Final-final paperforECI521.docx

CREATING A YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE CLASS AT BRS 1

Creating a Young Adult Literature Class at BRS

Final Paper

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ECI 521

Teaching Young Adult Literature

NC State University

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Yuanyuan FangDecember, 2014

Author Note

Yuanyuan Fang, College of Education, NC State University

This paper was credited to the effective and engaging teaching pedagogy and study strategies the

author learned from ECI 521. Great thanks go to Dr Carol Pope and classmates in ECI 521.

Contact: [email protected]

Introduction


As Francis Bacon said in his essay -- Of Studies (1625), “Reading maketh a full man”.

Reading transforms readers. When readers interact with and respond to literature, meaning devel-

ops. This confirms the view of literature “as a vehicle for affirming personal meaning, for explor-

ing values, and for gaining new insights about the world” (Jean E. Brown & Elaine C. Stephens,

1995, p. 5). Literature exposes readers to unknown places beyond their limited world, facilitates

their exchange of ideas with those wiser, and provides them with opportunities to become more

developed by making connections to universal concepts. Adolescence, a crucial developmental

stage, requires guidance and a powerful affirmation of personal identity. Thus literature is an in-

tegral part of life, helping young adults see beyond the surface and successfully metamorphose

into adulthood.

Educating young adults cannot be restricted to simple text-based learning for academic

knowledge. It must promote self-knowledge, knowledge of others, and a holistic knowledge of

the world (Brown & Stephens, 1995). Young adult literature is a specialized field that has great

potential to cater to the needs of young people. By reading young adult literature, young people

can enrich their cognitive and aesthetic experiences, both of which have a lasting impact on their

developmental growth (Brown & Stephens, 1995). Considering its significant evolution within

the past two generations, young adult literature has won immense popularity amongst young

adults and teachers; especially the “coming-of-age” novel genre. It is therefore imperative to have

a young adult literature course intended for students at the Beijing Royal School in China.

Beijing Royal School (BRS) is a K-12, private international school. Two-thirds of their

middle and high school students are adolescents, most of whom are planning to go abroad for

their college degree. Based on my own observations and teaching experiences at BRS, I have

found that students ranging from 14 to 17 years old are able to “reason at the formal operational


level and bring together variables through synthesis”. ( Bushman & Haas, 2006, p. 6). The pur-

pose of creating a young adult literature class at BRS is not only to engage students in reading

and learning, thus expanding their “intellectual growth”, but also to further develop their emo-

tional and social maturity (Havighurst, 1972).

The Interrelationship Between Young Adult(YA) and Young Adult

Literature(YAL)

According to the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) of the American Li-

brary Association (ALA), a young adult is defined as someone between the ages of twelve and

eighteen. During this vital developmental period, young adults begin to express themselves phys-

ically, culturally, and psychologically. Based upon research in developmental psychology (Pi-

agetian), this is when they start thinking about “fanciful problems” not based in reality. They be-

gin thinking in a more flexible manner, using logical processes and problem solving to formulate

greater possibilities, and are inclined to “make hypothetical judgments (Purves, Rogers & Soter,

1990, p. 28). A wealth of literature for the adolescent audience has evolved since the 19th cen-

tury-- “the first age of great children’s book” (Wintle & Fisher, 1974, p. 14). It is now becoming

increasingly acceptable in many middle and high school English courses to “supplement, enrich,

and extend basic material in content-area courses” (Jean E. Brown & Elaine C. Stephens, 1995,

p. 4).

According to the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE, 1986), young adult liter-

ature is a valuable part of a human being’s literary heritage. It is unique, because it is like a fasci-

nating mirror that helps young adults “see” their feelings, as well as a magical map that can help

them find emotional resolutions. Young people need not feel alone and afraid any more. Just as

Sandy Asher said (1992), “Books, novels, stories, are one way we can reach out to one another


without losing face, one way of saying: ‘We are not alone, not in our fears, not in our hopes, not

in our nightmares, and not in our dreams.’” Young adult literature that has a long-lasting effect

on its readers always relates to their life and personal experiences from a safe distance.

