 | Dr. Cindi Koudelka (koudelka21@gmail.com; @cmkoudelka) is a Curriculum Specialist with National Board Certification in Adolescent Young Adulthood/English Language Arts at Fieldcrest School District in Illinois and an Adjunct faculty member at Aurora University. Being a bibliophile and school nerd, she holds multiple certifications from PreK - 12, and is an active member in several literacy and research organizations. Her research interests reflect her passion as a youth advocate by focusing her work on critical adolescent literacies, young adult literature, positioning, and youth participatory action research. |
Book Club Joy by Dr. Cindi Koudelka
It is that glorious time of year — no, not because the school year is ending, but because while we are wrapping up this year, we are simultaneously looking ahead to next year. Specifically, we are thinking about what books to add to our curriculum for book clubs. I get to work with the amazing ELA teachers in my district to select books that our students need in their hands. Those lists need to be inclusive, relevant, and fresh which means it needs to change often. This doesn’t mean all of the books on the lists have to be the newest books out there, but they need to be purposefully curated for the lessons, the unit themes, current events, and most importantly, the students in our classrooms. The other important factor in selecting book sets is how they will build upon each other to create a scaffolded understanding as students move through units and along grade levels.
For English I, it isn’t that I have anything against Romeo and Juliet, but it is THE ninth grade text, and that hasn’t changed since I was in school (which was a really, really long time ago). Rather than reading it in isolation, we will pair it with book clubs related to star-crossed lovers and examine questions beyond the typical, “Do we determine our own destinies?” to other questions such as, “How do societal power structures impact decision-making and access to opportunities?” This pairing of book clubs with the canonical work freshens up the conversations and allows students to think about the role of intersectionality and how that is represented across various texts. It affords them greater opportunity to critically examine the essential questions and how the author’s circumstances impact the text’s message. As we create the lists, it is important to select texts that include a range of representation, so we have selected novels that reach across groups and time. The novels include Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez, The Weight of Feathers by Anna Marie McLemore, Verona Comics by Jennifer Dugan, Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley, The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon, and Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo.
For English I, it isn’t that I have anything against Romeo and Juliet, but it is THE ninth grade text, and that hasn’t changed since I was in school (which was a really, really long time ago). Rather than reading it in isolation, we will pair it with book clubs related to star-crossed lovers and examine questions beyond the typical, “Do we determine our own destinies?” to other questions such as, “How do societal power structures impact decision-making and access to opportunities?” This pairing of book clubs with the canonical work freshens up the conversations and allows students to think about the role of intersectionality and how that is represented across various texts. It affords them greater opportunity to critically examine the essential questions and how the author’s circumstances impact the text’s message. As we create the lists, it is important to select texts that include a range of representation, so we have selected novels that reach across groups and time. The novels include Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez, The Weight of Feathers by Anna Marie McLemore, Verona Comics by Jennifer Dugan, Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley, The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon, and Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo.
After gaining insight into power structures, we wanted our students to dig deeper in the English II “Outsiders and Outcasts” unit where the essential question is, “How do societies position and treat people as insiders or outsiders?” These texts help students examine peoples’ interactive roles based on group affiliations, the ways some groups are marginalized, and how stereotypes are perpetuated because of societal power structures. More importantly, they provide authentic representation and opportunities for students to critically examine inequities and develop empathy. The books we chose included: My Name is Not Easy by Debby Dahl Edwardson, American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang , Don't Ask Me Where I'm From by Jennifer De Leon, Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt De La Pena, Love, Hate, and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed, and Black Flamingo by Dean Atta.
As students get closer to voting age, it is important for them to reflect on their personal belief systems and the questions “What does it mean to be an American?” and “In what ways has the struggle for freedom been more than just about legal rights throughout history?” They will engage with American Literature and book clubs that help them explore both nonfiction and fiction with books that include: Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee, The Good Braider by Terry Farish, American Street by Ibi Zoboi, We are Not Free by Traci Chee, Apple (Skin to the core) by Eric Gansworth, Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed, The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson, Stamped From The Beginning by Ibram Kendi, and Lifting as We Climb: Black Women's Battle for the Ballot Box by Evette Dion. In the unit, the groups will examine various groups represented in the novels to analyze their experiences across time and culture and then collaborate to synthesize and "stitch" the stories together to answer the essential questions.
I remember a few years ago as I sat in a rather contentious English department meeting, there was an intense discussion over what books each grade was supposed to teach. It was territorial and focused on what books those particular teachers “always” taught. I am proud to say that those conversations have shifted as we remember that we don’t “teach” books; we use books to teach children. When we opened the conversation even further to consider how we can leverage book clubs to offer greater choice, we shifted our role from gatekeepers to tour guides—providing inclusive access for all of our students and sharing the glorious joy of these books.
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