ENGED.GE.2521 Literature and the Adolescent Experience Spring 2012
English Education Department of Teaching and Learning
Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
New York University
Wednesdays, 4:55-6:35 Silver 206
Professor Susan L. Schlechter [email protected]
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Office: 239 Greene Street, 4 floor
Office hours: 2:30-4:30pm Wednesdays
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Make an appointment with me via email or in person. Messages can be left on the 4 floor of 239 Greene,
212-998-7560, but the preferred method of communication is email to me or in person.
That's what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will
lead you onto another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It's
geometrically progressive--all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment.
The Guernsey LIterary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, 2008.
When I started teaching drama strategies [for reading] I moved off the center of the stage and
stopped lecturing. I started working with the kids. I became much happier with my teaching and
had more fun with my kids.…I realized through using the drama that it wasn’t me or the kids who
were deficient. The drama made me see that I’d been working with a deficient theoretical model of
teaching. I realized that I shouldn’t be delivering information or letting kids do whatever they
want. I realized that I needed to be explicitly guiding them to be able to do new things. (2)
Tanya Baker, Teaching Literature to Adolescents, Beach et al. Erlbaum, 2006.
What I’m asking teachers to consider is whether a curriculum of study skills is the soundest way
to help students become skilled, passionate, habitual, critical readers of the stories we—and
they—adore. I recognize that this chapter will spark an occasion for cognitive dissonance in a
reading teacher who believes in teaching the comprehension strategies, in a school district where
this is the sanctioned approach to worked with children and books. But I can’t not raise issues
about a method that I think distracts kids from experiencing the pleasures, the richness and the
depths of the reading zone. (63)
Nancie Atwell, The Reading Zone, Scholastic, 2007.
Overview
This course is offered to prospective and current English language arts (ELA) teachers who wish
to explore literature with a particular focus on adolescence and its developmental concerns.
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• What does it mean to “teach literature” in the 21 Century?
• What is a young adult? Is there a specific age? Specific grades? What do recent studies about
adolescents and their development reveal?
•What constitutes young adult literature (YA Literature as it is known in the book trade)?
•Who are the authors adolescents are reading?
• What kind of student were you? What are your memories of yourself as a younger reader? What
did you read in school, out of school?
•Can you name some books from your adolescence that you recall as powerful? funny? that you
hated? Did you read these books in school or out of school?
•What do you recall about how your English classes were conducted?
•What do you read now: daily, weekly, in the course of a year?
•What do you do when you read a text you do not understand?
•How can we as English teachers promote active, engaged readers in our classroom?
•What are the connections between reading, writing, talking, listening, viewing, and of course,
thinking?
•What is a literature circle? How to promote group work that is fun and engages students in
thoughtful work about reading and responding to literature?
•What should a teacher of adolescents be aware of regarding gender issues in the classroom?
Why is this question relevant to my teaching?
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The above questions are only the beginning. One of our goals is to explore and extend our
knowledge of YA literature and its relationship to adolescence as well as take a look at several classic
texts (Romeo and Juliet, Catcher in the Rye) and consider how to approach such texts in a way to make
them meaningful and exciting for adolescents. We will look at a variety of reading experiences to explore
both our own reactions to the texts and how we can invite our students into the literacy circle. We will
take on several roles as we form a learning community, those of readers/learners/teachers being the
most obvious.
Required Texts:
• The Giver, Lois Lowry, Bantam Doubleday, 1993.
• The Outsiders, S. E. Hinton, Puffin Books, 1967.
• Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare, (c. 1597),
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Cambridge School Series, ed. Rex Gibson, 3 edition, 2005, Cambridge University Press. I know you
may have your own copy of R&J, but this entire series by Rex Gibson is excellent for teachers teaching
Shakespeare. When you buy this one, you will see why.
• Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger, 1951. (I did not order this at the bookstore because any edition is
fine, and many of us already own a copy.)
• Love That Dog, Sharon Creech, HarperTrophy, 2001
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• Teaching Literature to Adolescents, 2 Edition, Richard Beach, Deborah Appleman et al, Routledge,
2011.
