Young Adult Literature

1. Young Adult Literature OR Using YA literature as the “Main Course” across the curriculum! …it’s not just for dessert any more!

2. "I think when you read a good first line it's like falling in love with somebody…Your heart starts pounding… it opens up all the possibilities." -Nancy Pearl, librarian and author of Book Lust.

3. Battle of the BeginningsThe “Classics” vs. YA Lit • Identify the title and author • Which “first lines” were more appealing? • Differences between the “classics” and the YA titles?

4. “How Classics Create an Alliterate Society” by Donald R. Gallo • “A classic is a book that ‘requires a teacher to figure out a glimmer of what it says.’” • “The books I read on my own, you never want to put them down; the ones assigned, you never want to pick up.” • “My experience in high school with the classics was similar to dissecting a frog: it was tedious and it stunk.” • “Required literature has nothing to do with me…(literature is) keeping in touch with the dead.”

5. The Challenge - Overcoming the “Snob Appeal” of the “Classics” • Can we teach the reading and analytical skills with the “less challenging literary works”? • Like the classics, contemporary YA books “have plots that can be charted, settings that play significant roles, characters whose personalities, actions, and interactions can be analyzed…figurative language, foreshadowing, irony, symbolism, other literary elements…”

6. Activity #1 - Judging YA Lit Is your YA novel a “classic”? Is it… • Artistic…expresses “life, truth, beauty.” • Lasting…stands the “test of time.” • Universal…“Themes of love, hate, death, life, and faith touch upon some of our most basic emotional responses.” • Part of a continuum of great works. “You can study a classic and discover influences from other writers and other great works of literature.” Lombardi, Esther. “Literature: Classics.” About.Comhttp://classiclit.about.com/

7. Activity #2: YA Novels that Parallel the Classics - “Read-a Likes”Adolescent Literature as a Complement to the Classics ed. by Joan F. Kaywell From Hinton to Hamlet:Building Bridges Between Young Adult Literature and the Classicsby Sarah K.Herz and Donald R. GalloPairing Young Adult Literature with the Classicsby Jennifer Elizabeth Polidoro

8. Why read parallel YA novels? • Motivate disengaged students • Give students access to timeless themes • Demonstrate relevance • Helps provide background information. • Enhance their appreciation • Encourage their love of reading!

9. Parallel Plots & Themes • Romeo and Juliet • Romiette and Julio bySharon Draper • Scribbler of Dreams byMary Pearson • If You Come Softly byJacqueline Woodson • Julius Caesar • Scorpions byWalter Dean Myers • The Scarlet Letter - Hawthorne • Waiting for June by Joyce Sweeney • Annie’s Baby ed. byBeatrice Sparks • Someone Like You bySarah Dessen

10. More Parallel Plots & Themes • Dracula - Bram Stoker • Twilight byStephenie Meyer • The Silver Kiss byAnnette Curtis Klause • Lord of the Flies - Golding • The Goats byBrock Cole • 1984 - George Orwell • The Giver byLois Lowry • The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier • Feed by M.T. Anderson • Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

11. Even More Parallel Plots & Themes… • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Twain • 47 by Walter Mosley • Moby Dick - Melville • Leaving Protection by Will Hobbs • Cyrano DeBergerac - Rostand • Uglies by Scott Westerfield

12. An example… The Odyssey - Journey/Quest Hero Motif • http://www.webenglishteacher.com/hero.html • Students select and read a parallel YA novel. • East byEdith Pattou • Looking for Alaska by John Green • Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson • So Yesterday byScott Westerfield • Hole in My Life byJack Gantos • Eragon by Christopher Paolini • I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak • Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman • 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson • Select from a menu of projects.

13. Activity #3: YA Novels with Academic Topics, Themes • Interdisciplinary project using YA Novels with scientific topics, themes • Code Orange by Caroline B. Cooney • California Blue byDavid Klass • Double Helix byNancy Werlin • My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult • Fade to Black by Alex Flinn • Kissing Doorknobs by Terry Spencer Hesser • Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman • Cut by Patricia McCormick • After reading the novel, students research the topic and create a brochure answering an essential question.

14. Activity #4: Using Historical Novels • All Quiet on the Western Front - Remarque • Kipling’s Choice byGeert Spillebeen • Night - Weisel • Briar Rose byJane Yolen • Milkweed byJerry Spinelli • The Book Thief by Markus Zusak • The Things They Carried • Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers • The Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck • Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse • Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

15. I will tell you something about stories, [he said] They aren’t just entertainment. Don’t be fooled. They are all we have, you see, all we have to fight off illness and death You don’t have anything if you don’t have stories. From Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

16. And now - what you REALLY came for… • http://teacherweb.com/FL/AtlanticTechnicalCenterTechnicalHS/MrsRohrbach • You can access: • This PowerPoint • Classroom Activities • Bibliographies of Online • and Print Resources …the Handouts!