Reading Choices of Future Teachers: Plant a Seed and Watch It Grow by Leilya A. Pitre

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. 

Reading Choices of Future Teachers: Plant a Seed and Watch It Grow
by Leilya Pitre

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:

1. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (1999)
2. Freaky Green Eyes by Joyce Carol Oates (2003)
3. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (2006)
4. Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt de la Peña (2008)
5. Hate List by Jennifer Brown (2009)
6. My Name is Parvana by Debora Ellis (2012)
7. Crossover by Kwame Alexander (2013)
8. All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely (2015)
9. The Memory of Things by Gae Polisner (2016)
10.  Love, Hate, and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed (2018)
11. I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman (2018)
12. The Music of What Happened by Bill Konigsberg (2019)

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. 

As it is clear, Bill Konigsberg’s 2019 novel The Music of What Happens wins the prize in a class of 13 undergraduate English Education majors with Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (1999) and Freaky Green Eyes by Joyce Carol Oates (2003) closely following. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (2006) and All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely (2015) are sharing the third place. 

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. 

Leilya A. Pitre is an Assistant Professor and English Education Program Coordinator with experience in secondary school and college teaching. She taught English as a foreign language in the Ukraine and ELA/English in public schools in the US. Currently, she teaches methods courses for preservice English teachers, literary analysis, American Literature, and Young Adult literature in the English Department at Southeastern Louisiana University. Her research interests include teacher preparation, field experiences of preservice English teachers, secondary school teaching, and teaching of Young Adult and multicultural literature. Leilya is a co-editor of Study and Scrutiny: Research on Young Adult Literature (https://journals.shareok.org/studyandscrutiny), a member of National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), English Language Arts Teacher Educator (ELATE) committee at NCTE, Association of Teacher Educators (ATE), and other regional and local education organizations.

Leilya A. Pitre

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