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Kairos, Gorman, and Performance: On the Literacy Moments of the Moment by Holly Sheppard Riesco and Christian Z. Goering

2/24/2021

2 Comments

 
This week our guest contributors are Holly Riesco and Chris Goering. I have long admired Chris and his work. I am glad that he and Holly have decided to help out. Take a look.

Karios, Gorman, and Performance: On the Literacy Moments of the Moment
​

Holly Sheppard Riesco and Christian Z. Goering

As we watched the swearing in of a new president, a moment of Kairos—“a circumstantial kind of time, a window to opportunity during which something could happen” (Fletcher, 2015, p. 58)—took place for English teachers everywhere: Amanda Gorman, a young, talented Black poetic blew the world away with her recitation of “The Hill We Climb.” A few weeks later, Gorman once again had us marveling at the continuation of kairos during her recitation of “Chorus of the Captains” at Super Bowl LV. This blog, in fact, recently discussed Gorman and the inaugural poets, but we have a different take on the poetry and star of the moment.
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Gorman’s recitation, grounded in spoken word poetry, evoked in our teacher brains a a “moment[] of opportunity” (Seale, 2017, p. 11)—this moment where “something could happen”—to connect students to contemporary work that creates narratives in poetic forms. We thought about the books that a teacher could use in her, his, or their classroom, books that could easily be pulled from the personal or school library shelves. of the school’s library or maybe even from the teacher’s personal collection.
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The Poet X or Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo, Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, Apple (Skin to the Core) by Eric Gainsworth, The Crossover or Booked or Solo or Swing by Kwame Alexander, The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan, and brown girl dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson—All authors represent an underrepresented population in our ELA classrooms, all authors who have written books in verse published during the students’ lives, all authors who discuss the issues that our students, especially often marginalized students, face in today’s modern life.
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With Amanda Gorman’s captivating poems, we saw a way to connect the authentic reality of the literacy moment with the literacy in the ELA classroom.

In focusing on these books in verse, teachers have the opportunity to develop true creativity in their students’ literacy moments. Our ideas start with having all different books in verse on the desks when the students walk in and allowing students to choose their groups and their books according to interest.
Here are just a few ways we thought of to take advantage of the literacy of the moment in the classroom:​

  • Invite students to read through the titles of the poems and find a few that they like as a team, a title that they can visualize through the language. Then, ask students to create an oral performance of the poem and practice performing it prior to a poetry slam event in the classroom. 
  • Invite students to read through the first poems of each book. Then, as a team, they can create their own spoken word narrative poem based on a community experience, possibly even an injustice they see. They will recite and perform this poem as a team.
  • Invite students to use TikTok, SnapChat, or Instagram to create videos that focus on performance of one of the poems from the book of their choice and convince the watcher to check out the rest of the book. In this instance, they are trying to interest their audience in the book. 
And maybe teachers allow students to choose their performance style, like they chose their books. And maybe teachers allow students to move beyond the set suggestions and create a new performance altogether. The possibilities for creative literacy moments are endless here, initiated by Gorman’s brilliant work.

But it’s not just the creativity that is important. It’s that these poets focus on issues that today’s youth face, and therefore, these books give entrée into the real-world injustices that they can see outside of the ELA classroom windows, giving new perspectives to the unjust realities and misrepresentations that BIPOC students and LGTBQ+ students face. Students who want to delve further into these books can access current events and social media to make connections through the stories these books offer.
Or maybe students look at how these authors and poets represent issues and look around for the issues in their lives, creating a kairotic moment of social action. Students can analyze how the books create arguments and use them as models to create their own arguments for social justice in their own communities.

And who knows? Maybe the teacher finds the interest in these books so complete that she, he, or they agree to read the books in book clubs in their groups, with recitations of the poems acting in tandem with an inquiry process that encourages students to access their multiple sources for literacy through the guidance of both the books and the teacher as facilitator.

Before You Finish, A Slideshow
Includes all of the books mentioned in the post a few more Bickmore happens to like

So, here’s the plan: go to your school library or the local public library. Talk to the friendly media specialists there and get them to agree to let you check out the books in verse that have been written in the last decade or so or just ask for the books above--the libraries will have them! Take them to your room and start your plan. Maybe you’ll encourage the next Amanda Gorman, but more importantly, maybe you’ll create a moment of Kairos that highlights how literacy is about establishing inquiry and excitement in the authentic lives of the students.
​

Resources
Fletcher, J. (2015) Teaching Arguments: Rhetorical comprehension, critique, and response. Stenhouse Publishers. 
Seale, T. (2017) Finding moments of opportunity. English Journal, 106(5), pp. 10-11. 

About the Contributors

Holly Sheppard Riesco is currently a doctoral student at the University of Arkansas in the Curriculum and Instruction program in English Education. Prior to entering the doctoral program, she taught secondary ELA for 15 years. Her research interest is in how contemporary children and YA literature can be integrated with students’ lived literacies in the ELA classroom. She co-authored Adolescent Realities: Engaging Students in SEL through Young Adult Literature (Rowman & Littlefield) that will be out later in 2021. She can be contacted at hriesco@uark.edu.
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Christian Z. Goering is professor and co-coordinator of English education at the University of Arkansas, where he leads the Northwest Arkansas Writing Project. His scholarship explores how English teachers take up music in their teaching, especially student songwriting. Literacy education policy, as it affects our abilities to engage innovative practice, is a secondary interest. He’s currently past chair of the English Language Arts Teacher Educators.
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Until next week.
2 Comments

I Read Canadian! by Lesley Roessing

2/17/2021

4 Comments

 
I never get tired of reading and preparing posts from Lesley Roessing. I learn so much from her and I stand amazed at how many books she manages to read. I am​ impressed by how she has a sixth sense about how to group them and talk about them in ways that are useful for teachers. I also like it when she talks about some of my favorites. She mentions a couple in this weeks post. I wonder if you can guess which ones they are?

I loved finding out about I Read Canadian Day! (@ireadcanadian) What a fun idea. I hope you take a few minutes to find out more about the events and that you join in by sharing some of your Canadian favorites with students, colleagues, and friends.

Thanks Lesley.

I Read Canadian!

​Lesley Roessing

When I was a middle school and high school reader, I read American and British authors—mostly the dead-White guy classics, (with a few exceptions)—in school and, on my own, Michener, Stone, Baldwin, and some contemporary fiction and nonfiction, but still mainly American and British authors. Of course, this was just before The Outsiders and The Pigman heralded Adolescent Literature, also at that time written by primarily American authors. In college I majored in Comparative Literatures and finally read authors from around the world, mainly European, most in English translation, some in the home language.

