Chapters 11 & 12 of YAL in the 21st Century

"The classics shouldn't be reserved for exceptional students, and young adult literature shouldn't be reserved for at-risk readers.  When we create that dichotomy, we send an elitist message about the classics and an inferior message about young adult literature--and we fail our students" (513).

Nothing frustrates me more than the highbrow/lowbrow literature discussion.  I once got into a Twitter fight about this with a professor, and I have no regrets. 

Cole writes chapter 11 to integrate the classical canon with young adult literature through themes and motifs.  As always, her tables are accessible and helpful, such as the one that states and theme and then gives both a classic and YA novel that incorporates that theme. 

Chapter 12 continues along those same lines--commenting on the pop culture influence of young adult literature.  "If we examine popular culture texts," Cole argues, "we find stories that mirror life experiences, provide escape outlets, and present commentaries on societal issues" (558).  I have often been shocked at how poignant young adult literature can be, and how true not only to teenage experience, but to human experience. 

I really appreciate her section on companion texts, even including TV shows!  Relevance and buy-in is such a huge part of teaching high schoolers, and Cole gives plenty of resources for both.  She also recommends different magazines, which my students love.  I have so many magazines in my classroom it's unreal.  It doesn't matter if it's the most current issue of Time or an issue of US Weekly from 2013...if it's sitting on a desk, my students will read it. 

And that's what I love most about this textbook--the spectrum of reading material she presents.  So many English teachers are snobs about the "classics" that the joy of reading is lost in their classrooms.  I've long hoped that, if nothing else, my students will leave my room with a love of reading for fun.  This text has helped me on my journey to get there.

Teaching Notes for This Star Won't Go Out

 
 

 

 

 

 

Earl, Esther.  This Star Won't Go Out.  New York: Dutton Books, 2014.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author Information:

 

• Esther Grace Earl was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at the age of 12
• She loved to write, draw, and journal
• She died shortly after turning 16, and her parents published this book of her sketches, letters, journal entries, and more
• She met John Green at Leaky Con 09, and he wrote the introduction to her memoir, as well as dedicated The Fault in Our Stars to her

 

Summary of Plot and Characters:

 

This memoir is set up much like a diary, which is fitting, as it contains many journal entries of Esther's.  It begins with words from her parents, Wayne and Lori, about her childhood.  Her journal entries are chronological, with added drawings and letters from around the same time.  The entries end with the last one she wrote, and are followed by a note from her dad explaining her death.  His eulogy for her is next, followed by notes from her friends about the impact she made on their lives. The book is honest and poignant--no one is trying to make Esther out to be a saint.  She was a normal teenager in many ways.  However, the impact she made on others is evident.  Teenagers would really connect with this book, and it would get them thinking about tough topics, such as their legacies.  I would like to have students write a journal using Esther's as a jumping off point.  They could write letters to family members, poems, and letters to their future selves.  

 

Historical Placement/Relevance:

 

This is an interesting topic, because one of the Goodreads complaints about this book is that lots of teenagers die from cancer, but they never met John Green, so their words don't get published.  Which is true.  I think the message of this book, however, can still reach many.  Teens (and adults!) can take so much for granted.  This book puts family, friends, school, and other blessings into perspective.  Furthermore, it's relatable because Esther was such a normal teenager.  She was addicted to the internet, to Harry Potter, and was a Nerdfighter.  Nerdfighteria has grown so large than hundreds of thousands have read Esther's work, watched her YouTube videos, and read John Green's words about her.

 

Annotated Bibliography:

 

Finley, Todd. "The Importance of Student Journals and How to Respond Efficiently." Edutopia. N.p., 01 Sept. 2010. Web. 1 May 2015.                                                   

 

I love Edutopia!  This article explains both the importance of student journals, but also gives advice to teachers on how to respond to them, since it is such a time-consuming task.  Mr. Finley quotes, "The legendary Toby Fulwiler, author of The Journal Book, writes, "Without an understanding of who we are, we are not likely to understand fully why we study biology rather than forestry, literature rather than philosophy. In the end, all knowledge is related; the journal helps clarify the relationship."   I would have my students read this to understand the purpose of the assignment.

 

"Thyroid Cancer." Thyroid Cancer. American Cancer Society, n.d. Web. 01 May 2015.

 

Students would undoubtedly be curious about what thyroid cancer actually is.  I would direct them to the American Cancer Society's web page on the disease for topics such as signs, symptoms, and statistics. 

 

"Welcome to TSWGO." This Star Won't Go Out Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2015.  

 

This is the official website of Esther's foundation, run by her family.  Students might enjoy reading through the various causes she's indirectly supported and learning more of her story.  I might have students go here to develop a further understanding of how non-profits work.

