The past week, I’ve followed the coverage (and subsequent social media discussion) regarding Covington Catholic High School.  On Sunday, I watched the initial, viral video; on Monday, I read follow-ups, interviews and editorials; on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday as the story developed, parties postured, and lawyers and publicists were hired, I watched as some turned their anger to apology and others bore down in their indignance. Regardless of how people felt, one thing was certain: in this situation, there was a very real potential for an angry mob. Overall, I thought:  How might we make sense of this situation in our classrooms?

In my own classroom, I’d start with science and encourage my students to explore psychological reasons why people follow the crowd as well as reasons why people cyberbully, helping them to consider ways they had personally been swept into a crowd’s fancies. We’d think about implications while reading and discussing how social media--and its accompanying crowd--could encourage activism.
 
I’d also have students read more about the rhetoric of Covington. For example, this essay prioritizes logos over pathos when considering the debate. This essay considers Covington in regard to collective responsibility and action, and this essay remarks on how the social media mob mentality plays a part. The issue of media representation is explored with this essay from The Atlantic.  After reading and analyzing essays like these, I would assign summary/response essays in the effort to help students understand others’ views and then respond in logical, well-organized ways. Learning more about human psychology, its applications, and how writers situate their arguments in response would help my students think more critically about their own positions as well as their abilities to effect social change.
 
Taking this one step further, my students would be challenged to think about the purposes of different groups and their representatives:  In what ways is the Covington group--and its members--advocating for justice?  In what ways is the group taking responsibility for its overall impact, despite what they insist is innocent intent?  How do we make sense of these ideas from watching media clips and abridged interviews?  How do we triangulate our data in order to arrive at truth?  Finally, how does this group differ from other student groups, their representatives, and their political momentum such as the Parkland teens?
 
When we read young adult literature, we are offered new perspectives on the mob mentality.  We ask: How does psychology play a part in a character’s willingness to be swayed by the crowd?  How does the crowd help?  How does it hurt? Who is missing from the crowd, and why? How is social media represented in the text?  How might the story/advocacy/crowd develop with/without it?

Colleagues from the ELATE Commission on the Teaching of Adolescent Literature and ALAN suggested some of the following, related books. Though there are great books about cyberbullying, such as Butter, I’ve chosen to focus on racial equality, historical perspectives, and youth-inspired action with my choices below.

An angry crowd advocates for equality:

Oshiro’s Anger is a Gift explores media vilification as well as ways that a student population can take a stand against unjust policies.  In All American Boys, Reynold and Kiely explore how social media, honest conversation, and nonviolent protests can bring about individual and collective change, especially in regard to police brutality. And the oft-recommended The Hate U Give culminates with the protagonist’s self advocacy at a powerful protest.

Historical perspectives:  

The March Trilogy is a series of graphic novels that tell the story of John Lewis and his nonviolent protests during the civil rights movement. Perez’s Printz-winning Out of Darkness explores racial boundaries--and resulting mobs--related to the 1937 New London, Texas explosion.  Paul Binford shared Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry as a possibility a few weeks ago, but it is too good not to share again; I will never forget the terror I felt, and the power I finally understood, when Taylor described the lynch mob after TJ.

Books about Parkland:

​The Parkland teens have re-ignited our recognition of what a group of young people can do. We Say #NeverAgain,  #NeverAgain, and Parkland Speaks are great additions to the classroom library, sure to spark conversation about anger and advocacy.

Gretchen Rumohr-Voskuil is an associate professor and chair at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. She can be reached by email: ghr001@aquinas.edu

Last August I lamented that I was not teaching an undergraduate young adult literature course (See post here.). To my great joy, I am teaching a graduate course that is focused on Multicultural Literature. The primary readings will be in young adult literature. Some of my former students at LSU in the Spring of 2014 and my UNLV students during the Fall of 2015 will see remnants of their class in this course. The course has two primary objectives:

1. How diversity is defined and represented in Young Adult Literature through the narration and context?
2. How Reader Response theory can be used in a sophisticated way (as Rosenblatt intended) to acknowledge our initial and often visceral or sentimental response to a work of literature and then move it to a more complex reading of the text and by confronting our personal, cultural, and academic responses to literature? 

