Using Harry Potter to teach literacy: different approaches

The Boy Who Lived Well: Harry Potter as a Novel Tool for Teaching Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Skills to Youth

“…Potential advantages include that (a) as one of the best-selling novels of all time, copies of the book are ubiquitously available worldwide, meaning that it has the potential to be applicable and relevant across countries and school systems; (b) it communicates the core concepts of CBT elegantly in the context of a highly engaging narrative and; (c) it does so with characters to whom youth can relate. The Harry Potter novels are already in wide use in classrooms for the purpose of encouraging general literacy, 27 and there is a rich tradition of using novel study as a means of teaching youth about the world and about their own www.jaacap.com/content/connect life experiences. 28 We propose that studies of the use of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban should be undertaken in middle school classrooms to determine whether, as we anticipate, it is useful in advancing mental health literacy.…”

The Balancing Act of Repurposing Feature Films and TV Series for University Teaching

“…Yet, teachers without specific expertise in film or media studies do not always understand the complex implications of using mixed-media, and relying on self-taught or ad-hoc trainings to include films and television content may result in unanticipated outcomes [1,2]. Repurposing the fictional screentexts of feature films and TV series (FF/TV) for teaching is a common practice across all levels of education, but there is little rigorous research or academic development opportunities to establish whether educators understand how beneficial or detrimental this practice can be for student learning [2][3][4].…”