Can Lady Gaga and Hamlet co-exist in the classroom?

Three

teachers posed that seemingly simple question last month at a National Council of Teachers of English conference in Chicago. They answered their own question with an emphatic yes. In today's media-saturated world, they say, popular culture is increasingly important to discussions of classic literature.

Rana Houshmand, Eli Nolde and Nicole Johnston use pop culture as a springboard into headier topics such as using metaphor, analyzing literature and understanding irony.

"It's not something that happens in class every day," said Houshmand, who's taught at Centennial since 2007. "We use it as a scaffold to build to higher levels of literary critical thinking."

The teachers work with a variety of students, from struggling freshmen to seniors in advanced placement English.

The lessons, they say, reinforce state standards; they just do it more creatively than usual.

In one class, Houshmand showed her students graffiti by British street artist Banksy. The image was of two soldiers spray-painting a peace sign. Houshmand asked her students what they thought it meant.

"With texts, it's challenging," she said, so she starts with images.

Next comes analyzing words, perhaps lyrics in a Lady Gaga song. Then, finally, students move on to a Robert Frost poem, taking their interpretation skills to a higher level.

Nolde showed his students how to figure out a difficult literary text by bringing in a copy of something he couldn't comprehend on first reading, the Xbox manual. His students got it and helped him understand. It was, he said, a great example for them of how to talk through a piece of literature to open understanding of it.

"I would ask something aloud and immediately somebody would shout me the answer," he said.

Johnston uses Facebook as a discussion forum for her students reading "Fast Food Nation" in their advanced placement language and composition class.

"They're making very interesting points about the texts. They're posting other YouTube videos," she said. "It's sparking a lot of conversation beyond the initial classroom discussion." The teachers have also asked students to create playlists for works they're reading. Students working on "The Great Gatsby," for example, used "Gold Digger" by rapper Kanye West to help describe the themes of the book.

"These things work," said Houshmand.

The teachers say such approaches make an impact on assignments and test scores. They said taking their ideas to a national conference (the joint presentation grew out of an assignment at Portland State University, where Houshmand is pursuing a doctorate) was a valuable learning experience for them.

"It's an entirely different side of education," said Johnston. "When you're presenting in front of other teachers, it changes your perspective."

Grants and funding from the Centennial Education Association and the district helped pay for the trip.

Since the conference, they've been asked to contribute some of their ideas to a book on the topic.

"Our jobs as teachers are getting harder and harder with less resources to work with," said Houshmand. "To be able to do something like this seemed like a really big honor."

-- Melissa L. Jones, Special to The Oregonian