 
Let’s talk about the second one first. Although I indicate Rosenblatt, we will be reading other theorist as well. Among those will be Bob Probst, a major interpreter and supporter of Rosenblatt for many years. Bob is known by many of the blog’s readers as part of the research and professional development team of Kylene Beers and Bob Probst. I recommend their work at every opportunity. I see their work as helping students building on their initial response to a text as readers.

​In addition to Rosenblatt and Probst, we will be reading Iser, Fish, Culler, and Holland. Of course, there are others that we could be reading, but reading selections for this reader response theorist will be combined with more current scholars who are talking about teaching diverse students in diverse contexts—Glenn, Haddix, Muhammad, and Price. Again, there are others. Part of the course will be built around student selecting some articles based on these readings and their own interests. Deciding how much academic reading to do is always one of the difficult tasks in structuring a graduate class that focuses on Young Adult Literature. How much theory do you require as students are reading quite a few YA novels? I believe it helps them shape their own thinking if they can read theory and examine ideological lenses beyond the instructor’s lectures and class discussions. Theories and ideologies have history and context and it helps graduate students if  they read original sources instead of receiving them as they are passed down through a lecture, a power point summary, or a reference or two.

I stay interested in Reader Response theory for several reasons, but the most important is I want to value how students initially think about something they have read. I want to give their opinion value. I reconsider everything I read as I gain experience. I don't read Crime and Punishment now as a I did as a high school senior. I hated The Grapes of Wrath as Junior and now I consider it one of my favorite books. I certainly reading Morrison's Song of Solomon with new eyes after reading her essay Playing in the Dark and in the context of today's world. I am anxious to rereading Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk after experiencing the movie last weekend. In fact, that movie has already made me rereading Myers' wonderful novel Monster. 

Thinking about and valuing a reader's initial response can help both the teacher and the student. 

I stay interested in Reader Response theory for several reasons, but the most important is I want to value how students initially think about something they have read. I want to give their opinion value. I reconsider everything I read as I gain experience. I don't read Crime and Punishment now as a I did as a high school senior. I hated The Grapes of Wrath as Junior and now I consider it one of my favorite books. I certainly reading Morrison's Song of Solomon with new eyes after reading her essay Playing in the Dark and in the context of today's world. I am anxious to rereading Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk after experiencing the movie last weekend. In fact, that movie has already made me rereading Myers' wonderful novel Monster. 

Thinking about and valuing a reader's initial response can help both the teacher and the student. ​

​When people discuss multicultural literature they easily remember the categories of Race/Ethnicity, Gender, Sexual Orientation and Socio-economic status. Most scholars of Young Adult Literature can rattle off a host of titles that could be used to introduce these topics. However, I tried to remember the others—Disability, Culture, Age, and Religion. I scoured my shelves, looked through blog posts, and tried to remember the suggestions from a host of other syllabi--past and current. Should I include older texts? Should I error on the side of selecting some new and untested texts? Can I find books that address multiple issues? Well, let me show some of the books I didn’t select this time. As I hope you can see, these texts would fit nicely in the design of the class. 

If you browsed through the slide show above, you know there is not enough Sci Fi or Fantasy. I find the ones I love fairly long to include in a course where they are reading a novel a week and reading academically. My word, most of my students are full time teachers who are in their first couple of years and are trying to figure out the profession. We do talk about these genres from time to time. Happily, I find that many of them are more aware of these genres than I am.
​​
So, what did I decide to include? Take a look. Let me know if you agree. I am excited to reread these and share them with my students.

One more share. I am famous for (okay, notorious) for changing and updating a syllabus. I believe they are living documents that reflect the flow of the class and the changing needs of the students. We had our first class last night. As you can see it is in its fourth draft already. Take a look. Feel free to borrow and build on ideas. Also, I am sure there is the odd typo and poorly constructed sentence. I hope to find and remedy them as I move forward or as my students notice  them, but if you find one that can't get past your English teacher grammar check--send me and email and I will fix it straightaway.