You will choose ONE of the two books below AFTER class discussion. Both of these books (having been
so successful) have second versions with similar names, but the poems are different. For the purposes of
our class, you will need either one or the other of the versions named below.
• Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, Billy Collins, 2003
OR • Good Poems, Garrison Keillor, 2002
You will choose ONE of the two books below AFTER class discussion.
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling
OR • The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman
OR To be discussed in class
You will choose ONE book from the following two categories AFTER class discussion. Hope to allow
choice and also have groups for each of the books.
• Reviving Ophelia, Mary Pipher, Ballantine, 1994
• Girlfighting: Betrayal and Rejection among Girls, Lyn Mikel Brown, NYU Press, 2003
AND
• Teenage Boys and High School English, Bruce Pirie, Boynton/Cook, 2002.
• Reading Don’t Fix No Chevy’s: Literacy in the Lives of Young Men, Michael W. Smith, Heinemann,
2002
•There will also be YA novels listed by each class. You do not have to buy all of them. We will negotiate
which ones you will purchase.
Recommended Reading:
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• In the Middle, 2 Edition, Nancie Atwell. Boynton/Cook Publishers. Heinemann, 1998.
• The Reading Zone, Nancie Atwell, Scholastic, 2007
• You Gotta BE the Book: Teaching Engaged and Reflective Reading
with Adolescents, Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, NCTE/TC Press, 1997
• Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles. Harvey Daniels and Nancy Steineke, Heinemann, 2004
• Reel Conversations: Reading Films with Young Adults, Alan B. Teasley and Ann Wilder, Boynton/Cook
Heinemann, 1997
• Literature for Democracy, Gordon Pradl, Boynton/Cook Heinemann, 1996.
• Uncommon Sense, John Mayher (I am assuming everyone has this text and has read it. If not, come
and talk to me.)
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• Weaving in the Women: Transforming the High School English Curriculum, Liz Whaley and Liz Dodge,
Boynton/Cook, 1993.
• Gender in Urban Education: Strategies for Student Achievement, Alice E. Ginsberg, Joan Poliner
Shapiro, Shirley P. Brown, Heinemann, 2004.
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• Reading Their World: The Young Adult Novel in the Classroom. 2 Edition Ed. by Viriginia R. Monseau
and Gary M. Salvner. Boynton/Cook. 2000.
• So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids.
Diane E. Levin and Jean Kilbourne, Ballentine, 2008.
• This Same Sky, A Collection of Poems from around the World, Naomi Shihab Nye, Alladin Paperbacks,
1992
• I Just Hope It’s Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy, Collected by Liz Rosenberg and Deena
November, Houghton Mifflin, 2005
• Real Boys, William Pollack, 1998.
Class Processes
• Attendance: You will need to attend every class. If that is not possible, you should notify me before.
We have 14 sessions to build a learning community, and your absence affects not only you but also your
small and large group members. Everyone counts.
• Class participation: Your level of engagement with large and small group work and your ability to be
reflective about your role in talking and listening is a key component in this course. The role of talk and
listening is undervalued in classrooms as a learning tool. Let us examine how talk and listening can be
used more effectively. What you say and do in class matters in promoting your learning and the learning
of your peers.
• Timely handing in of written work is necessary. Learning is organized to build on your knowledge from
the first class.
• Technology: We will all be connected outside of class via blackboard. I have set up a site for us.
Everyone must contribute to blackboard each week. Your participation on blackboard is an ongoing and
integral part of class participation. There should be a minimum of two contributions per student a week:
one a response to ongoing class work and one a response to a posting by a classmate (sometimes might
resemble a conversation).
•Using the internet to get information about young adult literature and other issues raised in class. What
are good sites for more information about what we discuss in class?
• Reading Aloud: All prospective teachers should practice getting their voices heard in a large group
setting. Everyone will choose a poem to read aloud to the group of 5 minutes or less in length from either
of the two poetry books on the class syllabus. These “read-alouds” will occur throughout the term. You
will make a copy of your poem to be read aloud for each member of the class. There will be a sign up
sheet.
• Assessment and Evaluation: Everyone is capable of B+ or better, or you would not be here, I assume.
A B+ is very good work done as specified above. An A means work over and above what is required.
We will discuss this concept in class.
