Adolescent Literature~Summer 2019
Literacy and YA Literature [Module 1]
Literacy can be defined as the way we read and write to expand and express our knowledge.
Literacy is in everything around us, it's expressive, and it's for everyone.We expand our knowledge by the texts we read. When we assign students readings, it is (hopefully) assigned with a purpose. The purpose is for those students to obtain some sort of knowledge, to gain as they read, to expand their thinking. Literacy is also used to show and to give. Literacy is writing and speaking and sharing and storytelling and showing and expressing. We use literacy as a means to express our knowledge that we own due to our ideas, our experiences, and our own individual worlds. When we have our students write for us, it is with purpose. We are asking them to use literacy as a means of showing themselves to us.
I would define YA Literature as literature expanding upon topics that would appease to teenagers and young adults.
The YA genre tends to focus on coming of age stories, stories that describe growth and development, social issues that maturing students face, such as identity, peer acceptance, self acceptance, stories that describe young relationships, and so many other topics that are the center of many teenagers and young adults' lives.
Literacy is in everything around us, it's expressive, and it's for everyone.We expand our knowledge by the texts we read. When we assign students readings, it is (hopefully) assigned with a purpose. The purpose is for those students to obtain some sort of knowledge, to gain as they read, to expand their thinking. Literacy is also used to show and to give. Literacy is writing and speaking and sharing and storytelling and showing and expressing. We use literacy as a means to express our knowledge that we own due to our ideas, our experiences, and our own individual worlds. When we have our students write for us, it is with purpose. We are asking them to use literacy as a means of showing themselves to us.
Literacy is taking and giving.
I would define YA Literature as literature expanding upon topics that would appease to teenagers and young adults.
The YA genre tends to focus on coming of age stories, stories that describe growth and development, social issues that maturing students face, such as identity, peer acceptance, self acceptance, stories that describe young relationships, and so many other topics that are the center of many teenagers and young adults' lives.
The novels we are reading this summer will provide us with an opportunity to follow someone's life, to follow their story, to know their story, and to celebrate that story. YA Literature provides and facilitates these types of opportunities.
Reading through Kittle's ideas and tactics for literature in the classroom was very refreshing for me. Kittle was different from Beuhler in the way that I felt Kittle offered very concrete suggestions of how to facilitate reading in the classroom and even how to maintain a classroom library. For example, in Chapter 3, Kittle provided some ideas of ways to set goals for the students in terms of how many books they should read in a period of time and even provided some things to consider when deciding on grading students for their reading accomplishments. By seeing the numbers and ideas, I could physically visualize incorporating these strategies with my students. One particular idea that I KNOW I will use is the "Weekly Reading Recording Sheet" from Figure 3.1. I could imagine this sheet helping a variety of students-my numbers student (like me) who will want to keep track of where and see that number grow, my competitive students who will want to beat their own individual record number of pages or surpass their friends, and my students who do not necessarily feel motivated to read but may feel motivated to mark their page numbers each day. I could even mark my own page numbers along with students as a sense of encouragement as well.
While Kittle and Beuhler's works did have some differences, one major commonality of the two authors lied within the suggested tactics for shaping our students into readers. They both shared the idea that there really are no tactics for making students become people they just aren't. Instead, both suggest that building a relationship with your students and providing them with thoughtful book recommendations can carry them further in their reading journey than some formulaic tactic. That resonated very well with me.
Similar to Kittle, Ripp provided me with a cornucopia of realistic and impressive ideas for creating a stimulating, reading-driven learning environment. I like the ways Ripp referenced Heise's (2013) "Celebrating a Culture of Literacy Displays". The blogger discusses ways that she has encouraged reading and literacy amongst her students. she also describes the ways she uses herself as a model to the children. She is very purposeful with her modeling by sharing what books she is reading or has read with the students, by physically reading alongside them during the assigned time in class, and by sharing her reading identity with them.
Some of Ripp's most agreeable ideas, for me, appeared as she talked through her take on book shopping in the classroom. I'm familiar with the way other authors and educators have referenced it, but I appreciate the way Ripp helps provide the students with an honest and individualized approach to this. She explains to her students that it is natural and perfectly okay to judge a book by its cover. We shouldn't always let that be a driving force for the way we pick books, but when that happens, it's okay and acceptable, we're human. She also expressed her take on abandoning books. Ripp explains to her students that this is an okay habit to have, for when we determine a book is just not a good fit for us, it helps us to know that must mean there are books that are a good fit. That can be really encouraging for a struggling reader. Her honesty with the students is so refreshing. I feel that at times it seems that there is such a push for students to become individuals who fall in love with reading and must be exposed to a variety of literature and must see characters that look like them and are vastly different from them to help them gain perspective and they must never give up on a book and must look like this when they're reading and must have blah blah blah. While all these things are true goals we have for our students. Ripp provides realistic reading goals and systems that could work for real life students, the ones who get excited to see a new stack of books when they come in your class and the ones who cringe.