Until next week.

Dr. Stacy Graber is a frequent contributor to the blog. I love her posts. Every time provides a post,  she makes my mind explode. She combines the study of YA literature with film and television criticism so smoothly that I wonder how she reads all the books and views all the films and shows.  Then, she manages to have time to think about it critically. Every conversation with Stacey is a growth experience. I wish I had the chance to chat with her more frequently. I jumped on the opportunity to include her again. Anybody who can talk about the accomplishment of Joyce Carol Oates and Julie Murphy in the same post needs the space to make her case. She has posted on four previous occasions and all of them are worth rereading and including in a YA syllabus. You can find them here, here, here, and here. They are all worth bookmarking.

Signs of a ubiquitous and generalized sense of loathing directed toward the overweight are everywhere in Murphy’s (2015) book ranging from the anathema of the word “fat” (Murphy, 2015, p. 9) to the semiotics of fat as synonymous with death (as in the death of Aunt Lucy, framed as a casualty of obesity) and freakishness.  Moreover, the principal character, Willowdean or Dumplin’ as she is known by her foodie sobriquet, serves as her own carnival barker by offering a catalogue of grotesqueries related to the overweight body such as when she exhorts the reader/spectator to note her “back fat” (p. 58), thighs “thick with cellulite” (p. 183), “stretch marks” (174), and the abrading effects of “chub rub” or severe chafing (p. 359).  Framed in this way, as a kind of David Lynch-inflected, scopic curiosity and perversity, the overweight body becomes a paradoxical object of enticement and revulsion.    ​

Connie, the principle character in Oates’ iconic story, is like an inversion of Dumplin’ in the sense that she is ever aware of herself being held in an anonymous male gaze, but as an object of desirability rather than revulsion.  Oates indicates that Connie is beautiful and alluring, whereas her “plain and chunky” (2006, p. 1) sister, June, is frumpish and unattractive.  Their difference reveals itself in intriguing ways from one daughter being favored by a parent over another based on appearance to symbolic competition enacted through clothing.  For instance, June overdresses for a barbeque betraying her physical discomfort, whereas Connie’s hair, clothing, and jewelry all signify her feeling at home in her thin body, as well as its attendant capability for seduction. 
​     
The story reaches a crisis, however, when Connie is stalked by the ghoulish, Arnold Friend.  For, when Friend reveals that he sought Connie out because she is “such a pretty girl,” we understand him as the sinister reification of the cultural premium placed on a conventional beauty index (e.g., thin, blonde, blue-eyed, etc.).  This is especially evident later in the story when Connie and Friend engage in a bizarre exchange.  Friend, ruminating on Connie’s family members who are away for the evening at a barbeque, ponders aloud, “There’s your sister in a blue dress, huh? And high heels, the poor sad bitch—nothing like you, sweetheart!  And your mother’s helping some fat woman with the corn…” This elicits an automatic response from Connie, “What fat woman?” to which Friend replies, “How do I know what fat woman, I don’t know every goddam fat woman in the world!  She’s too fat.  I don’t like them fat.  I like them the way you are honey” (Oates, 2006, pp. 7-8).

​Foucault, M.  (1977).  Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison.  (A. Sheridan, Trans.).  New York, NY: Vintage Books. 
Kardos, M.  (2017).  The art and craft of fiction (2nd ed.).  Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Murphy, J. (2015).  Dumplin’.  New York, NY: Balzer & Bray. 
Oates, J. (2006).  Where are you going, where have you been?  Retrieved from http://j co.usfca.edu/wgoing2.html  (Original work published in 1966)

Once again, Dr. Binford, a Social Studies Educator, shows us ways to combine Young Adult Literature with the Social Studies. He has written previous for the blog and you can review his earlier entries here, here, and here. If you are interested in cross curricular activities these posts are worth revisiting.

The School Bus Incident
On a country road in southern Mississippi, Jesse Brown waited patiently to exact revenge.