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• Index cards: For each YA novel read, you will need to fill out an index card that lists the book and
author and something about the book that would encourage a young adult reader to want to read the
book. Key to your becoming an effective teacher of adolescents will be your becoming a resource for YA
literature for your students (For example, if a student loved Harry Potter, what will you suggest after that?)
Even though it will not be specified again, every YA text throughout the term requires an index card.
Learning how to describe a book is separate from evaluating your response to it. Most of us, in casual
conversation, are always evaluating as we describe. How can you make the distinction in describing the
book for the wide variety of students you will have? Index cards about the YA books should contain a
descriptive response which is targeted to get other readers, your students, to read the book. More about
that in class.
• Projects: to be discussed
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
Wednesday, January 25: Introductions; being a reader; creating a learning community
Assignment
1. Reading: •The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton
•Love That Dog, Sharon Creech
Throughout the term, you will need to keep track of all YA texts you read. Refer to “Index Cards”
in Class Processes.
•Class syllabus, with particular attention to first 4 pages.
• Preface, Foreword, A Classroom of Teenaged Readers (Course Documents/Blackboard) Print
out/bring to class first page or print as much as you want.
2. Posting on blackboard.
3. Writing to be handed in: Write an essay about yourself as a reader; consider some of the questions I
list at the beginning of the syllabus. Write this essay after reading the assigned reading. As you read, try
and think about yourself as a reader. What do you do when you read? Bring this essay, double-spaced,
one side of page, with a title, pages numbered after first page, to class to hand in to me. It will be your
written introduction of yourself.
Wednesday, February 1: The World of YA Literature/Powerful themes and ideas/Exploring
adolescent lives/The reader you are/The reader you were
Creating community; group guidelines; small group work; what do we do in a book group; what are we
doing when we talk about literature?
Assignment: Reading:
1. A Classroom of Teenaged Readers: Nurturing Reading Processes in Senior High English, Driek
Zirinsky and Shirley Rau, Longman, 2001, found on Class Blackboard, Course Documents, Chapters 1-2
2. Reviving Ophelia, Preface, Chapters1-2 OR Girlfighting, Introduction and Chapter 1
Recommended: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrRtJY28ps8
Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls
6 minute video, Mary Pipher, Riverhead Trade, 2005
3. YA Novels: CHOOSE ONE:
Out of the Dust, Karen Hesse
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The Fighting Ground, Avi, 25 Anniversary Ed., HarperCollins
Catherine, Called Birdy, Karen Cashman
4. Blackboard postings (Every week, it is an understood ongoing assignment to post on the class
blackboard).
Wednesday, February 8: Who are your students and how do you get to know them to help them
learn better?
Small and large group work. Negotiate assignments for gender texts within groups.
Gender Issues in the classroom
Assignment: Reading:
1. Teaching Literature to Adolescents, Preface and Chapter 1
2. Teenage Boys and High School English, Foreword, Chapters 1-2
OR “Reading Don’t Fix No Chevys” Foreword, Preface, Introd., Chapter 1
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3. YA Novels: CHOOSE ONE
Judith Ortiz Cofer, Call Me MarÍa
Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros
Wednesday, February 15: What is a “good” discussion about books? What does it mean to teach
literature?
Assignment: Reading: The Giver, Lois Lowry (required for all)
Teaching Literature to Adolescents, Chapter 2
Writing on Blackboard: Have you read The Giver before? When? What do you recall
about it? Before you reread it from the vantage point of being older, please post on the class blackboard
what you recall about your prior reading(s) of The Giver. As you are rereading and after you finish, post
your thinking about what the present reading experience has been like for you.
Writing to be handed in: topics to be discussed
Wednesday, February 22: A Controversial Book
Assignment:
Reading: Teaching Literature to Adolescents, Chapter 3
Gender texts: girls
YA Novels: Francesca Lia Block, Weetzie Bat
Judy Blume, Blubber
John Green and David Levithan,
Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Highly Recommended: Nancy Garden, Annie on my Mind
Wednesday, March 2: Important Adolescent Topics
Assignment: Reading: A Classroom of Teenaged Readers
Gender texts: boys
YA Novel: The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
Writing for blackboard 1. This assignment is based on the assumption that you have read this book
before. If not, you only have to do level two.