In the last years I purposefully have endeavored to read and review diversely and encourage educators and librarians to introduce their readers to diverse authors and characters, diverse in not only ethnicity and race, but nationality, geography, religion, age, gender identification, sexual orientation, social-economic status, and physical and neuro-diversities. In other words, for readers to read to see themselves, their peers, and those they have not yet met in books and writing the books they read. 
And, as we think about World Literatures, what about Canada? When I read Canadian author Cheryl Rainfield’s post about “I Read Canadian Day,” I began thinking about my favorite authors, many of whom are Canadian.

The goal of “I Read Canadian Day 2021” is for children nationwide in Canada to read a Canadian book for fifteen minutes on February 17th.  The purpose of this event is to raise awareness of Canadian books and celebrate the richness, diversity and breadth of Canadian literature.
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However, my goal is to use this celebration as an excuse to introduce YA Wednesday readers to some of my favorite Canadian YA authors and novels I have read in the last six years.
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The Authors and the Books

Eric Walters

Eric Walters, a former teacher and social worker and a Toronto native, has published over 40 picture books and over 60 YA contemporary and historical fiction novels, short stories, and series. Walters has written about a wide variety of tween and teen characters, such as a singer, a mountain climber, a soldier, a football player, a basketball player, Alexander Graham Bell, a Bully Boy, a skateboarder, a graffiti artist, and a Cree boy. The novels take place in such diverse settings as Rwanda, the post-apocalyptic future, Tanzania, 18212 Ontario, 1915 Nova Scotia, zoo camp, a Rocky Mountain glacier, NYC, and the streets of Toronto. Topics which will generate important conversation among adolescents are PTSD, Holocaust, steroids, COVID-19, animal testing, peer pressure, friendship, homelessness, racism, and the events of 9/11. Walters’ novels have won more than 100 awards
Sketches is the story of adolescents who are homeless. Dana is a runaway and, with her new friends street-smart Brent and Ashley, she learns to navigate street life of Toronto. She becomes involved with Sketches, an agency that provides access to art supplies, a safe haven for artists, and maybe a way off the streets as art lets her confront her past.
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We All Fall Down takes place on September 11, 2001, the day the students at Will’s high school were to shadow their parents at their workplaces. Ninth-grader William’s father John worked in international trade in the World Trade Center. At 8:46, shortly after arriving at John’s office on the 85th floor of the South Tower, they felt the force of an explosion. At 9:03, just before John, acting as fire warden for the floor, and Will were able to leave, the second plane hit the South Tower. Readers follow the father and son as they make the harrowing journey down 85 floors through heat and smoke, formulating split-second decisions and stopping to rescue and carry an injured woman, only to experience the collapse of the building as they reach the lobby. A quick but dramatic read, Eric Walters’ novel lets readers experience a close-up account of the day and the panic and fear and heroism of ordinary people as Will discovers another side of his father and John realizes how much time he has devoted to his job rather than to his family.

​The sequel United We Stand begins on September 12, 2001 when Will’s best friend’s father, a firefighter at Ground Zero, last seen as he climbed the steps of the North Tower, is missing. This is a book about friendship, loss, support, and the aftermath of the events of 9/11.
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Deborah Ellis

Deborah Ellis is an author,  feminist, and peace activist. She has traveled the world to hear the stories of children marginalized by poverty and conflict and has written over twenty novels, two series, and many collections sharing the voices of those she has interviewed: indigenous kids, Palestinian and Israeli children, Iraqi refugees, the kids of Kabul, military children, Sub-Saharan African children orphaned by AIDS, and kids who have been bullied. Ellis writes both fiction and nonfiction, winning at least seven different awards.
​The Breadwinner Quartet: The Breadwinner, Parvana’s Journey, Mud City, and My Name is Parvana are based on the true-life stories of women in Afghan refugee camps.
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The Breadwinner is set in the early years of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Girls and women cannot go to school, the market, or play outside. After her father, a former history teacher, is imprisoned for having forbidden books, 11-year old Parvana disguises herself as a boy to become the breadwinner for her family. The Breadwinner is available in a prose version and as a graphic-novel adaptation of the animated film.
 
Parvana’s Journey, a story of survival and resilience, continues the tale after Parvana’s family has left home and her father dies. As Parvana journeys to search for her mother, sister, and brother, she is joined by other child war victims—an infant boy in a bombed-out village, a nine-year-old girl and her grandmother, and a boy with one leg. Working together and showing incredible daring and courage, they survive street life, hunger, violence, and land mines.
 
Mud City, the third book in the series, is the story of Parvana's friend, 14-year-old Shauzia, who escaped from Kabul and is living in a mud refugee city on the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan. She leaves the camp to try to make money on the streets of Peshawar, spends a night in jail, is temporarily taken in by Americans, but ends up back at the camp. Readers learn another effect of the war in Afghanistan through yet another spirited, resourceful adolescent girl who represents the hard realities of many of the girls living under the Taliban and the many people living in refugee camps.
 
My Name is Parvana completes the series in post-Taliban Afghanistan. The now-15-year-old Parvana has found her family, and they are running a school for girls. After the school is threatened—most likely by the Taliban, her mother is killed, and Americans bomb the school, Parvana is held on an American military base, suspected of being a terrorist. She stays silent during her harsh interrogations. Flashbacks fill readers in four years of the school. Independent and determined, Parvana escapes but returns to help a wounded American. She is finally rescued by a member of parliament, ending the series.
No Ordinary Dayamzn.to/2OqzGlt is set in the coal town of Jharia, India, where Valli picks coal to survive and avoids the lepers on the other side of the train tracks. When she runs away to Kolkata, she lives in the streets but, by chance, discovers that she has leprosy. Afraid of the others who are getting treatment, she leaves the hospital, but in the end, accepting help, she finds a meaning for her life. Readers learn about poverty, street life, and the facts, not the misrepresentations, of leprosy. In 2019 close to 15,000 children were diagnosed with Hansen's disease; an estimated 2 to 3 million people are living with Hansen's disease-related disabilities globally.
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I Am a Taxi is set in Cochabamba, Bolivia, where Diego’s parents have been imprisoned for farming coca. Twelve-year-old Diego lives with his mother and his younger sister in the San Sebastian Women’s Prison, and he works as a “taxi,” running errands for other prisoners when not at school or selling his mother’s crafts at the market so they can rent an actual cell and buy food. When his mother earns a fine, he leaves with his friend to make money working in the jungle in an illegal cocaine operation, a truly dangerous situation. Diego and Mando discover that they may never get paid or be able to leave. The novel gives readers insight in poverty, corruption, prison conditions, and the cocaine trade in Bolivia; almost all of the cocaine produced globally comes from the Andean region (Colombia, Peru and the Plurinational State of Bolivia). Diego’s story is continued in Ellis’ novel Sacred Leaf
​Deborah Ellis and Eric Walters co-authored Bifocal, a powerful YA novel told from alternating points of view. When the police arrest a Muslim student suspected of terrorist affiliation, racial lines are drawn at the high school already separated into White, Brown, Asian, and Black. The Muslim students become targeted. Haroon, an Afghan-Canadian and a serious student, and Jay, a white football star, can go along with their friends, choosing opposite sides because of their differences or stand together against racism, because of their similarities. This novel will generate conversations about stereotyping, bigotry, bystanders, and upstanders.
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Susin Nielsen

