I have just returned from the first Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult literature at UNLV (#yasummit2018, Steve Bickmore).
In this unique professional development experience, authors, researchers, teachers, librarians, and school administrators came together for three days to discuss how we can make relevant our English curriculum to better serve the students with whom we are entrusted. Authors shared their stories. Researchers shared how they are uncovering those stories in critical, meaningful ways. Teachers shared how they are using those stories in the classroom to reach, inspire, and make space for student voice and choice in the classroom. Librarians shared resources to partner with schools, teachers, and researchers. And administrators stood up to say that they want YA lit in the classrooms, that they will not stand in the way of shifts in curriculum. One administrator announced her personal cell number!
From day one to day three, I personally witnessed a transformation in a number of participants that can only be described as hope-renewed. Our professional learning network expanded exponentially, and we now have access to people, ideas, and materials to nurture our hearts and minds.
Now, how do we go about implementing change? How do we go about deliberately planning for or setting up learning experiences that will position students lives at the center of our practice. How do we integrate all these ideas?
This is the work of teachers — blending theory and practice. This is the art of teaching. I offered to collaborate with teachers over the next year to learn about how they are shifting their thinking and practice. And just a day after the conference, I received my first email from a teacher-colleague asking for some resources that will allow her to adopt and adapt some of the things I do with independent and book group reading in junior high for her high school students. Instead of writing a long email, I decided to record a walk through some of my materials, which I share with you below. And below that, I have links to resources, which you can copy and adapt for your own students.
I invite you to write a blog post for Ethical ELA any time to share how you are adapting resources, personalizing instruction for your students, and shifting your practice in the 2018-19 school year, so that we can learn from one another and keep the hope alive! Note: The links allow you to “view” the resources, not edit.
First quarter, easing into choice reading, analysis, and discussion: In the first week of school, the classroom library (with books from the local library) fill the classroom. Students try-on book after book without any formal or structured approach. We just read and talk about books, and in the talking, we come to uncover and stimulate interests. Our focus is informal, daily reading with quick writes. We share out what we are reading with gentle prompts to create a community — the books are different, but the questions are shared (see video 1). Fridays we have informal book groups. You can see on my course calendar — hyperlinked with assignments, resources — which includes choice and student voice throughout the year. The only way this happens is with deliberate planning. First Quarter slides. Daily Reading Response
Second quarter, formalizing reading analysis and group discussion: In this quarter, we focus on formalizing book group selection, discussion roles, and how to do research of book subjects represented in the news. This is when we start uncovering how books represent human issues. Who is writing the stories? How do the stories represent humanity? And how are the novels doing something similar to and different from the news? It’s also a time to learn how to read the news and grapple with “fake” news. Students now formalize their reading response into CER — claim-evidence-reasoning responses on the blog to build a portfolio of reading lives. For book groups, the entire community (parents, principal, students) vet books to develop the options, and I used district grant money to purchase the books. Here is the rationale, and book ranking that we used to organize groups.
Third quarter, making to-read lists, choosing their own way of processing reading experiences: After returning from winter break, students search sites and consult reading friends/teachers/parents to develop their own reading lists for the quarter. They know more authors and titles; they also have a better sense of how to access books in our library, the school library, and the local library. We read a play together but still make time in class for choice reading. To demonstrate reading growth and process reading experiences, students choose their preferred method of responses: vlog, blog, diary, quote-maker, or booksnaps. Still, they include claim, evidence, reasoning, and response — but the format is more personalized to students’ styles and preferences.
Fourth quarter, the literary analysis is the most formal and longer, but also personal and rich in thought and knowledge. Students choose books, poems (published, self-written, peer-written), and songs. If you look on the course calendar, you will see that during class time, students are presenting on famous poetry, so we are doing structured analysis together — led by peers. We also are writing poetry, so there are lots of shared reading experiences integrating and comparing subjects, themes, authors, and styles explored since August. Students apply and critique the writing techniques, ideas, craft, themes, and research from all year to integrate into these responses, connecting a bit more with why the text matters in their lives (see below for an example). We also read verse novels and wrote literary comparison essays as the culminating project of the year.
Today is April 10, 2018. The title of the book I am reading is Mary’s Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein. The author is Lita Judge. This book is 320 pages, and I am on page 84. To summarize the story so far, Mary needs to figure out how to adjust to moving back home in London, but her step-mother is controlling her once creative, happy father, making him give money for her daughter and not for Mary and her sister, so Mary works at the family bookstore where she meets a handsome writer. The author, Lita Judge, writes, “A thousand gales rage/before Father insists/I come home again./I am no longer a girl/weary with disappointment./I have become a rock and wind and fiery sea” (48). In this poem, Mary compares herself to the nature that surrounds her: a rock, wind, fiery sea. The wind and fire are part of nature, and the rock can withstand it all. Mary is abandoning what may be seen as weak or “girly” emotions like “weary with disappointment” to grow up. It is clear that she is accepting the conditions of her family and ready to find her own path.
My emotional response when reading this was a combination of sadness and pride for Mary. I was sad that she seems to be forced to grow up so fast but pride that she is finding strength to overcome the circumstances. This issue of step-families is something that I think some teens can relate to — if they have a blended family or if they have friends who come from a blended family. I would recommend Mary’s Monster to anyone who likes verse AND graphic novels because this book is illustrated, too, and I think it is cool to learn about the author of Frankenstein.
(300 words)