"Battle of the Books"
The problem with "problem" young-adult fiction.
By Ann Hulbert

This article by Ann Hulbert is the perfect way to end my blog as it pertains to this classes requirements. The article is mainly about the "fluffyness" of the material being taught in many high schools today. Books such as "To Kill a Mockingbird" have always been said to be destroyed because the teacher teaching the book rips it apart with overdone lesson plans and tests that span much more widly than they should.
In the article a girl, Hunsicker, decides to attempt to ban the book "The Buffalo Tree" after reading it in her 11th grade class. She claims that there is material in the book that is inappropriate for students her age to read. My feelings set aside, Hunsicker and many other people are simply afraid of books they know very little about. By focusing on just the "bad" stuff in books we are unable to see the good and great messages authors try and send to us. Like Hunsicker, many parents, teachers and students take one look at a book with the word "shit" in it or topics like sex and drugs and automatically dismiss it. They don't realize that by "protecting" their children and students that they are really making things worse, much worse. How are we to learn about our futures when all we are giving to read is the past.

"The cohort of parents who have joined Hunsicker's cause worry that YA literature like The Buffalo Tree exposes a vulnerable young audience to moral decadence; given that the readers who choose these thin books with catchy covers are generally between 11 and 14 (not exactly "young adults"),the content can indeed be pretty lurid—from fraught sexuality and awful divorces to child abuse. But the real trouble with such issues-oriented contemporary fiction is that it encourages what you might call (in Jeanne Kirkpatrick style) literary equivalence:The genre, as teachers have discovered with the help of accompanying guides, lends itself to trendy and tidy didacticism. And so the books can end up as assigned reading for older kids precisely when these students deserve to be discovering the difference between real literature and the melodramatic fictional equivalent of an Afterschool Special."

Like Ann Hulbert suggests, there is a lot of literature out the that is fluffed. Books for instance like "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" might not be a great book to teach in school but would be a fun book to read just the same. One could also argue that books such as "The Great Gatsby" and "Shakespeare" are drilled so much in school that the meaning is lost AND if the meaning is not lost in the teaching of these texts, the students will most likely not pay attention because they've become so aware of literary fluff, quizes, tests, lessons and discussions about things that aren't needed. I myself have read Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" 3 times in different classes during and since high school. If this play is so greatly needed to be taught, surely once would be enough.
This is why I think teachers need to break out of the box and investigate new texts to teach in their classrooms. A great way to do this is to pair the classics that are taught a lot to an easier, more fun YA book. However, there are those teachers that honestly think they are doing the right thing by giving vocabulary tests and drilling similies throughout the classics. Is there no hope? No, I don't think so. I do however think that the rules behind teaching are extremely binding and give teachers little room to actually teach. Maybe we should have different guidelines for becoming a teacher. Although, during our time taking courses on learning to become a good teacher, we takes tests we don't learn from, learn the old ways we are trying to step out of, read the old books we are trying to teach differently, learn about rubrics we are trying to stop and we complete homework that the great Alfie Kohn says doesn't help us.

What are we trying to accomplish?

In the end, we must start at the begining and rethink this thing we call education.

"Teacher Talk... About YA Lit"

by 619 Young Adult Literature graduate class at SUNY Cortland

Again, this post is not about a general article but rather a collection of several. While surfing Google Reader I came across a blog that is being used by a college professor and her 619 Young Adult Literature graduate class at SUNY Cortland. The blog seems to be carried out during the whole semester and is a tool that both the teacher and students interact on. I think this is a great idea. The teacher generally posts all the entries and discusses topics such as new YA books she's reading or assignments she wants to give out. She even warns the class that she will be late to class or that class will be cancelled on any given day. This is a really great way to teach YA literature, especially with a class like this where it's discovering YA literature.
One post that I really enjoyed was a post about the book "Saving Josh McGuire" by Ben Mikaelsen.