​Susin Nielsen writes picture books for children and middle grade and YA fiction; she has written for over 20 Canadian TV series. Nielsen has written six YA novels, as well as four novels for the Degrassi Junior High series and has won five awards.
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We Are All Made of Molecules is told in alternating voices of 14-year old Ashley and 13-year-old Stewart, complete opposites on the school social ladder. When Stewart’s dad moves them in with Ashley and her mom, the two teens become part of a blended family. Stewart’s mom died a few years before and he is dealing with grief, and Ashley’s father has “come out” and popular Ashley is afraid of her friends’ reactions. This is the story of acceptance of differences and coming together as a family. Stepfamilies, counted in the census for the first time in 2011, account for 12.6 per cent of Canada's 3.7 million families with children, with nearly 558,000 children aged 14 and under living in stepfamily homes; in the United States sixteen percent of children live in blended families. 
​No Fixed Address takes place in Vancouver and highlights a very important crisis, in both the United States and Canada—homelessness. Felix Fredrik Knutsson is 12-3/4 years old and has to determine ways to navigate life. “Astrid and Daniel were great people…but they were not great parents." (176) What I most appreciated in the novel was the resilience and resourcefulness of Felix and the support of his friends, Dylan and Winnie. The novel illustrates many of the challenges experienced by homeless families to maintain the veneer of normalcy and to stay together and paints a realistic picture of many of the 1.3 million homeless students in the United States and in Canada, where an estimated 235,000 Canadians experience homelessness each year, one of the fastest growing demographics of the homeless population being children and families. It is critical that this story, or stories like this, be read by teachers and students to build empathy and understanding of classmates who may be experiencing these types of difficulties.
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Cheryl Rainfield

Cheryl Rainfield, a native of Toronto, is the award-winning author of four YA novels, two fantasy Hi-Lo books, short stories, and essays. She writes “the books [she] needed as a teen and couldn’t find” and includes “strong-girl and LGBTQ characters into every book [she] writes.” 
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​Scars relates the story of Kendra, an abuse survivor. It has been three years since the abuse ended; it has been six months since 15-year-old Kendra started remembering the abuse she suffered since she was a toddler. As flashbacks of the sexual abuse surface, Kendra can remember everything except the identity of her abuser. She is certain he is following her, especially when she finds threatening notes left for her. Cutting helps her relieve her building anxiety. Kendra also finds relief through her art even though her artist mother disapproves her methods. Luckily, Kendra is receiving support from Carolyn, her empathetic therapist; her art teacher who is studying art therapy; and Meghan, her new girlfriend who is struggling through her own family issues. This novel presents such mental health issues as Complex PTSD, self-harm, and sexual abuse. Ms. Rainfeld is working on a sequel to Scars to be published in the near future.

Teresa Toten

Teresa Toten is the multiple-award-winning author of ten novels, one novel, The Taming, written with Eric Walters.
​The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B’s “hero” is fourteen-year-old Adam Spencer Ross who is a member of a Young Adult OCD Support Group. When he meets and instantly falls in love with the newest member, Robyn Plummer, recently released from a residential facility, he decides he will get better, save Robyn, and become the super hero that he has chosen as his group identity.  Complicating this, Adam has two families: one comprised of a detached father, a loving stepmother; and an anxiety-filled young half-brother and his mother who is a hoarder with additional mental health issues. Adam tries navigating his world, suppressing his OCD, working with his therapist, and helping those around him. Adam’s story highlights the importance of family, friendship, and hope in the treatment of mental illness.
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Courtney Summers

​Courtney Summers is a New York Times bestselling author of several award-winning novels. She has published seven YA novels, her first when she was 22. Her novels feature strong female characters.
​All the Rage
Romy was sexually assaulted by the sheriff’s son, the golden boy. No one believes the allegations of a girl from her side of town. By coming forward, she is bullied by her former friends. As rumors that other girls who knew Kellan have been assaulted or even missing, Romy has to decide how hard she will fight to be believed in a society where shame and silence often follow sexual violence. A compelling story that will cause both adolescent girls and boys to confront bias and societal norms.
​Sadie is a New York Times Bestseller and winner of over 50 awards and recognitions.

“Girls go missing all the time.” (15)
Nineteen-year-old Sadie Hunter’s younger sister was murdered, the sister Sadie loved with all her heart and raised from the time Mattie was born but especially after their mother left. Sadie is sure she knows who murdered Mattie—their mother’s ex-boyfriend who abused 10-year-old Sadie., and she takes off to avenge her sister’s death, following lead after lead, determined to track down Keith and kill him. And along the way she finds other victims—and other perpetrators.

Months later ,radio personality Wes McCray, the WNRK producer of the show “Always Out There” searches for Sadie, interviewing people who knew her, detectives in the towns Sadie traveled through, and those who came in contact with her during her quest, following leads and hunches. Wes becomes more consumed as the story that will become his serialized podcast develops.

Alternating chapters between “The Girls” podcast episodes with its in-person and phone interviews and Sadie’s first-person account from the day she left, readers learn about the strong, resilient, resourceful teen who grew up in poverty, unloved, bullied because of a stutter, whose only concern is avenging Mattie’s death and saving other abused children. 
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Karen Krossing

​Karen Krossing grew up in Ontario and began her literary career as a proofreader and then an editor. She is now the author of seven novels and three upcoming picture books. And a writing instructor. Karen lives with her family in Toronto, on the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee, and Anishinabeg and the treaty lands and territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.
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Punch Like a Girl is not about attempted date rape; it is a story about the power of finally speaking out.

