Friday, January 20, 2012

MIA

The reason that we've both been MIA for half a year is because we have been reading tons and tons of excellent YA novels!

Okay, so that's a lie!

We have been reading tons of YA novels, but we have also been really, really busy. I moved back to Florida and took a job at my alma mater and the fall was conference season. We presented at NMSA, NCTE, ALAN, and LRA!

But, we're back and will be writing about some of the great books we've been reading.

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I actually want to revisit a book that has become a national obsession: The Hunger Games!

I used the whole series last summer in my YA Lit class and the students created body biographies (one example is below) for Peeta and/or Katniss. If you haven't tried body biographies, they are a great mechanism for students to show their knowledge and interpretation of a character and a work.



In my new role here in FL, we include YA literature in our content area literacy courses. The other sections are using The Giver, but I chose The Hunger Games. As we read, we talk about the cross-curricular and interdisciplinary connections that can be made with this book. We brainstorm every couple of class sessions based on how far we are in the book. Last fall the students came up with interesting and creative ways to use the novel in all of the content areas, including art. I can't wait to see what they come up with this semester. For this reason alone, it should be used for whole class (or whole school) reading.

I am also using the novel with 6th and 7th graders as part of my ALAN research grant. We'll hold our discussion next Monday. I am curious to hear what the students think about the book.

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