Editors Janak and Blum draw lessons from historical and contemporary instructional classroom practice. The first part of the book provides guidelines and theories focusing on the "why" of teaching rather than the "how." Part 2 examines a variety of strategies for incorporating pop culture, including technology, music, television, video programming, etc., into lesson planning. Chapters 8 through 13 focus on pop culture as a form of pedagogy that enhances discussion of race, class, and gender in today's classrooms from pre-K-12. In the concluding chapters, pop culture provides the impetus to discuss topics that students are reluctant to discuss in the classroom (e.g., bullying). A new subgenre, creative life writing, is explored in the last chapter. The editors' goal for this book is to expand teachers' views and expand their own practice in the broadest terms. The final case study uses Department of Justice reports and the writings of Kayla Webley to focus on the suicide of Phoebe Prince. The 15-year-old Irish immigrant's text message "I can't take much more" drives home the painful truth about bullying and the power of putting theory into practice. Summing Up: Highly recommended.

Choice Reviews

For years the argument has raged over whether to teach popular culture in the classroom. Now that that argument is over, the real question—just how should we incorporate popular culture into pedagogy?—is finally being answered with this timely, well-written book. In The Pedagogy of Pop: Theoretical and Practical Strategies for Success, Ed Janak and Denni Blum offer a lively group of theoretically rigorous but classroom accessible ways of using popular culture to throw light on topics including race, class and gender and subjects ranging from The Simpsons to Lord of the Rings. We now know the value of teaching popular culture. With this book, we can finally start translating that directly to the classroom.

Brian Cogan, Molloy College, author of Deconstructing South Park: Critical Examinations of Animated Transgression