"He tried to rape me." The words flutter free. "Again."
After Tori is sexually assaulted by her controlling ex-boyfriend, she lashes out at others and herself, physically and emotionally. But through standing up for others, she learns to stand up for herself, not by punching and pushing away, but by letting others in and sharing her story, thereby healing herself.

This novel is a compelling but quick read for teens—without any graphic description or profanity. Its strength is that it doesn't bash all males; there are some wonderfully drawn male teen characters—Jamarlo, Daniel, Sal, and finally, even Joel. The story also demonstrates the complexity of adolescent female relationships. 

E. K. Johnston

E.K. Johnston, or Emily Kate Johnston, is from southwestern Ontario. She is the author of eleven novels ranging from fantasy to fairytale to sci-fi to realistic fiction, as well as having a career as a forensic archaeologist who has lived on four continents.
​Exit: Pursued by a Bear
Hermione was enjoying her last summer of cheerleading camp, leading her fellow cheerleaders—female and male—and making new friends—female and male. Then the unthinkable happened. At a dance she was drugged and raped. She woke up in the hospital , that part of the evening a blank. The advantage is that Hermione did not “experience” the rape and so does not relive the horror, but there are disadvantages that are unconceivable. Not only is Hermione not behaving as other expect her to behave, leading to rumors and shaming, but she has a gap in her life and now is terrified of losing time. She also does not know who raped her or whom she can now trust. Luckily, she can trust her best friend Polly, the fiercest, most protective friend a girl can have. With a supportive family and cheer team and a very entertaining therapist, Hermione works her way to recovery.
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Exit, with it well-developed characters, gives reader plenty to consider. Hermione stands up for herself and all women when a reporter asks what precautions she could have taken and what advice she would give other girls to keep this type of thing from happening, and she replies, “If I was a boy, would you be asking me that?” (194). Most important, it made readers aware that there are many types of trauma. ​

Lois Burdett

​Lois Burdett a native of Ontario, wrote her Shakespeare for Kids series to introduce her elementary students in Stratford, Ontario, to the Bard and involve them in acting Shakespearean plays. Burdett rewrote Shakespeare’s plays as rhyming narrative poems so her young students could read and memorize them. Even though written for elementary students, these books can be included in secondary ELA classrooms, as I did, to provide students with overviews of the plays they will not be reading and as a preview to the play they will be reading and acting in class. These full-play-length poems can be employed as Readers’ Theater or as mentor texts for students re-writing the play they are studying as a narrative poem. 
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Review the Books in the Slideshow!

Lesley Roessing

A middle and high school teacher for twenty years, Lesley Roessing was the Founding Director of the Coastal Savannah Writing Project at Georgia Southern University (formerly Armstrong State University) where she was also a Senior Lecturer in the College of Education. In 2018-19 she served as a Literacy Consultant with a K-8 school. Lesley served as past editor of Connections, the award-winning journal of the Georgia Council of Teachers of English. As a columnist for AMLE Magazine, she shared before, during, and after-reading response strategies across the curriculum through ten “Writing to Learn” columns. She has written articles on literacy for NWP Quarterly, English Journal, Voices from the Middle, The ALAN Review, AMLE Magazine, and Middle School Journal. She now works independently—writing, providing professional development in literacy to schools, and visiting classrooms to facilitate book club reading activities and lessons. To support teachers and librarians in these challenging times, she posts daily strategies, lessons, and book reviews on https://www.facebook.com/lesley.roessing. She can be contacted through her Facebook Messenger.
 
Lesley is the author of five books for educators:
  • Bridging the Gap: Reading Critically & Writing Meaningfully to Get to the Core 
  • Comma Quest: The Rules They Followed. The Sentences They Saved 
  • No More “Us” & “Them: Classroom Lessons and Activities to Promote Peer Respect 
  • The Write to Read: Response Journals That Increase Comprehension
  • Talking Texts: A Teachers’ Guide to Book Clubs across the Curriculum
  • and has contributed chapters to
    • Young Adult Literature in a Digital World: Textual Engagement though Visual Literacy
    • Queer Adolescent Literature as a Complement to the English Language Arts Curriculum
    • Story Frames for Teaching Literacy: Enhancing Student Learning through the Power of Storytelling (in press)
Until next week.
4 Comments

The Tale of the Syllabi by Chris Crowe.

2/9/2021

5 Comments

 
At last, I have landed a contribution from Chris Crowe. I have been following his career longer than he knows. When he really had no idea who I was, I had a phone call conversation about a one year appointment at his home institution, BYU, in mid 1990s. I had hosted student teachers every other year or so for more than a decade. I was asking about the required degrees need to get a full time job in higher ed. He explained about the need for a Ph.D as opposed to a Masters degree (which I had) which might allow me to serve as an adjunct or as a one year appointment. He was helpful and was one of the first to help me think about how to lay out a plan to move to a university. 

​Chris claims 44 years in education and I show up right behind him with 42. The balance between high school and university is different. The bulk of my time has been public education with a total of 26 years and 16 in higher education when I count the full time graduate work. 

Chris' advice has always been helpful and inspiring. I hope you enjoy his glance to the past as much as I have. Thanks Chris.

The Tale of the Syllabi

Chris Crowe

In one corner of my office sits a large, 4-drawer horizonal filing cabinet, a relic, in more ways than one, of my roots in the 20th century. It’s filled with all kinds of documents, including some long-forgotten files and manuscripts, stuff I rarely look at or think about.

The top drawer, however, is different because it contains all my notes, sample papers, photocopied articles, and syllabi related to what’s been the heart of my long (44 years!) teaching career: young adult literature.
           
​I spent my first 10 years in a high school classroom, and initially I had only brief brushes with YA books; they most often surfaced in the quarterly reading interviews I had with each student. As a traditional undergraduate English major, I had ignored book for kids and instead did what dutiful English majors were supposed to do back in those days: I read, and tried to understand, canonical works and other literary forms that had stood the test of time.
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That changed in fall semester 1982 when I enrolled in English 591, a graduate course at Arizona State University taught by Ken Donelson. My file folder from that course resides in that top drawer of my filing cabinet, and it still has Donelson’s blue-ink ditto-copied syllabus, a daunting document that outlined his expectations and the required reading for the semester. He expected us to read and write about more than 30 books.
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Back then, I had no idea that one day, my entire career would be tied to YA literature and that I’d be teaching classes very much like English 591. That top drawer now contains all the syllabi from the college YA literature courses I’ve taught since 1993, and I thought it might be interesting for this blog to review the reading lists in those syllabi to see how my course---and the field of YA literature---have evolved over time. I’ll start with Donelson’s 1982 course and then sample from my own course syllabi from 1993 to the present.
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Donalson's English 591 The Graduate Class.

