Young+Adult+Lit+Reflections

====//**Context:** Our reflections for Young Adult Literature were completed three times during the course of the semester, approximately every five weeks. In these reflections, we were asked to address specific items that Dr. Hartman provided for us each time a portfolio was due. The first reflection asked us to address the following things: What is happening in your thinking/learning about YA literature? What movement, if any, do you see in how you are viewing YA lit? What are your views of reading right now, what it means to be literate, etc.? The second reflection asked us to address the following concepts:new insights into the Young Adult literature based on new readings, what you see yourself demonstrating in your portfolio in regards to the objectives for the course, and questions/status on latest draft of research piece. The final reflection asked us to //==== //clearly present, support, and celebrate the work completed in this class by discussing specific selections and reflecting on how that work meets the objectives for the course. The reflections are in chronological order from beginning of the semester to the end. //

Reflection #1
When I got home from the first night of class, I immediately drew this picture, and I'm pretty sure it sums up exactly how I felt... 

I immediately went into mini-melt down mode and freaked out to my husband for about five minutes. He completely reassured me that if I could get through Literary Theory without major battle wounds and scars, that I could definitely do this class. He gave me a bit of sage advice (which in retrospect I should have listened to earlier) and that was to focus on my own learning. I talked to my mom a couple days later, and she told me the same exact thing, and she also told me not to be a worry wart because it would just make things worse. At the beginning of the class, just a few short weeks ago, it was really difficult for me to see how that was going to benefit me. Last week, however, I realized that I had to focus on something - I had to create my own goals, my own structure, my own ideas of what I wanted to learn from this class.

From that moment, I have been much more at peace with this class, and I have to say, it has kind of started to rub off on me in my own classroom. I do not even feel an inkling of what I did the first day or even week of class anymore. I discovered that I wanted to solely focus on how what I'm learning in this class is not only going to benefit me as an educator but how it is going to benefit my students. There are so many things that I have yet to learn, and if I can make that my primary focus, I think that I'll get more out of this class than I ever thought possible. I've already started thinking about how I can incorporate The Bronx Masquerade into my post-AP exam lesson plans in May and I'm getting excited about my research project about the Iraq War and how I'm going to utilize that information next year.

I have really enjoyed and benefited from the daybook concept. I've truly made it my "own" and it's comforting to know that there isn't one way that I can do things. Yes, I like structure. I like routine, but there is also something refreshing and renewing about using structure and organization in ways that also lend themselves to student needs and creativity. My AP students are using daybooks right now and I can tell they are already benefiting from this one idea that Dr. Hartman has introduced to the class.

Now that I am no longer in a constant state of "Baker melt-down mode," I can truly focus on what I need to do and accomplish and learn in this class that will serve my needs and desires to becoming an even better teacher, colleague, reader and writer.

Reflection #2
I’ve done quite a bit of questioning as the semester has waned on about several things. I’ve actually found myself thinking more along this line of thought – in questions – rather in statements. It enables me to adequately and thoroughly process and reflect on what I’ve been learning and thinking about concerning young adult literature and literacy as a whole.

Question #1 – **What is the point of teaching young adult literature?**

The beauty of young adult literature is that it allows our students to challenge themselves by thinking, processing, writing and reading in the ways they need to be served. As educators, we are constantly trying to make sure our students are learning what is needed for them to pass the test, but we’ve gotten away from the process and joy of learning. Young adult literature can bridge the gap between adults and young adults that sometimes seems to be too far to conquer by creating a common ground and a familiar environment to both parties in order to make sense of the thoughts, feelings, experiences and struggles that most young adults have. It gives all readers the opportunity to connect with each other regardless of socio-economic status, religion, race, etc. YA literature also allows readers beyond the YA age to be transported back to that age and remind us what it’s like to be that age again. Perhaps this would help us as educators be more open to not being stuck in our ways and learn to be more reflective.

Question #2 – **Does YA literature have merit?**

Young adult literature has this bad “rap” among some classicalists because it doesn’t have merit, but I beg to differ. From what I’ve read, experienced and processed, young adult literature can serve as a catalyst and vehicle for change, just as many of the classics have done. As I completed my literary theory presentation about Long Way Gone and listened to my other classmates’ presentations, I’ve seen the validity of applying theory to YA literature that has seemed to evade the thoughts of teachers and scholars alike (myself included before this class). Do not confuse this qualification that all literature that has had theory applied to it has merit. However, it is more the idea that YA literature is deeper than the typical “teen angst and search for identity” themes that most people see YA literature as.