"I recently finished reading this YA book by Ben Mikaelsen, probably about a week and half ago. It is a book I would use in a 7th or 8th grade classroom. The main character (Josh) is witness to his father shooting a female blackbear that has a young cub. He becomes concerned about the cub and its survival and ends up taking on the task of saving the cub that he names Pokey. What I really like about this story is the fact that it deals with a bunch of different issues and the story could generate a number of critical questions. Issues in the story include:

1. Alcoholism

2. Conservation

3. Family Issues

4. Adult Outsider glimpse

5. Advocacy and Standing up for what You Believe In

6. Responsibility and Coming of Age"

First the teacher posted an entry that was her review of the book and, as you can see above, included a list of topics she thought related to the book. Later in the blog she stated that "McGuire" was now one of her favorite books. This is a great way to discuss books you are reading and recommend them to others.
Being somewhat familiar with blogs after taking this course, I can say that having a blog in the way of the SUNY class used it might even be a better way to incorporate the blog concept into a high school setting rather than have each student map their own blog. Or, combining the two concepts would even work out well. If the school starts out with a main teacher blog, however, it might be easier to digest rather than going right into student blogs. You could make it so that students comment on your blog, but that they each do not have one in return.
What a great tool for teaching YA lit!

"Lesson Plans and Resources for Adolescent and Young Adult Literature"


Although this is not truly one article, I thought the website was a really cool site for teachers. It provides a TON of links for the begining teacher with example lesson plans and guiding rubrics and a million other things. The reason, however, that I wanted to write about this site is because I think that although sites and examples like this are great for begining teachers, they provide us with an easy escape.
As I was exploring this web site I realized that yes, it did have great links for lesson plans such as "Pride and Prejudice" and several Shakespeare links, but there was nothing about popular YA literature. There was nothing on books such as "Feed" and "Jake Reinvented," and although I know that these books are very recent and many teachers would not think to use them in their classrooms - that is exactly my point. I really feel that teachers should not be afraid to branch out more rather than just settle on the lesson plans of other teachers, or teachers that seemingly have more "authority" than them.
I think that as new teachers we should investigate new ideas, we should think outside the box and realize that maybe what was taught to us, isn't the best material that's out there. It's our job to find the better material and the better ways to teach it.

Article Here

YA Booklists, Awards, Teen Read Week, and More!

If your children are getting old enough for young adult books (YA books) or are already reading young adult books, you need to know about the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). It is the fastest growing division of the American Library Association (ALA). According to the ALA, “YALSA advocates, promotes and strengthens service to young adults, ages 12 through 18, as part of the continuum of total library services.” In addition to providing services to member libraries and librarians, YALSA also shares resources with the general public through its website.

OK. This article is really cool because it incorporates something I had no idea existed: Teen Read Week. Teen Read Week is a week completely dedicated to teens and young adult books.
This article is really interesting as well because it brings up different links to inform the reader of many different sites that discuss awards such as the "The Alex Awards," that suggest teens actually like adult books better than YA text but prefer the books to have a voice toward teens. Clicking over to the Alex web site you are able to check out the latest books that have an adult feel with a teenage voice. "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult is an example of this teen/adult theme the awards talk about. Picoult is a great author (I would recommend "The Pact") and if you've ever read either of the two book mentioned then you'll have a better idea what this whole "Alex Award" is about.
This article also goes on to gives about 10 different links to different award sites and book lists - A GREAT resource for use in the classroom. I've spent already about 30 minutes going through and researching a few of these books. Although the issue of Teen Read Week is something that I think should happen year round and not simply in one week, I'll zip my lips for now in hopes that for atleast a week teens will read more than just their email.

Schools Fail To Teach Classics

London, it seems, has the best articles on classic literature. What does that say about us?
Anyway, this article makes really good points arguing that teachers should teach the classics.

"Motion calls for schools to find ways of "preserving the past" as he helps launch an official review of the English curriculum, the first substantial overhaul for 15 years. He warns that creativity has been squeezed out of schools and backs calls for a greater focus on creativity in schools which could see the introduction of a new qualification in creative writing...

The initiative, by the Government's curriculum watchdog the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, will look at the way English is taught and consider which books should be read by students in primaries and secondaries. "I'm interested in finding ways of preserving the past," Motion says. "I don't do much undergraduate teaching, but I recently taught a roomful of clever 18- and 19-year-olds, all with their three As at A-level, and I was shocked to find they had never read the Bible, or knew the Bible stories, or that there had been a civil war in this country."