In addition to Literature for Today’s Young Adults, the textbook he co-authored with Alleen Pace Nilsen, here’s a partial list of the books Donelson required us to read back in 1982:
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Football Dreams, David Guy
The People Therein, Mildred Lee
Hold Fast, Kevin Major
The Last Mission, Harry Mazer
A Hero Ain’t Nothing but a Sandwich, Alice Childress
All Together Now, Sue Ellen Bridgers
A Place Apart, Paula Fox
Ordinary People, Judith Guest
Red Sky at Morning, Richard Bradford
Without a Trace, John Harris
Photographing the Frontier, Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler
The Huntsman, Douglas Hill
Little Britches, Ralph Moody
Steps Out of Time, Eric Houghton
Dove, Robin Lee
Edgar Allan John Neufeld
The Truth about Fathers, Mary Ann Gray
Deathwatch, Robb White
The Chocolate War, Robert Cormier
Killing Mr. Griffin, Lois Duncan
Deenie, Judy Blume
A Day No Pigs Would Die, Robert Newton Peck
Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack!, M. E. Kerr
Lisa, Bright and Dark, John Neufeld
Confessions of a Teenage Baboon, Paul Zindel
I’ll Love You When You’re More Like Me, M. E. Kerr
The Pigman, Paul Zindel

Of these 27 books, only one, Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War, has survived to the YA literature course I’m currently teaching. Twenty-three of the English 591 books were novels, and, surprisingly, four were nonfiction, suggesting that Donelson was ahead of his time in recognizing the place of nonfiction in the field. Diversity wasn’t something we talked about much in 1982, so it isn’t a big surprise that with the exception of Alice Childress, author of A Hero Ain’t Nothing but a Sandwich, all the authors were white. Most of the novels we read could be described as contemporary realism or, as they were called back in those days, ‘problem novels.’ Fantasy is notably absent from the required reading list, though Donelson did require me to read three novels by British fantasy writer Peter Dickinson.
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Crowe's first YA Course in 1993

I taught my first university level YA literature course in the winter semester of 1993 at BYU-Hawaii, a small liberal arts college that had students from more than 60 countries; the format of the course was much like Donelson’s. I used a textbook, A Guide to Literature for Young Adults, by Ruth Cline and William McBride, and in addition to the 17 novels we read in common, students had to read an additional three YA novels of their own choosing. I wasn’t sure how to gauge the right workload for undergraduate English majors, so I required my students to read only 20 books, not the 30+ expected of us in Donelson’s graduate course
Here’s that required reading list:

All Together Now, Sue Ellen Bridgers
Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger
Celine, Brock Cole
Crazy Horse Electric Game, Chris Crutcher
Dicey’s Song, Cynthia Voigt
Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
Hatchet, Gary Paulsen
Jacob Have I Loved, Katherine Paterson
Hooper Haller, Dean Hughes
My Name is Sus5an Smith; The 5 is Silent, Louise Plummer
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Mildred D. Taylor
The Shadow Brothers, A. E. Cannon
The Outsiders, S. E. Hinton
The Chocolate War, Robert Cormier
The Pigman, Paul Zindel
The Moves Make the Man, Bruce Brooks
Tiger Eyes, Judy Blume
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Three of the required books, All Together Now, The Chocolate War, and The Pigman, carried over from Donelson’s course. Catcher in the Rye and The Outsiders were a nod to foundational books in our field, and the rest of the novels were relatively contemporary, including Crazy Horse Electric Game by a rising young star named Chris Crutcher. Three of the novels, The Shadow Brothers; Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry; and Moves Make the Man dealt with issues of race, but Roll of Thunder was the only book by an author of color. Card’s Ender’s Game was the only work of speculative fiction. ​
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Crowe's YA Course 1994

My very next opportunity to teach an undergraduate YA literature course came the following year after I had moved to the English department at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. I once again used a textbook, but this time it was a brand-new book: Reaching Adolescents: The Young Adult Book and the School by Althea Reed. My reading list in 1994 was truncated because the course was being offered in a seven-week summer term. The students were required to read 7 books in common, one book for each week, and about 20 more that they chose on their own.
Here’s the required list from my 1994 course:
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Bruce Brooks, The Moves Make the Man
Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War
Chris Crutcher, Running Loose
S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders
Katherine Paterson, Jacob Have I Loved
Mildred D. Taylor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Cynthia Voight, Homecoming
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In addition to the required reading list, for the first time, I also assigned students to read at least one YA book from each of the authors on a list of writers I thought they should be familiar with:

Judy Blume, Sue Ellen Bridgers, Virginia Hamilton, M.E. Kerr, Margaret Mahy, Norma Fox Mazer, Milton Meltzer, Walter Dean Myers, Gary Paulsen, Cynthia Rylant, and Laurence Yep.
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So what changed in 1994? I still had a blind spot for fantasy and speculative fiction, but the required author list brought a much-needed update to my course, an update that included a nonfiction writer (Milton Meltzer), a New Zealand author (Margaret Mahy), and award-winning BIPOC authors Virginia Hamilton, Mildred D. Taylor, and Laurence Yep.
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Crowe's YA Course 1999

The next syllabus I pulled from my filing cabinet is from my YA literature course in fall semester 1999. I was still using a textbook then, but this semester it was Donelson and Nilsen’s 5th edition of Literature for Today’s Young Adults.
Here’s the required reading list for that semester:

            Bruce Brooks, The Moves Make the Man
            Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War
            Chris Crowe, ed., From the Outside Looking In
            Chris Crutcher, Running Loose
            Peter Dickinson, The Lion Tamer’s Daughter and Other Stories
            S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders
            Lois Lowry, The Giver
            Victor Martinez, Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida
            Walter Dean Myers, Somewhere in Darkness
            Han Nolan, Send Me Down a Miracle
            Katherine Paterson, Jacob Have I Loved
            Gary Paulsen, Nightjohn
            Graham Salisbury, Blue Skin of the Sea
            Robert Peck, A Day No Pigs Would Die
            Mildred D. Taylor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
            Virginia Euwer Wolff, Make Lemonade
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And in addition to these required books, students also had to read one book by each of the following authors:
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Judy Blume, M. E. Kerr, Angela Johnson, Chris Lynch, Lurlene McDaniels, and Cynthia Rylant

