EDUCATIONAL ASPECT OF HARRY POTTER NOVELS USED WHILE STUDYING LITERATURE IN MIDDLE SCHOOL

Abstract

The article deals with a problem of developing reading motivation of middle school students at Literature lessons. The authors of the research describe how to make use of teenagers’ reading interests to draw their attention to classical literature topics. The conducted research experiment shows that young generation take a strong interest in Harry Potter series of novels by J. K. Rowling. The novels have become a basis for creating teaching techniques to use excerpts from the series while studying pieces of literary works suggested by a school curriculum. Age peculiarities of perceiving literary texts are taken into account. Due to that, Harry Potter novels and excerpts from them have been chosen as they cover topics close to Literature course content. The authors of the article suggest a conception of moulding moral compass of students in years 5-9 through using Harry Potter series of novels by J. K. Rowling when teaching Literature. The conception leads the students from the main character behavior rating up to understanding how an environment influences personality development and how one’s life’s journey depends on making the right choice.