What We're Reading

Using Pop Culture to Teach Information Literacy: Methods to Engage a New Generation

Author: Linda D. Behen
Publisher: Libraries Unlimited
$35.00 Paper (109p)
ISBN: 9781591583011
B&T         YBP


Reviewed by Julie Marston, Customer Service Bibliographer

Popular media often report the link between teenagers and technology as a negative trait. However, technology is here to stay and is now a crucial part of most school systems. This book is aimed at high school librarians. Linda Behen believes that in order to engage students one needs to constantly look for new ways of teaching. She feels that using pop culture in teaching information literacy helps students to retain information better.

She identifies the teens she works with as team players, comfortable with technology and tuned in to pop culture. The author discusses how she works with teachers to create an information literacy program with the few hours she has with the students. She also demonstrates how she designs a graded course of study plan in order to get teachers and administrators on board with the plan. Only after she has this plan approved does she add the elements of pop culture to engage her students.

Behen then discusses how to keep the program dynamic to keep the teenagers interested. Working with their teachers, she models her programs around a research project for that grade level. Then she shows an example of a program she designed with the theme of the reality television program Survivor. The book shows her actual power point slides. She points out that this method of teaching brings out the student's natural competitiveness and ability to work in teams. She then discusses how to publicize the program by offering to do it for parents, applying for awards, and posting it on your web site. She also suggests constantly updating the program.

Using Pop Culture to Teach Information Literacy: Methods to Engage a New Generation is a concrete, hands on manual that gets to the nitty gritty of teaching teens information literacy. It offers numerous examples of power point presentations, lesson plans and even library publicity. This book would be especially useful for those librarians new to this field. It has short, easy to read chapters and discusses the various aspects of teaching information literacy.