Not only does literature have literary merit, but it has invaluable educational merit. YA literature allows teachers to change our own ways of thinking, teaching and approaching a certain subject matter. Seeing characters (and sometimes real people) struggling with some of the same issues and situations where learning can also take place is a powerful tool, and I think it is one that is not used as much as it could be. As an educator, I pride myself in stepping back from my teaching and think about why and how I am teaching what I am instead of simply looking at what I’m teaching. The what is important, but the how and the why are much more important. Yes, we may teach classics and canonical works, but are we teaching them in a way that benefits our students’ education and idea of learning?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Question #3 – **What does it mean to be literate?**

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I think the main idea here is to “learn to change and change to learn.” I know I grew up in a society that is starkly different than the students now, and we have to take that into account when we are educating and trying to make sure our students are literate. I’ve always thought that literacy cannot be simply defined as being able to read and write – it’s far too narrow. Literacy also deals with the ability to successfully and effectively communicate. Technology has truly made our world 100 times smaller than it used to be, but does this mean we completely drop the “traditional” skills of communication? I believe there needs to be a balance between the ability to communicate through technology and interpersonally. However, we still have students that do not know how to effectively navigate around a computer, which is becoming just as important as the ability to drive a car. The video we watched on March 21st really opened my eyes to the idea of literacy also being about collaboration, context, global awareness and learning the impact we have on the world.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I think the bigger question that needs to be addressed, however, is how can we continue to define “text” with old ideas (reading & writing)? Students are now exposed to more texts, but they do not see them as texts because they are still taught that a text can only be something printed on a page, and sometimes a computer screen. One of the most difficult things I’ve struggled with to get my AP students to realize is that cartoons, drawings, art, speeches, television shows, movies, etc. are all texts. It’s difficult to break them of their previous thinking, but the more we expose them to this idea, the more apt they will be to learning later on, especially in college.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I know that my experience in this class has helped me to become more literate. I’m attempting to use more “unconventional” ways of literacy with my AP students, and I’ve been absolutely thrilled with the results. I’ve started an edmodo account for both of my classes, and the ability to communicate with them outside/after school has truly benefitted the students and myself. Having an open line of communication through a source of literacy that they are comfortable with and know how to use is just as beneficial as talking to them in class.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Question #4 – **What does this mean for my teaching?**

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I’ve seriously considered what all of this means for my role as an English teacher and an educator in general. If we are afraid of presenting and teaching ideas and concepts that regularly come up in YA literature, what kind of message are we sending to our students? Change in the education world is such a paradox to me – we fear change even more than we care to admit sometimes and that truly puzzles me. No student, no class, no year is ever the same, so why do we sometimes find ourselves teaching the same things the same way to completely different children? Perhaps it’s because I am still relatively new and “naïve,” but I refuse to get stuck in a rut and find myself spinning my wheels and getting frustrated like some of my colleagues because they cannot find the connect to their students. I think that YA literature allows us, as educators (mentors and coaches, too), to re-evaluate our roles and what it really means to be an educator, specifically an English teacher.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Final Exam Reflection
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Dear Dr. Hartman,

