Strategies of Education

Throughout my semester in Young Adult Literature, we have been exposed to a number of different methods in which to engage in discourse with members of the class and to further expand on our knowledge of not only our texts but those read by our classmates. These major assignments and in class activities have proven quite useful as a future teacher not just for the benefit of understanding the field, but also as models for effective lesson planning. With that in mind, I wanted to share five of the major components to this semester's class in hopes that they would prove enlightening to readers and provide some ideas for assignments in the class room.

Literacy Narrative

The first major assignment of the semester was known as a Literacy Narrative and it was to encourage the students of the class to consider their reading history up to that point in their lives. The assignment is self-described as “nebulous” and provided a lot of direction for students to take the project. For my part, I decided to focus on how my interest in literature and how I have grown as an effective reader through the course of the class. My intent was to give Doctor Adams a look into where I was coming from so that she would understand my tastes in literature and perhaps explain some of my comments in class.

For instance, the first line of the second paragraph has me summing up my reading as such: “I think that this characterizes the bulk of my reading. Fantasy and sci fi novels that most would consider to be low art.” Through this, I was able to quickly size myself up for Dr. Adams as a student who reads a lot of what others might call less than gripping literacy; novel series like Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files and R.A. Salvatore's various Dark Elf trilogies. To balanced that out, I also made sure to include some of my thoughts on school reading and how things have changed for me as I have gotten older.

“I have read The Odyssey and Hamlet three times since middle school, each time I read them I grew to appreciate them more and more.” This is not some kind of idle boast or attempt to sound smart, because the purpose of the assignment is to be truthful not only with the professor but with yourself. In doing so, I felt comfortable sharing the sorts of school reading that I enjoyed and those that I didn't. So when I say “...whereas Catcher in the Rye and Lord of the Flies (both of which I still don't want to get near ever again, but probably should.)” it helps to establish what I have had trouble reading or did not enjoy.

This is the sort of thing that can really help to characterize a class for a teacher, giving insight into the personalities and reading habits of the students. With that sort of information, it becomes much easier to address specific needs of students and to provide potential revision to novel selections and assignment guidelines. If the entire class has trouble with boring historical fiction, they it is easier to adjust and make sure that choices for historical fiction and the attached assignments are more compelling. If one student has trouble with a book that has a lot of made up words, then you can warn them against choosing the text. This is the sort of assignment that, even if it is just a couple of paragraphs, can make a difference in setting up an entire course.

Reading Survey

The Reading Survey was just like it sounds, a self-generated questionnaire that we were to create, revise together in class, and then take out in to the world and collect a small amount of data with. Again, this was an assignment which was left fairly open for us to tinker with, as it was up to us to determine what it was that we wanted to know and who it was we were going to ask. In my case, I decided to focus on asking the middle school students in my neighborhood (there are a lot of them, including two of my younger siblings) about their reading habits and the things they liked and disliked about their English classes.

My questions included simple things like: “How many books did you read last year for your English class?” and “Do you do much out of class reading? If so, then what do you read? (Books, blogs, etc.)” This sorts of things gave a good baseline as to the immediate reading habits of the fifth graders in the neighborhood who were entering middle school and the eighth graders who would soon be leaving it. Other questions included “If you could make a change to your school reading list, then what kinds of books would you like to have added or removed?” and “Why do you think the books you selected should be added/removed?” to get the kids to think about their English classes a little more than they might normally have.

What I found in my answers was that there was nothing to characterize the students that I was interviewing. I am going to chalk it up to the pool of middle schoolers coming from too many backgrounds (eight grade or sixth grade, regular English for their grade level or IB English) and not having a large enough sample size. What I did learn was that it might be difficult to put all of the readers in a class under the same umbrella, especially at the college level, because they are going to be all kinds of students coming into the class. Those teachers at the sixth grade and ninth grade levels are sure to appreciate that idea, as they don't always know where all their new students are coming from in terms of elementary school and middle school.

Now I will say that this is an assignment that is going to take some tinkering depending on the grade level of the students. High school kids are going to be able to get much closer to the original guidelines for the assignment than middle school kids. So when adjusting the Reading Survey, keep that in mind. Perhaps younger students can ask their friends and family members about their reading habits, rather than strangers? This would help to give a teacher some insight into the reading habits of the family and peers of his or her students and help increase understanding about the student and his or her attitudes on reading.

