​Class injury through language
​
In Jeff Zentner’s In the Wild Light, Cash, under extraordinary circumstances, leaves his rural Tennessee small town to attend a posh Connecticut prep school with his best friend, Delaney. There, in addition to suffering in general as a scholarship student, Cash must share a dorm room with Tripp, a politician’s son, who is in the room the first time Cash calls home and speaks to his beloved grandfather who raised him. Cash holds his conversation with his Papaw on speaker phone, and when he is done, and is feeling just a bit better after being so far from home for the first time, his roommate comments. “‘Ep thar,’” Tripp says, smirking…”’It’s how your gramps says
“up there.”’” 

Even as a poor, rural youth in his home community, no one had ever humiliated his Papaw for the way he spoke before. This source of class-based injury comes from rubbing right up against tremendous class privilege and a sense of entitlement from his wealthy roommate. But the exact site of injury that is inflicted here is language–one of the foremost repositories of class standing as we well know since Shaw’s Pygmalion. Paying attention to class-based injuries through language is one way to open up discussion around social class difference and its implications.

Some questions that a scene like this could raise for discussion might include:

•How does language preserve social class identity?
•How does language reflect societal norms around social class?

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Class injury through expectations of leisure time
I have enjoyed Julie Murphy’s Ramona Blue for years as a great text for teaching about bisexuality that also does not shy away from race issues. But the main facet of this story centers on the experiences of Ramona, who lives in a post-Katrina trailer in Louisiana with her father, her pregnant sister, and the baby’s father. Though smart and determined, Ramona has no plans for after senior year. All she can think of for a future is working even more hours to have money to help her sister support the baby since their family is already struggling financially.

So when Ramona’s childhood friend, Freddie, who is Black, moves into town for good with his grandmother, who is solidly middle class, some of their interactions start to churn up conflicts that center around social class.

For example, when Freddie invites Ramona to join him and his grandmother to swim, so he can keep up his practice since their school does not have a swim team like his old one, Ramona’s first thought is: Why would I exercise when I am on my feet all the time for my three jobs? Here, Ramona’s thoughts expose the way that “exercise” is a middle class concept that relies on leisure time. But how many experiences or expectations like this might readers not see as classed experiences without some guidance?​

​Hi, all.  Gretchen Rumohr here with some important updates to the Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature.  Have you registered yet? 

First of all, we have a snazzy new website where you can learn more about our conference theme, read up on the authors, register for the conference, and book lodging.  

Our speaker list has been modified slightly. We are excited to welcome Brendan Kiely, Gae Polisner, and Sonia Patel for Thursday, Malinda Lo and Brandy Colbert for Friday, and Varian Johnson for Saturday (Yes!  There will be signings!).  

We have an incredible, interactive schedule that will keep you up to date on recent research and pedagogy in Young Adult literature--and connect with scholars and teachers from near and far.

Take the time to register for the summit today!

​ How can these characters find strength to cope with personal and global tragedies, pick up the pieces of their broken lives, and find hope? How can we connect with these characters and support each other in trying times?  Often, my students carefully examine any clues hinting the hope and future for this or that character is possible.

What warms my heart is that my students have outside-of-class conversations about the books we read. Imagine one of yours (mine is Olivia, or Maggie, or Skyler) just say: “The other day, when I was talking to Devin about Freya, I pointed out…”  This is such a joy to have this semester!

Usually, prior to class discussion of a YA novel, my students are tasked with writing a one-page response analyzing the novel through one of theoretical lenses: reader response, gender, post-colonial, social class/Marxism, biographical, or psychological lens. I have to say that students’ responses this semester are beyond my expectations. They are thoughtful, critical, and make note of some slight details that make understanding and interpretation more meaningful.

​Here are just three poems I want to showcase as examples; otherwise, this blog post will be too long. I will use my students’ real names as they provided me with their consent knowing about this blog post.
The first poem is written by Brooke J., in which she reveals struggles Freya experiences until she meets Harun and Nathaniel in Manhattan, NY. note that Brooke's poem is written in haiku.

