I have just finished your introduction to Linking Literacy and Popular Culture and I truly admire your perspectives on education. I appreciate your argument for the need for popular culture to be included in classroom curriculum. At the base of your argument is the necessity for teachers to connect their curriculum with popular culture as a way of making, “authentic and powerful connections between students’ worlds and the demands of the classroom” (7). You cite this as a uniting factor between the classroom and students’ lives, but also as a uniting factor between the huge cultural and generational differences between the teachers and students. I think that this is essential. You highlight the void that often occurs between teachers and students and I would argue that this is one of the most key reasons that students are not engaged in the classroom. You also refer to literacy as it is traditionally considered and the importance of including literacy through the lens of popular culture. I also appreciate that you compel teachers to include “techno-literacy” in classroom instruction across content areas. I think that often teacher leave the technological literacy as “someone else’s job” but your introduction makes a strong case for the necessity of teaching these skills in our own content areas. Not only is this engaging curriculum material, but it is truly essential for our students’ successes in the future world; you also allude to this on page 3.
Finally, I found your encouragement of teachers to be radical, activist, action-researchers to be incredibly inspiring. As you say on page 16, we truly are the only ones who can advocate for the realities and necessity for change in the classroom. Action research is a way for us to do this in a way that proves our feelings and thoughts. We must advocate for our own success and the success of our students. I truly appreciate your perspectives. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the text.Sincerely,Sara Boeck
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