Why Students Read and Learn Young Adult Literature

In her study on the “effect of teaching and learning young adult literature”, Hynds (1989)

provides evidence that students interact with greater success when reading works with which

they are capable of connecting. “Readers who brought a greater range of interpersonal constructs

to their reading” (p. 31) became more internally motivated and less dependent upon teachers,

parents, and peers. Thus young adult literature helps students achieve emotional, behavioral, cre-

ative, and functional success.

Young Adult Literature as Strategies for Living

Young adult literature properly and wonderfully reflects the series of changes that young

adults undergo. It also offers up strategies for living (Mayer, 1990). For young readers, this func-

tion of YAL is very powerful because they are the very group that actively seeks answers in life

and eagerly seeks out “strategies for living” (Brown and Stephens, 1995). While reading, they ex-

perience, explore, and respond as readers. That’s why they are inclined to select the books that

can reflect or strengthen their values and paradigms. Moreover, young adults usually integrate

ideas, information, and values into their own characters and into their lives, which makes the

books they are reading a fundamental part of their lives. By reading YAL, young adults explore

their identification with protagonists and antagonists and discover a long list of solutions to the

problems confronting them in real life.

Young Adult Literature as a Complement to the Classics


To prepare students for college, studying classical literature has become a requirement by

the college admissions system. The “classics” comprise the majority of the high school English

literary canon that is used to teach content, word accumulation, sentence patterns, writing style,

thematic summary, etc. Unfortunately, the classics are often too difficult for students to under-

stand, or too distant from their personal experiences. Thus students regularly question the neces-

sity of studying these “old”, “detached” materials. Qualitative research shows that classical litera-

ture alone cannot meet the needs of young adults. However, this problem can be solved by using

young adult literature in alignment with classical literature to expose students to literature that is

both relevant and meaningful.

The main difference between young adult literature and those classics frequently assigned

is obvious: the former is written specifically for young adults. The reading levels of most YAL

books are within students’ range of ease. YAL is not solely a subject that produces information

and knowledge, but a meaningful and instructive means of “cultural literacy” that promotes per-

sonal growth and helps young readers gain the confidence and passion necessary to discover the

essence of life and become lifelong readers (Bushman & Haas, 2006). Young adults can respond,

relate, and engage with young adult literature. When fully developed, YAL provides young

adults with the opportunity to participate in an active and reciprocal process that many classics

cannot; that is, “An enlargement of the student’s understanding of human life while reading leads

to increased aesthetic sensitivity, and increased aesthetic sensitivity makes possible more fruitful

human insights” from YAL (Rosenblatt, 1991, p. 273).

Young Adult Literature to Meet the Educational Aims of Schools

The ultimate aim of a 21st century education is to prepare students to be well-developed

and meaningful global citizens. Literature intended for young adults is a “vital addition” to this;


“it has the potential to integrate and to unify learning in all content areas by celebrating the

uniqueness of different cultures and their people while affirming the universal traits that define

our humanity” (Jean E. Brown & Elaine C. Stephens, 1995, p. 5). Young adult literature is not

just a reading activity for comprehension or passing tests, but an aesthetic and innovative experi-

ence. In YAL class, young adults are provided with opportunities to articulate responses, postu-

late ideas, and create new maps of life. This active process assists in their maturity and makes

them more likely to become positive and compassionate individuals.

Additionally, young adult literature adds vigor to a traditionalist curriculum that, frankly,

bores young adults. According to Probst (1987), “Adolescent literature must have a significant

place in the curriculum... Because it touches their lives, addresses issues that matter, and raises

questions that are likely to interest them. We must judge it on the likelihood that the students’

transactions with it will be of high quality--committed, interested, reasoned, emotional, per-

sonal.” (p. 28). YAL is a bridge that allows young adults to “view themselves as literature, which

leads them to continue a lifetime pattern of reading” (Hynds, 1990, P. 251).

The Necessity of Creating Young Adult Literature Class at BRS

According to Louise Rosenblatt (1991), “aesthetic reading is a process in which emotions,

attitudes, or stances on the part of young readers are addressed. We read for information, but we

are also conscious of emotions about it and feel pleasure by reading” (p. 445). Students should

read for enjoyment, for enlarging their understanding, and for appreciating the art. However, his-

torically, reading class, as an academic discipline, has centered on facts, structure, content, and

grammar; mainly for the sake of preparing students for entrance examinations.