In the distance, Jesse heard the unmistakable sounds of the school bus approaching. As he knew all too well, the rattling of the engine would soon be drowned out by noises more hostile—taunting, cursing, and spitting.

While Jesse anticipated the vehicle’s approach, the students on that bus would soon spot their next victim.

The year was 1939.

Jesse, the oldest son of an African American sharecropper, understood the routine. The bus would pass near him, the windows in the rear would be slid backward, and, then, angry faces would pop out followed immediately by a barrage of racial epithets and spittle.

Jesse instructed his two younger brothers to move off the road and into the field. Meanwhile, he grabbed a dried cornstalk about four feet long, shook off the dirt, and repositioned himself on the side of the road.

When the bus drew alongside, the rear windows retracted as expected. Jesse “choked up on the cornstalk like a bat. As the bus passed, he swung the cornstalk and smacked the first face that jutted from the windows” (pp. 28-29).

The ill-fated youngster squealed, and the boy’s friends yelled for the driver to stop the bus.

Adam Makos, the author of Devotion, finishes the story about the intrepid young Jesse Brown, who later became the first African American to serve as a U.S naval aviator:

If this rural southern Mississippi school bus story sounds familiar, it might be because of the striking parallels to be found in Roll of Thunder, H(ear My Cry ROT) by Mildred D. Taylor. In ROT, a menacing school bus torments the Logan children (pp. 12-15 & pp. 47-49) followed by sweet revenge (pp. 49-56). This is not to suggest that the former historical incident inspired the latter dramatic rendering. Rather, it is to recognize the credibility of the ROT’s historical infrastructure. 

Like many children, the Logan siblings assume the mantel of self-worth, but this clashes with the realities of living in the Jim Crow South. Some of the most poignant and revelatory moments in this novel occur when the Logan children confront racism (in various forms), and the ways they (and their parents) grapple with and process this hatred while maintaining a sense of familial pride and dignity. Sadly, the Logan children are introduced to these profound racial disparities through their schooling.
​
Two more (brief) examples of the intersections of historical fiction and reality, as illustrated by ROT’s portrayal of schooling, are the focus of the remainder of this blog post. 

In the early 1950s, the state government recognized the legal push for integration posed a serious threat to Mississippi’s segregated school system. Their response was to provide increased funding for “Negro” schools as a bulwark against this racial mixing. However, the first step was to document (i.e. photograph) the existing condition of public schools throughout the state.
​
For the reader of history and historical fiction, this inventory provides a treasure trove of evidence that “separate educational facilities [we]re inherently unequal.” While not all the inventory has been digitized (i.e., Jefferson Davis County’s school photographs are viewable only by traveling to MDAH in Jackson), enough county inventories are available digitally for teachers and students alike to view the obvious and disturbing disparities.

The School Textbooks​
The opening chapter of ROT culminates with the Great Faith Elementary and Secondary School teachers distributing “new books” to their excited pupils (pp. 21-25). But the buildup belies the condition of these hand-me-down textbooks. The Logan children’s disappointment at receiving dilapidated books is acerbated by the official label, inside the front cover (p. 25), the last entry of which reads, in part :

Date of Issuance: September 1933. Condition of Book: Very Poor Race: nigra 

The historical reality is Mississippi did not begin issuing free public school textbooks until 1940. However, individual school districts in the state did have the latitude to provide free school textbooks. Keep in mind, for most states the issuance of school textbooks—free of charge—began in the early to mid-twentieth century; this development was preceded and necessitated by compulsory school attendance laws.

