CPP2

To participate fully in the world of Harry Potter, there are several literacies that we

must engage in. However, for many of these terms, we either have to infer what they mean from context clues, or perhaps we see another character explaining what that word means, or maybe the term is something in the real world that we just might not be familiar with! No matter the way we learn the terms, knowing the following literacies make it possible for us to understand and engage with Harry Potter!

• Quidditch

We figure out what Quidditch is through a mixture of directly being told in the book as well as through some very sports-like context clues. We can tell that Quidditch is a game that is probably just as popular as baseball and soccer in the muggle world, and we can see that it is most likely a wizarding-only sport, because Harry has no idea what it is, but he wonders if he could be good at it. For my understanding of Quidditch, it is one that I learned about through my high school, because they attempted to have a Quidditch club. So even though this was the first time I have read the book, I was able to understand what the term means.

• Muggle

Muggle is a word that takes readers sometime to figure out in the book. "Magical" characters frequently use the word in the first several chapters, but there are no other context clues surrounding the word, we are left to wonder what it might mean. It is also not a word that would be used in any context other than in Harry Potter, so we cannot draw clues from every day words, either. It is not until Harry asks Hagrid what the word means that he tells us that it refers to non-magic folk. This is probably the reason we have to wait so long to learn the word... we're muggles!

• Norweigan ridge-back

When Harry, Ron, and Hermione are trying to figure out what nefariousness Snape is up to, they find Hagrid in his hut trying to nurture an egg. We learn about what a Northern Ridge-back is when Ron tells every one that his brother works with dragons in Romania, and that it is a species of dragon. We get even more contextual clues when the animal hatches, and further more when they all help send the dragon off to Romania.

• 50 pence-piece

This term is one that's not Harry Potter specific, but one that may be tough for American readers to grasp initially! To understand what it means, readers have to check for context. They can see Hagrid and Harry traveling, and when Hagrid doesn't understand "muggle money", we learn that 50 pence-piece is money in the real world - just not in America! This also sets the scene for where Harry is from, which gives us more insight than just what the term itself means.

• Diagon Alley

This term helps us figure out how magical the world of Harry Potter is. This is the first place that Harry and Hagrid go to where Harry is able to conceptualize the wizarding world, and it is where we too, begin to understand the first initial literacies that are necessary to navigate this new world where Harry has found himself. This is mostly how I was able to understand the function that Diagon Alley has in the book.