Conversations, connections, and culturally responsive teaching: Young adult literature in the English methods class (original) (raw)
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2017
1 Abstract: In this multiple case study that uses narrative research methodology, two beginning English teachers’ stories, their use of young adult literature, and their dialogic interactions with university mentors are examined through a lens of culturally responsive pedagogy. This study is focused on how teachers’ stories indicate the difficulties they have incorporating culturally relevant young adult literature into their secondary English classes, how they establish connections between the texts, their students’ lived experiences, and their own lived experiences, and why they struggle with the application of culturally responsive pedagogy. Findings indicate that beginning teachers’ stories (a) express uncertainty regarding the place of young adult literature in their curricula and seek guidance from mentors; (b) demonstrate difficulties meeting students’ needs, which include connecting with characters and plots that “resonate” with their life experiences; (c) struggle with the ...
2017
Young adult literature spotlights the complexity of the adolescent human condition, which helps adolescent learners better understand themselves and those around them (Wolk, 2009). Yet, teachers who are able to find a place for young adult literature in their classrooms or schools often find themselves defending their choices rather than celebrating them (Curwood, Schliesman, & Horning, 2009). Because nobody is more invested in books then the authors, we wondered how they perceived censorship of young adult literature in the classroom. This article shares the advice young adult authors offer to secondary preservice teachers as they prepare to infuse young adult literature in their future classrooms.
This phenomenological case study explores the disconnect that high school readers labeled as struggling perceived between their reading identities and experiences in traditional English classes. It analyzes how participation in a young adult literature (YAL) elective provided participants space in which to enact identities and exhibit agency in ways that were different from those afforded in their English classes. This paper contributes uniquely to the larger research conversation by examining two different spaces (traditional English classes and a YAL class) and demonstrating how students' identities as readers manifested in different ways across two contexts. Using Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, and Cain's (1998) theory of identity as a lens of analysis across student-generated oral reflections gathered through Seidman's (2006) interview protocol, the study reveals how student participants were supported in their attempts to deconstruct their experiences in traditional classroom spaces, build new conceptions of their reading selves in a unique classroom setting, and, in the process, assume greater agency in shaping their individual reader identities, advancing the argument that differing classroom contexts can provide students with varying levels of opportunity to reject and/or accept ascribed reading identities. This work is significant in the way it emphasizes the importance of classroom and school contexts, the possibilities that come with inviting students to engage as readers in school rather than engage in school reading, the benefits and risks of reimagined relationships between students and teachers and students and peers, and the possibility that young adult literature in and of itself offers implications for reader agency.
Diverse learners, diverse texts: Exploring identity and difference through literary encounters
1998
This article reports from a yearlong ethnography that examined two urban 10th-grade English classes of ethnically diverse students in which the teachers diversified literature selections for newly designed ethnic literature curricula. The study reports texts students found most memorable and meaningful and analyzes the values students found in their encounters with these literary works. When students identified with characters and texts, they reflected on personal concerns, including family nostalgia and loss; adolescent challenges; and culture, gender, and sexual-identity formation. Literary encounters also fostered discoveries about diverse groups (identified by race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and sexual orientation) that helped students move past stereotyped notions of others. Choices of meaningful works were often tied integrally to ways in which the texts were treated during class time -particularly to activities involving the social processes of constructing meaning, exploring interpretation, and openly discussing issues of culture and identity. The results remind researchers of the need to include in curricular theorizing the importance of instruction that fosters students' thinking about literature, identity, and diversity.
Language is a universal phenomenon that is the foundation of human relationships to each other, ourselves, and the world around us—the avenue by which people create connections between what is personally and collectively experienced and the meaning made by reflecting upon said experiences; however, in a society in which the discourse of the powerful and privileged silences and delegitimizes all other discourse varieties, this essential meaning-making process is thwarted. This research details and analyzes the meaningful inclusion of community and cultural discourse varieties found within culturally relevant literature, and the impact that its inclusion had on historically underserved students from a predominantly Mexican and Mexican-American community whose previous relationships with reading were overwhelmingly negative.