A pattern of recurring required books begins to emerge in 1999. The Moves Make the Man, The Chocolate War, The Outsiders, Jacob Have I Loved, and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry appeared in previous syllabi. Chris Crutcher and Gary Paulsen are also on previous required reading lists but in 1999 are represented by different novels. This list is more varied than in previous years and includes a notable fantasy writer (Peter Dickinson), a short story collection (From the Outside Looking In), a dystopian novel (The Giver), three BIPOC authors (Martinez, Myers, and Taylor), and a novel in verse (Make Lemonade). The list of required authors is shorter (I have no idea why) and includes three carry-overs (Blume, Kerr, and Rylant) from previous years, another author of color (Johnson), a rising contemporary realistic novelist (Lynch), and a make-you-cry novelist (McDaniels). The 1999 syllabus shows a greater awareness of genre and ethnic/cultural diversity, due, most likely, to a growing discussion of diversity in conferences like NCTE and ALAN and in professional journals and to a greater offering of various genre and books by BIPOC.

Crowe's YA Course 2004

Jumping ahead to the winter semester 2004 syllabus, the first obvious change is the lack of a textbook. At some point around the turn of the century, it became apparent to me that my students were not paying close attention to the textbook. At first, that ticked me off, but then I started considering how I wanted my students to spend their precious reading time (and their precious book-buying budget). I realized that I wanted my students to read YA literature, not read about YA literature, so the textbook went away
The required reading list also underwent some changes:
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            Jennifer Armstrong, Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World
            Bruce Brooks, The Moves Make the Man
            Chris Crowe, ed., From the Outside Looking In
            Chris Crutcher, Running Loose
            Paul Fleischman, Whirligig
            Karen Hesse, Out of the Dust
            S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders
            Lois Lowry, The Giver
            Walter Dean Myers, Monster
            Louis Sachar, Holes
            Graham Salisbury, Blue Skin of the Sea
            Gary Soto, Buried Onions
            Mildred D. Taylor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
            Virginia Euwer Wolff, Make Lemonade
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A nonfiction book leads the list! After a decade of teaching YA literature to undergraduate English majors, I recognized their (and my own) inherent bias against nonfiction. Russell Freedman and Milton Meltzer had been the stalwarts in YA nonfiction for a couple decades, but by 2004, NCTE’s Orbis Pictus Award for nonfiction had been around for almost 15 years and the ALA’s Sibert Medal for informational had been established in 2001, and publishers, librarians, and some teachers had become enthusiastic promoters of nonfiction. Armstrong’s book was a great way to introduce my fiction-phile English majors to terrific narrative nonfiction.

Seven books roll-over into the 2004 required list, but that year’s list also includes new books that show an awareness of alternate forms: Whirligig’s non-linear story, Hesse’s lavish novel in verse, Myers’ multi-genre novel, Sachar’s threaded parallel plot, and Salisbury’s short story cycle/coming of age story. One of Gary Soto’s few YA novels, Buried Onions added a fine LatinX novel to the syllabus.

​Once again, the list of choose-one-by-these-authors is shorter than I remember (and I still don’t know why), but it contains three repeat authors and three authors new to the list: Hobbs, Mazer, and British author Westall:
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Will Hobbs, Angela Johnson, Lurlene McDaniel, Norma Fox Mazer, Cynthia Rylant, and
Robert Westall

Crowe's YA Course 2008

Four years later, my winter 2008 syllabus shows the more stability (or redundancy?) of any previous syllabus. Ten books repeat from the fall 2004 syllabus. Ann Basum’s Muckrackers doubled the amount of required nonfiction books on my reading list. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon added a high-end YA story about a neurodiverse character. Howl’s Moving Castle, a novel by an established British fantasy writer established a foothold for fantasy fiction in the reading list, and Gene Yang’s award-winning graphic novel, American Born Chinese landed as the first required graphic novel in my required reading.
Here’s the full required list from winter 2008:
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            Jennifer Armstrong, Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World
            Ann Bausum, Muckrackers
            Chris Crutcher, Running Loose
            Paul Fleischman, Whirligig
            Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
            Karen Hesse, Out of the Dust
            S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders
            Walter Dean Myers, Monster
            Graham Salisbury, Blue Skin of the Sea
            Gary Soto, Buried Onions
            Mildred D. Taylor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
            Virginia Euwer Wolff, Make Lemonade
            Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle
            Yang, Gene, American Born Chinese
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While the required reading list showed unprecedented stability, the required author list showed unprecedented change with only Lurlene McDaniels being carried over from previous semesters.
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Laurie Halse Anderson, M. T. Anderson, Kevin Brooks, Lurlene McDaniels, Gary Paulsen, Paul Volponi, Jacqueline Woodson

By 2008, Laurie Anderson, M. T. Anderson, Paulsen, and Woodson had established impressive records in the field. Though hardly newcomers to YA literature, Brooks and Volponi were, in my opinion at the time, rising stars worth reading.

Crowe's YA Course 2012

Winter semester, 2012: stability (or stagnation?) continues in the required reading list. There are 10 roll-overs, 11 if you count the reappearance of Robert Cormier (I had decided that Cormier was more than just The Chocolate War, so I started reading Cormier in literature circles. Students had to choose one of six of his novels to read and discuss with classmates).

The 2012 newcomers including nonfiction writer Bartoletti, also as a literature circle. She made the list for two reasons: first, she’s a terrific writer of nonfiction, but also because she was going to visit my class that semester. Heiligman’s Charles and Emma pushed the required nonfiction books to three (!), and Schusterman’s Unwind added a fresh dystopian story in the era of blockbuster dystopian novel series, and Kate Thompson’s Irish fantasy stretched my students’ understanding of fantasy fiction
Here’s the 2012 list:
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            Jennifer Armstrong, Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World
            Susan Campbell Bartoletti (one of 5)
            Robert Cormier (one of six)
            Chris Crutcher, Running Loose
            Paul Fleischman, Whirligig
            Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
            Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith
            Karen Hesse, Out of the Dust
            S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders
            Walter Dean Myers, Monster
            Neal Schusterman, Unwind
            Kate Thompson, The New Policeman
            Mildred D. Taylor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
            Virginia Euwer Wolff, Make Lemonade
            Gene Luen Yang, American Born Chinese
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The 2012 author reading list increased from seven to eight and added four new-comers: Cabot, Famer, Schmidt, and Jones. I wanted to make sure my students were aware of an extremely popular romance writer (Cabot), an important but not prolific fantasy writer (Farmer), a gifted historical novelist for younger YAs (Schmidt), and a sophisticated and creative Canadian author of various types of fiction (Jones). Here’s the 2012 author list:

Laurie Halse Anderson, M. T. Anderson, Meg Cabot, Nancy Farmer, Gary Paulsen, Gary D. Schmidt, Jacqueline Woodson, Tim Wynne Jones
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Looking over the 2012 syllabus suggests that I had tuned in to a wide range of genre but had overlooked ethnic/cultural diversity. There are only 4 BIPOC on the required reading and required authors list.

