Social Justice, Popular Culture, & Anchor Texts

A Teacher Inquiry/Action Research Proposal

By

David Cousins

NC State University

ECI 523

Dr. Michelle Falter

July 30, 2018

Introduction to Inquiry Research Project

Though students spend much of their day at school, they still bring a myriad of ideas and

and cultural understandings into the classroom. As teachers, we need to be able to utilize what

students bring to the classroom. Students are prime to carry in current cultural identity from the

outside world into the classroom. These elements will henceforth be termed popular culture. I

believe that these popular culture elements are not to be taken as background noise that students

only discuss socially.

 I have entered my sixth year of teaching English Language Arts. Throughout those first

five years of teaching, I have always struggled with finding meaningful ways to have students

connect deeply with the pieces of literature that are read in the classroom. The myriad of

activities, graphic organizer, or thrown together projects only go so far as to have students dip

their toes into what a curriculum text actually contains. This is a struggle with comprehension.

There never seems to be a lasting impression or feeling from the text on the students. I want the

students to be able to carry something away from each curriculum text that is read. I want to

bring in multiple elements of popular culture to the classroom. In order to ensure that this does

not turn into a current event class, I intend to link all popular culture elements to curricular or

core texts. These texts will be referred to as anchor texts throughout the proposal.

Through this inquiry project, I hope to bridge the gap that students have in

comprehending of an anchor text with ever changing landscape of popular culture. Students will

have a chance to bring in their own thoughts and ideas crafted away from an academic setting.

They will use those ideas as a means to unlock what an anchor text holds. The linchpin of this

process will be that students are to focus their thought of the connections in the context of a

current social justice issue. When listening to students speak candidly, they carry a great deal of

emotions regarding present day social justice issues. I hope to unlock the energy for those issues

with making direct links between the anchor text and popular culture media in order to

strengthen comprehension.

Literature Review

The use of popular culture as a pedagogical tool is not new. Teachers will often use

current events, news articles, and sports references as classroom examples. They may even use

new technological advances to support classroom instruction. However, popular culture is

something much more than a cursory addition to the classroom. “Popular culture itself has

material consequences . . . we learn what the world is, how to see the world, and how to

experience and act within the world” (Garlen, 2015, p. 368). If popular culture is something that

we learn from and engage with on a daily basis, it would be beneficial to utilize it in the

classroom. “It is the responsibility of educators to ‘prepare our student/citizens to learn how to

use it’” (Garlen, 2015, p. 369).

The world of popular culture is too large a category to ultimately drop into a classroom as

new teaching tool. The necessity of using popular culture is clear to myself and many

researchers. They have identified that “students have stated that the curriculum is disconnected

from their lives.” This can lead to devastating consequences for student success because

“teachers do not find ways to get [students] involved in their own learning” (Hall, 2012, p. 297)).

This is where using popular culture in the classroom becomes necessary. Lefstein (2011) clarifies

the this process when he used “popular culture as a means of pressing students’ interests into the

service of the official literacy curriculum” (p. 43). Teachers need to utilize popular culture as a

way to coax out a wealth of information that they have. This is not necessarily done through

traditional classroom practices. The bridging of the knowledge students bring to the classroom is

crucial. Lefstein (2011) suggests that “the cultural capital models are concerned with bridging

the gap between the funds of knowledge students bring with them from home and the relatively

specialized discourse genres and knowledge they encounter in school” (p. 42) . The space

between the non-curricular world and that of the curricular world has been designated as third

space. “In third space, then, what seem to be oppositional categories can actually work together

to generate knowledges, new Discourses, and new forms of literacy” (Moje, 2004, p. 42). This is

the area in which students could learn best.

 Defining popular culture can be a bit daunting. But, having a clear and useful definition

for the term popular culture is necessary. Garlen (2015) does a wonderful job of creating a

manageable definition to use. He states:

“At its most basic level . . . popular culture can be used to understand the broad range of

texts that constitute the cultural landscape of a particular time and/or place . . . . These

texts communicate information with which we interact (both actively and passively)

through viewing, listening, reading, feeling, consuming, and producing and include,

among other artifacts, books, periodicals, films, television shows, music, websites,

podcasts, advertisements, and consumer products and experiences” (p. 369).

