Teaching Young Adult Literature 1

Teaching Young Adult Literature in High School

Nathan L. Tamborello

The University of Houston

 Teaching Young Adult Literature 2

INTRODUCTION

Audience: Fellow ELA Teachers

[Background music playing]

[Pan across a bookshelf full of books] [VOICEOVER]: How can YA literature replace the

current method of rigorously teaching only what adults deem the classics? One of the core

debates in the English-Language Arts classroom recently is the use of Young Adult (YA)

Literature in the classroom.

[Show images of current YA literature] [VO continues]: Proponents for using YA literature

argue that teaching The Classics not only alienates students, but seems to have little to no

relevance on their daily lives.

[Show images of The Classics] [VO continues]: Arguments against using YA literature find that

the classics are the classics for a reason, and children should be taught them even if they dont

necessarily relate to the literature.

[image of state of Texas, will slide up with an arrow underneath later] [VO]: The TEKS for

English Language Arts are not text-specific. This essentially means that the objectives that are

laid out before us by the Educational Board at both the state and [image slides up to be replaced

by picture of USA] national level do not specify or mandate that any particular book or text must

be taught. So why do we insist on teaching classics [slide through titles of classic lit] that

were written by adults, for adults, hundreds of years ago, when students could get so much more

enjoyment and knowledge from a book that is relevant to them and will foster lifelong readers in
 Teaching Young Adult Literature 3

the process? [show clip of students reading] Here are 3 ways to effectively utilise, introduce, and

teach young adult literature in the classroom while adhering to TEKS through differentiated

instruction, not only in the ELA classroom, but in any setting:

[Clip of classroom studying one book, switches to video of narrator addressing camera][VO-

Medium Shot Narration]: The first set of instruction deals with teaching YA books in a Whole

Class setting. This essentially means that the entire classroom is reading and discussing the

novel at the same time, almost like a circle discussion, where reading is done outside of the

classroom and discussion inside. There are 4 questions for selecting YA novels to use for

instruction at this stage:

[Each stage will have a slide where the words or videos appear in fade in format] [VO]: Does the

novel fill a gap within your curriculum? If youre studying a historical period or theme, these

books can help supplement a curriculum-adopted text.

Does the gender or ethnic identity of the main character contribute to the diversity of the

works you present in the course? Students need to see themselves in the texts. Black, white,

gay, straight, transgender, etc. Examples include The House on Mango Street, George [show

book covers]

Is the novel useful in teaching elements of a novel? In this question, we are looking for novels

with a more complex plot, vibrant characters, interesting themes, good use of setting, or

innovative points-of-view in order for students to get a good grasp on the makeup of a novels

elements. Examples include I Am the Cheese, Ellen Foster, Somewhere in the Darkness, Out of

the Dust.
 Teaching Young Adult Literature 4

Is the novel interesting to a broad array of students and student interests? Some novels in

the classroom generate a wide appeal on historical subjects, such as Night and The Boys of St.

Petri.

[Clip of a Read Aloud being conducted] [VO]: So what is a read-aloud? Reading aloud means

just that-- reading aloud. When we read to students, or students read to other students, we take

advantage of the fact that young people have a "listening level" that significantly surpasses their

reading level. When we read aloud to students, we engage them in texts that they might not be

able to read; in the process, we expand their imaginations, provide new knowledge, support

language acquisition, build vocabulary, and promote reading as a worthwhile, enjoyable activity.

The best books for reading aloud have a compelling plot and characters students can identify

with. Since these are books for students to enjoy, not to study, sometimes the ones we choose to

read aloud are those we wouldn't use for whole class study because they do not lend themselves

to sophisticated literary analysis. The novels of Chris Crutcher, for example, have wonderful

characters, themes, and plots, but they do not support the type of analysis required by our high

school literature curriculum. Occasionally teachers edit as they read, and books that would be

inappropriate for whole class use-because of language or the content of particular scene-become

accessible to more students.

[Clips of students reading on their own, other clips to be chosen later] [VO]: Finally, we have

YA novels for student choice, incorporating Glassers Choice Theory into reading literacy. This

way of teaching is part of a reading workshop classroom structure. The reading workshop

approach requires students to choose the books they read, write journal entries about their books,

and periodically discuss their reactions to the books with the teacher or the whole class. Every

day the teacher spends 10-15 minutes on a mini-lesson about some aspect of reading, but the rest
 Teaching Young Adult Literature 5

of the time the students read, or write about their reading, or they discuss their reading and

writing with the rest of the community of readers. The key to the success of this model is that

students are free to choose the books they read. The role of the teacher is to know about a lot of

books in order to recommend specific books to students with particular interests ("Oh, you liked

this book? I bet you'd like this other book."), to share his or her own reading interests (that is, to

model being a reader), and constantly to search the world for books of interest to adolescents.

This promotes autonomy in the classroom and allows for freedom of choice while still adhering

to a specific curriculum.