Providing examples suitable for the children's world in the music education given to younger age groups may reinforce the knowledge to be taught. For this reason, cartoons can be utilized for an engaging and fun lesson environment. One of the best examples of this situation is believed to be the short cartoon series Silly Symphony produced by Walt…

For the past 20 years, a constant effort has been made by physics teachers and communication specialists to promote the use of characters from comics or science fiction films in physics teaching practice, because of its positive impact on student motivation and attention. This implementation often comes up against the problem of obtaining…

The article describes the results of teachers using a critical language lens to analyze linguistic stereotypes in TV series, movies, cartoons, and social media posts. I share the key questions teachers asked about language use in texts as well as the results of their analysis. Based in a cultural modeling pedagogy (Lee, 2007), teachers examined…

Communication of difficult concepts in the physics classroom can be negatively affected by the absence of a strong link between physics content and the experiences or interests of students. One possible method towards addressing this issue is to motivate physics content with reference to popular culture figures such as superheroes. We find…

Sai Pathmanathan writes in this article that, over the years, her experience working with early-years children (ages 3-5) has taught her that learning it is not about whether the children get the answer right, but more about nurturing their curiosity, encouraging play and learning through hands-on activities, promoting motor skills, group work,…

Comic books and graphic novels are a profitable market for publishers; 2012 sales of comics and graphic novels totaled $680 million in the United States and Canada. Graphic novels can even be found on the pages of The New York Times Best Seller list. The popularity of comic books and graphic novels cannot be denied, the sales of both movies and…

Young people can be motivated to learn science using the power of various entertainment media. The author states the need to recognise that they are accessing science through informal learning outside school. With children saying they have learnt from cartoons such as Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants, it would seem that entertaining animations…

In the spring of 2010, the author had the pleasure of working with four fifth graders, exploring reading engagement with graphic novels. During her research study, she became inspired by the connections these fifth graders made between the graphic novels they discussed and the film medium and ultimately concluded that this connection contributed…

This paper discusses potential strategies and sources for approaching uncomfortable topics and reviews the challenges facing teachers who choose to do so with the topic of genocide as an example. Using a variety of techniques, including graphic organizers, political cartoons, comic books and graphic novels, films, children's and young adult…

How teachers can use such materials as parallel-text editions, graphic novels, and film adaptations to increase students' understanding of and interest in Shakespeare was the impetus for a classroom action research project that examined the effects of teaching methods on student comprehension and engagement. The author of this article…

Thomas Rickert warns of the dangers of "pedagogies that seek the disruption and politicization of hierarchies of power and privilege, especially in terms of race, class, and gender" because they can "nevertheless produce new forms of power and privilege that in turn produce new resistances, further alienate already cynical students,…

In today's audiovisually driven world, various audiovisual programs can be incorporated as authentic sources of potential language input for second language acquisition. In line with this view, the present research aimed at discovering the effectiveness of exposure to news, cartoons, and films as three different types of authentic audiovisual…

This article draws on data from research with six ten-year-old children investigating the role of film and media in developing understandings of narrative. I present an account of one of the children, Connor (his chosen pseudonym), whose experiences represent a telling case of the dissonance found between children's knowledge and experience of…

Charles Dickens is arguably the greatest storyteller in English Literature and his novels have been loved and respected for nearly two hundred years. As accurate reflections of Victorian society they are unparalleled. Vivid characters and realistic settings are created in the mind of the reader, all laced with Dickens inimitable humour, wit and…

It is common to encourage foreign-language learners to use their language outside the classroom and to read books and papers, listen to songs and watch films in the foreign language. One of the benefits which are thought to accrue from these activities is that learners can build good vocabularies. It has even been argued that casual exposure to…