Crowe's YA Course 2017

Are you still with me? I’m going to look at just two more syllabi.
           
Fall semester 2017: The required reading list contains reflects a stability that suggests I’ve either really hit my stride, or that I’ve settled on some books that really work well with students in the context of my course, or that I’ve become lazy. Whatever the reason, ten of the 15 required books, eleven if you count Crutcher (after years of using Running Loose, his first novel, as the prototypical Crutcher story, I switched to Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, a novel my students have loved), are carry-overs from previous semesters. Jack Gantos’ memoir added a fresh look at YA nonfiction; Garth Nix was a fantasy writer unfamiliar to many of my students, including the big fantasy readers; Francisco Stork was a new and talented LatinX voice; and Steve Sheinkin, well, he had emerged as the new grandmaster of YA nonfiction.
Jennifer Armstrong, Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World
Robert Cormier (one of six)
Chris Crutcher, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
Paul Fleischman, Whirligig
Jack Gantos, Hole in My Life
Karen Hesse, Out of the Dust
S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders
Walter Dean Myers, Monster
Garth Nix, Sabriel
Neal Schusterman, Unwind
Steve Sheinkin, Bomb                                                                           
Francisco X. Stork, Marcelo in the Real World
Mildred D. Taylor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Virginia Euwer Wolff, Make Lemonade
Gene Luen Yang, American Born Chinese
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2017 required authors:

Laurie Halse Anderson, M. T. Anderson, Meg Cabot, Matt de la Peña, Nancy Farmer, Martine Leavitt (one of five), Kekla Magoon, Gary Paulsen, Jacqueline Woodson
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The 2017 syllabus shows a better awareness of diversity and of a sort of YAL canonicity. Seven of the 24 authors are BIPOC and many of the required books/authors were well established in the field and had made widely-recognized significant contributions to YAL. Even the four ‘new’ names on the required authors list were already noteworthy authors of award-winning books. Martine Leavitt added a new and engaging opportunity for literature circles, circles that enhanced her later visit to our class. Overall, I felt that the 2017 syllabus did a pretty good job of providing my students with a solid and long-view foundation of YA literature, from The Outsiders (1967) to How It Went Down (2015).

Crowe's YA Course 2021

​OK, that was then; this is now, the current semester, Winter 2021 syllabus!

The 2021 syllabus shows a nice balance between diversity and tradition. Ten of the required 15 books appeared on previous syllabi, but only three of the nine required authors were carry-overs. It’s no surprise that Acevedo’s verse novel made the list and that it has been such a hit with students. Anderson’s Speak was a frequent selection by students in previous semesters when Anderson was a required author, but in the time of the #metoo movement, Speak is more relevant and important than ever. John Lewis’ richly and deservedly awarded graphic novel, March, Book 3, brings a lot to my glass. It’s a contemporary graphic novel, but it’s also a memoir of a civil rights icon that helps my young students learn important background about a historical period many know little about. Sandler’s National Book Award 1919 also connected my students to a pivotal year in American history, a year that eerily parallels 2020. All American Boys introduces my students to Jason Reynolds, one of the field’s biggest stars right now, but his co-authored novel also connects in powerful ways with the Black Lives Matter movement and the social issues that make such a movement necessary. And the final ‘new’ book to my syllabus, Jeff Zenter’s Serpent King lands with my students like a powerful and contemporary Chris Crutcher novel.
           
Five of the 15 required books are new to the list, but six of the nine required authors are new, and I’ve learned in recent years that the author list has been a way to keep my students’ reading recent and relevant while still allowing them to read essential, nearly canonical books in YAL as part of their required reading.
Here’s the 2021 list:

            Elizabeth Acevedo, The Poet X 
            Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak
            Jennifer Armstrong, Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World         
            Robert Cormier (one of five)
            Chris Crutcher, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
            S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders                               
            John Lewis, March, Book 3      
            Reynolds & Kiely, All American Boys               
            Martin Sandler, 1919: The Year That Changed America 
            Neal Schusterman, Unwind
            Steve Sheinkin, Bomb
            Mildred D. Taylor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
            Francisco X. Stork, Marcelo in the Real World
            Virginia Euwer Wolff, Make Lemonade
            Gene Luen Yang, American Born Chinese
            Jeff Zentner, The Serpent King
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And here are the 2021 required authors:

M. T. Anderson, Kelly Barnhill, Sarah Dessen, Margarita Engle, David Levithan, Gary Paulsen, Jewell Parker Rhodes, Elizabeth Wein, and Jacqueline Woodson
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I like the diversity of form, genre, and ethnic and cultural diversity represented in my 2021 syllabus, elements that have come a long way since their first iteration.
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Conclusion

So what have I learned from pouring over these relics of my YAL teaching? First, that this is nothing like a comprehensive, scientific meta-analysis of my YAL course. I’ve not been able to discuss the evolution of assignments over the years, what I’ve kept and what I’ve jettisoned over the years, why I’ve done that, and what those revisions have yielded. I’ve not been able to share my students’ ratings of the books they’ve read each semester. I’ve not been able to share the development of course outcomes over the years. What I have learned---or at least been reminded of---is this: it has been a blessing to be involved in this dynamic, creative, meaningful field. My syllabi have reminded me that I still haven’t figured out the best way of teaching YA literature to English majors, but that with revision, I can at least keep improving the course.

I’ve also been reminded that sometimes I pity my English department colleagues who specialize in studying one (dead) author or in one (historic) era; they are brilliant scholars who have a locked case to work with. They know there will be no new texts to study, and that means that much of their work involves coming up with new, innovative ways to look at old texts and dead authors.

