Anna Lang
Dr. Powers
ENGL 281
1 May 2017
Journal #12:
Harry Potter as a Context for Interdisciplinary Studies
As a future educator, I found that this article was immensely relevant to my studies and interests. Many time, I have read NCTE articles online, since I am also a member of NCTE, and often look to their website to try to gain inspiration for my lesson plans. Although this article took a look at students who are younger than the age range my certification and preference of teaching is in, I still felt that Tisha Beaton made a significant contribution to the world of teaching, and linking it to Harry Potter.
Beaton started out the article by introducing the idea that popular culture, specifically popular literature, can have a huge impact on the classroom if it is implemented properly and effectively. “Literature such as the Harry Potter series opens the gateway for teachers to make connections with students and deepen students’ thinking” (Beaton, 100). Her connection between how Harry Potter was first introduced in the series as a boy who was lonely, misunderstood, and dealing with extreme change, are all characteristics that her sixth-graders could identify with to a certain extent. Many of Beaton’s students were entering middle school for the first time (which and middle schooler can tell you, it’s a very harrowing time in a student’s life). With that approach, this educator dove into some school subjects, mainly math, science, and language arts, and used the books of Harry Potter to structure her classroom for the next few weeks.
For the mathematics portion of her unit plan, I liked how Beaton had her students pretend that they were students at Hogwarts, and have them balance a budget. Giving them a list of supplies and a certain amount of money gave students important budgeting skills that they will certainly need to know when they get older. In the sciences, the focus was on a book that appeared in the book series, One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. Naturally, students in Beaton’s classroom got an on hands experience with looking at herbs and fungi in the woods close to their school. There were experiments involving the three states of matter, investigations of owl pellets (since there were owls in the books), and a look at technology and how it has influenced the “Muggle” world. Although I feel that some of these experiments were a stretch -mainly the three states of matter potion- it still makes pedagogical sense for these sixth graders to have this kind of exposure to math and science through the lens of Harry Potter.
Beaton also took Harry Potter and applied it to language arts with her sixth graders. These “activities were designed to trigger thinking about elements in the novel that reflect the realities of evil and deception in society” (Beaton, 101). Some activities included creating a mock interview with a student at Hogwarts, a written editorial over whether the sorcerer’s’ stone should or should not be destroyed, and taking a critical look at the similarities and differences between the two houses at Hogwarts. Pedagogically speaking, several of these activities encouraged students to think critically, as well as work on their verbal and written argumentative communication skills among their peers. Both of these skills are once again critical for students to be able to succeed in the future years at school.
All-in-all, I believe that Tisha Beaton did a wonderful job at creating multiple unit plans in math, science, and language arts that all had a focus of the Harry Potter series.