Although Motion was only Poet Laureate for 10 years, he does have some good points. And although this article really doesn't give a step-by-step motion on how to teach the classics, it does bring in the question, why aren't our students learning more classics? I think the answer is as simple as it is complicated. I really think that teacher and students would not have problems teaching and understanding the classic literature if we had more time. The truth is that so much of our time in the classroom is taken up by busy work that is on some level required, there is no time for real learning (that's a little 'David Kohn' for ya!). I think that if we had more time to focus on lessons revolving around the classics and compare them to movies, plays, books and other things, students wouldnt have as much difficulty.
Motion requests that students learn books such as The Bible and works by Milton and Wordsworth. Although his ideas are very good and no doubt would be useful, there is no suggestion on HOW to teach these works and where the time would come from.
That, I think, is the real question. How.

YouTube Generation Finds New Source For Books

We all know how much time we spend on the computer these days. Whether it’s looking up information online for your next paper or surfing the web for a new quote to post on your best friend’s facebook wall, we are online an awful lot these days. After spending so much time on the computer I often find it hard to sit down and read a book. Where do I go when I get bored? Who’s online? Do I have any new e-mails since I last checked five minutes ago? The point is most students don’t have the time to read book these days or they just don’t see the point with so much to do online.
(side note: if you think the idea of having the internet in your brain sounds cool, read the book “Feed.” It’s really good.)
Google has come up with a way to keep students online and keep them reading. Although the idea of online books is a somewhat old topic, google has again outdone itself and is in the process of creating thousands of online books from classical literature to horror fiction.

“While there’s no substitute for the magic of leafing through a first folio edition of Shakespeare, only so many people on Earth will ever do so. Centuries-old books degrade when exposed to air or heat or humidity. Digital books don’t tear, get smudged or crack or flake away with age.
In the new era of digital books, could classics get cool again? Could downloading a copy of Aesop’s Fables replace an episode of South Park or endless YouTube skits? Would a modern kid ever be caught dead reading Fitz Gerald Broad’s largely forgotten 1918 theological meditation The Problem of Life on her smartphone?
Google has yet to offer a full list of books they are making available online, something that will be necessary before users make a habit of using the service. The company did provide the following sampling of nearly 100 titles, some classics, some esoterica. “We have MANY, MANY more than this,” a Google spokeswoman promised.”

Taken from : http://blogs.reuters.com/2006/08/31/google-offers-classic-literature-for-the-youtube-generation/

I think that the idea of having one single area where online books are available is a great idea. I’m not sure that I myself would be all that excited to read a book online. I’m the type of person that really loves to have a book in my hands, rather than having it on my computer worry about when the next time my computer will freeze up. But I do appreciate the trying to get students to be more interested in reading. Maybe while students are surfing myspace they’ll take a few minutes to read a classic. Cross your fingers.

The Michigan Council of Teachers of English (MCTE) Conference was not at all what I was expecting it to be. In the back of my mind I had hoped that the conference would be some sort of secret club-like scene and, in a very weird way, it was. Everyone at the conference was extremely friendly and more than supportive of the students that were there. I received a numerous amount of smiles and encouraging words from teachers that it confirmed my thoughts of my future job.
Probably my favorite part of the conference, and a great place to start my entry, was the keynote speaker, Alfie Kohn. Apart from the great name, Kohn was one of the greatest speakers I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. Even if the audience didn’t buy what he was saying, which everyone undoubtedly did, his enthusiasm is what made him great. Most of his speech was about his new book “The Homework Myth” and what homework was doing to the children of today. His views on homework are interesting. He feels that homework, while not necessarily wrong, is bringing our students down because the assignments we assign then at home are often busy work and only keep them “in school” longer.
Kohn also discussed the reasons why “tougher standards” are not the right way to go. He argued that by setting higher, tougher standards in schools we are only making a path that is truly unmanageable. One of my favorite things he said was, for example, the possibility that every student in Michigan passed the MEAP. What would happen? He suggested that we would probably just set the standards higher and higher and higher. In essence, we are setting our students up to fail. Below are the five key points Kohn argued about setting ‘tougher standards.”