Because I feel as though Beuhler and Kittle also, in a way, encourage this same type of role modeling and encouragement for reading, I am beginning to learn how crucial the presentation of reading, by the teacher, can have a massive impact on how this plays out fro students.
Beuhler-Chapters 1 & 2 [Module 2]
1.) I thoroughly enjoyed reading through Beuhler's ideas about YA Literature and the culture and identity it represents. One major idea that really wrecked me from her text is the reminder that society tends to underestimate teens, their passions, and their intellect. I am very aware of this. I tend to feel disappointed in our society when I think about this truth. However, this is not what has wrecked me. I am a part of society in the way that I underestimate the youth. When I get excited, creating book lists for my classroom library, I find myself thinking,
"Oh, here is my opportunity to bring in books that explore the identities of so many of my students."
"Wow, I can't wait for the kids to learn about people so different from them. I just know they aren't familiar with this background. How enlightening this will be for them!"
"Gee, I am such an INCLUSIVE teacher!"
This thinking is great. It is good to expose our students to as much as we can. We want them to learn about new things. HOWEVER, I completely forget that my students are ~intelligent~. They are already entering my classroom library with so much knowledge and experience. This is knowledge that, not only includes, but completely surpasses what I feel they should know about other cultures, sexual identities, or foreign languages. Students come to us, already familiar with so much. They come to us with passions and hobbies and topics they have been studying well before we've even me them. Beuhler (2016), referring to M.T. Anderson (2009) explains that," Anderson reminds us that to see the intelligence in teen literature, we first have to believe in the intelligence of teens" (26). While I may be further along in my perspective of YA Literature than the couple of generations before me, it is still crucial to remember that our students are teaching us about themselves and the world around them through literature as well.
2.) Distinguishing between Middle Grades and YA texts can be difficult. I once felt that Middle Grades Literature was just a section of books under the YA umbrella, however, my thinking on that is definitely shifting. I am coming to realize that Middle Grades books are completely a thing of their own. Middle Grades texts include Middle Grades aged characters, challenging and familiar vocabulary, along with stories that are unique to the experiences of children at this age. YA books are seemingly filled with these same features, but tend to have more mature language, slightly older characters, and may be inclusive of social issues and topics that some Middle Grades students may not be familiar with or interested in exploring just yet.
Even with these differences, both types of books belong in Middle Grades classrooms for a few reasons. We will have Middle Grades students who find YA novels more relatable to their current lives, despite their age, students who need the challenging language of YA texts, and/or curriculum that pairs ever so nicely with a book considered a YA title. Essentially, I will incorporate both types of books in my pedagogy, however, I may not always work hard to label each book I consider for students because every book will not always fit perfectly into one category or the other.
Kittle-Chapters 2, 3 & 4 [Module 3]
Reading through Kittle's ideas and tactics for literature in the classroom was very refreshing for me. Kittle was different from Beuhler in the way that I felt Kittle offered very concrete suggestions of how to facilitate reading in the classroom and even how to maintain a classroom library. For example, in Chapter 3, Kittle provided some ideas of ways to set goals for the students in terms of how many books they should read in a period of time and even provided some things to consider when deciding on grading students for their reading accomplishments. By seeing the numbers and ideas, I could physically visualize incorporating these strategies with my students. One particular idea that I KNOW I will use is the "Weekly Reading Recording Sheet" from Figure 3.1. I could imagine this sheet helping a variety of students-my numbers student (like me) who will want to keep track of where and see that number grow, my competitive students who will want to beat their own individual record number of pages or surpass their friends, and my students who do not necessarily feel motivated to read but may feel motivated to mark their page numbers each day. I could even mark my own page numbers along with students as a sense of encouragement as well.
While Kittle and Beuhler's works did have some differences, one major commonality of the two authors lied within the suggested tactics for shaping our students into readers. They both shared the idea that there really are no tactics for making students become people they just aren't. Instead, both suggest that building a relationship with your students and providing them with thoughtful book recommendations can carry them further in their reading journey than some formulaic tactic. That resonated very well with me.