Based on my own experiences at BRS, there are many problems with our strategies for

teaching literature, and addressing these issues is my rationale for creating a YAL class at BRS.


To prove this necessity, I collected data from BRS teachers and students in two separate ques-

tionnaires regarding young adult literature. The survey of BRS students included 28 middle and

high school students of different learning levels: 8 students in Grade 9 (13-14 year-olds) and 20

students in grade 10 and 11 (15-17 year-olds). The survey of BRS teachers included 3 middle

school English teachers, 5 high school English teachers, and 2 Chinese language teachers. The

student survey asked questions about what they read, how, and why. The teachers survey asked

questions about YAL reading purposes and methods--the attitudes, values, and strategies that

will influence students reading and learning processes.

Current Problems with Reading at BRS

Student Survey

It is distressing to find that, according to my survey, 71.4% of students are primarily read-

ing for tests or exams; 67.8% report that reading literature in class is just to recognize the mean-

ing of words and identify main ideas; 53.5% don’t read literature in or out of class; and 42.9%

don’t even know what young adult literature is. The survey also indicates that students like read-


ing, but 53.5% of them have no idea of where to find resources that can both relate to them and

provide them with the skills necessary for entrance exams.

Teacher Survey

Based on my survey for teachers, 50% report that they are currently teaching literature for

tests or exams, and 50% don’t think that they have the necessary resources for young adult read-

ers. Furthermore, 80% of teachers report that it is challenging to teach YAL within the BRS

school curricula.

Based on these surveys, I have found that literary instruction at BRS pedagogically fo-

cuses on the method of deconstructuralism. Literature is taught as a body of knowledge dis-

pensed by the teacher and digested by the students, who read with a focus upon “issues of format,

spelling, grammar and other surface features rather than content”. This “outdated organizational

scheme” directs students to simply read for facts or themes (Probsts, 1988a). Unfortunately, the

essence of the aesthetic response to literature is being ignored, leaving the audience with no

chance to interact. Consequently, students are losing their desire to read in or out of class, and if

they read, it is a purely academic exercise.


Other Findings

Although students report a distressing situation in their literature class, 89.2% of them still

believe that reading literature should be an interactive and engaging process in which students

can actively participate, and 92.8% of students also report that they enjoy reading books that re-

late to their world and their personal experiences. Moreover, 78.5% of them think teachers, li-

brarians, and parents play very important roles in offering up professional advice for their liter-

ary journey. They also mentioned that they prefer interesting reading activities or projects that

can engage them in independent reading and enrich their learning and adolescent life.

Based on the teacher survey, I also found that 70% of teachers believe that teaching YAL is

not just for the purpose of understanding vocabulary and identifying main ideas; 100% of teach-

ers think young adult literature class is very important and helpful for teachers and schools to un-

derstand young adults more; and 100% of them support starting a young adult literature class at

BRS as soon as possible in order to address student issues and better mature during their devel-

opmental stages. To my delight, BRS teachers also mentioned the significance and dynamics of

reading and learning YAL, as well as its contribution to creating a YAL class at BRS.


Based on my survey, I also believe that most students will “fall in love with” reading again

if they are motivated to choose their own reading, or given good literary options in tandem with

proper guidance and professional advice. Students also yearn for a safe, open, and comfortable

class environment for using and reading young adult literature. Lastly, both teachers and students

advocate for shifting the focus of school curricula from preparing students for tests to preparing

them holistically for life and whatever direction that takes them.

Key Reading Strategies to YAL Class

To build a successful young adult literature class, reader response-centered strategies play

a very fundamental role.

Theories to Rationale the Fundamental Role of Reader Response

Rosenblatt, widely recognized as the founder of reader-response theory, believes that read-

ing is a “transaction” in which the reader and text converse together in a particular situation to

make meaning (Rosenblatt, 1983). The reader’s own individual purposes, mood, and background

experiences with life and reading become primary influences on the meaning that’s evoked. The

meaning readers take away from a text offers readers possibilities, taking them beyond space,

time and self; it also empowers readers to transcend with insights and perceptions into life. Thus

it is essential for classroom teachers to create a successful literature class based on reader re-

sponse. As Robert Probst (1988) points out, “students must be free to deal with their reactions to

the text,’ which also means that teachers should “ask students what they see, feel, think and re-

member as they read, encouraging them to attend to their own experience of the text” (p. 31). As

a transformational process of learning, reader response is the basis to every strategy applied in

YAL.