One of the prevailing arguments against free public school textbooks, as Clyde J. Tidwell noted in 1928, was that “no satisfactory plan ha[d] been devised . . . for successfully fumigating or disinfecting textbooks." Needless to say, this concern over fumigation and disinfection had immigrant and African American households squarely in mind.
​
In the summer of 1940, the Mississippi State Textbook Purchasing Board was empowered to administer the newly enacted free public school textbook legislation. Regarding the distribution of textbooks to students, the board stipulated:

​All books distributed under the provisions of the State Textbook Act shall have printed labels on both inside covers [emphasis mine]. On the labels shall be space provided for:

1. Name of pupil
2. Space for serial number of book and date
3. Name of school district and name of school
4. Name of County
5. Race [emphasis mine]
6. Condition of book when assigned and returned

​In brief, ROT presents schooling in Depression Era Mississippi in a historically credible manner, which could readily serve as a representative example of the evils of Jim Crow for the nation at large. Furthermore, these intersections of fiction and reality provide ELA and Social Studies teachers and their students with rich opportunities for cross curricular teaching and learning.

I love what Dr. Binford has done in this post. I think more ELA teachers could add more informational texts and primary documents. Dr. Binford have collaborated as an English educator and Social Science educator and we will continue to do frequently. I have added images of several books that would be appropriate at several grade levels. With minimal effort teachers good easily find informational texts, visuals, first person narratives, and parallel events that would enhance a unit centered on one of these novel.  Thanks Dr. Binford for modeling constructive educational ideas.

Dr. Paul E. Binford is an assistant professor of Secondary Social Studies at Mississippi State University. He is the author of two teacher wraparound editions, various journal articles on the history of the social studies and cross curricular connections. His website is the RingofTruth.org, which includes a blog, Lesson Launch. He can be reached at theringoftruth.org.

Until next time.

This week Sophia Sarigianides returns as a guest contributor. She has posted twice before. The first time she discussed Youth and Sexuality in YA Literature and the second time she discussed the “YA lens” as she and her colleagues Mark Lewis and Rob Petrone defined it and as it was discussed in an issue of the English Journal. I hope you will take a bit of time to explore both entries again.
​
This week, Sophia works with a student, Christine Luongo, who is reporting on her Seniors Honors Project. This is a great collaboration and a clear example of how we learn from our students. In the post, Sophia mentions that she is learning about terms and definitions from her student. This has happened to me frequently. As academics we are often experts in a couple of areas but can be woeful unaware of others. I found this blog post to be informative in many ways. I try to be open minded, but I can be narrow in my understanding until it touches me directly or someone I know or work with. This blog post has help me see things with a new perspective. Thanks Sophia and Christine.

​As a cisgender, hetero-identifying female professor who teaches Young Adult Literature (YAL) to English teachers, Sophia thought she at least had a “working” knowledge of YA texts representing LGBTQ identities. She tried to keep up with research, analyzing the significance of representations of LGBTQ identities. She always included multiple YA texts featuring LGBTQ characters on her syllabus, ensuring that coming out or identifying as LGBTQ was not the “problem” of the texts. And then, Sophia was approached by an undergraduate student eager to complete her Seniors Honors Project (SHP) with her on representations of bisexuality in YAL.
 
As it turns out, Sophia had very little understanding of what might be involved in seriously considering the “B” in LGBTQ representations in YAL. Perhaps readers of this blog might feel the same way—or not realize they feel the same way...yet. For this opportunity to shape her emerging understandings around bisexuality and how it is represented in YAL, Sophia is so grateful to her student and co-author of this blog, soon-to-be high school ELA teacher, Christine Luongo.
 
Christine identifies as bisexual and loves YAL, making her SHP research study a labor of love. Part of the labor involved was helping Sophia to get behind far more complex definitions of bisexuality than she had imagined. Additionally, recognizing what was at stake in such definitions as social justice issues under the LGBTQ umbrella complicated matters further. Below, we begin to signal what some of these issues are by also sharing a list of YA texts we recommend for your reading pleasure and inclusion in your teaching.

​The traits we’ve pointed out thus far help to show what good representations of bisexuality can look like in YA books. We should also touch on the importance of seeing one’s identity represented in YA novels. Representation helps to validate that identity and to provide a sense of community for the individual. Often, bisexuals can be excluded by both homosexuals for not being “gay enough” and by heterosexuals for not being “straight enough.” Therefore, representation in YAL can be especially beneficial for bisexuals who may find it difficult to find a community otherwise. Seeing bisexual identities represented in schools would take this a step further for bisexual youth; it would show students that their teacher values their identity.
 