Ripp-Chapters 1 & 5 [Module 4]
Similar to Kittle, Ripp provided me with a cornucopia of realistic and impressive ideas for creating a stimulating, reading-driven learning environment. I like the ways Ripp referenced Heise's (2013) "Celebrating a Culture of Literacy Displays". The blogger discusses ways that she has encouraged reading and literacy amongst her students. she also describes the ways she uses herself as a model to the children. She is very purposeful with her modeling by sharing what books she is reading or has read with the students, by physically reading alongside them during the assigned time in class, and by sharing her reading identity with them.
Some of Ripp's most agreeable ideas, for me, appeared as she talked through her take on book shopping in the classroom. I'm familiar with the way other authors and educators have referenced it, but I appreciate the way Ripp helps provide the students with an honest and individualized approach to this. She explains to her students that it is natural and perfectly okay to judge a book by its cover. We shouldn't always let that be a driving force for the way we pick books, but when that happens, it's okay and acceptable, we're human. She also expressed her take on abandoning books. Ripp explains to her students that this is an okay habit to have, for when we determine a book is just not a good fit for us, it helps us to know that must mean there are books that are a good fit. That can be really encouraging for a struggling reader. Her honesty with the students is so refreshing. I feel that at times it seems that there is such a push for students to become individuals who fall in love with reading and must be exposed to a variety of literature and must see characters that look like them and are vastly different from them to help them gain perspective and they must never give up on a book and must look like this when they're reading and must have blah blah blah. While all these things are true goals we have for our students. Ripp provides realistic reading goals and systems that could work for real life students, the ones who get excited to see a new stack of books when they come in your class and the ones who cringe.
Because I feel as though Beuhler and Kittle also, in a way, encourage this same type of role modeling and encouragement for reading, I am beginning to learn how crucial the presentation of reading, by the teacher, can have a massive impact on how this plays out fro students.
It Doesn't Matter That You Don't Like the Book [Module 5]
This article from Stacey Riedmiller was PERFECT! I genuinely appreciate her ideas of explaining that children, much like adults, not only have opinions about their own reading, but want to be in charge of their own reading. The limitation that parents and educators put on what children can read causes me more distress than I think I've previously realized. Just because I am not a fan of a character that wears only underpants and cape to save the day, doesn't mean our students won't think that's the most brilliant idea in the world. It's okay for them to think that, and it is odd for us to just claim that type of reading as inappropriate due to our own unimaginative agenda that WE are setting in place for the kids, based on what we "know" would be a good read for them. That is unfair to their growing and expansive minds. The only time adults are down for someone forcing them what to read is when we are paying someone thousands of dollars in tuition to do so. Outside of that, there is NO WAY we would allow for that. It shouldn't be much different for our students.
A teacher who reads is an important teacher. As avid readers, we help promote an environment of bibliophilia. I have always known this. However, because of this course, I have realized that being this important teacher comes with some major responsibility. That is to do a few things- 1. Keep up on the current reads 2.Learn our students well enough to know how to recommend good reads to them 3.Not to place limitations on what bibliophilia looks like. No, vulgar things are not always going to be appropriate, yes, we should be encouraging..okay, requiring our students to increase their lexile levels and grow in their literacy skills, reading comprehension, etc. BUT we should never try to push our own agendas on these students through their personal reading. We may not "get" the latest werewolf fantasy novel or may not share or prefer the identities of the characters that our students love, but it is important that we allow our students a space to grow in these preferences and determine for themselves how they want to participate in all the bibliophilia.
I will take with me, into my own classroom, the improvement of experiencing genres, authors, character identities that are outside my norm for the greater good of my students, who will be relying on me to have these types of recommendations at hand.
YA Historical Fiction [Module 6]
What patterns do you notice? What role will/should/can this genre play in your teaching and classroom library? How do we make this genre intoxicating to young readers? (or, should it be
I really enjoyed reading through this list of YA Historical Fiction books. I have not actually read but maybe 3 of the ones I saw on the list, but those were pretty well written and relatively historically accurate reads, so I hope the other suggestions are similar. I don't really notice many patterns within this particular list other than I noticed there were a few more texts in the sections under time periods that I know students cover with the standards, such as during the time of World Wars, Civil Right's Movement, etc. I think that Historical Fiction should play a vital role in the classroom library. These texts are a really nice way to intersect ELA and SS standards and lessons. Many ELA and SS teachers team up to have students working on a historical fiction novel in ELA that covers the history, time period, historical event being studies in SS. In terms of making this genre "intoxicating" to our young readers, I do not feel that doing so is absolutely necessary. The only major reason we should direct the students, SPECIFICALLY, toward this genre is to help enhance the understanding students have on the way historical events impacted lives or the way those events impacted the environment. The risk with this, however, is making sure that we are reading the texts before the students are to determine historical accuracy and making sure we teach our students the way that these novels may be alluding to parts of history while not telling a true story at the same time. We can intrigue students with this genre by getting them excited for the connections they'll make with the the history they know and what they are learning about the characters and their stories.