The dynamic nature of YA literature allows people like me to admire and be surprised by a constant flow of new texts while still trying to find new and exciting ways to look at new (and old) texts and living (and dead) authors. The files and the books that fill my office are reminders of a career that I have loved, and these relics---syllabi, books, files---are old and new friends.
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All are pleasant reminders of my career in YA lit. 
A former high school English teacher, Chris Crowe is now a Professor of English at Brigham Young University where he teaches courses in YA literature, English education, and creative writing. A long-time member of ALAN, he has also served on its board of directors and as its president in 2001-2002. He has published books and articles about YA literature, including Presenting Mildred D. Taylor, and has published fiction and nonfiction for young adult readers, including the novel Mississippi Trial, 1955 and the nonfiction book Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case.
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​Until next week.
5 Comments

Who is Scipio Africanus Jones and Why Don't We Know More About Him?

2/3/2021

6 Comments

 
A couple of weeks ago I got a copy of Race Against Time: The Untold Story of Scipio Jones and the Battle to Save Twelve Innocent Men. I am always watching what Sandra and Rich have to offer. Wow! For me this was a "one sitting read" and once again I was stunned by what I didn't know.  

What a great book to begin thinking in a stepped up pace about YA literature during Black History Month.

But how did I get to this book?
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For seven or eight years now, I have been reading everything I can by Rich and Sandra Neil Wallace. Oh, I was aware of Rich Wallace's early work in young adult literature. I was reading a ton of YA sports novels twenty years ago and Rich is a major contributor in that area of YA. If you don't believe me you should check out Wrestling Sturbridge or Playing without the Ball. 

Sandra's first YA novel was Muckers. Through some stroke of good fortune I received a copy. I became a fan and Sandra proved herself to be quite the diligent researcher. This well researched novel about an underdog football team that had no chance to win anything, let alone a championship grabbed my attention and my heart. Shortly, after reading this book I ran into Rich and Sandra at an NCTE conference. (Who can remember which year and which city?) Since then we have been talking, presenting together at conferences, and keeping in touch. ​
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Then along came Blood Brother: Jonathan Daniels and His Sacrifice for Civil Rights. Without any exaggeration, I can say that this book changed by research and teaching trajectory. I have always been interested in YA books focusing on issues of race. class, and gender. I had been negligent in reading and focusing on YA nonfiction. Sandra and Rich changed all of that and I have been reading their work and the work of many others (too many to mention here) with great interest over the last five years.

When they provided me with an introduction to Jonathan Daniels, I was stunned. I should have known this story. I was around during the civil rights movement. I was a child of the 60s and 70s. I should have know this story. I should have known about this sacrifice. I loved my social studies classes, I paid attention to current events, I read newspaper. I grew up in an era of 3 tv stations and "arguably" more neutral presentation of the "news". At the same time, it seems, as we look back, that many, many worthy news stories were not covered or the events were brushed aside as too upsetting. (Of course, I might have rankled a few old timers with that comment, but wouldn't it be interesting to talk a look back at the coverage that some of the early protests and how they appeared in various news broadcasts and newspapers across the country?)

​I wrote about Blood Brother in my blog and continued to follow what they were doing. Sandra has had great success with several children's literature books along the way. Still they both keep working together. A couple of years ago I followed up by writing a blog post on Bound by Ice. Latter, my colleague, Paul Binford, and I presented with Rich and Sandra about this book and their research process at the Kennesaw  Children's and Young Adult Literature.
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Race Against Time: The Untold Story of Scipio Jones and the Battle to Save Twelve Innocent Men

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I wrote and told Rich and Sandra that I would be covering their new book in the blog, they sent me this starred review from Book list. (I wish my "starred" reviews counted, because this would certainly count.
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Jan. 2021. 144p. illus. Boyds Mills & Kane/Calkins Creek, $18.99 (9781629798165). Grades 7-10. 323.
REVIEW. First published November 1, 2020 (Booklist).
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This is a compelling account of how Scipio Jones, a formerly enslaved man and self-educated lawyer, dedicated five years of his life and his personal fortune to trying to save innocent Black sharecroppers from imprisonment and death in 1919 Arkansas, during the height of the Jim Crow era. These men had dared unionizing, and retribution was swift: the largest mass lynching in American history, homes and churches burnt, innocent people condemned to the electric chair. Jones literally risked his life to defend the men, wrangling their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The judgement, Moore v. Dempsey, evoked the Fourteenth Amendment and was the first time African Americans won a Supreme Court decision, resulting in the release of 75 prisoners and 12 men on death row. The action takes place at breakneck speed, accompanied by ample background information, period photographs, and appearances by the nascent NAACP, journalist Ida Tarbell*, and a young Thurgood Marshall. An epilogue, informative author’s note, copious bibliography, and detailed chapter notes help round out this testimonial of an often-overlooked landmark event in the early history of civil rights.
— Kathleen McBroom

*one fix in the review: Ida Tarbell should be Ida B. Wells-Barnett
The Supreme Court case of Moore v. Dempsey has dictated the interpretation of the 14th Amendment for nearly 100 years. It is pure lunacy that every child in an the American school system doesn't the details of the case it covers and that the argument was written by a black, southern attorney. This gap in our history books is a clear example of either the white washing of American history or a fear of giving credit to the contributions of Black Americans.
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This wonderful book is quite short and easy to read, but do not let that fact lead you to believe it is simple. It is anything but. The book is densely packed with fact after fact and interesting narrative about Scipio Jones and the twelve men he saves from the electric chair.

Scipio Jones is an American patriot we should all know and teach to our children. 

Read this book!

Share with your preservice teachers and your students. 

In the meantime, I offer a few resources that will give you a small introduction to Scipio Jones and his work.
Scipio Africanus Jones: Resources

https://hardwicke.co.uk/black-history-month-scipio-africanus-jones/
https://abandonedar.com/scipio-africanus-jones-house/
https://arkansasblacklawyers.uark.edu/lawyers/sajones.html
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/jones-scipio-africanus-1863-1943/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scipio_Africanus_Jones
​https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2021/01/29/life-size-portrait-of-scipio-jones-proposed-at-namesake-post-office
https://hill.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=6557
​https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2020/jan/21/scipio-a-jones-20200121/?opinion
Until next time.
6 Comments
    Dr. Gretchen Rumohr
    Chief Curator
    Gretchen Rumohr is a professor of English and department chair at Aquinas College, where she teaches writing and language arts methods.   She is also a Co-Director of the UNLV Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature. She lives with her four girls and a five-pound Yorkshire Terrier in west Michigan.

    Dr. Steve Bickmore
    ​Creator and Curator

    Dr. Bickmore is a Professor of English Education at UNLV. He is a scholar of Young Adult Literature and past editor of The ALAN Review and a past president of ALAN. He is a available for speaking engagements at schools, conferences, book festivals, and parent organizations. More information can be found on the Contact page and the About page.

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