As an example, this past fall semester, and as a direct result of Christine’s study, Sophia included Ramona Blue on her YA course syllabus, requiring aspiring English teachers to present on the text, and engaging students in theoretical reading around bisexuality. Christine co-taught the class with Sophia and her presence as well as the place of this novel on the syllabus invited, permitted and required students to consider complex questions around gender, sexuality and an identity under the LGBTQ umbrella they hadn’t previously considered with depth.
 
All of these books represent bisexuality in ways that feel real. The characters are complex, and their different backgrounds shape how they experience their sexuality. Autoboyography was the first bi book Christine ever found. When reading it, she frequently sent quotes to her other bi-identified friends because they resonated with her experience. Even as someone who already had a bisexual community, seeing herself in these books throughout the study further validated Christine’s identity.
 
To close, we’d like to highlight some of our favorite books that we read over the course of the project:
 
Little & Lion by Brandi Colbert features a black bisexual protagonist, Suzette, whose stepbrother has bipolar disorder. This book highlights how her bisexuality intersects with her race and her stepbrother’s mental illness.
 
Star-Crossed by Barbara Dee is a middle grade novel that shows Mattie, an eighth-grade girl, realizing that she likes girls as well as boys. The romantic storyline follows how Mattie’s feelings develop over the course of the eighth-grade production of Romeo and Juliet.
 
Like Water by Rebecca Podos features a Latina protagonist, Vanni, whose father has Huntington’s disease. The novel shows how her bisexuality intersects with her father’s illness and her related fears about her future.
 
If readers are interested in accessing Christine’s SHP for a far deeper analysis of some of the books mentioned here, she can be reached at cluongo0748@westfield.ma.edu. Sophia can be reached at ssarigianides@westfield.ma.edu.  

If readers are interested in accessing Christine’s SHP for a far deeper analysis of some of the books mentioned here, she can be reached at cluongo0748@westfield.ma.edu. Sophia can be reached at ssarigianides@westfield.ma.edu.  

I hope that Christine will work this project into an article. I am sure that she and Sophia would appreciate ideas about how to shape the article and where they might submit it. Or course, I think Study and Scrutiny is always a good place.

Until next time.

What a great guest post to start off 2019! I love that Rachelle Savitz and her graduate student, Donna Confere have taken their time to prepare this post during their break. The post reminds us that there is so much to do with YA adult literature that goes beyond sharing it with preservice teachers and getting it into the hands of adolescents. Take it away.

This past semester, three Clemson doctoral students and I taught an Honors Seminar in which non-education Clemson undergraduate honors students (sophomore through seniors) elected from a list of predetermined options. This course focused on reading and analyzing various social constructs presented within young adult literature (i.e., adolescence, race/ethnicity, and nonconforming sexual orientation or gender.) Students read four required YA novels (House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, The Good Braider by Terry Farish, and If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan) and then chose five additional YA novels from provided lists, focusing on identifying, understanding, and disrupting social constructs. These books were chosen from professional organization reading lists or recommended by literacy experts and English language arts teachers and were organized by lenses to be studied and discussed. For instance, books with LatinX protagonists were organized in a list focusing on LatinX. For the Youth Lens, a list of random young adult literature was provided, while also allowing honors students to choose their own book, as this was the first lens discussed. Doctoral students presented each social construct through a relating lens, through PowerPoints, readings, and discussions based on examples and driving questions. At the end of the semester, students were asked to reflect on why young adult literature is important and valuable as well as books that were influential to their own growth. The following presents four responses from these students. 

Young Adult Literature (YA Lit), covers a wide range much like other classifications of literature. However, YA Lit separates itself as it tends to center around a younger protagonist similar in age to its target audience. Because of this, young adult literature is characterized by how it addresses certain problems and situations that pertain mainly to teenagers. Through class discussion and articles read, I understood YA as having a young protagonist facing issues and concerns relatable to other teenagers. Usually, this leads YA Lit to center around that time of life which typically marks large amounts of change. In the end, Young Adult Literature focuses on what matters to teenagers which can range from small issues present in everyday life to a larger array of social problems present throughout all of society.
 
