The Innovative Library

Including Popular Culture In Schools (Module A)

School libraries are invaluable to the students who use them. Not only are they filled with incredible resources (print, digital and human) to help teenagers learn and satiate their curiosities, they are also a haven for all those individuals who engage with texts for leisure and recreation. The Queensland Government highlights the need for school libraries to “provide and promote quality fiction to develop and sustain in students the habit and enjoyment of reading for pleasure”; our schools must find ways to encourage this love of reading, but we must also make other popular texts available for our students. Teacher-librarians in the primary sector are perfectly placed to build a devotion to the library, and they do this excellently. How can we ensure that it continues into the secondary years?

Novels

As an English teacher and aspiring teacher-librarian, I could not be a stronger advocate for reading. Literature is my passion, and it is almost a physical pain when somebody tells me that they do not enjoy reading themselves. There are so many benefits to reading, and these are shown through the journal article Building A Successful Reading Culture Through The School Library . To summarise, however, reading helps individuals become independent learners, while also building skills related to:

• Comprehension
• Spelling
• Vocabulary
• Writing
• Grammar
• General knowledge

As such, it is the role of teacher-librarians to curate a selection of books which appeal to their readers. This may seem difficult to some. How can an adult possibly predict and follow the trends of young adult popular culture?

Firstly, it is important to note that the themes and content within YA texts are constantly changing, reflecting current societal trends. Bestselling Young Adult Fiction: Trends, Genres and Readerships demonstrates how this occurs, and notes that these novels are constantly being redefined. With such a constant change in the industry, it is vital for teacher-librarians to ensure that their knowledge of texts is current.

This might mean following the trends, or the flavours of the month. Beckton proclaims that the popularity of Twilight led to a resurgence of vampire novels, that The Hunger Games began a wave of dystopian texts, and that 50 Shades of Grey even caused the publication of semi-erotic teenage fiction. While E L James’ novels might not be appropriate for the school library, it is essential that teacher-librarians follow and embrace most of these trends.

Thomas and Garcia note in their book, Critical Foundations in Young Adult Literature: Challenging Genres, that the genre of young adult literature is “in a state of flux”. We cannot expect the novels to remain stagnant in its themes, mode or readership base. To ensure that we are catering for these changes, we must stay current. School libraries should ensure that their novels include realistic contemporary fiction, as these books relate to many of our students, and a range of texts which show our diversity. Novels such as 13 Reasons Why, Eleanor & Park and All The Bright Places tackle gritty and difficult real-world issues, but this does not mean schools should shy away from the texts. It is the mark of good literature if it makes you feel something, so this remains a conversation that needs to be had. Additionally, novels Wonder and The Hate U Give are recent and provide adolescents with an insight into the lives of people whose stories are not always told.

“… That’s what you do, right? When you’re readin. You’re seeing what it’s like for other people.”

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

There are a myriad of novels which teenagers relate to and enjoy, and it is therefore part of the role of a teacher-librarian to keep our fiction selections up-to date and enjoyable.

Graphic Novels

Graphic novels require a different set of literacy skills; by reading a graphic novel, a student develops their visual literacy, as the combination of text and images forces a new way of thinking. The education blog Diamond Bookshelf draws attention to this and shows the contemporary relevance of graphic novels – many communication methods today have a focus on visual elements, so shouldn’t we be including texts which foster the ability to comprehend this?

Pinkley and Casey argue that the inclusion of graphic novels in our school libraries is ‘timely and relevant’, cementing the learning area as current and up-to-date. The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) have already acknowledged this and have included The Complete Maus on the English VCE list, showing the recognition of graphic novels as complex texts.

Teacher-librarians should include graphic novels in the library. These texts are already popular with readers, so they may lead to a higher circulation and readership. The journal article Build It And They Will Come: Graphic Novels For Your Collection proclaims that if teenagers enjoy reading graphic novels and find pleasure in the act of reading them, they will soon be encouraged to continue reading and to try other types of texts. Graphic novels can also be linked to disciplines. Consider the graphic novel 300; could this text be used in the Ancient History classroom? There are many other texts out there waiting to be explored, and teacher-librarians should be locating these texts and making use of them.

Games

Although some members of older generations are critical of video games, there are many benefits which these texts have on audiences. Johnson argues in his article Everything Bad Is Good For You that games actually have the ability to improve our intellect, rather than diminish it. Although complicated games have existed for decades, he writes, they are becoming more mainstream and are now a large part of today’s popular culture.

So what benefits do video games have for gamers? They:

• Improve attention
• Build memory
• Help gamers follow a narrative thread
• Hone players’ mental skills as they work through problems
• Educate people’s media literacy
• Prepare students for the 21st century workplace, by improving their technological abilities

On top of all of this, Williamson states that engaging with games can build positive relationships between students and teachers. This makes sense – if a teacher enjoys something that a student enjoys, it gives them something to talk about outside of the curriculum, right?

The difficulty, however, lies in finding ways to bring video games into the school library. I suggest introducing games that require problem solving (like Minecraft), collaboration (like Rocket League) and friendly competition (like Mario Kart). You might want to consider how you can incorporate gaming into a space that is traditionally quiet, though.

Films

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

As much as we all love the above texts, perhaps the most popular text in popular culture is film. This is the 21st century, after all. Depending on how you look at it, films are either more simple or more difficult to bring into the library. There are set texts to be studied in certain classes, and there’s a whole subject devoted to it for senior secondary classes. How can teacher-librarians therefore use films well?
Talk to head of departments or curriculum leaders to see what they are studying. Perhaps you can help by finding more copies of the films that they need, or by suggesting alternative sto what they have previously studied. For instance, if the senior English classes are looking at documentaries, you should ensure that you have copies of films such as Bowling For Columbine, Blackfish and Super Size Me.

These are not necessarily popular culture, however. To bring popular culture films into the library, Thomas and Garcia recommend using film adaptations of novels. If you advertise the novel Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda next to the film poster for Love, Simon you might reach a wider audience and bring in more readers.

I hope that you have gained some new ideas about how to bring popular culture into your school library after reading this post. I have only suggested a couple of titles – please go and explore more! I have put together this handy Prezi so that you have my suggestions in one place, but keep an eye out on popular culture for yourself.

Do you have any ideas that I have not mentioned? Please leave a comment and let me know what you are doing differently.