Pedagogical Strategy Using the Harry Potter Books - Research Paper Example

Pedagogical strategy using the Harry Potter books: Introduction: Harry Potter has conventionally been famous among readers of all age-groups in general and the juveniles in particular. Harry Potter series has had magical influence on young readers in that the readers feel like actually wading through the magical world portrayed in the book, while they read it. Harry Potter is one story that is based totally upon myth. Paradoxically, all the characters, Hogwarts School, characters and magical games have been so nicely portrayed in all parts of the Harry Potter series that they make the story look more real and factual. One gets completely immersed in the story while reading it, and does not take long to feel like a part of it. That is indeed, the magic of Harry Potter. Making the curriculum conducive for inculcating the interest in the students of elementary age has always come as a big challenge to the educationalists. “Culturally responsive teaching implies using cooperative learning methods and strategies to discover the students' worlds and incorporate them into the world of the classroom” (Sharan 8). The interest a child takes in his/her studies in the elementary age plays a decisive role in his/her current and future academic performance, and his/her professional career in the long run. On the other hand, children are least sincere about their studies in the elementary school because they are too little, or perhaps more rightly, too immature to conceive the importance of education in their life. In order to generate a competent workforce to serve in the market and industry in the future, measures need to be taken today, to raise children’s interest in their studies when they are in the very early years of their academic career. One way to achieve this is by making the elementary education compliant with the standards, norms and culture of Hogwarts School as portrayed in the Harry Potter series. “When inculcated in the fundamental educational system, educational and other standards of Hogwarts School will raise children’s interest in all of their subjects and school in general, and English literature in particular.” Pedagogical strategies: Sorting: Children studying in one educational level like 1st grade or 2nd grade are distributed between sections of the same class as per the seniority of registration or any other criteria. Unfortunately, the conventional sorting processes are unwatchful of a child’s association with his/her friends of his/her own age, and the friends get distributed in separate sections. This happens to be one of the reasons by children loose interest in studies. Not only classes, even activities within the same class require children to be distributed into separate groups in order to make the process more organized. Many little children complain that they are not satisfied in the group they have been placed by the school administration. Many even consider that the administration has played a biased role in dividing the children between sections, and hence, tend to develop negative feelings about school and education. This causes the parents to face inconvenience as they have to visit the school and follow the proper channel in order to get their child admitted in the group he/she desires. This is one area where the “Sorting Hat” may be of great use and value. Children can be sorted into sections with the means of Hogwarts’ sorting hat. Let’s suppose there are 50 students that need to be accommodated in 1st grade. There are two classrooms for the 1sr grade, with one named section A and the other, section B. no more than 25 students can be accommodated in one class room. The school administration should get 50 sorting hats prepared similar to the one that was in Hogwarts. The hats may be of paper or cloth as convenient to the administration. The administration should write “A” on the inner side of 25 hats and “B” on the inner side of the rest. All hats should be placed on a table. All of the 50 students should be made to stand in a row and a chair should be placed on stage. Every child should be called one by one. He/she should pick any hat of his/her choice, wear that and sit on the chair. Then the administrator should read the inside of the hat, and let the student’s own choice decide his/her section. Similar strategies can be followed while sorting children in groups for various classroom activities. Curriculum: Although there are limitations upon the implementation of Harry Potter in all subjects because of their varying natures and areas of study, yet English literature can fundamentally be oriented around Harry Potter. Various books containing different English stories have traditionally been taught in English literature classes. Making the English literature class Harry Potter oriented will not only raise children’s interest in the subject, but also make the curriculum much more simple and interesting for little children as compared to the conventional curriculum taught to the children of elementary school. Harry Potter can be taught to the children to improve their reading and comprehension skills, dialogue making and interpreting skills, grammar, sentence construction, use of verbs, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and such other grammatical concepts. Apart from that, Harry Potter is a very nice book for drama, creativity and art classes. For example, students can be made to act according to the role of individual characters in a particular scene in Harry Potter for a drama. Children’s creativity can be judged and matured by making them draw the picture of any character in Harry Potter like Professor Dumbledore, Snape or Hermione, given their getups, outfits, moods and expressions have been explained numerous times in all books of the Harry Potter series. English literature teachers in elementary schools can develop questions of their own from the texts of Harry Potter books, and make the children answer those questions after reading particular passages from which the questions had been collected. Children can even be made to develop similar stories of their own. This would add to their creativity and imaginative power. Having their most favorite book part of their studies, children would learn and do any kind of exercise with more effort and interest. Apart from English literature, Harry Potter can also be “reasonably good” source for teaching such other subjects as Math and Algebra. Who would mind attending to such a math question as this, “Aunt Petunia, who is 6 feet tall, came to a 4 feet fence. How much taller was she than the fence?” (“Sheet # 16”). This and such other questions can be included in Math exercises. Children will not only take more interest in solving such questions, but also tend to remember each and every question of the exercise. Psychological counseling: By making pedagogical strategies in elementary school education compliant with the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, teachers can psychologically convince the children to accept the educational system as it is and remove their differences with it. There is often, hardly any child in the elementary school age, that has not read Harry Potter or is not a fan of it. Every child in the modern age wants to study in such an educational system as was in Hogwarts. Given the huge popularity of Harry Potter series among children, teachers should explain the similarities between Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and their own school. Children should be made to realize that despite all the magical charms and fantasies, Hogwarts required little wizards and witches to attend the classes regularly, read their course books, learn magical spells and practice them as well, do assignments, go through exam and get graded competitively (Dickinson). Children’s interest in classroom activities can be raised by conducting them in the similar fashion as explained about Hogwarts lectures in Harry Potter. Children should be convinced that education makes them able to distinguish between right and wrong, encounter youth challenges and go through them successfully, be honest and brave. These moral lectures happen to be taught in Harry Potter books as well. “There are great life lessons to be learned in reading the Harry Potter series and it just so happens they're really entertaining!” (“Teacher Guide”). Conclusion: Harry Potter is undoubtedly one of the biggest sources of influence specially for children of all ages all over the world. Harry Potter has been translated in so many languages, that children belonging to any culture and place understand and love Harry Potter equally. The translations have removed linguistic barriers in the way of children reading Harry Potter. That is why, even if Harry Potter is taught as a book in the second language course, all students will have full grasp over all of the concepts, and hence their performance in studies will be enhanced manifolds. Teachers can make use of Harry Potter and the culture and norms that were prevalent in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in order to raise children’s interest in their elementary education. Elementary education lays basis for higher studies, and making students take interest in their elementary education is, therefore necessary. Works cited: Dickinson, Renee. “Harry Potter Pedagogy: What We Learn about Teaching and Learning from J. K. Rowling.” Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas . vol. 79. no. 6. 2006. Sharan, Yael. “Cooperative Learning: a diversified Pedagogy for diverse Classrooms.” pp. 1-9. n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2010. “Sheet # 16/Harry Potter.” 2001. Web. 10 Dec. 2010. . “Teacher Guide to Harry Potter.” Technology Inc. 2010. Web. 10 Dec. 2010. . Read More