The Importance of Young Adult Literature

When Terry Evans began her presentation last week by reading a children's book, I thought she was joking. We are college students, not elementary school children. After she finished reading, I thought, "What was the point of that?" Later in the presentation, when she began reading the first few pages of a young adult literature book, I was hooked. I immediately wrote the title and author of the book she read because I wanted to read it myself. I began to realize the power of reading aloud to people. I would argue that reading children's books aloud to people is not always effective, but when she read the young adult book aloud to us, I thought that was effective. I think it varies depending on the audience you are speaking to. Reading aloud to students was a powerful tool that I will implement in my classroom. I also think showing students the book trailer is a good tool for exciting students about a text.

I agreed with Terry that we, as educators, need to create a "community of readers." We need to pick literature that students can relate to so they see themselves reflected in the text. Students also need to have the choice to pick literature they read. At practicum, one of the my teachers gave the students a class period to pick a book they were going to read in the upcoming unit. They did not have total free reign. She had thirty books that the students previewed and then from those books, they wrote down their top five choices. I think this is better than forcing students to always read the same text that the teacher chose.

I really appreciated Terry's comment about not being a "literary snob." I admit that I can be a "literary snob" at times, but I am trying to break away from that. This summer, I found the book Twilight at a garage sale for a quarter. I had seen the first two movies, and I thought they were okay, but I did not understand what was so amazing about the series. I decided to buy the book because it was so cheap and I read it. I wanted to see what was so attractive about vampires to teenagers. The book is not amazing, but it was not the worst book I ever read either. As Terry said, if students get excited about reading, teachers should not discourage that, even if the text is not brilliantly written. At least students are excited about a book! I think it is important for teachers to read the young adult literature that students are reading. We can also give suggestions to students if we keep up with the most popular young adult literature too. Here is a link to the best young adult literature in 2010, according to the Young Adult Library Services Association. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/booklistsawards/bestbooksya/bbya2010.cfm

I thoroughly enjoyed Terry's presentation last week and I will definetly try and keep up with the popular young adult literature because it is extremely important for teachers to provide titles for young adult readers who want to read current literature that relates to their lives.

Professionals

Here is my list of professional blogs that I follow:

1. Detention Slip
2. The Gradebook
3. Cool Cat Teacher Blog
4. Beyond School
5. Education State

Here is my list of professional "tweets" that I follow:

1. EduNut
2. @feministteacher
3. @DanNQTLondon
4. karlaolson
5. @teacherfriend

Blog Reflection

As some of you know, I am not technologically savvy. I have written blogs before for another class, but I became more familiar with blogs and the benefit they have through this class. I feel a little more comfortable with technology, although I have anxiety about using Twitter. I think it is important for me, as a future teacher, to become familiar with the aspects that encompass the Technology Age, because our students live and breathe technology and I am sure the amount of technology in the future will increase and new technological inventions will be made.

Pros

Blogs are a good way for teachers to read the ideas and thoughts of individual students. In class, some students might not have the desire or opportunity to share their ideas with the entire class and blogs are a way for these students’ voices to be heard. Blogs also bring a sense of comradorey with their peers and students can comment on each other’s blogs for new ideas and showing different perspectives that the person blogging might not have considered.

Cons

I think there are some negative aspects about using blogs for a classroom though. If someone in the group consistently does not post a blog or if they do not comment on their group's posts, the blog cannot effectively work the way it should. Blogging also takes away personal connections, in my opinion. I think it is important for students to be able to talk one-on-one with an actual human being, instead of writing their responses on a computer.

Although I will not be the kind of teacher who is the first person to implement these new technological aspects into my teaching, I will eventually learn how to use them effectively with my style of teaching and with the way I teach my ELA classroom. I realize I am an "old school" person, but I will try and remain as open-minded as I can about future technological gadgets and gizmos that can improve learning in the classroom. If the students can relate to literature better by using technology, I will use it. As a teacher, I want what is best for the students and for their learning abilities. I want them to be successful people in the future, and I will do whatever it takes.

The Wonder of Critical Literacy

When a student reads literature, should they read to merely understand the text, or should they read a work of literature to be empowered and to examine their own life and to reflect and question what the author writes? Deborah Appleman says critical literacy, "focuses on issues of power and promotes reflection, transformation, and action" (1). Critical literacy wants students to ask questions and to be active in the reading process. Of course students need to understand the text, but I believe reading is so much more than that. Books can contain radical realizations that can change a person's life! I think some people do not find literature interesting because they focus on the "technical" aspects of literature, but literature is meant to engage readers. Critical literacy is also used to question the author and what they are writing. Readers focus on who is not represented in the text. What gender, socio-economic status, race, religion, etc. is ignored? How does the author's life and their experience bias the work of literature? How might the story look if the main character's gender or race is switched? Critical literacy promotes students to be engaged in the text and to actively question what is being read. Edward Behrman says, "Critical literacy espouses that education can foster social justice by allowing students to recognize how language is affected by and affects social relations" (480). I have some concerns with this statement. I am not saying that literature cannot change a person, but especially in a classroom, I think this aspect of critical literacy would be harder to implement. I do not think this aspect of critical literacy is as achievable as the other ideas, but it is an option.

As a future English teacher, I know that I will implement aspects of critical literacy throughout the literature students have to read. I want to push my students to critically think about what they are reading. If they think the author misrepresents a group of people, I want them to say that and recognize that all writing has biases because everyone is biased. I want students to question what they read. In the article "Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy," there is a section that mentions reading supplementary texts which allows students, "to confront social issues glossed over or avoided by traditional texts" (482). I think this is a wonderful idea. Students should also read young adult novels, "to stimulate discussions of societal conflicts and teen problems" (482). Students need to be able to relate to what they are reading. It is important for teachers to make current connections with recent books, popular music, movies, etc. so students can relate to what they are reading. I love the example in the article where a teacher compared the movie The Godfather with The Odyssey. I am a movie buff and I know I will implement movies into the literature that students read.

I am concerned that critical literacy is a long process and there is never enough time. I do not think it is possible for students to read a piece of literature, discuss and analyze it, read other texts that relate to problems in the text, and do a research project that promotes social action. There is no way all of this can be done with every single text that is scheduled to be read in a semester. I think it would be possible to choose one aspect of critical literacy to integrate in the text when it is appropriate. Overall, I like the idea of critical literacy and it has the power to greatly impact how students read and hopefully, encourage them to read on their own when they find a specific topic or genre that interests them. In the article "Critical Literacy" by Heather Coffey, she states that critical literacy skills, "enables people to interpret messages in the modern world through a critical lens and challenge the power relations within those messages. Teachers who facilitate the development of critical literacy encourage students to interrogate societal issues and institutions like family, poverty, education, equity, and equality in order to critique the structures that serve as norms as well as to demonstrate how these norms are not experienced by all members of society" (http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4437). These aspects of critical literacy are vital for students to explore and understand, and it can change their perspective of their role as readers. If properly demonstrated, I think critical literacy can show students that they have power in the meaning of texts because they can question the author and focus on problems that are presented in the text.