Amy Piotrowski is one of the people who comes to mind when I need help with anything associated with English Language Arts and the Digital Age.  We are pleased that she had the time to offer up a guest post on ethics in and around YA literature.

Until next time.

I need to have Leilya Pitre write for the blog more often. Every time I do, I am reminded about how much I have learned from her. We had several opportunities to work together at LSU while she was working on her PhD. Some of my favorite publication were collaborations with her. Now she is making her way on her own and has recently published a volume with Mike P. Cook entitled Exploring Identity Development and Self. After you get done reading her post, take a minute to order the book. 

In the previous blog post of Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesday, Tara Anderson Gold confessed: “I love young adult literature and I wanted to experiment with new ways to connect students to great books.” We—teachers, librarians, educators—are all doing this for similar reasons. While Tara shared her lessons from teaching a high school English class, I would like to talk about an undergraduate course on YAL and its influence on cultivating students’ reading choices. 

It is no secret that aspiring English teachers are driven by their love to books and want their students enjoy reading as much as they do. However, when novice teachers finally get in the position to teach, they often find their hands tied by school policies and district curriculum mandates. In Louisiana, for example, they have guide books for every grade of secondary English outlined with themes, topics, concepts, and texts detailed for public school teachers. There is not much flexibility that may find its way into the year-long curriculum under the circumstances; yet, when teachers are well-read, they will use any chance to introduce readings beyond the prescribed titles. This is when they remember a course on young adult literature (YAL) they have taken in college and skim the syllabus for some titles that might be fitting into their classroom.

For this reason, teaching this course, titled “Adolescent Experience in Literature” in our English Department, my hope is they will learn about the texts that are contemporary, relevant, engaging, and still of high literary quality.  I want “to plant a seed” and strengthen my teacher candidates’ belief in young adult texts: if YAL makes adolescents think, reflect, and build knowledge and skills necessary to succeed, it is worth introducing to students. As in the previous years, the major course goal is to expose students to a variety of diverse YA novels that mirror daily experiences and challenges of adolescents and illustrate how these texts might be helpful within and beyond academic school setting. We also discuss staying power of YAL – what kind of literature may stay and become a part of YA canon. 

This spring, each of the students read 12 novels assigned to them and one novel of their choice. While they read only 13 books, new titles are mentioned during each class, so their reading list is consistently expanding. Here is the latest list of the required novels:

Preparing for the course each semester, I replace two or three novels with newer choices, yet keep in mind a variety of topics, themes, social issues, and diverse representation of characters. This year I finally let go of The Cather in the Rye (Salinger, 1945) and A Separate Peace (Knowles, 1959). Both novels are the staples of early YAL, although Salinger’s novel has never been branded as such, and carry important lessons, but it’s time to give new titles a chance. Instead, we have read Mexican WhiteBoy (de la Peña, 2008) and Love, Hate, and Other Filters (Ahmed, 2018). I have also added The Crossover (Alexander, 2013) to examine structural peculiarities of this verse novel, in addition to thematic explorations. The end-of-semester survey illustrates which novels have resonated with my students the most; it also shows which novels I will most likely replace next year. 

Summarizing the course readings, students emphasize that the major themes of all of the novels, in addition to identity struggles, are focused around adolescents facing challenges and rediscovering self-worth, love, and hope. As one of the students, Alexa, clarifies, “Knowing who they are and learning to accept themselves creates new possibilities for love, friendship, and hope. I want to believe my future students will be able to do just that.” Sara, another student, sincerely discloses that this is the first English course in her life that allows reading novels “about today’s young people,” and KC is simply happy to know that novels like The Music of What Happens “may find their way into the secondary classroom soon.”

​To further foster love for YA literature and possibilities it offers, each student is tasked to explore an additional novel and present it to class. I have to mention that I provide a list of recommended novels for this assignment, in case students aren’t familiar with recent YA titles or do not know where to start looking. I draw their attention to various Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) and other young adult book awards. To begin a parade of choice novels, I introduce a few novels; these spring I have  acquainted them with two novels representing diverse characters and exploring pressing issues of social justice, equality, and immigration--American Street (Zoboi, 2017) and Dear Martin (Stone, 2017). 

Throughout the course, I have reminded how important it is to include diverse literature into the secondary English classrooms because we want our students see themselves in the books they read. Together we’ve watched some video clips where popular YA writers promote We Need Diverse Books movement (diversebooks.org). Fortuitously for me, this group of students embraces YAL wholeheartedly and has no trouble choosing a novel on their own. Their choices feature a wide variety of adolescent experiences in literature portraying characters of different cultural, racial or ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds as well as gender and sexual orientation. The exciting part is that three of the presented novels are written by the YA authors who will be speaking at the 2021 UNLA online Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature—shout out to Steve Bickmore, for such a wonderful line up of guest speakers (http://www.yawednesday.com/2021-unlv-online-summit.html). These titles contain Burned, a verse novel by Ellen Hopkins (2006), Pinned by Sharon Flake (2012), and Read Between the Lines by Jo Knowles (2015). 

