Alex Zaremba's Blog ( optional blog 2)

 I decided to take a look at another student's research proposal to not only see if  I was heading in the right direction but to also offer some advice on how improve their work.  I viewed Alex Zaremba's blog and her topic on how the Harry Potter Series has influenced children's literacy. What an interesting topic! Here is the link to her blog so you can take a look at it too: http://alexandrasz.tumblr.com/

     For the optional blog post 2, I took a look at Alex Zaremba’s blog.  She is researching how children’s literacy has been impacted by the Harry Potter Series.  I personally think this is a very interesting topic as it takes a very different angle toward literacy that most people would not think about.  I read a few of the Harry Potter books when I was younger, so Alex’s topic sparked my interest.  So far, I think she is headed in the right direction by asking questions in her proposal such as, “Do [students] read enough?” and “How can we encourage them to read more?” This is a good way to lead into how and if Harry Potter has encouraged more reading amongst children.  One suggestion I have is to maybe compare the Harry Potter books and its impact on children with other major series such as Twilight and The Series of Unfortunate Events.  For example, Alex could research how Twilight has affected children’s drive to read and compare it to how much Harry Potter influenced reading.  This would be an excellent source of comparison proving or disproving how much literacy has been affected.  Another suggestion I have is to look into sources that state why the Harry Potter books were so popular among children.  Finding out this information will help strengthen her research in whether or not the series had any influence on students.  Overall, I found that Alex’s research is definitely headed in the right direction and I look forward to reading more about her topic.  Good work Alex!