Jasmine, I really like your thoughtful insights and definitions of literacy and adolescent literature. I like that you view literacy as a means to express what we know. It's more than reading and writing. It is our own ideas and experiences that help shape the way in which literacy is defined. Literacy used to revolve so much around this aspect of it being a number. However, the world is constantly changing and so is literacy. The constant growth of semiotic and knowledge repertoires only creates new literacies. In my current field work with the youth in the community of Parkview here in Athens, we are using an art-based literacy. There is so much depth to literacy such as how literacy can be determined. The general term of literacy is the ability to read and write. However, we use multimodality in this art-based research and literacy. We do limit them to reading and writing. We let them use modes of painting, rapping, and even dialogue to express their identities and knowledge.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, I like that you point out YA literature resembles a coming of age story and social issues. Adolescent literature can be tricky, and I often find myself struggling to distinguish exactly between but would be deemed YA literature and middle age literature. However, I think that students do not have to be limited to their types of literature. I think that they should be able to use literature in all forms that gives them opportunities to critically engage and reflect. It just so happens that YA literature reaches this need of growth in a lot of students ages 12-18. It is interesting that a lot of adolescent literature is read by adults. Moreover, I discussed Internment by Samira Ahmed in my blog post, and I think this book is a great example of adolescent literature that allows these young adult students to "follow their story, to know their story, and to celebrate that story." Minorities are often left out when novels are chosen in the classroom. Culturally diverse adolescent literature can really give voice to these students.
Best,
Taylor Brown
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of celebrating and telling a story! As humans, we all identify with stories - we have stories, we tell stories, and we experience stories. They have so much value because we can relate to them. And I think that stories are what novels are all about. They are about sharing something. When we are dealing with younger students, the story is the core of what we want them to get out a novel. The other stuff can be as complex or as simple as we want it to be. The story is what will reel a student in and challenge their way of thinking. It will expand their understanding of the world around them (which is what literacy is all about). I love that you describe this as an opportunity because that's what it is. Stories provide opportunities for growth and understanding. And the story remains valuable as the language, themes, and other literary complexities become less simple and more sophisticated. Literature grows with students. Great definition! Thank you for sharing, Caroline Beltrami.
ReplyDeleteHey Jordan!
ReplyDeleteI love the emphasis that you put on purpose in literacy! There is so much deliberate engagement and exploration that's inherent in reading YA literature - especially for teens today. As future English educators, I think that our perspective really allows us to see how literacy can create a physical space in the classroom for understanding different experiences and for discovering common ones. Literacy is definitely communal and dialogic in this sense. Not only is it an action, but it represents a space for collectivity amongst peers who otherwise may remain strangers: both unknown and, unfortunately, misunderstood. There's a lot of responsibility on that end alone, so it's great to see YA literature that tries to aid this process by choosing to incorporate voices and realities that may be invisible to students outside of a book.
Hi Jasmine!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I love the aesthetic of your blog! The notion that literacy is taking and giving is powerfully stated--there is so much there that you could unpack. I think students would relate to that definition of literacy as well as they seek out purpose in their learning. It also gives the opportunity to explore the multifaceted nature of literacy and how it is so much more than reading and writing. I think that YA literature reinspires many middle grades students because it is so captivating and relevant.
Thank you for sharing,
Erin Wedereit
Ben here -
ReplyDeleteNice formatting with the larger print by the way. I like your idea of literacy as expression moreover than ability. Expanding that idea to such a broad degree is very ambitious. It shows how it really does affect so much that we do, knowledge is power and literacy is a tool of knowledge, whether that be gaining it or expressing it as you say.
Solid answer for defining Adolescent Literature, but I'd get deeper into why that definition is, but pretty all encompassing and a good eye for how it's important for the reader to relate in some way to the character/subject. Awesome work!