​ Another poem, written by Sadie K., depicts Nathaniel, another protagonist, and his journey throughout the book. She explains her choice of a free verse to keep the contemporary atmosphere that the book presents.

​One more poem in response to this novel, to represent the third protagonist, Harun, and his struggles as a young gay man is written by Grace L.:

​Following the homework and class discussion of the novel and poems, I teach my students how to write a sevenling and golden shovel poems. A Sevenling is a poem of seven lines, which contains:

•     two lists of three items
•     one-liner that resolves (or plays up) the difference between your lists.

 
A Golden Shovel is a poem written by using the lines from the favorite poems. This is how it is created:

• Take a line (or lines) from a poem you admire.
• Use each word in the line (or lines) as an end word in your poem.
• Keep the end words in order.
• Give credit to the poet who originally wrote the line (or lines)--you can do this in your title.
• The new poem does not have to be about the same subject as the poem that offers the end words.

In class, we practice writing both kinds of poems. The task is  to focus on a theme of hopes and dreams for tomorrow, but students can choose any young adult novel we have read throughout the course. We do not attempt to analyze or interpret these poems as we have a shared purpose and know the context of each poem. As beginning poets in class, we agree to a no-judgement policy, but praise each brave soul for sharing their poems out loud. Most of my students prefer to share.
Below are a few poems created in class.

​One more sevenling written by Grace is about Melinda Sordino, the protagonist in L. Anderson’s Speak (1999):
 
Speak
I am a willow tree.
Drooping, sad willow tree.
Hiding behind my branches.
 
I was a sapling,
With dreams of being an oak -
Strong and sturdy. 
 
My branches are lifting; I am free.

To write the golden shovel poem, I offered my students to use either a quote from a  novel, a few lines from Emily Dickinson’s poem “Hope is the Thing with Feathers,” or any other poem.  
In the following poem, Kelsey J. chose two lines from the first stanza of Dickinson’s poem, “And sings the tune without the words—//And never stops—at all—” replacing the first word “And’ with “hope.”  Her poem focuses on Kyle’s loss in The Memory of Things:
    ***
I cannot dare to hope
when all the world sings
a wailing cry of mourning at the
towers gone down. Life feels out of the tune
now. How do we carry on without
the pressing guilt of disregarding the
fallen and the unpredictable future. Words
cannot help, but we try. And  
the only thing that is left is hope in the never
ending world. The future never stops
She keeps my heart beating wherever she’s at
Maybe I can have hope after all.
 
The bold-type words at the end of each line are from Dickinson’s poem. Kelsey describes Kyle’s feelings, and refers to Hannah as the one giving him hope for tomorrow.

Maggie’s poem will conclude this poetry marathon. She used the final lines from Forman’s I Have Lost My Way: “They see him. He hears them. They find each other.”
   ***
Clashing with the current, they
Destroy the path they see
Before them. They have found him
Here, on this bridge of broken bones. He
Can’t believe he has been found. He hears
The music of her voice and feels them
Pulling him down to earth. This was how they
Met, but now it’s his turn to take the fall. They find
Him trapped and pull him down. Each
One of them holding onto the other.

Using poetry in any class is rewarding, and in a young adult literature course, it is even more worthwhile. Often chasing to achieve academic benchmarks, we forget that our students have family lives, day-to-day challenges, happy and sad moments, and they need to nurture and heal their souls as well. Teachers can help with these needs. Employing poetry and providing creative outlets for their expression. Poetry has always been a tool for coping and healing, Engaging in poetry reading, writing, and sharing, I do not simplify tasks, skills, and goals, but instead add another level of complexity to students' (and my own) thinking. Teaching pre-service teachers how to include poetry reading and writing in the classroom, I, too, have hope that  they will bring it to their prospective students.  

​Till next time
Leilya

How about you?  What are some of your favorite nonfiction YA texts?