Though this definition creates a broad swath that can be used with the classroom, it is necessary

because the students are not necessarily picking and choosing the mediums to view that will fit

best within the classroom. Even though this definition is broad-reaching it is apt for helping to

define what literacy is for modern students. Gleason (2018) states that “literacy is the ability to

express oneself in an effective way through the text of the moment, the prevailing mode of

expression in a particular society” (p. 2) The text of the moment can easily be adopted as popular

culture.

The popular culture that students bring into the classroom is often referred to as a fund of

knowledge as Lefstein demonstrated. When Moje uses third space she is identifying the

crossover of the popular culture and school. The goal for educators is to find a way to have

classrooms live in this third space. Thus using popular culture and all its parts along with

curricular text will naturally lead to what Cho (2017) calls relational literacy or “the ability to

understand mutual connections among humans” (p. 8). I believe that if teachers bring in popular

culture to the classroom, our modern students will inevitably touch on a realm of social justice
issues. Therefore, if a teacher correctly applies relational literacy, then he or she would be able to

discuss how popular culture and curricular texts are “valued in contemporary societies in which

collective identities, interdependencies, mutual respect, and equal participations are to be

advocated among racially ethnically socially, and culturally different individuals and groups”

(Cho, 2017, p. 4). Ve Bilim (2014) reiterates this sentiment when she states that “it is imperative

that more scholars start to take into consideration the impact of popular culture on the learning of

students” (p. 347).

Methodology

Inquiry Question

As an educator, I am constantly searching for ways to have students make connections to

the anchor texts. Having students bring in their own personal beliefs and identity into the

classroom is key for modern classrooms to use popular culture. Even with the more modern push

for technology and information sharing, I believe that it is vital for students to continue to be

exposed to the anchor texts that are traditionally taught in the English curriculum.

In our modern, ever changing world, the students are bombarded with many issues that

can often arouse emotions for students that are difficult to decode. From racial and sexual

equality, socioeconomic issues, to international clashes, I want students to find a way to

positively interact with these social justice issues. I feel that the key to having students fully

engage in both anchor texts and have the capability to translate social justice issues is popular
culture. Thus the question that I will be focusing on is: How does using popular culture media

and advocating for social justice issues help students to better comprehend anchor literature

texts?

Context

To complete this project, I will be using popular culture media, anchor texts, and

contemporary social justice issues within two freshman English classrooms. The school in which

I will be conducting the study is a magnet school within the Durham Public Schools system. This

school is a one of only a few magnet schools within the district. This project will focus on

two class sections of students. One of the classes is a class designated as English I Honors. The

second class is a group of students in English I. Three classes will be used as a control to show

the effectiveness of the inquiry. The classes participating in the inquiry question do not have

large populations of students with IEP or 504 plans. The student gender breakdown for this

project is roughly two-thirds female and one-third male. The student demographic breakdown is

roughly fifty percent African American, thirty percent Latino, and twenty percent Caucasian.

Knowing these numbers will be important for the data collection because the thought is that each

student will bring a fund of knowledge based on their cultural background.

The classes that I have chosen allow for the study to be spread over the widest range of

students. The honors class was chosen as a way to see how student who do excel in the subject

react to a process that will hopefully create more success across the board. The regular class was

chosen because it offered the largest amount of students as well as the greatest diversity among

my current classes. Within the sum of these two classes totaling forty four students, there are

only a few students that have IEP or 504 plans. This number allows for some analysis of how the

research will fare with students documented educational difficulties.

 I have chosen the structure for this project as a response to student struggling to access

and comprehend anchor texts. In the past, students do not seem to be able to efficiently

comprehend anchor texts. This struggle has drastically affected quarter and state test grades. This

project has been designed for students to view anchor texts in a different light.

Students will be issued research consent forms to be signed by the parent. These forms

will ensure that all students personal and identifying information are kept out of the research

reporting. These forms will be submitted to the school administration.