 

Other Topics I Plan to Explore Further:

• How people get cancer and how it spreads
• TSWGO Foundation's charity rating
• Leaky Con because it sounds awesome!

Also, this book completes my reading log assignment!

 

 

                                             



Chapters 9 & 10 of YAL in the 21st Century

The Sophomore English class I teach has a short story unit.  It's at the beginning of the year in an attempt to incorporate literary elements early on, as well as to ease kids in to literary analysis.  The stories we read are:

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl
A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury
Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe
A & P by John Updike

I'm super passionate about all five, and students tend to like at least a few (the Dahl and Bradbury most). 

However, of the five, the most recent was written in 1961 (Updike), and none have any racial or sexual diversity.  Table 9.1 of chapter 9 has three columns:  a literary element, the classical short story taught with it, and a young adult short story that also exhibits that element well. I think this is an awesome way to give students some choice while still teaching the literary elements. 

If I were to teach this unit again, I would probably give the young adult options next to the classic options and allow a choice.  Perhaps for each literary element, students could choose which text they wanted, so long as they chose at least two from the "classics" column.

Chapter 10 is over non-fiction, which is a personal favorite of mine.  I love learning new things through books, and I'm always pleasantly surprised by the amount of students who ask for non-fiction recommendations.  Cole gives some good questions for evaluating and selecting non-fiction, such as "is the author and authority in his/her field?" and "is there a clear distinction between fact and opinion?" 

I think these questions are important to teach students, especially in an age where any nonsense can be written on the internet and shared as fact. 

Sports non-fiction is another genre that is engaging to students, especially those who often say they don't enjoy reading.  When I ask a student what they are interested in and they respond "sports," I am thrilled to offer them a plethora of reading options. 

Cole ends the chapter with suggestions for teaching text structure and summarizing with non-fiction.  She includes charts and graphic organizers that could easily be replicated.  She states, "As English language arts teachers, we should include a fair amount of nonfiction in our curriculum, providing models for the kinds of writing we ask them to do and models for other kinds of real-world reading and writing" (509).

Chapters 7 & 8 of YAL in the 21st Century

*The end is near!  I graduate May 15!  I have so much work to do before then!*

I love the tables of book suggestions in this text.  I always flip forward and read those first before I read the rest of the chapter, just to see how many of the suggestions I've read and to get a general feel of what I should expect from the chapter.

Chapter 7 is titled "Mysteries, Thriller, and Horror," and this is a chapter I needed to read.  I have lots of kids ask for scary suggestions, and I usually have to defer them to the librarian.  I am someone who HATES being scared, so I stay away from scary books. (I try to stay away from scary movies, but my husband is a horror addict, so sometimes I get roped into watching them.) 

This chapter talked a little about why people like to be scared, but I still think those people are nuts.  Being scared is a terrible feeling.  I don't like feeling terrible. 

the exception to this is The Shining because it
is a work of genius.

Anyway.  For those who do enjoy feeling terrible, I now have a list of options.  One thing I really enjoy about this text is that all the books they recommend have literary merit.  I'm familiar with most of the authors, even if I haven't read the texts.  Furthermore, the tables are broken into sections for younger, older, and mature teens. 

Near the end of the chapter, Cole writes a section on inferential thinking and metacognition that has some helpful suggestions for getting students to make inferences.  I plan to try her think aloud strategies such as read, infer, share and also Kelly Gallagher's strategy of word scramble.

Chapter 8 is over science fiction and fantasy, another weak spot for me.  Cole breaks down many sub-genres such as "space operas, cyberpunk, and other science fiction adventures" and "genetics, DNA, and cloning."  I love the idea of finding a topic students are interested in and being able to recommend several books they might enjoy. 

She again gives reading strategies, this time visualizing strategies.  I appreciate the section on visualizing nonfiction since the Common Core is so heavy on NF.  Furthermore, she suggests vocabulary strategies since many science fiction books tend to be heavy on new words. 

Next up: short stories and non fiction.  I'm excited to get suggestions here, as the last book I need to read for this class is one from that genre.

Book Review: Out of the Easy

This book is the easiest sell to kids ever.



"Hey guys!  So this book has New Orleans, prostitution, the mob, and a cute relationship!"

This was my kids after the book talk

And it's actually really good!  It has over a 4 star rating on Goodreads, which is fairly rare. 

The basic plot is that we have Josie, a teenager who lives in the French Quarter in the 1950s.  Josie loves books and wants to go to college after high school, but there's a big problem. 
Her mother is a prostitute. 
Not only that, but Josie's part time job is cleaning the brothel every morning.  (My kids had hilarious reactions upon hearing this, and yeah.  Ew.)

Basically, her mom is one big old mess, constantly in trouble/mixed up with the wrong people, and makes it very difficult for Josie to gain her education.  There's your ubiquitous love triangle as well, but it has an interesting twist.  And motorcyclist Jesse, one point of the triangle, is totally delicious.

