Young learners come to the school environment with myriad literacy experiences, some of which are inevitably based in popular culture. While literacy knowledge drawn from experiences with popular culture has traditionally been viewed as less important than academic literacy, educators wishing to create classrooms that value all children need to shift views of what contributes to student learning. Inclusion of popular culture in the school environment provides a space for extending the possibility of building upon and increasing children's understandings of these cultural resources. Through an in-depth exploration of a first-grade student's use of popular cultural items in a classroom-based storytelling project, this research illuminates how experiences with popular culture can become an imaginative and cognitive endeavor that impacts literacy learning.
References
1.
AlvermannD.E. & HeronA.H. (2001) Literacy Identity Work: Playing to learn with popular media, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 45, 118–122.
2.
AlvermannD.E.MoonJ.S. & HagoodM.C. (1999) Popular Culture in the Classroom: Teaching and researching critical media literacy. Newark, DE: International Reading Association and the National Reading Conference.
3.
AlvermannD.E., & XuS.H. (2003) Children's Everyday Literacies: Intersections of popular culture and language arts instruction, Language Arts, 81(2), 145–155.
AshtonJ. (2005) Barbie, the Wiggles and Harry Potter: Can popular culture really support young children's literacy development?European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 13(1), 31–40. https://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1080/13502930585209541
6.
BarthesR. (1974) S/Z: An essay, trans. MillerR.. New York: Hill & Wang. (Original work published 1970.)
Couper-KuhlenE. (2003) Intonation and Discourse: Current views from within, in SchiffrinD.TannenD. & HamiltonH.E. (Eds) The Handbook of Discourses Analysis, pp. 13–34. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
11.
CraigH.K. & WashingtonJ.A. (2006) Recent Research on the Language and Literacy Skills of African American Students in the Early Years, in NeumanS.B. & DickinsonD.K. (Eds) Handbook of Early Literacy Research, vol. 2, pp. 198–210. New York: Guilford Press.
EckhoffA. & UrbachJ. (2008) Understanding Imaginative Thinking during Early Childhood: Sociocultural conceptions of imagination and creativity, Early Childhood Education Journal, 36(2), 179–185. https://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1007/s10643-008-0261-4
16.
EganK. (2006) Teaching Literacy: Engaging the imagination of new readers and writers. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
17.
GreenhoughP.YeeW.C.AndrewsJ.FeilerA.ScanlanM. & HughesM. (2006) Mr. Naughty Man: Children's learning from popular culture, in MarshJ. & MillardE. (Eds) Popular Literacies, Childhood and Schooling, pp. 45–76. London: Taylor & Francis.
18.
HagoodM.C.AlvermannD.E. & Heron-HrubyA. (2010) Bring it to Class: Unpacking pop culture in literacy learning. New York: Teachers College Press.
19.
HughesD.McGillivrayL. & SchmidekM. (1997) Guide to Narrative Language: Procedures for assessment. Eau Claire, WI: Thinking Publications.
20.
LabovW. (1972) Language in the Inner City. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
MitchellJ.C. (1984) Typicality and the Case Study, in EllenR. (Ed.) Ethonographic Research: A guide to general conduct, pp. 238–241. New York: Academic Press.
25.
MollL.C. & GreenbergJ.B. (1990) Creating Zones of Possibilities: Combining Social Contexts for Instruction, in MollL.C. (Ed.) Vygotsky and Education: Instructional implications and applications of sociocultural psychology, pp. 319–348. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
SeiterE. (1999) Television and New Media Audiences. New York: Clarendon Press.
30.
SpradleyJ.P. (1980) Participant Observation. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
31.
StakeR.E. (1995) The Art of Case Study Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
32.
SteinN. & GlennC.G. (1979) An Analysis of Story Comprehension in Elementary School Children, in FreedleR. (Ed.) Advances in Discourse Processing. Vol. 2: New Directions in Discourse Processing, pp. 53–119. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
33.
SussD.SuuoninenA.GaritanonandiaC.JuaristiP.KoikkalainenR. & OleagaJ.A. (2001) Media Childhood in Three European Countries, in HutchbyI. & Moran-EllisJ. (Eds) Children, Technology and Culture: The impacts of technologies in children's everyday lives, pp. 28–41. London: RoutledgeFalmer.
34.
VasquezV. (2003) What Engagement with Pokémon Can Teach Us about Learning and Literacy, Language Arts, 81(1), 118–125.
35.
VygotskyL. (1930/2004) Imagination and Creativity in Childhood, Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 42(1), 7–97.