References
​Vacca, R.T., Vacca, J., & Mraz, M. (2021). Content area reading: Literacy and learning across the curriculum (13th ed.). Pearson.

​The middle school students in the reading group have been focusing on novels in verse for several weeks.  This week’s focus is K.A. Holt’s Ben Y and the Ghost in the Machine.  We have been focusing on the poem called School.  Matt says, “I wasn’t really interested in reading poetry so I didn’t expect to like this book.  But it was not what I expected at all.  I liked Ben a lot.”  Karlie nods and adds, “The poem about beige is my favorite.”  Six other students nod and one says, “I never thought about a color being heavy but by the time we got to the end of the poem, I felt the weight of beige.”  The students talk excitedly about what it is like to feel the weight of something that doesn’t really have weight to it. ​

They talk about how the poem creates the sense that beige is overwhelming, that it surrounds you, and that it could consume you or destroy you.  Erica says, “Beige seemed kinda harmless before this poem.” ​

​We are pleased to feature an interview with Margarita Engle today!  Engle's new book, Rima's Rebellion: Courage in a Time of Tyranny, is a coming-of-age story about women's right to vote in 1920s Cuba--and also explores questions of a child's legitimacy during that time, horses, the value of family, the promise of friendship, and the excitement of first love.

At least two recent biographies of Abraham Lincoln include the word becoming in their titles; it might be interesting for readers to compare how the authors deal with the evolution of Lincoln’s thinking and behavior in W.W. Freeling’s Becoming Lincoln and R. Kigel’s Becoming Lincoln: The Coming of Age of Our Greatest President. Our students can also see the construct at work in James Patterson and Kwami Alexander’s coming-of-age novel, Becoming Mohammad Ali as well as in the poetry collection You Don’t Have to Be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves, edited by Diana Whitney. ​

Books containing Becoming in their titles offer varied examples of how real and fictional individuals follow unique paths toward constructing an identity, making decisions and changes in terms of work and beyond. We could look for instances where adults’ ideas about what the young people “should become” differ from how the protagonists perceive and value themselves, often causing conflict.  

Librarians and teachers can invite students to think about the outside and internal forces that have shaped who they are so far, and then to envision the next steps on their quests for a purposeful life. What might they encounter on the road to arriving at whatever they aspire to? How can they play an active role in the forming of their future selves? The following is a sample assignment (adapted from Kane, forthcoming) that may help students explore and employ the construct of becoming: 

Biologist Sy Montgomery named her memoir Becoming a Good Creature. Now that you have explored some of the books in our “Becoming” Text Set, choose one of the following options. Feel free to use a graphic format, with panels and speech bubbles, if that works for you.  
A. What would your memoir about the people and events that made you who you are today look like? How might you structure the chapters? Looking ahead, what do you anticipate could be some key points in future chapters? Write ideas down to discover and share your story. 
B. Choose a well-known person (historical or contemporary) in the field you are pursuing, and research their early lives and influences. What caused them, or enabled them, to become the person they are today, or that they became noted for in history? How would you approach writing a “Becoming” essay or book about them? 
C. Interview an adult to find out about what personal characteristics or interests, events, and people influenced them throughout their childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. Explain that you are interested in the concept of becoming, and would like their opinions about how people can grow into the best versions of themselves; about how to match careers and passions; about what qualities young people should be developing and nurturing. As you listen, take notes, and ask probing questions if appropriate. How did they decide on or land the job they are in? What are their hopes for the future? What advice would they like to offer to you and your friends who are at an earlier stage of becoming? Be sure to thank them for the valuable gifts of their time and thoughts. Later, write a reflection based on what you heard. 
​​

Thank you, Padma, for sharing the wisdom of these authors.  Now--to the rest of you--what keeps you going?

