Young Adult Literature

Rob Linné
The University of Texas at Austin

I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet gone ourselves.

E.M. Forster

There is no reason why the same man should like the same books at eighteen and forty-eight.

Ezra Pound

Course Description:

Young Adult Literature (YAL) is a nebulous category overlapping many boundaries of genre and theme. Titles ranging from Seventeen magazine to theDune series can share space on a bookshelf labeled Young Adult. The genre includes books written specifically for an adolescent audience (S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders or Ntozake Shange's Betsey Brown) as well as others written for an adult audience but appropriated by young people as part of their self-selected canon (Judith Guest's Ordinary People or Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange). The definition of young adult literature then, is not determined by the text per se, but by the audience; a young adult book is one that adolescents choose to read without coercion.

In this undergraduate course students will survey a variety of young adult titles in order to trace the history of the genre and examine current developments. However, the nature of our subject requires that we move beyond the limits of a traditional survey course and center our study on the reader as well as the text. A reader-based approach to the literature, informed by the unique developmental needs of adolescents, will serve as the theoretical framework of our inquiry. Social and cultural reader-response theories will be emphasized as we consider strategies to encourage critical literacy, and practical issues of pedagogy will be addressed throughout the course.

Course Goals:

Students will:

Read widely in the young adult "canon."

Research the subject area via traditional and online resources.

Further their rhetorical proficiencies as they experience an integrated literature/composition curriculum.

Develop criteria for evaluating classroom materials.

Prepare responses to censorship or criticism of non-canonical works in general.

Examine and respond to arguments calling for "functional" or "cultural" literacy in comparison to those focusing on literacy for personal growth and social enfranchisement.

Develop strategies to integrate a variety of media into the curriculum.

Apply theories discussed in class while mentoring an adolescent reader.

Experience and critique programmatic structures that afford opportunities for students to self-select texts and means of response.

Experience and critique computer facilitated means of student response, communication, and publication in the literacy classroom.

Instructor's goals:

Model a learner-centered classroom environment.

Build collaborative partnerships between the university and secondary schools.

Conduct participant-observer research focussing on computers in education.

Activities:

Students will write an informal "reader's biography" in which they reflect back on their lives as readers&emdash;from first experiences with literacy through adolescent reading habits and up to current literacy practices. Most avid readers devour "pulp" like Nancy Drew mysteries or Star Wars series books as youth before moving on to more complex texts. Hopefully, this activity will illustrate the role young adult literature can play in conceiving lifetime reading habits and make the point that all readers have unique interests and aptitudes that a monolithic canon cannot accommodate.

Students will collaborate to develop criteria for assessing literature for the classroom.

Students will independently read a selection of young adult books or magazines inclusive of many genres and a variety of multicultural voices and themes. Twenty-five annotations will be the minimum requirement for a student to achieve an 'A' in the course.

Students will research and review one article or book review from each the ALAN Review and the School Library Journal.

Students will review a variety of computer applications for the literacy classroom.

Students will learn HTML as they publish a class web site of YAL reviews based on their annotations.

Students will experience small-group, self-selected "book salons" via MUDs.

Each student will correspond via email with a youth from an area secondary school, gauge her or his interests and reading levels, select a book as a gift for her or him, and then facilitate an online discussion springing from the text. At the end of the semester, students will meet their modem pals at the university for a campus tour (including ice cream at the student union.) Students will use their transcripts and field notes to write a brief essay (5-8 pages) discussing their mentoring experience. The essay may be formatted as a case study research report or as narrative research.

Each student will either develop her or his case study further into a longer essay or research a particular element of young adult literature to develop into a 10-20 page essay. Topics to be considered might include mother-daughter relationships in young adult literature, representations of the physically handicapped, the romanticized/clichéd wise black man as mentor to white youth, gender in young adult sci-fi, interactive fantasy games as young adult literature, etc.

Resources:

Readings:

Corcoran, Bill and Mike Hayhoe and Gordon Prati (eds). Knowledge in the Making: Challenging the Text in the Classroom .

Langer, Judith. Envisioning Literature: Literary Understanding and Literature Instruction .

Salvner and Monseau. Reading Their World : The Young Adult Novel in the Classroom.

Shannon, Patrick. text, lies, and videotape: stories about life, literacy, and learning.

Readings in YAL:

Bauer, Marion. (ed) Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence.

Bode, Janet. New Kids on the Block: Oral Histories from Immigrant Teens.

Crutcher , Chris. Stotan!

Cisneros, Sandra. A House on Mango Street

Le Guin, Ursala K. The Left Hand of Darkness.

Other media:

Coppola's film adaptation of The Outsiders.

Louis Malle's Au Revoir Les Enfants.

The Oregon Trail (Interactive CD ROM)

The Dark Eye (Interactive CD ROM based on tales of Edgar Allen Poe)

Accelerated Reader (Software that allows students and teachers to manage and evaluate

individualized reading programs)

Course Packet:

Atwell, Nancie. "Building a Dining Room Table: Reading Workshop," In In the Middle.