Instruction and Intervention

This project will occur over a four week period. During this time, students will use the

anchor text, To Kill a Mockingbird. All popular culture media will be used to comprehend the

anchor text and create connections to a designated social justice issue. Students will participate

in a variety of activities, discussions, and personal data gathering in order to complete the

project.

The first week of the project will consist of initial data gathering through pre study

survey. During the first week, students will begin to be assigned portions of the anchor text to

read. The first week will be used to get students acclimated to the social media platforms that

will be used (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube) . Students will begin reading the

anchor text and a variety of popular culture media. I will introduce and guide students through

two note taking procedures which will be used throughout the duration of the project. These

procedures are Text to Popular Culture Media and the Cultural Diamond (Callens 2017). After

students have begun to master the note taking procedures, they will begin a series of activities

focusing on characterization within the anchor text. Students will begin to identify popular

culture media that mimics the techniques used in the anchor text. The final day of the first week
will contain the first of three small group discussions designed to look for connections between

curriculum texts popular culture media. Students will be able to use any data they collected when

viewing popular culture media.

The second week will focus on applying popular culture and the anchor text to social

justice issues. Along with the week’s focus, students will continue to read and finish the anchor

text. In groups, students will be assigned a popular culture media title and use the Culture

Diamond tool to gather data. Students will work in groups to use social media platforms

(Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube) to discuss opinions and judgements of their

assigned popular culture media as well as research social justice issues. This will allow students

to begin creating resources that will allow them to advocate for specific social justice issues. The

second small group discussion will be recorded to have students discuss the implication of social

justice issues through popular culture media hopefully making direct links to the anchor text.

The third week will focus on applying the connections that students make between

popular culture media and anchor texts to social justice issues. Students will begin making

opinions and identifying how the anchor text is relevant to modern social justice issues. This is

the week that students will begin making the greatest connection of between popular culture and

the anchor text. Here is where I hope to see that students are making the greatest comprehension

gains with the anchor text. At this point in the project, the students have analyzed multiple

popular culture media items and had a chance to share their understanding and opinions through

online platforms.

The fourth week students will be working in pairs or small groups to create and advocacy

plan for their social justice issue. They will present their plans on the final two days of the

project. Their presentation will be open for the entire school to view. In the plan, students will
need to demonstrate direct connection from the anchor text to their social justice issue. The goal

is for the students to utilize their knowledge of popular culture media to demonstrate this

connection. What this demonstration will do is show that students have fully comprehended the

the anchor text and examined its relevance for modern day issues.

Apart from the whole class instruction and following the project’s detailed week to week

schedule, there will be multiple interventions that will be rolled out when students are deemed to

be falling behind. One intervention that I intend to use as a process called Peer Assisted Learning

Strategies (PALS). This is a reading strategy that pairs low readers with higher readers. The pair

is tasked with reading and completing a series of comprehension strategies.

Data Collection and Analysis

At the beginning of the project, the students will complete a pre-survey to indicate their

general knowledge and engagement of social justice issues. The survey will be disseminated to

students through Google Forms. The data collected from the survey will be exported to a

Microsoft Excel program in order to create graphs and data points. The data gathered from the

pre-survey will be analyzed to identify the quantity of students who understand social justice

justice issues in relation to the anchor text. The survey is focusing on social justice issues

surrounding the anchor text in order to create an initial data point that will be used as a

comparison to a post survey. If students do not have much knowledge of these connections, then

we will be able to see if there is clear growth due to the insertion of popular culture media to help

create comprehension.

During the inquiry projects, students will participate in three small group discussions.

These discussions will be audio recorded. The recordings will be transcribed. The transcriptions

will coded to look for connections made between the anchor texts and the popular culture media
used within the class. The codings will look at quantity of connections made, and types of

references that the students are using. This first discussion will serve as the reference point to

show the comprehension depth of the anchor text and the breadth of popular culture used to

create these connections between the anchor text and popular culture media.