​The Power of Persistence by Padma Venkatraman​

​Invisibility/Visibility in Rhodes’s Black Brother/Black Brother by Dr. Melanie Hundley

 Black Brother, Black Brother by Jewell Parker Rhodes has been the topic of the weekly adolescent book club for three weeks now. It is a book they keep coming back to as they wrestle with the ideas and how they connect to their own lives.  The day-to-day issues that Dante faces because of the color of his skin are situations they see.  A key theme they keep returning to is the idea of being visible and being invisible.  “I want to be visible when I want to be visible,” a student says, “not visible because I am a black kid in a store or walking down a street.”  The students nod.  Another student says, “What I think is important about this book is that it talks about a lot of things connected to this one kid.  That makes it real.”

“It’s the play on words, I think,” Kari says quietly.  “Donte keeps doing these things with words.  He says that his mom thinks they are going to lose. Then he says that he thinks they are going to lose and then he says I’m lost.” She continues, “That stands out to me. It’s smart and subtle and makes me think.” Students in the literature circle nod. Another students picks up on this idea and explains, “He does this with disappearing too.  He wants to be invisible and disappear so that he is not seen.  But then he uses disappear in a way that make it seem like they were disappeared, like killed.”

They connect this idea with contemporary issues in society and argue about if it is better to be seen or to be invisible. Whether or not they are visible or invisible and whether it is by their choice is central to many of the discussions about school and about books.  They return again and again to the multiple ways words are used—lose, lost, disappear, honor, win—and how that helps them think about the story but also about their very own stories.
​

Black Brother, Black Brother is a powerful story about a young man finding himself in the midst of an ongoing, daily battle with systemic racism. He is bullied; he is overlooked; he is blamed for anything that goes wrong in his vicinity.  He wishes to be invisible.  He wants Harry’s invisibility cloak or Frodo’s Elvish ring.  These are ideas that many adolescents can engage with but being invisible is both a wish and a fear for students. Years ago, Maya, a student in a ninth grade class wrote a draft of a poem in a unit about identity.  She said,

Who am I? 
I am young, black, female

I raise my hand
slowly
because
                      I am black
and used to bein’ invisible
in THIS place
I hold my books tight
By my chest 
try not to stand out
on THAT street
I am black
And scared
That cause I am who I am
Nobody will understand the words locked
In my head.
I am black
And female
And scared
That cause I am quiet
I will be overlooked.
that YOU will not see ME.
​

Donte wishes to be invisible; Maya worries that she will not be seen. The students talk about Donte and his battles about being seen for who he is and what he does; they recognize that Donte wants to be seen for the right reasons, for what he does, for what he accomplishes.  He wants to be seen as Donte, not just black brother, black brother.  Alan, one of the boys bullying Dante, tries hard to make Dante a target instead of a person. 

In the end after Dante defeats Alan in the fencing match, Dante says, 
I barely hear him.  It doesn’t matter. I know--Alan sees me.  Next time he might win the bout.  Or I might. I don’t care.
He can even dislike me if he wants. But now he has to see ME. (p. 228)

Being visible as a person becomes important to Dante.  He begins the book wanting an invisibility cloak and ends it confidant the he is seen for who he is.  He is Dante.  The emphasis in this book on being visible or invisible is something that adolescents identify with in their daily lives.  The students in the reading group write about being visible/invisible in their lives. Like Maya, they have questions about whether or not they will be seen. Like Dante, they are trying to be proud of who they are.

In addition to being able to talk about what it means to be visible, Black Brother, Black Brother provides readers with a way to talk about complicated issues of race, class, and families.  Dante spends much of the book figuring out who he is in the different spaces he goes—school, home, and the YMCA.  Fencing provides an outlet for him, to grow as an athlete, to grow as a man.  Mike, a student in the reading group, said, “What I liked is that Dante’s family is a real family; they love each other and they support each other.”  Another student said, “I liked the relationship with Coach.  There was respect on both sides.”  “Relationships matter,” Mike agreed. “and I like how there were so many good relationships not just bad ones.”  The students in the reading group focused on how important it was to see that Dante and his family were close and that when there were disagreements, they worked things out.  
​
Black Brother, Black Brother is a book that resonates with readers.  What books have brought especially great insights to your classroom lately?