Book Talk

The Book Talk is a classic example of a self directed assignment, despite having a fairly good set of guidelines to follow along with. The purpose of the assignment was to take a world suitable for young adult readers and present it to the class. There needed to be a visual element, we couldn't spoil the ending of the story, and we needed to get potential readers (our classmates) hooked. Afterward, we needed to answer any questions that the audience might have.

For my part, I covered The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes and any of you that have read through my summary of Maus will recognize the title. This is part of a long running comic book series that was started by Neil Gaiman (who also wrote The Graveyard Book, another of the books I summarized) and it tells the story of the lord of the realm of Dream, his imprisonment at the hands of a mortal cult, escape from captivity, and quest to regain his artifacts of power and his throne. Along the way, readers are shown just what the medium can do for a story, with interesting uses of art, color, frame layout, and other stylistic choices that inform that reader just as much as if they were watching a movie. Combined with allusions to works of literature and mythology, this is a smart read for a lot of students.

For an example of the work, take a look at some panels here and here. As you can see, there is a lot going on and some of the imagery is a little twisted. This is the sort of thing that fans of comics, Neil Gaiman, and Tim Burton would enjoy; though I do caution that you save this thing for high school students. Some of the themes are a little too out there for middle schoolers, especially the scene near the end of the book at the diner.

Socratic Seminars

Now I am sure that most teachers understand the value and structure of the Socratic Seminar, but I will provide a brief overview of the process as it appeared in our classroom this semester. The class was always split into two groups, but in different ways to increase the number of interactions and to help change up the discourse between students with each new session. The inner circle would start things off and would hold conversations on the current topic, which related to our text book, and then they would switch with the outer circle. The new inner circle could continue the original conversation or change directions entirely, at their discretion.

It should be noted that the outer circle was still involved, as they were supposed to keep track of what the inner circle was talking about, who was doing the talking, and offer constructive criticism and comments at the end of the session, right before the switch. This helped to keep the outer circle interested and to improve the overall discussion, as we learned what sorts of pitfalls to avoid.

When adapting this to a classroom, teachers really need to keep in mind that, while they are to stay hands off and let the students discuss, they should not be afraid to throw in a guiding question during a lull in the conversation. Also, teachers need to stay focused on who is doing the talking as much as the members of the outer circle, as there can be trouble with two or three members dominating the discussion with a topic they are interested in.

Topics covered in our class included issues of censorship, the use of comic books in the field, and various genre discussions. While useful in a broad class like YA Lit, other teachers should consider how best to tailor the seminar to match up with the current book or unit of study for that class. This method also works wonders in a social studies or history class, where controversial topics and interesting events can be explored in depth.

Discussion Board

The Discussion Board is a new tool for a lot of teachers and one that not all of us are going to have access to. With that in mind, the discussion board is a wonderful tool because it implements many of the same features of the Socratic Seminar. Throughout the semester, we were encouraged to get online and post in the discussion boards on our reading for the week and to ask others for clarification on events in the novels, discuss interesting themes that appeared, and further explore things that came up in the course of our seminars. Further, we were asked to do explorations into other genres and styles, such as book trailers and fan fiction, which could not be covered in the course of the regular lessons.

I have included some examples of insightful comments below, the first was a post the was from a classmate who had never read graphic novels before and is an example of what sorts of things that the medium can provide that makes it engaging to readers of any level and provides some interesting insight in to the feelings of the reader. The second is a question that came about after the poster had reader The Invention of Hugo Cabret and asked an interesting question relating the book to the myth of the titan Prometheus. The opportunities provided for engaging analysis by theses questions are a good example of the sort of discussion that can be generated by use of a message board.

“I have never had any desire to read a graphic novel and chose to read 'Yummy' this week. I chose it because I am intrigued by the gang life and what leads such young children to chose the gang life. 'Yummy' was a perfect portrayal of an 11 year old who felt like he had no one or anywhere else to go, besides to the gang. Without the visual aspect of this novel, I don't think readers would be able to see the tragedy from all points of view. The tragedy did not start when the young girl was shot, but back when Yummy was a child and he was being abused an bounced from home to home. Yummy was not some monster out to kill little girls, but a little boy himself, looking for love. After reading this graphic novel I am more compelled to read one on my own. It was still a difficult book to read since there was so much going on on each page, but overall the writer did a great job telling the story.” (Amanda Lorenzo, 2011)

“Did anyone else that read Hugo think that Selznick sort of interjected the Prometheus myth into the novel? It sort of seemed like an afterthought to try to add some depth to the story. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed reading this, but the myth seemed loosely related and maybe could have been incorporated deeper. What are your thoughts?” (Michelle Jones, 2011)