2014
As educators and administrators continue to struggle with the low literacy proficiency rates in this country, a new genre of literature is making its way into the classroom. Young Adult Literature, such as the works of John Green, are becoming a more familiar sight inside the classroom. However, some parents, educators, and members of the school districts are not happy with this new trend. In the last year, alone, young adult books have been challenged hundreds of times in hopes of getting them removed from the classroom and library. I believe that these books need to stay in the schools, though. Through this thesis, I explore the possibility of Young Adult Literature having more of a presence in the secondary English Language Arts classroom in order to increase motivation, engagement, social awareness, and literacy rates. In this research project, only 13% of 11th and 12th grade English Language Arts students reported enjoying the reading they were currently assigned, despite their statement that they enjoy reading, in general. These books do not lead to motivated and engaged readers. By incorporating Young Adult Literature into the standard curriculum of an English Language Arts classroom, teachers can enhance motivation, engagement, and productivity. Students can continue to learn the same literary concepts and techniques, in addition to being exposed to current social problems. When Young Adult Literature is brought into a classroom, an environment is created in which students can learn what they think, why they think it, and how to respect the differing opinions of others. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to all four of my wonderful committe members. Dr. Jeffrey Kaplan, I appreciate your short and sweet advice on all of the persisting questions that I had. Thank you for helping me pursue my interest into the creative mind of John Green. Dr. Sherron Killingsworth-Roberts, thank you for always having a smile and a hug ready for me whenever I visited your office. Your enthusiasm and motivation was never-ending throughout this project and I appreciate it so much. Dr. Elsie Olan, thank you for raising questions I did not even know existed. Your excitement and passion for literature pushed me to learn more than I ever planned to. Dr. Karen Verkler, thank you all of your sage advice when it comes to writing a thesis. I will never forget all of the helpful tips you taught me. I would also like to thank Professor Paul Corrigan and Dr. Alisa DeBorde of Southeastern University. Professor Corrigan, I would never have been able to do this without you forcing me to spend an entire semester researching and writing about one social problem. Thank you for showing me my love-hate relationship with research papers. Dr. DeBorde, thank you for reaffirming my belief that I am supposed to be an English Language Arts teacher. Your advocacy and passion for Young Adult Literature is what inspired my love for the subject and led me to this project.
Thein, A.H., Beach, R. & Johnston, A. (2017). Rethinking identity and adolescence in the teaching of literature: Implications for pre-service teacher education. In Hallman, H, (Ed.), Innovations in English language Arts teacher education (pp. 65-87). Castle Hill, Australia: Emerald Press.
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Editors’ Introduction: The Politics of Teaching Literature
Research in the Teaching of English
Reading and English language arts function as a primary curricular space for "political interventions, struggles over the formation of ideologies and beliefs, identities and capital" (Luke, 2004, p. 86). For example, one urgent political intervention involves racial equity. Numerous literary texts provide opportunities for dialogue about race in our society. Novels like Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, plays like Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, and the work of poets like Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou have been part of high school English curricula in many districts and states for nearly a generation. However, in recent times, even this expanded canon has faced challenges from multiple fronts: the imperatives of neoliberal educational reform; corporate standardized testing that prioritizes "testable" curriculum; learning standards that squeeze out stories in favor of informational texts; and even the demands of critical and radical educators who, in efforts to further decolonize education, call multicultural classics into question, advocating instead for the teaching of literature that is more relevant to contemporary students' lives. When teaching literature for youth and young adults, many educators do so with the intent of creating ethical and literate citizens for a global society. Furthermore, in addition to the diversification of the literature that young people read, as the demographics of our classrooms, schools, and society shift, the application of critical lenses that are multicultural, diverse, decolonizing, and humanizing to all texts for youth and young adults will become even more essential (Botelho & Rudman, 2009). Some students of the social media generation are bringing their own critical lenses into our courses, while others are invested in nostalgia and more traditional ways of reading texts. Increasingly, there have been generational rifts, informed by social media, regarding which texts to use in the curriculum and how to teach them. As instructors of students coming from many different perspectives, it is our task to encourage discursive pluralism, even if this means leaning into pedagogies of discomfort (Boler & Zembylas, 2003). We do this in hopes that creative tension around the selection, evaluation, and teaching of literature will, as Dr. King noted in his famous letter from a Birmingham jail, lead to equity, justice, and social change.