1 It gets motivation wrong. Leading students to become preoccupied with how well they are doing in school can undermine their engagement with what they are doing. Paradoxically, a single-minded concern with results can reduce the quality of learning - along with the desire to explore ideas.
2 It gets pedagogy wrong. Standards are often defined as a long list of forgettable facts that students must know, or else. Moreover, teachers are encouraged to stick with the sort of traditional instruction that has now been shown by the best theory and research to interfere with deep understanding.
3 It gets evaluation wrong. In practice, "excellence," "higher standards," and "raising the bar" all refer to scores on standardized tests, many of them multiple-choice, norm-referenced, and otherwise flawed.
4 It gets school reform wrong. Tougher Standards are usually seen not as guidelines but as mandates, with "accountability" a code word for tighter control over what happens in classrooms by people who are not in classrooms.
5 It gets improvement wrong. Weaving its way through all these ideas is the implicit assumption that harder is always better. The result is that tests, texts, and teaching have not become more rigorous but merely more onerous.

Taken from: http://www.alfiekohn.org/topics/topics_we2.htm

After the Kohn spoke we were given the opportunity to visit break out sessions that each talked about a different topic dealing with education. For my first one I visited one called “Writer’s Notebooks: Writers Teach Writing.” The idea of this session was to learn about keeping notebooks in the classroom. The idea was not new too me so I didn’t take away much from this session, but I thought the main idea behind it was well thought out. The idea was that writers should teach writing. In order to teach writing you must be an active writer.
The second session I went to was one titled “Resisting Rubrics.” This session came second to Alfie Kohn’s speech. The speaker Maja Wilson, was extremely passionate about her topic and was able to answer any question shot at her. The session was about how rubrics really should not be used while grading writing assignments and how standardized testing has brought the english community down. I really felt strongly about what she said because I had always thought about the purpose of grading students writings according to the MEAP standards and could never understand the purpose of it.
Overall, I truly enjoyed this conference and became a member of the MCTE. I hope to enjoy many more of these experiences in hopes that it will better me as a teacher.

Pop Fiction No Match For Classic Literature

Kathleen Modenbach, EducationWorld.com "Voice of Experience" contributor

"Educator Kathleen Modenbach reflects on the growing trend of assigning pop fiction in place of the classics; many teachers do it to keep students happy. Modenbach suggests that teaching classic literature is well worth the extra effort on students' and teachers' parts.

I just finished reading John Steinbeck's East of Eden. Although I've read and taught other Steinbeck novels, I probably never would have picked up this one if Oprah's Book Club had not chosen it. Thrilled she had picked a classic, I read it with my adult reading group and loved it. It reminded me how important it is for English teachers to teach the classics..."

For the complete article click the link below:
http://www.nea.org/classmanagement/ifc031209.html

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Kathleen Modenbach. Saint or big B.S-er?
By the time this article ends, Modenbach has successfully managed to insult new teachers and raise herself to a level that is extremely close to a teaching god, leaving very little room for suggestion.
Modenbach suggests that teaching classic literature to teens is a must and that the "pop" literature (maybe the Backstreet Boys are back?) should be kept on the shelves. She does, however, make several good points throughout the article, although some of her methods and views of herself and class are less than tasteful.
Aside from my obvious bias, her are the points in the article I loved and agree with:
1) Modenbach suggests that a teacher should not shy away from classics simply because their students do not enjoy them right away. This method I agree with because I do feel like classic literature is a must in the classroom. However, I do not suggest you "plow" through the text like she suggests. In my eyes, if you are going to attempt to teach a classic piece of text in your classroom you have one of two choices. (1) Teach it extremely well, or (2) don't teach it all all.
2) "Hook" your students. Modenbach also suggests you provide a "hook" for your students to get them interested in the material. She seems to feel that a simple one liner will do as long as it has something to do with sex or violence. I, however, wouldn't think twice about adding more than one "hook" or even something larger. I know that very few students will become interested in material simply from a hook phrase, probably because they are reading a book which is something that isn't looked at as fun to a lot of students. That's why I suggest trying something like a character reading of one of the characters from the text or a reenactment of a scene from the book. Having a much bigger "hook" will no doubt have a much bigger influence on your students.
3) Lastly, Modenbach suggests what I feel to be her most promising suggestion, which is to read a classic text along side a modern text that reflects the same ideas as the classic. After reading both "Great Gatsby" and now finishing "Jake Reinvented" I completely agree that that is an excellent idea. "Reinvented" issued the same ideas of the American dream just as "Gatsby" had done but in a much easier version and teen friendly language. She also suggests watching a movie that might advocate the same themes as the classic literature such as "The Taming of the Shrew" and "Ten Things I Hate About You", as well as Jane Austen's "Emma" and "Clueless."