A number of theories ground this study in emphasizing the importance of reader response

in literature classroom--Situated Cognition theory, Bloom’s Taxonomy, and Social Cognition

theory. According to Jean Lave (1990), Situated Cognition puts emphasis on the importance of

practical experience in learning. It is the theory that people's knowledge and experiences are em-

bedded in the activity, context, and culture in which it was acquired. With the implementation of

a reader response-centered literary classroom, culturally relevant allusions are acquired and de-

velopmental issues confronting young adults -- such as adapting to physical changes, gaining in-

dependence from parents and adults, preparing for a career, acquiring a personal ideology and

achieving social responsibility (Bushman & Haas, 2006) -- are addressed in specific contexts in

literature, because they are encountered in the moment that they are needed. It emphasizes posi-

tive growth and application of knowledge and experiences in a historical and cultural context.

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy is a revised version of a powerful tool to represent student

progression in learning. Each level is a continuum of knowledge that transitions from being con-

crete to tangible. The higher-level thinking skills embedded in Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy tar-

gets the 21st century skills needed today by gaining self-knowledge, knowledge of others, and

knowledge of the world, and using them in critical, creative, flexible, and innovative ways. In

this sense, the reader response-centered literary classroom is created to gauge the cognitive, af-

fective and psychomotor development of students (Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill, & Krathwohl,

1956).

Focusing on Affective “domain” in Bloom’s Taxonomy, students will respond emotionally

to the similar issues confronting them or their peers, and attach values to an event, phenomenon

or a set of scenes in a book. After reading, through organizing different ideas and values, and ac-

commodating them within his/her schema -- a mental structure of preconceived ideas that people


use to organize current knowledge and provide a framework for future understanding (Nadkarni

& Narayanan 2007) -- they develop an ability to grow strong and compassionate.

Social cognition is the encoding, storage, retrieval, and processing of information about

conspecifics (members of the same species). Based on this theory, people show remarkable flexi-

bility in adjusting as situations change; they can take active control of their thoughts and their

plans; they can review several alternatives for interpreting the same event; and they change their

knowledge through feedback from new experiences, reworking existing beliefs, values, and goals

(Showers & Cantor, 1985). For young adults, their social cognition abilities are developed in the

reader response process learning. For example, when they are asked to present book trailers, they

encode characters, events and values from the book, retrieve and process what they have stored,

collaborate with their partners, and produce their own products based on their different responses

and interpretations. Students develop their social cognition abilities as readers, thinkers, re-

searchers, speakers, directors, producers, etc., and these skills are also the key to a 21st century

education that prepares students to be competent world citizens.


Teaching a Response-Centered Literature Curriculum

In order to guarantee success, it is necessary to design a response-centered literature cur-

riculum for young adults at BRS. For any middle school or high school, the key purpose of a lit-

erature curriculum is, through developing a love of reading, to motivate and cultivate lifelong

readers. According to Rosenblatt (1991), “Few teachers of English today would deny that the in-

dividual’s ability to read and enjoy literature is the primary aim of literary study” (p. 64). The re-

sponse-centered classroom is viewed as a transformation to a traditional curriculum that students

find boring. However, if students are connected to reading, they will engage with ease and view

reading as a drive for lifelong learning. In this case, for building a successful young adult litera-

ture class, it is fundamental to design a reader response-centered literature curriculum. Ridding

ourselves of a curriculum based on studying literature solely for words, structures or factual in-

formation, is the first step in arousing young adults’ motivation in reading and contributing to

their growth. According to my surveys, BRS teachers and students unanimously agree that the

school curriculum should be reformed for cultivating students as engaging learners. Structural

changes in creating a literature curriculum require teachers who know how to teach literature,

students who are interested readers, and librarians/curriculum designers who have a broad

knowledge of YAL. In this way, students interest and voices for the pleasure of reading and

learning can be developed.

Classroom Strategies to Teach Young Adult Literature on Reader Response

According to Bushman and Haas (2006), “Like any successful program, a reader-response

approach to teaching literature requires careful use of classroom strategies to achieve desired re-

sults” (p. 63). Considering the nature of teenage readers at BRS, genres of young adult literature,


and its use in bilingual classroom curriculum, teachers’ flexible, instructive, and innovative class-

room strategies are of great value in creating a successful YAL classroom.

