Customer Reviews

The Simpsons in the Classroom: Embiggening the Learning Experience with the Wisdom of Springfield

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I've just finished reading The Simpsons in the Classroom: Embiggening the Learning Experience with the Wisdom of Springfield, a gold mine of information for teachers of composition at the high school and college levels. The authors of the book, Karma Waltonen and Denise DuVernay, freely share their experiences teaching classes called "Writing about the Simpsons", including their lesson plans and assignments, offering inspiration and fresh ideas to any of their colleagues who choose to read the book. I highly recommend that you do so!
Although I have taught writing skills in 4th and 5th grade classrooms, I'm never going to do so in a high school or college setting. But I do know about the work involved for teachers at any level who must create lesson plans for their classes, and who hope to come up with new, fresh ideas from time to time. Dr. Waltonen and Ms. DuVernay are freely and generously handing you materials that may inspire you to be a better teacher, or to try something new. Read this book! Profit from it!
Don't imagine for a moment that a "Writing about the Simpsons" class is anything other than a serious education in composition. The authors have used a popular television show as the basis for the writing in the class so students can relate to the material, learn how to read or view with a more critical eye, and feel confident writing about something familiar. "The Simpsons" explores important life topics in surprising depth, providing students in a composition class much fodder for their writing.
Perhaps you don't teach composition classes at an appropriate level for the use of this book's ideas. Perhaps you teach in a school setting where "Writing about the Simpsons" would be inappropriate or unacceptable. You'll still find this book to be a good professional reference, and you'll be able to adapt the topics for a more general composition class.
Perhaps you don't teach writing at all. Please don't let that stop you from telling your friends, relatives, or colleagues about this book if you think they could use it! They'll thank you for it!

It's easier to engage students when the topic is fun and familiar, and what could be more fun and familiar than "The Simpsons"? The show has been on the air for over 20 years, so nearly every current student grew up with it. The book focuses primarily on the humanities and has in-depth chapters focused on composition, linguistics, literature, culture and society, and satire and postmodernism. The sample lesson plans and detailed episode list should help teachers quickly find something that will work with specific lessons. It's also well written and fun to read; I'm not a teacher, but the book was so interesting that I closely read more than half the book before skimming the rest.

A practical, useful, and engaging book for teachers.

As a longtime Simpsons fan, I checked this book out to see if it inspired any lesson activities for my elementary school students. Although I had trouble finding a good fit that would work with children so young, it made me jealous of those who teach high school and college that could steal many of these wonderfully creative ideas! A well-organized reference book bursting with innovative classroom exercises, but also a thoroughly enjoyable pleasure-read for true Simpson fans. Highly recommended!

~Jeff Gephart, author of Out of Dark Places and The Second Life

This book not only makes a compelling argument for the legitimacy of teaching with the rich subject matter of The Simpsons, from its commentary on social and political issues to its reflection of and sophisticated satire of American popular culture (including its own contributions to the landscape), but it functions as a teacher's guide, a course supplemental text, and a Simpsons nerd compendium of the intellectual examinations and approaches that are "most teachable." Looking for a way to engage students? Play the suggested clips from this sometimes controversial, always entertaining, critical-thinking-encouraging (Oops, and without your noticing, students!) series. Whether you teach sociology, linguistics, political science, literature, or composition (you Mrs. Crabapple wannabe!), you can use The Simpsons to jumpstart everything from student involvement in engaged discussions to paper topic refinement. As seasoned college composition instructors, the authors of this book even go so far as to map out related exercises and activities to provide full lessons that integrate the material and address issues in logic, thesis development, and more. The book includes many fitting jokes from the show, but it takes its subject matter seriously and shows (as the beloved animated series does, as well) why it is appropriate to do so. If you have ever been in doubt, you won't be after reviewing this careful compendium, instructor's guide, and nerd-worthy analysis of its merits and value as a source for teaching. (Also, I have a master's degree in literature, and I learned something new about postmodernism.) You not like this book? That's unpossible.

8/21/2011
Tonia Hoffman, M.A., Literature
Adjunct Professor, Saint Johns River State College
Orange Park, FL

Nowadays, you can't swing a Hello Kitty without hitting someone who has turned a paltry piece of pop culture ephemera into academic study. And while I'm a big proponent of dissecting low art, I can't help from rolling my eyes at knowing that there's a blogger out there somewhere writing 25,000 words on the feminist implications of She's the Sheriff. And i don't think I'm alone in that.

So I can imagine the collective exasperated sigh of some readers when they come across a title like Simpsons in the Classroom. "Another book about the cultural significance of this damn cartoon?" Yes, another book about that damn cartoon.

But guess what? It's a damn good book for the casual reader and especially teachers.

Denise Du Vernay and Karma Waltonen approach their subject matter not simply as unrepentant fans (which they are) but as unrepentant and enthusiastic teachers. This isn't a book that is trying to convince pop-cult critics that The Simpsons are just as important as Wuthering Heights. It's a book that gives teachers strategies to engage students and arm them with the tools they'll need to approach and analyze fictions, artworks and other "higher" culture. It's a way to get students to think critically by using a ubiquitous TV show that many of them have fond feelings for, and I think that's not just a noble effort but an ultimately smart one. Kids aren't turned off by analyzing great literature because they don't find it worthwhile; they are turned off because they're asked to look at works that don't speak to them. However, if you can show them that there's merit in the culture that they consume every day and then show them how to get at those gems of insight, you're equipping them with the abilities to do that with other works.

Yes, this book is ultimately designed as a text to be used by instructors in a classroom. But it's written in such an accessible and entertaining way that the casual readers can get a lot out if it, too. And living in an age of online pop culture scholars, that's quite an audience who will enjoy this book.