What Harry Potter can teach us about writing (EDM613 Wk2 #4)

By -

In Henry Jenkins' "Convergence Culture," he discusses the way students have been inspired to write about the Harry Potter novels as interpreters and creators. I thought about how much writing I have my students do and I am determined to give them more opportunities to write next year. This chapter solidified that for me because I can approach the writing using the Harry Potter method and be confident of success in student engagement. 

This method is simply this: begin by having the students write about something they are interested in or about which they have a working knowledge. Jenkins makes several points that support this approach:
  1. Because they are already familiar with the topic, they can spend time mastering the writing craft and working on how to communicate their intended message.
  2. When they are writing about fictional characters it provides a distance between them and the character, allowing them the freedom to reflect and then express.
  3. They will develop a relevant vocabulary using peer review and discussion through a class website and will also learn from each other about revision and rewriting.
If I start in familiar territory, we can work on and correct semantics first and then concentrate on ideas and arguments as we progress. Come September, I am heading to Hogwarts.

Comments

  1. jbbJune 20, 2009 at 9:09 PM

    Excellent plan. Another thing, that you may have mentioned before or are already doing, but by having students work in some kind of blog or wiki they can freely share their work and be assured that their work is going to be seen by more than just their teacher. I know in your SMWIK video that your students were working in a wiki, so I'm sure that you already know the power of purposeful writing.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Are We Testing Enough?

By -
As I watched my sons play a new video game the other day, it occurred to me that maybe the problem isn't that we are assessing students too much, it's that we are assessing them too little. Look at gaming environments. Players are constantly being assessed, challenged, and tested. They adjust and maneuver or crash and/or die. Then they get back up and begin the process all over again. It's demanding but the gamers are resilient. I have often wondered how this type of learning could be transfered to the literature classroom. An obvious possibility would be to create time periods or even particular settings so that students could experience them first hand. Imagine going into the house from Poe's "The Black Cat" and interacting with the characters. I am not sure what the "game" would be - stop the murder, find the body, or even attempt to throw a dead cat through the window? What fun! My parent/teacher conferences would be standing room only. While thi...
Read more

How do students know what they know? (an effective exit slip)

By -
I remember sitting in class a few (plus!) years ago and at times totally following what was going on. It could have been almost any subject but there were times when it seemed to click.  At least I thought so. Then I got home and started the homework. Different story. It just wasn't that clear anymore and I realized that I didn't quite get it the way I thought. This was not exclusive to homework as it also happened at times on quizzes and tests. I thought I had studied enough (which, admittedly was what I always thought) but it did not pan out. I want my students to avoid this problem and the trick is for them to answer the question: "How do I know when I really know it?" But how? I recently saw a tweet for a webinar run by Ray Jimenez, who is a great webinar presenter by the way, entitled "Learners Don't Know What They Don't Know." Of course, I was excited to get the long-awaited answer to my question in one interesting hour but, ironically e...
Read more

Boost Learning in Presentations and Games

By -
For those teachers who use games for learning and review, it's apparent the rise in engagement that they bring to the classroom. But, does this engagement and enthusiasm always lead to learning? According to research by neuroscientist Paul Howard-Jones, adding an element of chance can help further increase the chances of learning. It's just a matter of adding it at the right time. For instance, the addition of a simple 50/50 chance of losing all points associated with a correct answer leads to more effective learning. But where in the process does the learning peak? I asked Howard-Jones via email and it turns out that the following sequence works well: student/team answers question student/team is given a 50/50 chance to "double or nothing" their points correct answer is revealed It turns out that even if they lose points or answer incorrectly, the learning is still at a peak because of the state of mind of ALL the students involved. Good or bad, even those who a...
Read more