Integrating reader response selections/choices with technology.

According to my survey, 75% of students and 80% of teachers believe technology is one of the

best ways for them to have access to a good and varied selection of young adult books. Taking

advantage of online tools to benefit YAL literacy is a common trend for 21st century learners

and teachers. Students can integrate their responses to and interpretations of readings with those

online tools to share and recommend books to their peers. The followings are good examples that

I learned from ECI 521--Teaching Young Adult Literature.

The E-site review: students are encouraged to write up a review to present an e-site intended

for YAL reading, learning, or teaching resources. Students introduce the potential use of the sites

they find instructive and helpful as well as the shortcomings and cyber-safety issues. As a learner

in ECI 521, through the metacognitive process, I found that the class shared a wealth of re-

sources for YAL. Some classmates also shared a long list of amazing e-sites they frequently log

into and benefit from. This allows students to become expert librarians who can offer up profes-

sional advice to their peers. For BRS, where students and teachers all appeal for more reading re-

sources to address young adult issues, using e-sites is really great method of helping teachers and

students to make choices about their literary options.

The Video-Book talk: In this process, students articulate their responses by comparing and

contrasting the writing in a novel and the writing of a script (with critiques). Through this, stu-

dents develop an understanding of the different uses of writing, and therefore understand with

greater depth the different but essential uses of reading. Instead of a stand-alone book talk, the

VBTs also help develop students’ interest in literature by probing the book they select and re-


viewing film techniques like an authentic book/film reviewer. Additionally, the connections of

the film to the book will effectively contribute to their interactions of reading, speaking, listening

and writing. To compare and contrast also requires creativity, critical thinking, and problem solv-

ing, which are the essential objectives of a 21st century education.

The Book trailer: In order to produce a tantalizing way of “selling books”, students are stimu-

lated to try different methods of representing books. This is a refreshing and rewarding task that

directly integrates technology and literacy. Students must have a good knowledge of at least one

digital tool to open up a book and invite viewers to read. During this process, students read

closely, think critically, respond freely, and interpret insightfully. Their cognitive and aesthetic

experiences (visualizing, questioning, reacting, analyzing, synthesizing, etc.) are evoked, ex-

tended, and enriched in producing a tantalizing book trailer. It seems that they view themselves

as literature so that they can create an affecting and engaging book trailer. In addition, in the

process of viewing and commenting on other peers’ trailers, students will feel tempted to add

many new books to their shelves that they have never considered.

Independent reading list: This is one of my favorite tasks in the ECI 521 course, because

for someone who didn’t read a lot, the completion of this reading list, along with studying other

strategies in this course, like young adult literature partner discussing and writing (YALP), is a

transforming process with “a big harvest”. Books of more than 12 categories cover a wide range

of topics in terms of cultural literacy, which facilitate students to know more about their own cul-

ture and the culture of others. In addition, books from different genres expose students to a dif-

ferent, but exciting, reading “itinerary” in which they can enrich their knowledge and values, and

empower them to achieve success. During this process, students can also share and exchange

books with each other.


Teachers role: Teachers should make efforts to become expert readers who read and think a

lot, and offer up professional advice to students. While choosing texts, teachers play roles as

guides, librarians, and leaders, instead of controllers. Through the metacognitive process, teach-

ers can read together with students to better understand students’ mind; through listening to stu-

dents’ response and encouraging them to “articulate”-- talking, writing, and producing -- teachers

engage students as readers and help them address their issues and grow at the developmental

stages.

Parents and librarians role: According to my surveys, 78.5% of students report parents and

librarians play a significant role in giving them guidance on their choices of literature; 60% of

teachers strongly agree that librarians should be knowledgeable about YAL resources and com-

petent enough to offer advice to young adults who have access to a wide range of texts. Accord-

ing to the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a librarians mission is to expand

and strengthen library services for teens. Libraries and librarians need to have great capacity to

engage, serve and empower teens to read and learn.

