Abstract
This presentation explores the model of incorporating popular culture into the instruction of English 102 at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. The full year, two-semester curriculum develops students as engaged citizens, active readers, and college writers. The first course, ENL 101, is situated in the practices discussed in Caufield’s Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers, asking students to explore critical thinking and close readings skills for engaging with real world texts to assess elements of credibility and rhetorical analysis. In part two of the course, students engage in the processes of synthesis, research, and academic writing in the conversational nature outlined in Graff and Birkenstein’s They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing.
In the course model of English 102, instructors select a theme, framing several readings as an academic conversation with which students engage, both as researchers and contributors. While I have taught this class with the lens of pop cultural criticism in mind, I have selected what in retrospect have been themes too opaque for first year students. These themes often become popular with a small percentage of the class who want to engage with the material, and detested by students who would rather discuss their pop cultural comforts. To meet students with their aligned interests, I have developed a course exploring the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Submitting this proposal in the first week of the first semester teaching this theme, I would like to discuss the successes and failures I experience along the way and look to offer reflections on how the incorporation of popular culture in FYE courses may or may not spark student engagement.