Follow us:
DR. BICKMORE'S YA WEDNESDAY
  • Weekly Posts
  • WEEKEND PICKS 2023
  • Monday Motivators 2023
  • Weekend Picks 2021
  • Contributors
  • Bickmore's Posts
  • Lesley Roessing's Posts
  • Weekend Picks 2020
  • Weekend Picks 2019
  • Weekend Picks old
  • 2021 UNLV online Summit
  • UNLV online Summit 2020
  • 2019 Summit on Teaching YA
  • 2018 Summit
  • Contact
  • About
  • WEEKEND PICKS 2023

Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday has a new Feature-- A YouTube Channel

Don't worry, it is easy to find.  Just go to YouTube and search for Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday.

Check Out the YouTube Channel

Trending Now: YA, Current Events, and Taking Action

2/8/2017

1 Comment

 
This week's guest contributor is Gretchen Rumohr-Voskuil. Like many of our posts over the last couple of months, she points to books that helps adolescents think about current events and how to move to understanding or to action. This post also reminds us about the abundance of quality "informational" YA texts.
Recently, I was contacted by a middle school social studies teacher who asked me to recommend young adult nonfiction texts that would help his students understand and respond to current events. Using resources such as The Nerdy Book Club, The National Book Award nominations, and YALSA, I created a list, and I’ve shared a few of my picks below.

Which current events?

Our current news cycle can determine which events to explore. For appropriate, grade-level, nonfiction texts,
Newsela proves to be a valuable, relevant, cross-curricular resource.  

Picture
Given Trump’s recent immigration order, This Land is Our Land: A History of American Immigration by Linda Barret Osborne can help students familiarize themselves with the history, attitudes, and current policies on immigration. Additional, immigration-related book suggestions from previous YA Wednesday blog entries are here.
​
​To better comprehend human rights violations that may result in the necessity of fleeing one’s country, A Long Way Gone:  Memoirs of a Boy Soldier,  Lost Boy, Lost Girl: Escaping War in Sudan, and graphic novel Child Soldier:  When Boys and Girls are Used in War are good possibilities.  
Picture
For students that followed the last election closely, Hillary Rodham Clinton: A Woman Living History by Karen Blumenthal introduces students to American politics.  The text is fully  updated to include the 2016 election. 
Picture
​Acknowledging the sugar consumption habits of most Americans, Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science by Marc Aronson considers the global impact of sugar as well as broader food justice themes.
Picture
To address the recent attention on the Dakota Access Pipeline project and accompanying protests, an unconventional nonfiction text is the award-winning Looks Like Daylight: Stories of Indigenous Kids by Deborah Ellis, which shares the daily lives, interests and opinions of Native American young people. 
Picture
It’s been mentioned on YA Wednesday before, but deserves a mention again: for students following nonviolent demonstrations such as the Women’s March on Washington, Lewis, Aydin and Powell’s March graphic novel series provides a historically accurate, compelling, and inspiring background.
 
Moving from current events toward advocacy
Along with interest and engagement, the above texts can bring feelings of helplessness and apathy.  Indeed, our goal is to not only help students know about what is happening in our world, but also help students form opinions and take action. The texts below can help students consider their work as well-informed, passionate agents of change.
Picture
​Michael Burgan’s Breaker Boys: How a Photograph Helped End Child Labor tells the story of photographer Lewis Hine, who used his art to bring new awareness to child labor.  Hine used his camera to educate others on the challenges of the working poor.  Overall, Hine’s story affirms the power of visual images and reminds us that our talents can change the world. 
Picture
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai describes Yousafzai’s active advocacy on behalf of girls’ education, peace, and human rights.  Simply put, Yousafzai can inspire bravery and action in both global and local contexts.
Picture
Eyes Wide Open:  Going Beyond the Environmental Headlines considers how politics, psychology, history, economics and the media affect environmental issues, and specific ways that a person can use this information to make an impact.
The Teen Guide to Global Action by Barbara A. Lewis helps students consider which issues they plan to tackle and provides suggestions on how to mobilize. Be A Changemaker: How to Start Something that Matters by Laurie Ann Thompson follows a similar path.
 
The suggestions above are in no way comprehensive; you can easily find--and add suggestions to--a more complete list here.  Overall, my hope is that quality YA nonfiction texts can help our students “read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently” (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.10), but with an increased interest, newfound mastery of current events, and intense hunger for social change.

Gretchen Rumohr-Voskuil
Aquinas College
ghr001@aquinas.edu

1 Comment
Marquise Camp
9/28/2017 12:01:59 pm

High school students do have a voice in society. Reading books on current events can spark an interest to take action in their community.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    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.

    Co-Edited Books

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All
    Chris-lynch

    Blogs to Follow

    Ethical ELA
    nerdybookclub
    NCTE Blog
    yalsa.ala.org/blog/

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly