Teaching Reading With YA Literature

 At this point in the semester, my head is just swimming with ideas and questions. I start preplanning in just a few days, so I am eager to put all of my reading and learning into action! My teaching context is a high school with around 45 students who qualify for ESOL services. They are a diverse group representing more than 15 home languages and ranging from newcomers who are brand new to American schools and experienced English learners who have been in our district since kindergarten. I teach support classes that do not count toward their ELA credits, which gives me the ability to be creative with my planning. As Buehler  (2016) notes, a YA class has the option of combining personal, analytical, and social approaches in a way that is not always possible in the traditional English class. I consider it a great gift to have this flexibility in my classroom! 

In the past I have created thematic units incorporating a variety of texts and activities that incorporate reading, listening, speaking, and writing for social and instructional purposes. Alongside those units I have tried to foster a love and practice of reading through independent reading, class novels, trips to the public library, book talks, and class discussions. My goal for this year is to be more structured with my reading instruction and to create a YA curriculum to guide my teaching. In chapter four Buehler emphasizes the importance of teachers building their knowledge of YA literature. This semester has given me a jump start on my reading that I am committed to continuing throughout the school year. Figure 4.2 on page 79 is a helpful tool for organizing books for different purposes. It’s a simple tool, but I can see how it can be used very quickly to determine if a book is best read individually, in small groups, or whole class. A few years ago I did Nic Stone’s Jackpot as a whole class novel, and I can see that it worked because it dealt with big issues like race, class, privilege, inequality, and lead to lively class discussions on wealth, luck, and lottery tickets. I have never seen a tool like this before, and I know it will help me in thinking about the most appropriate use for different books within my classroom. 

In looking at how traditional classroom tasks can be reinvented for a YA curriculum, I think reader response, thematic units, and genre study are the ones that appeal most to me and that seem to fit my teaching style and the purpose of my class. I think I would go with thematic units as my foundation and work genres and reader response into that broader category.  Because I teach the same students sometimes for four (or five!) years, I find that I need to be doing something new every year. I think I am looking for a structure that can be used over and over again with different texts. Under the thematic units section in chapter five, I am drawn to the example of the “Exploring Other Cultures” unit and can see that as something that I could set up and refresh the choice of titles each year. It is so helpful to see examples from real classrooms to help me put a YA curriculum into practice. 

When thinking of ways to make my students’ reading feel relevant, I feel fortunate that my classroom is actually inside the school library. We have access to all of the library books, as well as the librarian. I can see my students writing book reviews or shelf talkers that could be displayed in the library where they are visible to anyone who uses the library. We also have a public library within walking distance, and a local book festival that will be held in October this year. I would like to have my students preview events and authors so that they can possibly attend the book festival. Perhaps they could make a guide for other students. I know that I will continue to grow and develop my YA teaching, and I’m looking forward to taking the next step this school year.

Buehler, J. (2016). Teaching Reading with YA Literature:  Complex Texts, Complex Lives (Principles in Practice). National Council of Teachers of English.