Along with the recordings, this study will utilize multiple strategies and data collection

methods to answer the inquiry question. The students will be instructed to utilize a text

annotation system and various note taking methods to gather their own information and data to

proceed through the inquiry project. The notes they take and data they collect will be their key

artifacts to help with the comprehension of the anchor texts. The student work will be used as

artifacts to show that the students are comprehending the anchor text. Throughout the project the

students will be creating documents that use popular culture to show comprehension of the

anchor text. One of these artifacts will be a student-teacher interview.

The interview will be conducted by another teacher or member of the

administration. The goal of these interviews will be to gather a qualitative sense of the

comprehension that the students have achieved of the anchor text through discussion of popular

culture media and the social justice issues. The interviewer is going to be using a standardized

form to take notes and provide information of the student’s comprehension. By having a third

party conduct the interviews, my personal bias will become less of a factor in coming to

conclusions.

The students will participate in a post survey. This survey will look at the extent to which

students are knowledgeable about social justice issues through the lense of the anchor text. The

survey will also identify the engagement of students with social justice issues. The post-survey

will undergo the same data analysis as the pre-survey. The survey will be collected through
Google Forms. The data will be exported to a Microsoft Excel document. The post-survey data

will be compared to the pre-survey data to see any growth or decline that students have with

comprehension of the anchor text through social justice issues. Success of the data will be

registered if the students are able show the connection between the social justice issue and the

anchor text.

Discussion

The implications for this research question will be valuable to teachers who deal with

large quantities of anchor texts within their curriculum. This project will allow teachers to see

that students can begin to comprehend difficult texts through connection to the outside world,

popular culture. This will create a map that teachers can use to help students who struggle with

comprehension. It would be important for the teacher to note, before beginning the process, if the

comprehension issue is with an individual student or whether it pertains to a larger quantity of

the class. I feel that in order for this strategy of using popular culture to work efficiently, there

needs to be a need for collaboration among the students. Therefore, this process would not work

well as an individual (one-on-one) intervention. Students need to have a chance to communicate

with peers to make the connections between the anchor text and the popular culture. I foresee

this project opening up many more chances for teacher researchers to find new ways to

incorporate new media and comprehension strategies.

The data for this project will be presented in two ways. Informally the effect of using

popular culture media to comprehend anchor texts will be presented by the students when they

display and present their own findings in the form of a plan for advocating a social justice issue.

The formal presentation of the findings will be presented to the teachers and staff of my school.
 This will be done through an oral presentation of the research, data, and student work. If the

administration will allow, I would like for a student to be a part of the formal presentation.

References

Ve Bilim, Egitim (2014). A Qualitative study towards infusing popular culture on teaching practice in

classroom. Education and Science. 39(171), 344-360.

Callens, Melissa V. (2017). The Cultural Diamond as and English Teacher’s Best Friend. English

Journal. 106 (5). 64-69.

Cho, H. (2017). Navigating the Meanings of Social Justice, Teaching for Social Justice, and
Multicultural Education. International Journal of Multicultural Education Vol. 19(2), 1-19.

Garlen, Julie C. (2015). Pop Culture Pedagogies: Process and Praxis.Educational Studies: A Journal of
the American Educ. Studies Association. 51(5), 368-384.

Gleason, G. (2018). Thinking in hashtags: exploring teenagers; new literacies on twitter. Learning,
Media and Technology (Online), 1-16. http://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2018.1462207

Hall, L. A. (2012). How Popular Culture Texts Inform and Share Students’ Discussions of Social
Studies Texts. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy Vol. 54(4).
http://doi.org/10.1002/JAAL00036

Lefstein, Adam, & Snell, Julia, (2011). Promises and Problems of Teaching With Popular Culture: A
Linguistic Ethnographic Analysis of Discourse Genre Mixing in Literacy Lesson, Reading
Research Quarterly 46(1), 40-69.

Moje, Elizabeth B., et. al. (2004). Working toward third space in content area literacy: An examination
of everyday funds of knowledge and Discourse. Research Reading Quarterly 39(1), 38-70.