Literacy Playshop

Within the last few weeks I have read an interesting text about integrating play, literacy, and new media in early childhood and primary grades classrooms.  Literacy Playshop is a curricular framework developed by Karen Wohlwend that empowers children to draw upon their existing knowledge of popular media and use that knowledge to create multimedia productions. With a vision of literacy that is becoming increasingly popular amongst education researchers, children are not simply "writing" or "reading" in literacy playshop. A better verb might be "storying"-- developing characters, settings, and plots through the use of drawing, writing, acting, filming, and more. Children in the literacy playshop often start with a narrative or character that they are familiar with from popular media franchises, but with time the story will evolve to include problems and solutions from the child's imagination.

 I will confess that I came to the literacy playshop with some hesitation. Those familiar with Waldorf will know that the philosophy takes a strong position against giving children early access to technology, such as television and computers, and encourages parents to distance their children from popular media franchises. With  characters that seem to be designed more for adults than children, how could I disagree? Take one glance at the cast of Winx Club, a television show popular enough to boast a recent series of Happy Meal toys, to see what I mean:

 Yikes. Pass me the wooden play food, stat.

 Not exactly something I would want my six-year-old daughter emulating. Dr. Wohlwend, though, asserts that banning children from partaking in popular media is a privileged perspective. To be able to offer children alternative toys, one must be able to afford them, and for many families this is not a possibility. She also believes that educators should allow children the opportunity to share their knowledge of popular media franchises within the classroom--children often have deep wells of knowledge about their particular interests (often cartoons, etc), but few chances to express that knowledge. I can't disagree with that, and I do believe that teachers should honor their students' experiences and interests. A child who is struggling in traditional academic areas may be able to speak about his passions with startling depth, if only given the chance.

 At the moment, I am straddling both sides of the popular media fence, but I suppose my stance is this: Parents should be encouraged to be knowledgeable about the content of the media their children engage with, but ultimately the decisions that they make for their children and families are theirs alone. As a teacher, my job is to make sure all of my students feel included and respected. Therefore, I cannot ban popular media items/discussion from my classroom, though I should educate myself about the franchises my students are exploring, as some may not be appropriate for classroom consumption.

What do you think about popular media in the classroom? Have you ever conducted a literacy playshop in your class?