Literacy and Adolescent Literature in a High School ESOL Class

 When thinking about literacy in terms of my students and my teaching, I think about all of the linguistic, cultural, and real-life knowledge they bring with them and how I can engage them in multimodal learning experiences. Because my students come from such a wide variety of backgrounds, I try to draw upon the wealth of resources they carry (many of which might not be immediately apparent), and also consider what challenges they might encounter. I do this by expanding my concept of "text" beyond the traditional stories, poems, novels, and articles they might encounter in class. Texts could include newsletters, maps, morning announcements, podcasts, interviews, bulletin boards, body language and gestures, and songs. My students are encountering and interacting with texts all day long, inside and outside of school, and using language differently in different contexts and for different purposes. I would define literacy as the ability to interpret and respond to a wide variety of text types. 

When I think about literacy in the general sense of being able to read, I think about the two-year Science of Reading-based training that my district has enrolled me in. As a reader, I love learning about how we learn to read. As a teacher, I wonder how to apply it to my high school students, some of whom have limited or interrupted formal education, or grew up reading a language with a different alphabetic system, or never learned a word of English before coming to high school in the United States. There is not time in my schedule dedicated to teaching them phonics or assessing their ability to sound out the phonemes of Englsih words. I have been told just to consider this training another tool in my tool box, but I am wondering when and how I can use this tool to help my students. 

I consider adolescent literature to be one of my favorite genres, and one of the big reasons is that I like to be able to talk about books with my students and recommend books to them that I think they will enjoy. I also think there are just so many excellent YA novels being written today that I enjoy reading them for their own sake. I would define adolescent literature as having protagonists or characters in the middle and high school age range, and dealing with topics relevant to these ages--friendship, school, crushes, bullying, first love, dealing with change, defining personal values. I would further add that middle grades books seem to deal with this content in a gentler way. One of my favorite characters in Attack of the Black Rectangles by Amy Sarig King was Grandad, and I particularly liked the scenes in which he taught Mac how to meditate. There were some difficult issues raised in this book, but Grandad was always there to talk things through with Mac, to listen to Mac, and to cheer him on. When I was reading This Book Won't Burn by Samira Ahmed, I found myself wishing that Noor and Amal had a Grandad to help them through the challenges they were facing! 

I am always searching for middle grades novels that I can recommend to my high school multilingual learners. Often they are short enough and approachable enough for new readers, but many times because of the middle school specific content they feel too young for my newcomers who are in their upper teens. While Jason Reynolds is hugely popular with my experienced multilingual learners, I find that some of his books require a familiarity with American culture that escapes my newcomers. I'm not sure that they would easily keep up with everything going on in Look Both Ways, for example. Thirst by Varsha Bajaj is a middle grades title that I am eager to share with my newcomer students. I felt that it was straightforward, relatable, and engaging. I can't wait to find out whether my students agree with me.