Spring SAVY 2020: Day 3 – Unpacking the Magic of Harry Potter (5th/6th)

Posted by hallep on Tuesday, February 25, 2020 in Grade 5, Grade 6, SAVY.

Greetings, SAVY parents!

We were so glad to share our classroom with you this afternoon. The students have worked really hard over the last few weekends, and they’ve all been so incredibly fun to work with. We look forward to reading all the great works of literature and criticism that your students will inevitably write in the future!

In the morning, we started off with some creative writing. Ask your student about their Daily Prophet article—they really embodied the role of wizarding journalist, and some of them made great illustrations to accompany the article too. Then, we had a conversation about the casting of a black actress as Hermione in the theater production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. We were so impressed with the level of maturity of all students in having this critical discussion. Next, we explored the issue of censorship and its relation to the Harry Potter series. Then, we discussed what parodies are and watched a pretty great Harry Potter parody, Dark Lord Funk (you can see it here: https://youtu.be/zbdvogFyZZM).

For the culmination of our weeks together, students worked on analyzing the data they collected last week as well as translating their findings to a research poster to share with the class during Open House. The research groups developed codes from interview transcripts and determined themes from those codes. There was some sophisticated qualitative research going on!

We appreciate you allowing us to work with your students for the last three Saturdays. We were constantly in awe of their in-depth knowledge of Harry Potter, their ability to use a critical lens on that world, and their willingness to dig deeper.

Sarah and Holland