Among the other choices are the novels published within the last twelve years:

• If I Stay by Gayle Forman (2009)
• He Said She Said by Kwame Alexander (2011) – two students chose this one;
• Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (2012);
• Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (2012);
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (2012);
• Wonder by R. J. Palacio (2012);
• Three Dark Crowns Book by Kendare Blake (2016);
• We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson (2016);
• Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (2017);
• Opposite of Always Justin A. Reynolds (2019);
• When You Were Everything by Ashley Woodfolk (2020)

Interestingly, only three novels come from the recommended list, and the rest are identified by my students on their own. As one of my students, Richard, clarifies, he is fond of Alexander’s The Crossover, and it has driven his decision to read He Said, She Said to learn more about the author and his writings. The same story is about Jamie’s choice of Reynold’s Long Way Down after reading his book All American Boys co-authored with B. Kiely. Lily’s choice of Wonder by Palacio is justified by the fact that the novels we read in class are mostly for high schoolers, and none of them deals with special needs children. Jacob explains that When You Were Everything (Woodfolk, 2020) has attracted him because of “diverse and nuanced characters—African American, Bengali American, Islamic, LGBTQ+, etc.”—and the novel examines “mature and relevant subject matter, especially considering the transitional nature of adolescence.”

To conclude, I’d like to bring up one more of my multiple students’ testimonies about the course value. It is Jacob again, and he admits: “I always thought that young adult literature was just that—“young,” somehow juvenile … because the category itself is relatively new, so I wasn’t sure of its quality. Now, after I’ve read over a dozen of novels, I have a new appreciation for it, and I can see its merit, especially for young people. I already have a few favorites and will definitely look out for new titles.” Thinking about this group of teacher candidates, I am certain they will continue making choices in favor of YAL in their classroom whenever it is possible because it is ultimately a choice in favor of their future students. The seed is planted and well nurtured. Let it grow. 
​
Next time I write for Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesday, I will share some interesting ideas for final creative projects based on my students’ work. 

Until next time.

Our contributor this week is Tara Anderson Gold. Tara is a  type of contributor that we love to have and, frankly, we don't host as frequently as we should--a practicing school Media Coordinator. I have worked with Tara on a couple of projects. She has written chapters in books  that I have edited or contributed. In fact, she will have a chapter in a book due out this summer. I love what she has to say about YA classes in a high school setting. Keep watching for Tara's work. 

This school year, despite the uncertainty and challenges of the pandemic, I was excited to engage in my own challenge -- teaching a young adult adult literature course through the high school library program. Officially titled “Trends and Movements in Young Adult Literature,” my English elective course was taught one block a day for students across all grade levels in the school. My students have had a blast in this class even though I have yet to meet many of them in person, so I thought I would share some reflections on things I learned from my first foray into teaching YA lit with actual YAs. ​

Before I even get into the nitty gritty of our course, I want to explain a little about why I wanted to teach this course. After all, I am a librarian who already has a lot on her plate -- why would I be teaching an English elective? The short answer is that I love young adult literature and I wanted to experiment with new ways to connect students to great books. As other librarians may understand, getting students into the library to read for pleasure can be a challenge at the high school level. In brainstorming ways to do this, I asked our media assistant students what holds them back from reading more. Most reported that homework, jobs, and extracurricular activities leave them with little time to curl up with a book for fun. When my co-librarian and I learned that our school had a YA Lit course in the course catalog with no one to teach it, we jumped at the opportunity to try something new. ​

I have always been a huge audiobook fan, but I’ve found mixed reviews from students when I try to encourage them to try one. One of the challenges I gave my students this semester was to try reading a book in each of three formats: print, ebook, and audiobook. We relied heavily on the public library’s offerings for digital resources and all of my students tried at least one audiobook early on in the semester. To my surprise, they loved them! One student in particular, who was struggling with mental health, reported that she couldn’t concentrate enough to read in print but that audiobooks allowed her to listen while she went about her daily routine at home. Others were able to read more because they could listen while they drove or went on runs. Reading is reading no matter the format and I was so thrilled to be able to help these students find new ways of reading that worked for them. ​

Starting this class in the middle of virtual learning in a pandemic certainly was not ideal in many ways. Students didn’t get to interact with each other much in small groups or face-to-face. They didn’t get to explore the library shelves or curl up on a comfy library chair to read for the first thirty minutes of class like I envisioned when I pitched the class. But I had a blast getting to teach a class every day that simply focused on the love of young adult literature. More importantly, my students and I built a community of readers where we all read more because of our time together in the class. I have a to-do list spanning multiple pages of edits and tweeks I want to make to the course moving forward but overall it has been the highlight of teaching in challenging times. ​

Until next week.

The UNLV Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature is pleased to feature Sharon G. Flake.
 
Sharon G. Flake writes about African-American youth, illuminating experiences of teenagers and youth of color resolving to have their voices heard. She is a three-time Coretta Scott King Award winner! Flake has received praise for her work’s honest portrayals of complex issues and themes in Money Hungry (2001), Pinned (2012), Bang! (2005), and the short story collections Who Am I Without Him? (2004) and You Don’t Even Know Me: Stories and Poems about Boys (2010).  Her best-selling, Coretta Scott King Award-winning novel The Skin I’m (1998) in was influential in shifting the landscape of young adult literature when it was published over 20 years ago.

A big bonus for getting the new edition of the The Skin I'm In reading the wonderful forward written by Jason Reynolds.​

Until next time.