Image, Language, and Sound: Making Meaning with Popular Culture Texts

"Instead of traveling into what we perceive as youth territory to learn from as well as to teach, adults habitually stay safely distanced from these areas, thinking that youth’s popular culture is of little interest to their adult tastes or that youth would not want to share these interests with adults."
-Image, Language, and Sound: Making Meaning with Popular Culture Texts 

My Review

Guilty. We're all guilty of it. Talking and not listening. Sharing and not receiving. Where does it leave us?

• Parents who miss their child's latest accomplishment.
• Journalists who miss the real story.
• Educators who miss a teachable opportunity.

The Youtube Video of the Pepsi Next Baby Commercial might be a bit of a stretch, but it proves a point.  As adults we need to be more in tuned to what's making our young people tick, think and explore.

Is it the latest dance phenomenon ? The just-released blockbuster? A new social media application? An online game? Or in the case of Ned in Image, Language and Sound: Making Meaning with Popular Culture Texts, up and coming rap artists.

As adults, perhaps we tend to think if we aren't well versed in a topic, subject or pop culture trend, we shouldn't bring it up. That's what the authors in the cited text eluded to when the wrote, "Adults often take a hands-off approach, leaving discussions involving differing meanings of popular culture texts unsealed. This is frequently attributed to a “generation gap,” which keeps adults from venturing to inquire into youth’s popular culture interests."

I don't think it's up to educators to set trends, define pop culture or even buy into each latest fad.  But, our children do all those things. And, as educators we are taught to turn anything into a teachable moment. If we listen to what our kids are talking about and observe their latest "likes", we can likely turn their interests into education.

Real Life Example

I was in high school in the mid 1990's. In 1989, Billy Joel released "We Didn't Start the Fire".

 

Wikipedia refers to the lyrics of the song as "rapid-fire allusions to more than 100 headline events" in a 40 year period.

 
The song was a mega hit.  People loved it or hated it. But, they knew of it. And, so did one of our history instructors (who I was not fortunate enough to have as a teacher). Rare for students to be discussing classroom instruction in the hallways, at lunch and on the bus.  But, this teacher's students were discussing what they were learning in history class from the Billy Joel single.

The lyrics opened the door for discussions about countless subjects: 

• communism
• space exploration
• presidential assassinations
• and so much more.

 

My Stance...

on using popular culture texts in school is to go for it.  Listen, learn and act upon what your kids are discussing to engage them.

My Concerns...

about using popular culture texts in school would be parental and administrative feedback.  I think it would be necessary to be smart in the pop culture ideas you use as teaching tools. Some pop culture phenomena is met with criticism by sectors of the community.  Be selective.

School Based Writing....

can be triggered by pop culture texts. I notice our 10 year old often writes fictional stories based on her media interests at the time. In the article at the top of the blog, without his knowledge, Ned was engaged in writing. They weren't reports, they weren't formal letters. But, had he gone back through the correspondence he had with teachers, he may have been able to incorporate much of those writings in to a report that met curriculum mandates.

I Once Used....

a WVU marching band cd, a newspaper article regarding a WVU bowl game win in Georgia, a WV map and several dozen pepperoni rolls to guest-teach a 5th grade class about The Mountain State.  Those students graduated in May. To my knowledge, none of them chose my alma mater as their college.  But, I bet all of them can hold their left  hand up, palm facing away from them and see the outline of the state of West Virginia.  (all fingers extended so as to not be making a suggestive gesture) They know about miners, what they ate for lunch while working and they know about mountaineer pride.  Had they been required to write up a review of my guest-teaching, I think they would have had enough knowledge to briefly discuss our state on a 5th grade level. (I hope...)