Discover how teachers have used the series to teach medieval studies, classics, mythology, writing, literature, history, philosophy, and even science! by the editor of the book Teaching with Harry Potter.

1. G E N R E S C L A S S E S A N D T O P I C S
Teaching with Harry Potter

2. Teaching Kids
 Fun activities and references
 Chemistry (potions)
 Cooking (Potter themed treats)
 Crafts (wands, art, costumes)
 Psychology (Patronus and Boggart)
 Good moral choices
 Getting girls into STEM

3. English Class: Writing
 Composition: concepts like third-person limited
narration or cross-genre fiction.
 Easy reads for ELD students
 Creative writing: Hero’s journey, plot diagramming,
foreshadowing, surprise twists, worldbuilding
 Writing bestsellers, self-publishing and transmedia:
Online, Rowling is pioneering the web as a new kind
of author: Pottermore, a virtual community and
computer game in one, teaches readers a new way to
interact. Readers are creating fan fiction, fan art,
video mash-ups and more.

4. Literature
 Children’s literature (of course)
 Basic analysis (themes, metaphors, symbolism)
 Film studies
 Name meanings and associated symbolism
 Hero’s journey/bildungsroman
 Greek/Roman/Celtic myth
 Arthurian romances
 The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary
Phenomenon, edited by Lana Whited, 2002
 Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essays, edited by Giselle Liza Anatol, 2003
 Harry Potter’s World: Multidisciplinary Critical Perspectives, edited by
Elizabeth E. Heilman, 2003
 Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter (2nd ed.) edited by Elizabeth E.
Heilman, 2008
 Reading Harry Potter Again: New Critical Essays, edited by Giselle Liza
Anatol, 2009

5. Classics like Harry Potter
 These are all adult fantasy or semi-fantasy novels, but
ones not too graphic for older kids and young teens.
 Bulfinch’s Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch
 Le Morte D’Arthur by Thomas Malory
 The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
 Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
 The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
 The Once and Future King by T. H. White
 Beowulf
 Folklore and myth from around the world

6. Inspiring the Classics
 Chaucer, whose “Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale” concerns alchemy,
and “Pardoner’s Tale” inspired the Tale of the Three Brothers.
 Ben Johnson, whose comedy The Alchemist explores alchemy
and the legend of the philosopher’s stone.
 Harry Potter’s Bookshelf by John Granger examines
Rowling’s inspirations: Dante Alighieri, Jane Austen, Bram
Stoker, Dorothy Sayers, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte,
William Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift, Geoffrey Chaucer, and
C. S. Lewis.
 College students found elements of fairy tales and the
monomyth present in texts like Great Expectations, Pride and
Prejudice, etc., or magical symbolism in a text like The Faerie
Queene.

7. English Vocabulary or Romance Languages
 Latin Roots
 There are so many simple, well-known Potter spells that
offer memory aids for Latin roots. “Lumos” (the light
spell) contains the root “lum,” meaning light (illuminate,
luminous, luminescent). The Fidelius Charm (also known
as the Secret-Keeper charm of book three) has a “fid,”
Latin for trust or faithful (fidelity, confide, perfidy).
 Imperio, the curse of commanding, gives us the Latin
root “imper”: to govern or command (emperor,
imperative, imperious). Crucio is Latin for torture
(crucible, crucify, excruciating).

8. Social Science
 Introductory freshman classes focus on Harry Potter as a
fun transition class, welcoming students to university
with a taste of the familiar.
 Education majors construct lesson plans for the K-8
curriculum using the series.
 Marketing and branding
 Religion: considering the Potter question
 Harry Potter and International Relations, edited by
Daniel H. Nexon and Ivar B. Neumann, 2006
 The Law and Harry Potter, edited by Jeffrey E. Thomas
and Franklin G. Snyder, 2010

9. More Social Science
 Jungian archetypes shine in all seven books, producing fodder
for psychology.
 Philosophy or theology: concepts of good and evil, the soul,
the afterlife, and true righteousness.
 Sociology, Gender Studies, Disability Studies, etc: issues of
race, gender, class, marginalization, and stereotypes
 Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
 Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts,
edited by David Baggett and Shawn E. Klein, 2004
 The Psychology of Harry Potter: An Unauthorized
Examination of the Boy Who Lived, edited by Neil
Mulholland, 2005
 The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy: Hogwarts for
Muggles, edited by Gregory Bassham, 2010

10. Medieval Studies
 Alchemy, magical recipes
 Culpeper’s Complete Herbal
 Ancient bestiaries
 Astrology
 Romance tropes
 Etymologies
 Mandrakes, bezoars, cauldrons, and love potions
 Culture: feasting, disease segregation, maps
 Architecture: the fourteenth-century Gloucester Cathedral
Cloisters features in the first film, while the Great Hall at
Christ Church College, Oxford, serves as the model for the
dining hall at Hogwarts. Other film locations include Lacock
Abbey, Alnwick Castle, and Durham Cathedral.

11. Modern History
 WWII: the blood purity laws and ghettos of Deathly
Hallows, false propaganda and racism
 Civil rights, suffrage, class differences, racial
profiling, LGBT Rights, and more
 Harry Potter and History by Nancy R. Reagin

12. Science
 Hermione’s fascination with logic, arithmancy, and
astronomy can provide a theme for events.
 Science professors speculate whether antigravity
research could someday create the brooms and flying
cars of Harry’s world.
 “Harry Potter and Genetics,” taught at Sun Yat-sen
University in China, clarifies that the series is
stretching far beyond its origin as a work of
children’s fiction.
 Roger Highfield’s The Science of Harry Potter: How
Magic Really Works

13. Math, Computers…
 The key here is word problems: two trains coming
toward each other could be the Hogwarts Express
and a hippogriff. Calculating variables can decide
which house someone will be sorted into. If one is
multiplying and dividing money, knuts and galleons
can be used. This all works quite well for kids or for a
Halloween lesson.
 One can make computer programs using all these
variables as well.

14. VEFrankel.com