Tag Archives: harry potter

My Story Episode 20: Harry Potter and Pedagogy

 

2016-11-09

Episode 20 of the BYU English Society’s podcast, My Story, features Nicole Westenskow, Whitney Sommerville, Tyler McCombs, and Stephen Nothum. This dynamic team of English Teaching Majors came together a few years back as a unsettled group BYU students. After doing their time at the university they are all now teaching full time here in Utah, and have made themselves known to the world for their unique achievements while here at BYU. In this episode the groups shares with us their unique pathway to the English Teaching Major, and highlights their experience while conducting research on Harry Potter and Pedagogy (for those of you who don’t know, that means teaching methods). This episode is a must listen for all of those Harry Potter fans, English Teaching hopefuls, and anyone else who wants to know a whole lot about what it means to be an English Major. Play the podcast embedded below, and check out all of our awesome episodes featuring stories on how to apply your English by visiting the BYU English Society SoundCloud page.

Check out the interview HERE

Hello, Lauren Redding

I am a Disney Fanatic, fairy tale scholar, ballet dancer, Ravenclaw, and general obsessive fangirl. And, an English Major.

Lauren Redding

Fairy tales and ballet! A winning combination!

I read like, well, like an English Major. As in A LOT. I’m frequently teased for my reading face, it’s “a signpost for all to read” (Shannon Hale’s Razo? Anybody?) I laugh, cry, snort, roll my eyes, and, more often than not, talk to the characters or the author while reading, telling them exactly what I think of their behavior. I then type it all up in very long Goodreads reviews. [I once went over the 20,000 character limit for a review and had to go back and cut unnecessary punctuation]

My love for grammar is the logical lovechild of my love of language and my love of the preciseness found in math. However, I am a huge proponent of incorrect grammar as a stylistic tool.

I am as much an expert on fairy tales as an eighteen year old person can be an expert on anything, and I love to argue about them, especially Disney versions and/or gender politics. I love the fantasy of the tales, the timelessness, the connection with ballet culture, the history, the diversity, the repetition, and the way that we can track written versions of stories to learn things about the societies in which they were written and crafted. I especially love how loosely written they are, leaving room for interpretation and imagination, which leads to such wonderful retellings from Robin McKinley, Gail Carson Levine, and Cameron Dokey.

My favorite author is L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables), and my obsessive reading of historical fiction when I was a little girl (as well as a lifetime of ballet classes) has embedded in me a curtsey impulse that nothing in 21st century society has succeeded in squelching.

Any writing I do is usually either unpublished rants I pretend are blog posts, or in my daily journal.

One of my favorite books is Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.

Hello, I’m Ashley Barlow

I’m a Ravenclaw, a Disney Nerd, a Trekkie, an actor, a nerdfighter, and a gamer. And I’m an English major.

I have wanted to be an English major for as I can remember. My love for the written word started very early and has now branched into many different forms of expression. I love the theater, spoken-word poetry, comic books, movies, newspapers, and vlogging. I’m one of the geekiest nerds and one of the nerdiest geeks you will ever meet. If it’s geeky/nerdy, I probably have my fingers in that fandom. I’m from Nauvoo, Illinois in the beautiful midwest. I love country music. Despite my love for trying to be grammatically correct, I say “y’all” a lot. I love to read and I’m so excited to have a major that will allow me to do that. I believe in the magic of books that can transport us anywhere we want to go.

One of my favorite books is James Dashner’s The Maze Runner

Hello, I’m Hailey-Kate

I’m a flutist, an Idahoan, an avid reader, a member of the marching band and I’m an English major.

Hailey Kate

Hailey-Kate

I am addicted to reading pretty much everything. I enjoy quoting movies at random times without warning and “I’m super into close-up magic.” I have an unhealthy amount of awkward situations daily and enjoy being outdoors.

One of my favorite works of fiction is Harry Potter

 

Hello, I’m Mauri Pollard

I’m a poet, a football fanatic, a believer in paper books, and a wannabe Parisian. And I’m an English Major.

Mauri Pollard

Me in front of the house in The Notebook.

Throughout my whole I have had passion for words. Whether it was writing them or reading them, words have always seemed like a genre of music to me. I love poetry, reading and also writing, and my favorite poet is Sylvia Plath. Another passion of mine is the language of French, and along with it, the city of Paris. Although I have never been, I feel like I belong there and am planning on going on a study abroad to Paris sometime in the next few years. I know everything there is to know about Harry Potter and The Great Gatsby is one of the best books ever written. I love my friends, family, football, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

One of my favorite stories is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

Follow me on Instagram
Visit my blog: “Beneath the Ruins

Hello! I’m Madeline Thatcher

I’m a junior, an avid Potterhead, a BBC lover, and an aspiring writer. And I’m an English major.

Madeline Thatcher

Madeline Thatcher

There is a pink and blue set of “Fun With Dick and Jane” that sits on the bookcases in my family room. Although now they are rarely touched, fifteen years ago they were my absolute favorites. A few weeks before I started kindergarten, my mother introduced me to the written word, and my summer adventures with Dick, Jane, Sally, and Spot plunged me head first into the freedom reading brings.

I was the child who was grounded from reading. My parents had to wrestle my copies of the Harry Potter series away from me as punishment for neglecting my chores. I’m also pretty sure the reason my eyesight is so terrible (as in a “-7.5 prescription in both eyes” kind of terrible) is because a large portion of my reading was done under my comforter with a flashlight I had stolen from my father’s toolbox. And I haven’t exactly grown out of this habit either – my roommates will often walk into my room to find me reading a novel late into the night after all my other coursework has been completed (and they, like my mother, tell me to go to bed).

As I’ve grown, I’ve accumulated additional “favorites” and along the way realized that literature has the power to literally change lives. It makes our humanity more accessible, proves to us that the human experience, while unique, is a collective one, and because of this, reassures us that we are never truly alone. Being an English major allows me to explore this facet of the human race on an intimate level – and I love it.

One of my favorite books is “Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man” by Fanny Flagg

Visit my blog,  “But Inside I’m Tall
Find me on Instagram

Madeline serves as Internship Liaison for the English Society and maintains the BYU English Internships blog.