How to Effectively Integrate Pop Culture Into Your

Classroom

Outcomes

•Define Pop Culture and its Artifacts

•Understand the risks and benefits of pop culture integration

•Know the educational vocabulary and processes to advocate for pop culture integration in the classroom

•Know the steps for analyzing artifacts for integration

•Use the steps for analyzing artifacts for integration

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Definitions$1000

“common culture, folk culture, or mass culture”

OR“the culture that is left

over once we’ve decided what high culture is”

What is Pop Culture?

Pop Goes the Classroom defines popular culture as the music,

literature and media that unite a cohort in a common shared experience and continue to

define them well into adulthood.

Pop Culture is the voice of a generation!

Artifacts for Cross Curricular Integration

Genres

• Contemporary Music

• Movies

• Television

• Video games

• Social Media

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Pop Culture Creates Context

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Making the PC Case for NPC’s

Non Pop Culture Enthusiasts

Common Sense

Age Appropriate

• Grade level standards

Individually Appropriate

• Suitable for Student Prior Knowledge

Culturally Appropriate

• G or PG AND Parental Consent

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Know Your Stuff

1. Choose the Right Artifact

2. Know how it meets learning in across MULTIPLE content areas

3. Show how it ties to traditionally accepted teaching tools

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NPC Pushback

Many adults have preconceived ideas about what should and shouldn’t be used as a teaching tool.

Know the research:

Henry Jenkins – USC/MIT James Paul Gee – ASUPeter Guiterrez – School Library Journal

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Analyzing Pop Culture Artifacts

5 Step Analysis

1. What are the themes of the piece?2. What is the historical context of the

piece?3. What is the contemporary context of the

piece?4. What traditional learning tools have

similar themes?5. How can the piece be used to connect to

content areas of the curriculum?

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MausMaus is a graphic novel completed in 1991 by American cartoonist Art Spiegelman. It depicts Spiegelman interviewing his father about his experiences as a Polish Jew andHolocaust survivor. The book uses postmodern techniques—most strikingly in its depiction of races of humans as different kinds of animals, with Jews as mice, Germans as cats and non-Jewish Poles as pigs. Maus has been described asmemoir, biography, history, fiction, autobiography, or a mix of genres. In 1992 it became the first graphic novel to win aPulitzer Prize.

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ThemesPresentationMemoryGuiltRacismLanguage

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Historical ContextWWII

Nazi Germany

Holocaust

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Contemporary ContextPublished in the 80’s

First Graphic Novel to Win a Pulitzer

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Traditional Learning Tools

BooksDiary of Anne FrankSummer of my German Soldier

MoviesSchindler’s List

Swing Kids

MusicBig BandJazz 21

The LEGO MovieThe LEGO Movie is a 3D animated film which follows lead character, Emmet a completely ordinary LEGO mini-figure. Typical of LEGO figures in his world, Emmet doesn’t have any original thoughts- he reads the rule book and follows directions. He likes the music he is told to like and watches the television shows he is told to watch. It is a world that is carefully crafted by the evil tyrant, Lord Business.

He is able to keep the world this way by eradicating the Master Builders who prized creativity. Now Master Builders live in hiding hopeful that one day the “Special” foretold in prophecy will come and over throw Lord Business.

When Emmet discovers the “Piece of Resistance” from the prophecy, he is told he is the “Special” and is asked to lead the fight against Lord Business. However, many of the Master Builders see only the ordinary in Emmet and do not believe he can be the “Special”. Emmet and a band of followers devise a plan to overthrow the evil Lord Business going on an epic journey.Your date here Your footer here

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ThemesConformity vs. Creativity Creativity is highly prized by the hidden Master Builders of the Lego World. Following instructions is frowned upon. Emmet beings the film in complete conformity and slowly evolves his creative side as his character has more experiences. Emmet helps the Master Builders understand that creativity without rules can be a barrier to achieving your goals. Together he and the Master Builders find balance.  Perception vs. Reality The Lego Figures appear happy in their conformity. However, all is not what it seems. We discover another world hidden from the ordinary LEGO figures. A world filled with master builders and creativity. The Lego Movie is a play within a play and when we zoom out we are able to see that the LEGO world we’ve been viewing is in the mind of a child.

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Historical ContextThe LEGO Movie is rich with historical context. A significant character in the LEGO Movie is Vitruvius. Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was an engineer and architect who wrote a 10-volume encyclopedia on architecture in the first century B.C. His work was so influential that Leonardo da Vinci used it 1500 years later to help design his famous drawing of a man inside a circle, the Vitruvian Man. Cloud Cuckoo Land, is where the Master Builders hide. It is a secret, chaotic place where there are no rules. That’s an unambiguous nod to Aristophanes’ satirical play “The Birds,” written about 2,400 years ago, which included a chaotic realm called Cloud Cuckoo Land.

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Contemporary ContextOur media is filled with Brand integration these days. From watching judges drink out of Starbucks cups on The Voice to elaborate, in script promotion of products in favorite series. The LEGO Movie is basically a long form commercial for LEGO, much the same way that the original Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was a feature length commercial for Wonka Candy.

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Traditional Learning Tools

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Pop Goes the Conference

February 17, 2015

Phoenix, AZ

Registration

www.popgoestheclassroom.com

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