooms. (RS)

Discusses negotiating pop culture and other literacies in current-events discussions. Gives some implications for teachers and teacher educators. Concludes that effective, innovative and sensitive ways of encouraging ESL (English as a second language) students and reticent local students to bring elements of their home (pop) cultures, media, and…

Argues that composition teachers, rather than dismiss their students' consumption of popular culture, should juxtapose popular culture with scholarly interpretations of popular culture and with traditional texts to draw students in and encourage analysis, interpretation and reevaluation of their assumptions. (SR)

This article describes the difficulty of teaching about the construction of regions in regional geography courses, which are themselves built on a metageography that often goes unquestioned. The author advocates the use of popular culture to make this very complex issue palpable for undergraduates. Thus, the construction of Eastern Europe within a…

Researchers who have investigated the public understanding of science have argued that fictional cinema and television has proven to be particularly effective at blurring the distinction between fact and fiction. The rationale for this study lies in the notion that to teach science effectively, educators need to understand how popular culture…

Using multiliteracies and sociocultural perspectives on language and literacy learning, this article describes three Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) students' literacy development through involvement with Japanese popular culture. As part of a larger qualitative ethnographic study, the author interviewed JFL learners who have a particular…

This study focused on whether reading instruction based on popular youth-oriented television programs increases task involvement or reading achievement scores. After one year, reading scores of classes using television scripts, in addition to regular materials, were significantly higher than those of nontreatment classes. (JN)

Defends Blume's works by presenting internal evidence displaying the honesty and lack of exaggeration that make her books popular with adolescents and unpopular with critics. (CRH)

Examined and compared self-reported reasons for pop music preferences of 397 students in grades five, seven, nine, eleven, and college. Results revealed that characteristics such as melody, mood, rhythm, and lyrics were the most important reasons for selection. Differences in response by age and background characteristics were noted. (Author/SJL)

Discusses how changes in public school students and the culture that produces them have affected the teaching of history. Examines aspects of MTV's success for clues to the source of students' view of history as irrelevant. Attributes the view to the blurring of differences between the sacred and profane, connections between cause and effect, and…

Explores the moral language 19 young girls used about popular music, focusing on the demise of the popular music group New Kids on the Block. Implications are discussed for educators who might use popular music as a learning tool for young girls' explorations of identity. (SLD)

The practical training of contemporary popular musicians, that is, the preparation of performers, songwriters, and music production personnel for the global popular music industry, is still in its infancy. This article seeks to discuss the specific issue of what musicianship skills should be taught, by interrogating the perceptions of a cohort of…

Despite its national and international appeal, rap is considered one of the most controversial of music genres. Given the political charge it generates, rap music has spawned research across the social and health sciences. The majority of the research has investigated its impact on African Americans. Further, the research has tended to focus on…