Creating a classroom climate for reader response

In order to create an instructive and active environment for students, teachers must main-

tain trust and consistency throughout their instruction and behavior. The first step is to build a

safe and comfortable classroom learning community for open discussions. Next, the behavior of

teachers must stimulate an environment of cooperation. If students feel a sense of security for

talking, discussing and writing, they will be internally motivated to pursue more openly engaging

and active young adult literature learning, and a successful classroom learning climate will be

achieved in little time.


Classroom arrangement: In Chinese classrooms, all students sit in rows facing teachers,

which shows a sense of conformity and collectivism. However, in order to prepare students for a

trusting relationship for sharing ideas and discussing freely and safely, classrooms should be or-

ganized to create a feeling of warmth, openness, and positivity, which will have a positive effect

on class discussions and group dialogues. So first of all, a successful literature class needs to

have circular seating arranged for students to see and hear one another “in a fresh and alive at-

mosphere” (Bushman & Haas, 2006, p. 64). Through this arrangement, a more friendly and har-

monious relationship can be promoted between teachers and students, and students will feel at

home when they speak up and share their experiences.

Social forums online: This includes Young Adult Literature Partners (YALP), Peer Re-

views, and Weekly Prompts online. In order to involve every student in the YAL classroom

learning community, online forums are useful for those who are shy, lack confidence, or are tem-

porarily uncomfortable with articulating their ideas in a physical class. Students are able to open

a friendly online space to talk, share, respond to, and exchange thoughts about what they are

reading and learning through accessible and practicable online tools. For BRS students, consider-

ing their particular Internet situation, they can turn to Sina blog, Tencent Blog, Qzone, and

Wechat link, etc. In the long term, YALP, Peers Review and Weekly Prompts, integrated with

online tools, are excellent examples that allow students to engage in reading, talking, and writing

as participants during literature class.

Teachers role: Teachers can also incorporate class topics into forum discussions through cre-

ative activities, such as: “take-out dinner plan” (students “invite” one of characters from the nov-

els they read to “dinner” and “talk”), group discussion about cross-cultural genres, etc. Teachers

can involve themselves by radiating “warmth and mutual trust” in these forums as well. What’s


more, for young adults, with regards to cyber-safety and digital etiquette, teachers are suggested

to supervise and guide the process of using e-sites.

Promoting a response-centered inquiry environment

To develop the positive dynamics of young adult literature reading and learning at school, build-

ing an inquiry learning community based on reader response is essential. According to Bloom’s

taxonomy, students’ learning objectives are divided into three domains: cognitive, affective, and

psychomotor; whose objectives focus on change or development in behavior and skills (Bloom,

1956). One aim of Bloom’s taxonomy is to motivate educators to promote a more holistic form

of education, which applies to students’ literature learning. During the process of inquiry, stu-

dents can raise compelling questions about what happened to themselves/peers and why/how to

handle that. Then they can select books or non-printed texts by themselves, or through the rec-

ommendations of teachers, librarians, peers, or parents. After reading, students exchange ideas

within groups or pairs and then showcase or publish their findings through online forums/blogs/

zones or school fairs. This inquiry-based literature learning can be in the form of projects, ses-

sions, seminars, conferences or book reading fairs all-around the school. In this environment,

students are motivated to learn as readers, speakers, writers, organizers, leaders, and producers.

Teachers, librarians and parents should play roles as guides, learners, professional advisors, lead-

ers, and sponsors, whose encouragement and support are indispensable. Especially for teachers

and librarians, their advice, resources, and consistent trust and support are necessary for the com-

munity to survive and thrive.

Once a warm and friendly environment is created, a teachers attitude is the primary tool to

persuade students that reading and learning are intertwined, as the lifelong reading process re-


quires perseverance. They need to strike a balance between inviting students to think and re-

spond freely and maintaining authority (Bushman & Haas, 2006)

According to the results my surveys, teachers and students in BRS all believe that a suc-

cessful response-centered literature curriculum requires highly-qualified teachers who know YA

and YAL well and who know how to interact with YAL, rather than simply instruct. This distinc-

tion is crucial to ensuring the success of a response-based classroom. “To ‘teach’ is soften than to

‘instruct’ ” (Eisner, 1985, p. 181).