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">In //The Lord of the Rings//, Gandalf warns the hobbits that “The wide world is all about you. You can fence yourself in, but you cannot forever fence it out.” I felt like this has been a “mantra” of sorts for myself over the last couple years as I’ve leaned back and forth as to whether to keep on teaching. I became frustrated and tried to fence out the world of opportunity that would eventually happen, but now that I’ve started my graduate degree, my fence has blown wide open, and it’s been one of the best experiences of my life. And I will say that over the course of this semester alone, I’ve seen myself grow from being absorbed as a just a teacher in grad school into finding a blend, a happy medium if you will, between being a student and a teacher. This allowed me to open up different avenues of thought and stop stifling myself from learning only what I thought was expected of me; instead, I started focusing on what I should be wanting to gain from class and my education as a whole. Even since the last portfolio, I’ve started to realize that YA lit cannot be committed to simple questions and purposes, or even key terms that attempt to box it in – the reasoning behind the invention, teaching and defining of YA lit goes beyond all that. Throughout the rest of this letter, I’m going to bring you through the more poignant pieces/texts that I’ve created and developed over the course of the semester to show my growth as a reader, the expansion of my skills as a teacher and my improvements as a critical analyzer of not only the content that an English teacher utilizes, but the methodology and pedagogy behind that content.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">My daybook has been my place of invention and craft – many ideas for other assignments and tasks were born here, and all of the photos on my portfolio have a purpose. When I was looking back through the daybook entries I wrote and chose to showcase on my portfolio, I noticed that in the beginning, like my entry from January 17th was limited to understanding the issues of YA lit and skimming the idea of YA lit being of literary value, the same goes for my entry from January 21st. Both are simplistic and almost surprising now that I go back and revisit those entries.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">As a I continued to work on my reading memoir and search for my own artifacts (who would have known I would already start using artifacts in this project not knowing about my research piece!), I found a note in my Bible and reflected on what I read in that letter on January 29th. It’s the same kind of feeling I’m experiencing now – the power of words from a young adult are powerful – they encourage, reveal and push us to look back on ourselves and trace our journey. After that discovery, my entries in my daybook also evolved into covering more than just basic understanding – they started transforming into evaluation and discussion of not only the trends and issues of YA lit, but also the literary merits and usefulness of YA lit in the classroom and how it impacted me as a teacher, learner and professional and how all of that was impacting my students in their own social contexts.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">February 27th is definitely one of the entries in my daybook that sticks out to me. I started questioning what YA lit is really about – is it really about simply asking questions or is it attempting to answer them with the aids of the idea of YAs and their own experiences. Does literature like Perks of Being a Wallflower still fit YA lit because Charlie hasn’t come “full circle”? Do we still consider it to be of merit due to the controversial issues? When I started thinking in this way – really contemplating the issues and awareness of literature about YAs meant for YAs, then the gleaning of what I needed and wanted to from the class instead of figuring out what was expected from me really started to peek through.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">When Jade did her literary theory presentation on //Perks//..., she included us in one of the effective reading and teaching strategies that I am going to put into my arsenal. Seeing literary theory at work in these texts, and even complicated ones like post colonialism and structuralism, made me really wonder why YA lit isn’t given the credit it is apparently due. At this point in my daybook writing, I was pretty deep in my research and creation of my project/unit plan, and it was becoming more and more apparent to me that simply teaching YA lit may not yield the same results if we approach it like a normal novel as teachers – we need to be able to get our students to see the essential and common threads that run between YA literature (and even non-traditional texts and “traditional” works that can really discourage students who are not literate.) Examples like Jade’s lesson/presentation really helped show how literary theory can actually help address issues of illiteracy in secondary students because it gives them a focus and an idea to pinpoint their thoughts on instead of getting lost in the seeming mumbo jumbo of a text.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">When we were asked on March 7th if we had made any connections to the novels we had read so far to other texts, I was immediately drawn back to all of the musical connections I had made to the texts we had read – not only does this give me a creative teaching strategy to utilize when teaching YA lit (or any literature at all), it also translates into students transferring ideas and complex thoughts to other modes and processes that require complex and critical thinking. I also think that it also extends into the fact that so many YAs (even those of us who are “technically” out of YA age) still connect to music in so many different facets of our lives.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Right before my book talk presentation on March 28th, I had to decompress into my daybook before I actually gave the presentation simply because I had spent so much time on it and I wanted to really get all of my personal emotions onto paper before I unknowingly got up on a soap box and preached. I think one of the greatest things that the book talk helped me see is that evaluating and discussing the novel really helped me see the cultural impact and importance //Purple Heart// had on the YA audience, even as a fictional text. The students will not only read something they are interested in, but they will gain awareness from the perspective of military personnel (which could be considered “multicultural” simply because the difference between a civilian and a soldier is night and day), but it also helped strengthen the notion that YA literature does have merit and can be an effective tool for addressing important current issues while also reaching students who may be hesitant to pick up a non-fiction piece about the same topic.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">One of my favorite class activities that we did in our daybooks was the found poem from Crank and it will definitely be one of the creative teaching strategies that I keep in my toolbox for ALL of my students because it encourages students to not only connect with the text, but deem certain words important or influential and then create something from nothing which can be very daunting.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">When you sent me that jing recording of my feedback for the second draft of my research paper, there were not really enough words to eloquently express my appreciation for helping me find my balance. This is a difficulty I’ve always struggled with – how to juggle the complicated while making it effective and understandable to not only my students but to my fellow colleagues. Over the course of the semester while working on this research project, I found myself writing about it more in my daybook while not in class because I am so incredibly excited about utilizing the learning, strategies, awareness and discovery I’ve been gleaning for the last 12 weeks over this project. I really saw myself coming out of a bubble and seeing how students will benefit from the lessons that I’ve started to create for the unit. I’ve realized that this unit is more important to me than I expected it to be, and it has renewed a fervor and dedication to not only teaching my students, but learning for myself and being able to translate that into my professional life.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The last daybook entry I put on my portfolio I believe is a good “amen” to this section, simply because it expresses the fact that I love being challenged and provoked into re-thinking why I believe what I do – it has definitely made me be more reflective in my classroom and in what I’m learning and how I’m learning it, and not just concerning YA literature, but about reading and writing in general.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">One of the most difficult things for me to do at the beginning was to try to connect all of this information, and I think this is where my reflections really and truly pushed me to look at how all of this learning, reflecting, writing and discussing we were doing as a class, and also on my own, was impacting my experience as a student and as a teacher. For the first reflection I clearly struggled, but as the semester continued, I started identifying things in my daybook that I could contribute to my reflection for each portfolio. And on top of that, I really started thinking about how all of this was affecting me and trying to explicate why I felt the way I did instead of trying to make it more complicated than it was. I have a tendency to make simple things really difficult, so when I just stopped thinking, I found it really easy to connect the dots and see how all of this really ties together. (Even as I went through my work and daybook over the weekend, I really saw how everything I did in class grew and connected to one another, much like the morning glory vines in my garden.)

