Prominent Placement of YA Nonfiction in a Reading Course for Secondary Teacher Preparation by Dr. Stacy Graber,Kalli Joint, Joseph Mika, Victoria Smolak, and Tyler Wagner of Youngstown State University

We welcome Dr. Stacy Graber and students to the blog today!  Their perspective on YA Nonfiction can help us choose quality texts in our classrooms for students who lean in that direction--and for teachers interested in meeting nonfiction standards. Dr. Graber is an Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of English Education at Youngstown State University.  Her areas of interest include critical theory, pedagogy, young adult literature, and popular culture. 

Kalli Joint, Joseph Mika, Victoria Smolak, and Tyler Wagner are teacher candidates in the Integrated Social Studies, Teacher Education Program at Youngstown State University.

Prominent Placement of YA Nonfiction in a Reading Course for Secondary Teacher Preparation by Dr. Stacy Graber,Kalli Joint, Joseph Mika, Victoria Smolak, and Tyler Wagner of Youngstown State University

The Reading in the Content Areas course at YSU centers interdisciplinary engagement, the reading-writing connection, and young adult literature toward fulfilling the commitment all teacher candidates share to provide engaging and challenging literacy instruction. Moreover, the culminating project for the course requires candidates to select a meritorious work of nonfiction written for a young adult audience to plan instruction that incorporates numerous components including a multimodal, thematically related text set (comprised of print, visual, and digital sources), as well as writing to learn opportunities to catalyze interest and support diverse learner needs in reading the “centerpiece” text. The project represents a shift from reading a single text to designing literacy experiences that invite students to read across a range of thematically related texts (Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz, 2021, pp. 319-320). The list of YA nonfiction trade books accompanying the assessment is revised annually to represent the greatest breadth of topics and to highlight the expertly researched, dynamic nonfiction that could be used to develop disciplinary literacies. Toward celebrating our interdisciplinary partnerships, 4 candidates from the Integrated Social Studies program have been asked to share their YA text selections and strategies for inviting students into meaningful conversation with these important books.

Kalli Joint writes: In the Shadow of the Fallen Towers: The Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months, and Years after the 9/11 Attacks by Don Brown (2021) is a graphic novel about the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in the United States. Specifically, Brown conveys how the attacks impacted the survivors, Muslims in America, and the United States as a whole. Before reading, I would teach students to read graphic novels, and I would provide them with vocabulary to support contextual understanding. During reading, I would have students complete a graphic organizer to indicate how the aftermath of 9/11 differently impacted the people represented in the book. The organizer would show how students interpreted the relationship between print and images, and it would enable comparison of diverse experiences. After reading, I would have students individually choose a video from the 9/11 Memorial website and write a paragraph summarizing survivors' experiences. This would give students the opportunity to further research the lasting impact of the 9/11 attacks. Brown’s book is important because it provides multiple perspectives on a significant moment in U.S. history. Moreover, the book would catalyze engaging academic work because it is a graphic novel, and the illustrations provide support for interpretation. 

Joseph Mika writes: Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team by Steve Sheinkin (2017) explores the remarkable achievements of students who attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School for Native Americans at the turn of the 20th century. Sheinkin recounts myriad injustices committed against Native American students who attended not only the Carlisle school, but similar schools across the country. Undefeated offers an opportunity for students to study several aspects of U.S. history. For example, through the use of semantic maps, students can connect key events, people, and places in Jim Thorpe’s life to understand him fully. Pairing this with a writing activity, students could compose an unsent letter, where they could take on the persona of a Native American student in boarding school, writing home to family. These activities would display student understanding of key factors that affected who these people were and what they accomplished and endured. The education of students attending the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was founded on forced assimilation. It’s important to understand that in the broader context of the history of education. For instance, today, it is crucial for educators to respect the unique differences of students, develop their confidence, and help them to flourish.

Victoria Smolak writes: One Person, No Vote: How Not All Voters Are Treated Equally (YA Adaptation) by Carol Anderson and Tonya Bolden (2019) examines how voters throughout the United States have been disenfranchised by their state, local, and federal governments, in the past and present. Sections describing the various ways voters are continuously barred from the polls prompt inquiry into voting laws throughout the U.S. In terms of a guided reading activity, I would ask students to research events referenced in the text and explain laws in their own words to enhance relatability. Additionally, the compelling way the authors describe how the voting laws in specific states disenfranchise their population would motivate students to further research how their own state has acted against voters throughout time. Finally, after reading and examining the state of voting in students’ locale, they could write their representatives a letter voicing concern or admiration for the running of local elections. An important aspect of a high school American government class is teaching students to be active, engaged participants in the democratic system. One Person, No Vote encourages students to see how voter discrimination persists today, how that impacts them, and how they might act to fix the issue. 

Tyler Wagner writes: A Rebel in Auschwitz: The True Story of the Resistance Hero who Fought the Nazis from Inside the Camp by Jack Fairweather (2021) concerns Polish resistance fighter, Witold Pilecki, who positioned himself to be imprisoned and sent to the concentration camp, Auschwitz. During his imprisonment, Witold used the camp to recruit new resistance fighters and gain inside intelligence on Nazi operations for the allies. Because this book looks deeply into Nazi atrocities committed against innocent citizens, I would incorporate it into a unit on the Holocaust. In terms of activities, students could write from the perspective of a prisoner about conditions they faced; alternatively, students could write from the perspective of a German citizen who had just been exposed to the horror of the camps. Students could depict how a German citizen might be appalled by the horror or refuse to believe due to the influence of constant propaganda. Fairweather’s prose powerfully captures events as they occur and describes prisoners’ reactions ranging from hopeful to desperate. So, not only would the book work within a unit on the Holocaust, but it could also work within a unit on World War II, as it incorporates first-hand accounts from citizens and soldiers.

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

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