As an English secondary ed. major, I’m always thinking about the significance of the books that I’m reading. Why should I connect with these books? Why are they worth reading? Why should I not just use Sparknotes to read the summary of the book? If I am asking myself this question now, as well as all throughout high school, why wouldn’t my students be doing the same thing?
As a future teacher, it is my job to think of ways to capture students’ attention. In order to do that, you have to be aware of their interests and today’s pop culture. By relating their interests and current fads, lessons and readings will make more sense, come to life, and be more interesting overall. The goal of this blog is to help create a thorough example of this approach to teaching by using Harry Potter as a way of giving life to British literature. This is only one example of a book that can be used, and this idea can be mirrored with different books and genres.
So far, I have only touched upon three different novels that Harry Potter can be used to help teach. There are many more connections that can be made, but this is just a start. I hope after reading my thoughts you have a new outlook on not only the Harry Potter series but the other literary works as well. I hope you find this insightful and are able to spruce it up a bit to help make reading come to life for your students!
~Ally
Reading? Fun? In high school? 