Overall, Modenbach has a good idea on how to teach a classic. Although I don't agree with her on all of her suggestions, I do agree that a piece of modern literature, specifically a "pop" text, is no match for a classic one. As we've talked about in class, I agree that modern versions of classics are a great way to interest students in the books, I just feel that a teacher should not leave the classic book in the dark completely.

Again, I don't think that it's the classic literature thats an issue, but the way teachers today are teaching them.

Children 'should read classics'

BBC News/Entertainment
Tuesday, 31 January 2006

"Children should be made to read classic literature by Dickens, Shakespeare and Joyce, according to authors such as JK Rowling and Philip Pullman.

The writers were among those asked by the Royal Society of Literature's RSL magazine to name 10 books children should read before leaving school.
Poet laureate Andrew Motion picked such challenging works as Paradise Lost, The Odyssey and James Joyce's Ulysses.
But Nick Hornby was one of several authors who refused to take part.
"I used to teach in a comprehensive school and I know from experience that many children are not capable of reading the books I wanted them to read," he said.
"I think any kind of prescription of this kind is extremely problematic."
Rowling's list includes such classic works as Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.
She also recommends such 20th century novels as Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller."

For the full article click the link below:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4665328.stm
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When I saw this tiny article I thought it would be a great place to begin my blog.
As my blog is about investigating new ways of teaching old classics, I think that examining what current authors have to say is very important. In this article, authors such as 'Harry Potter' superstar JK Rowling suggest that teachers are straying away from reading and teaching the classics in school and, although this article is based in England, I find it interesting because I think that teaching classics when students don't understand them is somewhat pointless. Like I stated in my previous post, why teach Shakespeare when no one in the classroom can grasp the meaning? By teaching this way the students are losing the beauty and the depth that such classics can bring.
However, I do completely agree with what the authors noted in this article. Poet laureate Andrew Motion suggested work such as 'Paradise Lost' and 'The Odyssey.' I myself have read both of these in high school and both went completely over my head the first time. I read these in two different classes with two different teachers, both of whom had very different ways of teaching. They both, however, did not dwell on 'Paradise' or 'Odyssey' very long and looking back, I can see that was probably because both works are extremely challenging for teen readers.
Other books mentioned here such as Harper Lee's 'To Kill A Mockingbird,' are classics that I agree students should read at a high school level. Although there are many levels to books such as 'Mockingbird,' I think students are able to pick out the key elements and understand the beauty of them.
Readers of this article will notice that author Nick Hornby, author of the great book 'About A Boy,' disagrees with many of these authors and says that these difficult classic works should not be taught because students will not understand them. I agree with him in terms of the more difficult works. As teachers we need to find a way to mold a method of teaching classics in a new way, perhaps with newer books that reflect the issues presented in the older ones. I'm not suggesting we throw away the classics, but to read something in preparation may ease the pain.
Perhaps it's not reading the classics that is troublesome, but the way they are being taught that is the major issue.

Hello, hello.

I've been thinking a lot about what to focus on in this blog and finally I've come up with a topic. One of the biggest issues I have with schools and teachers is their fear to step out of the box. Too many times I have had teachers that have either seemed too afraid or not adventurous enough to step out of the "curriculum box." They've used literature, as we have talked about in class, that is very difficult for students to relate to. For instance, Shakespeare can be well adapted to reflect the life of any teen today, with themes of defeat and betrayel often radiating throughout his works. Unless you are an english major, however, good luck on picking out those themes and using them as an example in your own personal life. GOOD LUCK!

I find this sort of dull teaching very prominent in the high school setting. Although I do understand completely the need to follow a strict curriculum, I don't understand why it has to be taught in such a strict and old-fashioned way. The teachers that stand out in my mind from my high school experience are those teachers that presented me with books I was interested in, teachers that took me on field trips just so I could experience the chapter I was reading in real life and the teacher that told me to step out of the box and create my own.

That is what I hope to do, investigate a way through old and new literature to create a hybrid.
I'll be using internet sources such as the Google Reader to help me in my search for articles about popular literature vs. the classics.
I plan to research new books and works with the use of the internet as well as look into works we've discussed in class such as "Jake Reinvented" to go along with "Gatsby." I hope to use new texts to understand old material and keep my thoughts creative and uncensored.