Level One: Before you reread it: your memory of the book, including the circumstances under which you
read it.
Level Two: Your experience of the book now.
Writing in the future: Approaching midterm, we will develop a writing assignment to help you take stock of
your learning so far. Due on March 7 or 21.
Mid-Term: Wednesday, March 7: Reading a “Classic.” What does that mean? Catcher and its
place in American Literature
Assignment: 1. YA novels: Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl (The Definitive Ed. which may not be
the one you read in school), 1995.
Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, 1943
Marcus Zusak, The Book Thief
recommended: Francine Prose book on Anne Frank
2. Mid-term project taking stock of your learning; to be handed in.
Wednesday, March 14 spring break
Wednesday, March 22: YA Lit is about everything Adult Lit is About
Assignment: Reading: 1. Teaching Literature to Adolescents, Chapters 4-5
2. Gender texts, but what isn’t?
3. Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson
the perks of being a wallflower, Stephen chbosky
Jerry Spinelli, Stargirl
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Wednesday, March 28: Images of Young Women in Literature/Will Boys Read Books With Girl
Heroes? (and while we are on the topic, yes, “Girl Heroes”; looking at our language)
Assignment: A Classroom of Teenaged Readers, Chapters 5 and 6
Gender texts: Girlfighting, Chapters 4 and 5, Ophelia, Chapters 7-9
YA Novels: YA Novels: Walter Dean Myers, Monster
Louis Sachar, Holes
I Am the Cheese, Robert Cormier (if you like this book, read Cormier’s The
Chocolate War next)
Wednesday, April 4: Choices facing Adolescents
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Assignment: 1. Teaching Literature to Adolescents, 1 edition, Chapters 4 and 6 OR 2 edition,
Chapters 7 and 10
Teenaged Boys, Chapters 5-7, Chevys, Chapters 4-5
2. Take your pick unless you have already read one. If so, read the other one:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.R. Rowling
The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman
Or…other series to be discussed in class
Writing: What is your response to either or both books? Can you explore their appeal based on what you
have been reading about adolescents. Consider their appeal for you, as always, first.
Recommended: A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’ Engle
Inkheart, Cornelia Funke
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
There is a huge world out there of fantasy literature aimed at young adults. How does Twilight fit in here?
Have you read it? What do you think about it?
Wednesday, April 11: Harry Potter and His Appeal. Can we capture this in our literature classes?
Assignment: Reading: Romeo and Juliet
•Like Catcher in the Rye, you may have already read R&J, so please do the same
assignment that we did before in terms of your memories of past readings and reading R&J
again now. Or reading Shakespeare in general, regardless of the specific play.
•Go on the web and find at least one site that you find helpful for learning about/teaching
about Shakespeare. Please post the web site with a brief description about what you found
helpful.
• Let’s talk (honestly) about reading Shakespeare, school experiences, acting Shakespeare,
viewing Shakespeare. What are your thoughts about teaching The Bard.
•Teaching Literature to Adolescents to be discussed in class
•Writing to be handed in: to be discussed
Wednesday, April 18: Engaging Shakespeare (1564-1616)
How do we approach Shakespeare?
Romeo and Juliet: Viewing and Reading
Assignment: Reading: More Romeo and Juliet and The Sonnets
Gender texts
Teaching Literature…Adolescents, Chapter 11-13
Wednesday, April 25: How do we approach Shakespeare? Part 2; Happy Birthday to William
Shakespeare
(c.April 23, 1564)
Enacting Shakespeare
Assignment: Graphic Novels: Choose one: Maus, Art Spiegelman
Persepolis, Marjan Satrapi
American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang
Final Projects
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Wednesday, May 2: Final Projects; Celebrate; Thinking about our learning; Always more
questions than answers
Considering key ideas in YA Literature and Adolescent Development
Any student attending NYU who needs an accommodation due to a chronic, psychological, visual, mobility
and/or learning disability, or is deaf of hard of hearing should register with the Moses Center for Students
with Disabilities at 212-998-4980, 240 Greene Street, www.nyu.edu/csd