Young Adult Literature also proves its importance as it can be used to teach certain morals to younger generations. YA novels can be used to teach social responsibility to students and can be used to discuss moral dilemmas that are present today, which helps validate the point that YA Lit has merit even though it may not be considered a part of the canon. Thus, it becomes necessary for its ability to teach social responsibilities and its relevance to adolescents.

​For me, this was a unique experience. Most of the doctoral students were ones that took a Special Topics in Young Adult Literature with me last Spring, so it was nice to see them put their talents to use within this unique classroom setting. It was truly enlightening to see them engage non-education majors in discussions about “taboo” topics. It was also interesting to see the undergraduate students grow, not only through our class purpose of reading and analyzing YA, but personally. For instance, when first introduced to analyzing books through racial and ethnic stereotypes, students were hesitant to open up during discussion. They did not know each other, and they did not know us. As the semester went on, students started asking questions during discussions related to stereotypes, and how novels disrupted generalizations, often through the eyes of characters within the novels. Through their weekly responses, students would comment about not realizing how comments made, either by them or friends, could be misconstrued. In their final reflection, students commented about this being their favorite course. That they had signed up because they thought it may be an easy class or because they liked reading. However, many spoke about how life changing this course was and how they now understood the need to speak up and make changes for a more just and equal society. Although I had worried going in to this course, teaching non-education majors about YA, it was truly a rewarding experience for all involved. 

Rachelle S. Savitz (Clemson University, Assistant Professor of Adolescent Literacy) and Donna Confere (Clemson, Doctoral Student)
Rachelle can be reached at: rsavitz@clemson.edu

Until next week.

It is nice to have colleagues who are generous with their time and talents. This blog doesn't exist without the hard work and ideas that contributors offer two or three times a month. 2018 was productive year for the blog and for my academic work. They are clearly intertwined. My academic work--teaching, writing, guiding graduate students, work with and for members of ALAN--is influence by the work I do for the blog. The reading, talking with teacher and other academic, talking and listening to authors, and sharing with students in classes, and writing and editing blog posts all help me think about how to teach YA literature, how to share it with others, and how to get this literature in the hands of students. to all of those who contributed--Thank You.

The unique visits for the blog are up 41% in 2018 and the page visits are up 30 %. Thank you!

Please talk a minute and browse the contributors link. Drop to the bottom and take a look at all of the great minds who wrote a post last year. They include middle grades and high school students, undergraduates, graduate students, classroom teachers, and other academic who are teacher educators and/or scholars of Young Adult literature. ​

​Take a minute to look at the Weekend Picks, it has been update with a slide show of all of the picks.

I was invited by Jennifer and Shelbie into a project in 2017 that finished in 2018. They didn't need me. They are both so bright and generous that I was blessed every day to work with them. I learned so much. My confidence grew and I was able to think more creatively about other projects. I have been learning from them both since I was in graduate school. I can still remember the first time I heard Jennifer present at an NCTE convention. I remember sitting with Shelbie Witte and Crag Hill has we all discussed next steps towards becoming an Associate professor. I was in awe ( and I still am) at their intellects and accomplishments.

We ended up with two edited books about using Young Adult literature in a digital world with digital tools. In the blog we highlighted the books and the chapter authors in this blog last May (Please find it here.). We are proud of the books and the books at the contributions of the wonderful chapter authors. After all, isn't a blog about teaching and reading YA literature just another example of YA literature in the digital world?

After the Netflix premier of series adaptation of 13 Reasons Why social media went nuts responding to the series in a variety of ways. Some of the responses critiqued the format of as a glorification of the suicide and death. I followed with some interest, recognizing that the original release of the book did not 2009 did not cause great concern even though the book was well received and widely read by adolescents. One of the most interesting posts was by Michelle Falter. I asked her if she would expand her social media comment into a blog post. She agreed and it remains one of the largest single day response that Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday blog has experienced. (You can find it here.)

