Two of my hobbies include watching cartoons and reading graphic novels, so I guess it’s no surprise that as a teacher I’m now also interested in cartoons with the E/I (educational and informative) rating and world manga that has been repurposed to teach SAT-level vocabulary words.
I haven’t had any success finding how cartoons and other programming targeting children earn the E/I rating, but I have fun trying to see if I can determine what makes the show educational and informative. For shows like CTW’s Sesame Street and Nick Jr’s Dora the Explorer, it’s fairly obvious. They embed their learning activities pretty transparently. But for shows like the WB’s Magi-Nation cartoon, the teaching moment is embedded into the storyline itself, much the way action cartoons have embedded useful trivia for decades. The magi come across a situation that can only be solved by tapping into their knowledge of math, science, or history. The teacher in me finds it pretty obvious, but my inner ten-year-old realizes she’d learn that if Teacher Rebecca didn’t exist. (It’s often amazed me how much I learned from the non-E/I cartoons I watched as a kid.) Of course, then there are the standouts, like an Italian cartoon that was translated by 4Kids as Winx Club. It had the E/I rating all three seasons it ran, and the best I could figure was that it centered around a bit of the Character Counts curriculum.
Then there are the world manga (graphic novels produced in a manga style outside Japan) that are being infused with SAT-level vocabulary to help kids better prepare for the test that is a major key to their getting into their chosen colleges. I haven’t seen one yet, but apparently the words are worked into the book. They’re bolded and defined on the page where they first appear, and then they’re also in a glossary in the back of the book. It’s a great way to reach kids who love anime and manga, but all but refuse to do any school work. (It’s often amazed me how many of these kids I tutor…).
Naturally, I look at both of these and think, “Hmm…how can I use this to my advantage?” Working on Dead Bunny material, it’s important to me to create the bits of math knowledge kids are going to need, and then to show them how and why they might use their new skills. I want to be able to develop teaching moments that come from an engaging character in an engaging story, and I want those teaching moments to stay with the student long after they’ve put down the book, the game, the video, etc.
It’s a lot to shoot for, some of it beyond my current skills level. I think I need a partner in crime…or maybe a mentor?
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 7:42 AM EST