Camp, Roberta. "Portfolio Reflections in Middle and Secondary School Classrooms."

Carver, Nancy Lynn. "Stereotypes of American Indians in Adolescent Literature."

Davis, J.E. "Dare a Teacher Disturb the Universe? Or Even Eat a Peach? Closet Censorship: Its Prevention and Cure."

Duff, Ogle and Helen Tongchinsub. "Expanding the Secondary Literature Curriculum: Annotated Bibliographies of American Indian, Asian American, And Hispanic American Literature."

Hirsch, E.D. Cultural Literacy (selected chapters)

McRobbie, Angela. Feminism and Youth Culture: From 'Jackie' to 'Just Seventeen.'

(selected chapters)

ALA's The Freedom to Read.

Rethinking Schools review of The Oregon Trail

Fox, Roy. Images in Language, Media, and Mind. (selected chapters)

Tarry-Stevens, Patricia. "The Hispanic in Young Adult Literature."

ALAN Review (ed) "Recommended Historical Fiction Set in the United States."

Course Outline:

Weeks 1-2

Introduction: What is Young Adult Literature?

Activities

"Reader's autobiography."

Readings

First third of Reading Their World, "Reading the Young Adult Novel"

Stotan!

Technology

Introduce class to email.

Students send post to secondary student.

Introduce class to Daedalus Interchange.

Other media

Optional attendance at evening video party

to view and discuss The Outsiders.

Weeks 3-5

Evaluating YAL

Activities:

Review an article from The ALAN Review.

Collaborate to create criteria for evaluating YAL.

Complete WWW scavenger hunt to develop online research skills (adapted from Tonya Browning's WWW scavenger hunt).

Readings:

Second third of Reading Their World, "Writing

the Young Adult Novel."

The Left Hand of Darkness

"Closet Censorship"

ALA's The Freedom to Read

Course packet articles on multicultural YAL

Review of The Oregon Trail in Rethinking Schools

Technology

Research subject area online.

Introduction to HTML.

Begin publishing annotations.

Other media

The Oregon Trail

Weeks 5-8

Reader-response and YAL

Activities

Multiple choice test on cultural literacy adapted from

Hirsch's "What Every American Needs to Know."

Record reader-responses to New Kids on the Block.

Readings

New Kids on the Block

from Cultural Literacy

Envisioning Literature

Technology

Interchange sessions discussing reader-response, student self-selected texts, and motivation.

Other media

Select a current song or video and develop ideas and rationale for classroom inclusion.

Weeks 8-11

Balancing Reader-response and Social Theories

Activities

MUD "book salons."

Read article or ad in a young adult magazine and write brief critical review.

Readings

text, lies, & videotape

Knowledge in the Making

selections from Feminism and Youth Culture

Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence

Technology

MUD book salons.

Other media

The Dark Eye

Weeks 11-14

Classroom Practice

Activities

Write a policy statement to include in material for parents that explains rationale for YAL and multicultural literature.

Develop possible teaching and writing activities related to A House on Mango Street.

Readings

Last third of Reading Their World, "Teaching the Young Adult Novel"

"Portfolio Reflections"

"Building a Dining Room Table"

"Recommended Historical Fiction"

A House on Mango Street

Technology

Review "Accelerated Reader."

Other media

Optional attendance at evening video party to view and discuss Au Revoir Les Enfants.

Week 15

Final Workshops

Evaluation:

(Adapted from Peg Syverson's "Five Dimensions of Learning")

Evaluation will be cumulative and based on portfolio assessment. Students will document in their portfolios evidence of development across five dimensions: confidence and independence, collaboration, skills and strategies, use of prior and emerging experience, knowledge in content area, and critical reflection.

Students may use the following heuristic as they reflect on their progress in the course:

Confidence and independence

In what ways have I gained greater control over my abilities to communicate face-to-face or through writing?

Am I confident in my abilities to develop my own curricula and defend my positions?

Skills and Strategies

What new strategies have I utilized to improve my writing, speaking, researching, or teaching skills?

Have I learned interpersonal skills that will allow me to work collaboratively within diverse school settings? What skills enabled me to contribute to the classroom community? What skills will I use to contribute to the larger education community?

Content and Knowledge

What new knowledge have I gained about YAL, literary theories of response, and pedagogy in the literacy classroom? How will I apply this knowledge to my work as a teacher?

Use of Prior and Emerging Knowledge

Many of our discussions have focused on reader-response; how have I made use of my own "reader-responses" to this course to construct personal knowledge?

What connections have I made between my own experiences and my work as a scholar and as a teacher?

Reflection

In what ways have I developed an awareness of my own learning processes? Have I developed further analytical approaches to reading, writing, and the world in general?