Michelle and I talked about the issues and decided to collaborate on a book project about grief and death and how it is addressed in the English language arts classroom. We started thinking and put out a call for proposals. We received many more responses than we could use. The publisher agreed to give a contract for two books. One that concentrates on the individual experience with death and grief and one that focuses on how society focuses on these issues.

The two books were officially available  Nov. 23, 2018. We know many of you have been able to get it yet, but it should be one of you New Year's resolutions to remedy that. I look below we have a coupon. Come who can resist a coupon. 

Like with the previous project, I learned a great deal. It was pleasure to work with Michelle and her sharp intellect. Once again these book enter the world as a result of some tremendous work done by the chapter authors. We had a wonderful round table session at NCTE with a keynote address by Sharon Draper who graciously agreed to participate. We will highlight that session with chapter summary for each book a blog post in the near future. Stay tuned.

On Feb. 15, 2018 I found myself struggling to write about the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. I was more than just a bit distraught. As most readers know, I live in Las Vegas and woke up on Oct. 2 to announcement that 50 people were dead. In June of 2016, I wrote about the shooting in Orlando. This blog should have to be a place where I write about shootings, let alone school shootings. Yet, there I was again. Kids who must attend schools are affected by shooting in their communities or in communities they are connected to. They might have family members or neighbors who were at the tragic event. The Las Vegas shooting certainly had an impact on the city, but many of the attendees where from southern California and other parts of the United States.

I have written about mass shooting too many times:
Say His Name!
Las Vegas Strong. Find the helpers. On Tuesday Morning I Found Kathryn Erskine
Once Again.Shocked and Sad. That is my emotional state today 10.2.2017
​Columbine, Sandy Hook, Aurora Colorado, Orlando, Las Vegas, and now Parkland.

When I wrote the last post, I was afraid to post it until I consulted a couple of trusted readers. I turned to Shelly Shaffer, who studies YA literature that focuses on school shootings, and Gretchen Rumohr-Voskuil who has become one of my co-authors and who judgement I value. They both agreed I should post the piece--with a couple of edits as always. Together we continued to discuss the issue of gun violence in the English language arts classroom. With in two weeks we had an outline for a book and began soliciting authors for specific chapters. In a month, we had a contract. The book was done very quickly and was published, according to Amazon on Nov. 22, 2018, but is so new we don't have our author copies yet. But once again--there is a coupon.

Shelly, Gretchen, and I are thrilled this book is in the world. The book has YA literature components, but it does not focus on YA literature. Instead, it focuses on how to talk about the issue in a variety of ways within schools. We looked for English Education experts who could talk about writing, social media, teacher education, advocacy, and we added discussions about how to use literature to talk about the issue before students experience the issue and what might be done in the aftermath of shooting.

We are preparing a round table session for next year at NCTE and we will feature a blog post that summarizes chapters and what they have to offer. 

Frankly, in our opinion, putting one of these books in the hands of every ELA teacher would do more for the instruction integrity of lessons around the issue of gun violence and the emotional well being of students and teachers, than arming them with a gun.

People remind students, both young and old, that they need to look for helpers.  I have written previously and I still believe it to be true:

Students see us (teachers) as anchors of sanity in a world that is often confusing. They look to us to say something soothing and to carry on with hope. They don’t look for us to be helpers. They already think we already are. It doesn’t matter if we also feel grief; we do. It doesn’t matter if we hurt for the loss that might directly touch our lives or lives of others; we do. ​

As 2019 marches forward you can look for new book projects--(Hang in there Shanetia Clark, this is happening), more posts by and about specific authors, more Weekend Picks from authors beside the opinionated Dr. Bickmore, and robust line up or guest contributors through out the year. 

When you visit the blog. I hope you take a couple of minutes to check out the Weekend picks, look up a few past contributors or share the url with your students and colleagues. 

If you need a speaker for a conference, a book group, a ya literature course, please send me a message.

Until next time.