Everything Must Come to an End
April 10, 2009 kclovinlife
Teaching through a different genre. Young Adult literature is not the genre of literature being taught in classrooms today. Why? Looking at reading lists for New York state schools you will see the same books that our parents and grandparents read in high school. On some of these sites the lists have not even been updated in the past ten years. I think that this is a problem in our schools today. If we want our kids to be prepared for jobs in the real world and college why are we not making their experiences with literature more enjoyable? On the website for the American Library Association there is a page that highlights the top books that teens choose to read every year. Not one of their picks was on any of the lists that I looked at for required reading in New York. If these are the texts that young adults are connecting to and relating to their own life it should be important to incorporate them in the classroom. It makes sense to use texts that mirror teens lives in powerful ways to help foster their critical literacy. I think that a lot of these books can help teens figure out where they belong and maybe even deal with some of the overwhelming issues that plague our schools. Every book that I read in high school I have never picked up again. I did not learn how to read a text critically until I was in college. There is a huge gap between literature and teens and as a future teacher it is important for me to find a way to bridge that gap. The reality of the situation is that our country has about 35% of our 12th graders graduating with the level of reading skills they should have.
So I am only one person and this is a gigantic issue. I am going to focus on one novel that is being taught in schools and one novel that is on the top picks teen list and link them together through critical literacy. If I can make a sound argument that one of these young adult books could produce the same if not better outcome for students literacy skills and be approaite to teach students how to read critically I will start to make progress in changing the way we look at what is good literature for students to read. There is no reason why teachers need to make students feel inadaquate for their choices in reading. Picking the novels is going to be the hard part. I know that I do not want to come across as if I am bashing all of the literature that has been taught in schools for this long because I think that there our still a lot of relevant texts that are important for students to learn, but there is no reason why integration of new material is not possible. I do not want my students falling asleep in my class because it is painful for them to even look at the text. I want reading to be a pleasurable experience.
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1. lilsmeg7&hellip | April 14, 2009 at 6:57 pm
I think you bring up such an important topic!! When I chose to be an English Major most of my friends from high school questioned it thinking why would you want to do that? I would agree that the lists should be updated to more modern reading. Although the classic novels are important to be taught, I’m sure there is room for some classic and some modern novels in the curiculuum. I agree also that I didn’t learn how to read a text critically until college which makes me wonder if half the books I read in high school I hated just because I didn’t have the tools to fully understand it or see the good parts about it, rather I was reading for content alone.
2. Alyson&hellip | April 15, 2009 at 1:44 am
Katie-
Your topic reallys speaks to the time of change we find ourselves in the middle of. Keep in mind a few things when comparing canonical texts with contemporary populus texts:
1. Watch out for any popular young adult texts that focus on the ego. A lot of the mumbo-jumbo emotional junk in there is hindering and boxing young adult minds. They think it’s okay to feel lost, confused, overwhelmed because all their texts sympathize. However, kids should be finding out what interests them not what hinders them.
2. Watch out for oversimplified language in these popular texts. The old texts have language that may be outdated, but, usually, it is their structure that gains linguistic praise. If the texts are too simple, the children aren’t really learning anything…
Both of these are completely my opinion, so if you disagree, that’s fine ‘n’ dandy. Just trying to help.