(I'm not sure what it says about me that I am a 26 year old woman who still falls for teenage dreamboats in YAL...I swear I'm not a creep in real life...)

I really enjoyed the relationships in this book and how they are realistically complicated.  For example, the madam of the brothel is far more of a mother to Josie than her biological mother.  I just love shades of grey in novels.  (Ironically, Ruta Sepetys also wrote Between Shades of Grey.)

The kids who've read this so far have flown through it and told me they enjoyed it.  And I think it's the first historical fiction-esque book I've book talked, so yay for diversity.  It wasn't a perfect book, but at the same time I can't think of any complaints.

4.5 out of 5 badass madams

Not saying Scarlett O'Hara was a madam, but I'm also not-not saying that.  This is just how I imagine the character Willie looking.

Book Review: Shiver

I've started doing a series of videos on Instagram called 15 Second Book Reviews. They are silly and usually occur after a few beers, and a couple weeks ago I made one for Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. I will expand on it in this review, but the basic arguments I make are that Shiver is basically just Twilight but with werewolves...although wait, Twilight already has werewolves...so it's like if Bella and Edward were werewolves.

Unfortunately, the main characters are about as boring and one dimintional as B+E. I chose this book as brain candy but continually had to force myself to pick it up.  It was just dull.

The basic overview is as follows. Grace is in love with the wolf outside her house. She only sees him in the winter. One time the wolves bit her. She loves her wolf anyway. He has yellow eyes. One day she found a naked, bloody boy outside her door. He had the same yellow eyes. Can you tell where this is going. Are you bored of my writing yet.

It's just so unfortunately formulaic; I'm bored even remembering it. There is one amusing part where three teenagers steal a vile of meningitis and infect their friends with it...too bad I only laughed because it was so stupid. There are just so many more engaging fantasy or paranormal reads out there; don't bother with this one.

One out of five Bella Swans.

In Defense of Escapism

It happened just last week:  I went down to the high school library and checked out a copy of Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. 

"Are you kidding?" the librarian asked, "You have so much reading to do!"  (She knows the amount I read for grad school well, considering I complain about it to her 24/7.) 

"I know, I know.  I just need something to read to get my mind off all this reading."

It sounds ridiculous, but reading is my main form of escape from the trials of daily life, even when those trials are...reading.

In Young Adult Literature in the 21st Century, Cole presents a brilliant defense of many types of "lighter" or "low-brow" reading, including that of the romance novel. 

"If we exam[ine] literary female images in history, we can deepen our understanding of this longing and female attraction to contemporary romances, stories in which female sexuality isn't oppressed and demoralized and in which characters fall head over heals [sic] in love.  Consider the historical silencing of women's voices in literature and images of women in masculocentric literary works traditionally dominating English language arts classrooms...No wonder girls long for literature portraying women in happier circumstances and ending on a happy, yet predictable note..." (168-169). 

***Feminist disclaimer here:  obviously not all girls long for literature that is happy and predictable.  Some prefer hard-hitting, serious literature.  Some prefer both.  Some prefer neither.***

But it's true that many of my students who are young women gravitate toward romance or chick lit.  And it's also true that they often get teased for reading such, as the stereotype is that such books are poorly written, predictable, trashy, fluff, etc.  Some of them probably are.  But does it matter?

Many moons ago, on our classroom blog during my last year of undergrad, I wrote a post defending Twilight.  My argument was that, even though I personally thought Twilight was drivel, at least students were reading.  And, I proposed, mightn't students then move on to "deeper" literature?

Since then, I've read a study that suggests that low-brow literature actually isn't a gateway to more academic literature, but I can't for the life of me remember where I found it.  Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Regardless, I've changed my thinking a bit since writing my original Twilight post.  I think that, even if romance books aren't a gateway to other literature, it doesn't really matter.  I personally want to read a variety of books from many genres, but who am I to say that others shouldn't stick with what they enjoy?  A woman I babysit for has shelves upon shelves of Harlequins and similar.  In all her bookshelves, I've never seen a book that's not a romance.  But this woman is a reader; no one could deny that.  She still experiences different perspectives, expands her vocabulary, gains empathy...all that I value in reading.

In high school, this was the one we passed around

I love Cole's closing statement on romances:

"Whether we value romance or not, if we don't respect teens' [or adults'!] interest, we can't expect them to respect ours.  The romance genre, more than any other, gives women a voice and provides a statement about the historical subjugation and objectification of women" (182). 



Certainly, I can value a person's reading interests even if they are different than mine!  Cole continues her chapter and the next by defending humor, sports books, and historical fiction.  She just keeps hitting it out of the park in this textbook.  Now, if you need me, I'll be curled up on my couch escaping from my homework through teenage werewolves in love.