A middle school teacher explains how she uses the Twilight Saga to introduce students to classic literature that is referenced in the books. As a fan she and her colleagues were able to connect with the students and then use Twilight to help them reach more mature material.

“Once students found out we were avid fans, they were suddenly staying after class to ask questions about themes and symbols and character development — all skills we were trying to teach in the classroom,” she said. “But kids weren’t interested in the classic works we were reading; they always said they couldn’t relate to those books because they were old, or the vocabulary was too difficult.”

Baker said she and her fellow teachers thought teaching classic literature would be easier if the curriculum included popular books like those in the Twilight series.

“The fact that Stephenie Meyer was a lit major in college and consciously shaped her books around classic literature strengthened the idea because identifying universal themes would help kids understand the more difficult classic works,” she said.

The presentation at the conference was a timely one.

“They scheduled us to present on the day New Moon came out in theaters,” Baker said. “There were about 50 people present at our session and some seemed a little wary about using a series about vampires in the classroom, but overall the response was positive. In fact, two of our former professors, who are our role models as teachers, attended our session and took notes. That meant more to us than anything else.”

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