What Every Student Deserves

By the time the all of the preservice teachers in our program have graduated, they have had me for at least two courses (YA lit and Methods), so I apologize in every course if they hear me repeat my mantra: "Every student deserves an AP education."

I was lucky enough to go through middle and high school in the advanced/honors/ AP track. At times, like when considering whether or not to take a "harder" science, I opted out (i.e., had the choice) of AP Physics and went for the easy Marine Biology. I was in an insulated world--I had no clue and didn't think to ask what all my non-honors peers were doing in their classes.

And, it wasn't until my second teaching position that I fully realized the different (tracking) worlds in our country's high schools.

At that school (one with an IB program), not only were the "upper" track students given more resouces, so were their teachers. Who knew there were fewer resources for regular teachers like myself!? This is when I first started using YA literature in the classroom [provided with only the textbook and a a classic title or two, I raided the department closet and borrowed novels from my friend who taught pre-IB classes]. But, I didn't just teach them "for fun," I taught them using the same ideas and resources I had learned in my AP training at Duke several years before.

That became the foundation for my beliefs as an English/reading teacher.

So, when I teach YA lit classes, I bring literary theories to the table [there are several fantastic resources for teaching YA lit with literary theories; two I like are Lisa Schade Eckert's How Does It Mean? Engaging Reluctant Readers Through Literary Theory and Anna Soter's Young Adult Literature and the New Literary Theories: Developing Critical Readers in Middle School].

My students and I start with reading for enjoyment, move to reader response, and then dive in deeper with applicable theories. My hope is that these ideas will "stick" when they are classroom teachers and they will not resort to low-level, "right there" questions. Each week, I ask them to write reflections based on the novels we read and the discussions we have had in class.

The reality here (in Alabama) is that YA literature is not read in many classes. The state standards pretty much dictate what is read in each grade and the list is pretty narrow (and identical to what Applebee reported back in 1993). So, my students will teach the classics, whether or not their students are interested in or can read them. My hope is that they can convince their administrators to bring in YA lit as a bridge. And, I do have hope, based on my students' reflections:

"Overall this first week has taught me how to keep my mind open to different theories and connections within texts. Copper Sun, Sold, Little Brother, and Mister Pip contain themes that work across texts but also themes that are particular to their own. By applying literary theories to texts and by finding connections between young adult literature and classic literature an instructor can effectively teach their students ways of thinking critically and may even motivate them to enjoy canonical literature a little more."

One of the most interesting and fun activities was completing the “Literary Theories/Critical Approaches to Literature” worksheet. This activity was done as a group, and it allowed me to interact and discuss the stories with the other members of my group. I found that one questioning idea led to another, and in my particular group, we were springing ideas off each other’s comments. This activity also made the information previously presented more interesting and helpful in analyzing the stories, a coming together of information presented with the selections read. I especially liked completing the hand-out with my group. Each member of the group was spinning his/her ideas off the other’s comments. Looking at the two stories side by side, developing higher order, open ended questions allowed for a good analysis of the stories. This also stimulated ideas for discussion for other activities that could be done in the classroom. It was, for me, an activity that I wanted to take more time to complete because I felt that there was a coherent bringing in of the previously taught information in a meaningful and helpful resource for next year’s classes.

I liked The Hunger Games best—I found the narrator most believable, and the story most compelling. [It] was an exciting, novel approach to a coming of age/hero’s journey novel complete with a fairly well-formed new world. I found many literary and social collective allusions in the novel, and could think of many different novels that it could be taught in repertory with Ten Mile River and Black & White.