[HPFGU-OTChatter] HP on Sparknotes.com

[Richelle Votaw]

Acire wrote:

> So I'm looking up stuff on Sparknotes.com when I come across 
> SparkNotes (for those of you who may not know, SparkNotes are an 
> online version of Cliffs Notes...kinda) for all four Harry Potter 
> books! Now, I've always that SparkNotes does literature, but can the 
> Harry Potter be categorized under the term 'literature'?

Well, Scholastic has published literary units using all four HP books.  I've never used them, of course, since I teach 1st grade.  I plan to buy them sometime, just for my "collection."  

However, that brings up a similar topic.  My local school board sent out a memo Monday.  It really didn't apply to anyone at my school, but you know how things are, they send it to everyone anytime a single parents complains.  Apparently at some high school in the parish, a teacher did away with the textbooks adopted by the school board and were using literature units (including Harry Potter) in their place.  A parent complained to the school board, therefore we all received a "warning" note not to replace our textbooks with novels like Harry Potter.  

Rudely tacked on to the bottom of the note was a comment regarding Scholastic's Book Fair Harry Potter promotions, discouraging teachers from participating.  Oh, get real.  I checked Scholastic's website to see what they were talking about, and it's got to be one of two things:

1) At book fairs this spring, students who preorder OotP will receive a free HP cap, a certificate, and an invitation to a Scholastic warehouse OotP party.  Well, that's between the parents and their child.  No parent I know is goingn to give their child $30 to preorder a book they don't want them reading.

2) There's a reading motivation they're referring to as a "warm up" for OotP, where students read 1,000 pages.  Not HP books, other books.  So how is this promoting HP, to encourage students to read 1,000 pages of other books?  Obviously, the school superintendent doesn't know what he's talking about.

Richelle


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