Pop culture media and toys as a form of literacy learning

This week I found out I will be completing my student teaching in a kindergarten classroom! Since beginning my teacher education program I have worked in a fourth and fifth multigrade classroom and I'm currently in a third grade classroom. I am excited to explore the world of kindergarten and early childhood education next fall. This week as I read further into Karen Wohlwend's book, Playing Their Way into Literacies, the text took on new meaning as I will soon find myself working in an early childhood classroom.

In her book Wohlwend, one issue the author focuses on is allowing young children to play with toys and media with pop culture influences.  The author states, "When children play with popular media in early childhood classrooms gender discourses collide and converge with discourses of capitalism, schooling, and media. A discourse includes widely circulated scripts that, along with social practices and values, constitute the identity kits necessary for belonging to a global social network, in this case, Disney Princess fandom." When teachers allow children to bring pop culture into the classroom, the teacher is allowing him or herself more opportunities to engage with students on topics of interest.

As I read about allowing pop culture influenced toys and media into the classroom, I was initially surprised at the authors positive response. Pop culture is not always highly regarded in society and for this reason not often used as an educational resource.  But, once I rethought the authors stance I was not surprised at the conclusion of using pop culture influenced toys and media in the classroom.

As pre-service teachers we are consistently taught to help our students build personal and real-world connections between literacy. If a form of pop culture, such as a Disney Princess, is used as a literacy tool in the classroom, the student would be using personal or real world connections to make the literacy experience more meaningful.