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">My reading memoir was one of the most difficult assignments for me simply because I had no idea where to start, and then like I mentioned earlier, I went back to what I knew instead of trying to force it. Throughout that assignment, I truly found my view of my own personal literacy and my journey as not only a reader and writer, but as a person. If this class has taught me anything outside of the boundaries of the objectives for the class, it’s that everyone has a story that should be told, regardless of complexity, brevity or context, and I think that is part of one of the purposes of YA lit – to show the world that YAs do have a voice even when we, as a society, tell them that they do not. I also think that it’s important for students to know that the literacy that I may show to them is different – literacy, like we’ve discussed, is such a loaded and broad term that we simply cannot use the old and out-dated jargon to express our current students’ abilities.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I’m going to lump my book talk, literary theory presentation and research project into one giant lump because my research project is really what I would like to deem as my appropriate “amen” for the entire semester. I believe that my portfolio is the complete culmination of all of my seeking, finding, questioning, inquiring and researching that I’ve been contemplating over the course of the class. My research project really pushed me as a reader, teacher, writer and thinker, simply because I had never thought about teaching anything like this unit in a classroom. My book talk helped unveil this passion for the subject and context of the novel, but it also helped me see how an assignment like this can also push my students to learn to analyze and identify important parts of a novel. If I had any inkling of doubt or fear at any point, my literary theory presentation really encouraged me to see the value of using theory (and not just cultural poetics) in the classroom to expand student thinking as well as my own methods to not only delve deeper into the text, but to talk about important issues in YA texts that are also a part of more “traditional” texts. When I was reading //Forever War//, I really had to sit back and contemplate how I was going to make that nonfiction text connect with //Purple Heart// and once I started thinking like a student and trying to make connections, evaluate the text and issues at hand, and understand the importance of not only what I was going to teach, but how and why I was choosing to teach it, I found that all of these ideas for teaching strategies, reading strategies, introducing historical and current context and figuring out how to reach all my students with these texts were simply laying dormant in a part of my inner self that has always been a part of me. I never thought that one of my closest friends would be a part of this project, and although his portion of the unit is not considered YA lit, it helps augment the issues and literary merit that surround YA lit. I’m now looking at making this a cross-curricular unit with the Civics & Economics teacher at school as well as taking a trip to Washington, DC next spring to see some of the national monuments to see and meet people like the ones Dexter Filkins followed and the ones that inspired Patricia McCormick to write her YA novel.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I’m finding it extremely difficult expressing the breadth and wealth of knowledge I have gained over the course of the semester, and I’m afraid I have not done my work enough justice. I will say that now that the class is almost officially over, and I am listening to “The Road Goes Ever On” from //The Lord of the Rings// film score, I cannot help but have this melancholy and despondent sinking in my chest. However, because of how much I know I have learned, grown and discovered, I know that my road as a student, teacher, professional and co-worker will forever be nourished and encouraged by my work and accomplishments that I have completed in this class. And much like my fellow hobbits, I will always hang onto the memories and experiences that have been so important and life changing for me.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Sincerely, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Lorelei