Teaching young adult literature integrated with core texts within school cur-

riculum

According to Rosenblatt (1985), literary evocation is the process in which readers selects

out ideas, feelings, and images essential to engaging students in learning (p. 40). That means

teachers need to be well aware of this evocative response in which readers integrate their ideas,

feelings, knowledge, and values from their past life experiences into a new experience. If teach-

ers are capable of using literature to motivate students’ critical thinking and appreciation across

the curriculum, students will be more internally motivated to read, contribute to the knowledge

pool by providing their personal reactions, and develop as independent readers with their own vi-

sion.

However, for BRS English teachers, it is challenging to achieve that in a short time. The

pressures caused by improving students’ language proficiency for tests keeps them closely

aligned to school curriculums that are mostly orientated for high scores in language tests. The

traditional approach to teaching a classics based literary curriculum was the best thing they could

do to prepare their college-bound students for their entrance examinations. YA books are far

from being universally accepted in BRS classrooms. Undoubtedly, the classics have their own


merits to some extent, but middle and high school students should also have their own choices,

and significant opportunities to explore the flourishing body of young adult literature. Finding

proper ways to integrate young adult literature into the curriculum effectively requires careful

planning, but would be met with celebration. YAL would provide amazing opportunities and

pleasures for students to learn and teachers to teach.

Content is a compelling ground to teach a successful YAL class. YA literature affords read-

ers diverse characters, affecting and compelling stories, and high quality writing. When incorpo-

rated into literature curricula, YA titles can offer a wide range of worldview about identity, trials,

issues, conflict, society, etc. Besides using the classroom strategies aforementioned, YA litera-

ture can be easily incorporated into classrooms by being paired with classics as well as canons

typically used in classrooms (George, 2001).

Create multiple genre thematic units. Teachers must include multiple genres and find

literature that relates to the theme of the core texts assigned by the curricula. There are many

meaningful ways -- such as literature circles/spaces (like YALPs, Peers Review, Weekly prompts

the author learned from ECI 521 in the paper), book clubs, and multimedia projects (like VBTs,

Book Trailers the author benefited from ECI 521) -- to motivate students to read and write about

literature with a purpose more significant than learning about vocabulary, sentence patterns, and

main ideas. Teachers must collaborate to find core themes that are consistent. Then they must

find books that can address those issues, spark the struggling or reluctant readers, and engage

and extend their knowledge on the thematic requirement of units in the curriculum. Students can

then read, respond to, discuss, and work on a project to explore the target issues, and even con-

nect current events that reflect the issues that they are studying (George, 2001). With this


method, a variety of texts are bridged by a certain common theme, which allows students to use

literature to pull out big ideas and make connections among the various genres.

Interdisciplinary curricular planning units. Teachers can integrate YAL across the cur-

riculum by creating interdisciplinary units in which they can collaborate with teachers of other

disciplines, such as: science, history, social studies, art, etc. This is a very practical means for

students to engage in reading and learning. It is of great help to question and “tear down” some of

the artificial divisions that exist in school curriculums today, and this encourages teachers to co-

operate together to use young adult literature to explore “big ideas” with their students and ex-

plore the themes and issues confronting teachers and students in the 21st century (George, 2001).

For example, connecting a high school AP English literature curriculum with American history,

teachers can guide students to read a core novel--Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, accompa-

nied by some historical adolescent novel during the same time period -- like Bud, Not Buddy by

Christopher Paul Curtis and Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool. AP American history

teachers can join in as they read these novels. The AP literature class discussion can center upon

literary elements and cultural elements of the novel, while the AP American history teacher can

focus on the historical aspects of the work. Like thematic planning within AP literature class, this

interdisciplinary curricular planning has been highly effective in helping students make connec-

tions between the disciplines that they study each day.

Teaching young adult literature within a tight school curriculum is quite challenging, but

as long as teachers, students, and others who are interested in young adult literature persevere in

and avail themselves of every opportunity, a safe and comfortable climate for using young adult

literature can and will be created.

Challenges and Future Efforts


According to the surveys, BRS students report that they learn literature for tests or exams

based on reading comprehension in reading class. And teachers have to focus on the analysis of

assigned literature works mostly written for adults for academic purposes. In terms of the histori-

cal contexts for teaching literature in China, people tend to think that teaching students to memo-

rize facts based on analyzing literary elements or deconstructivism is one of the common features

of literary education at secondary level or higher. Based on my observations, learning and teach-

ing experiences, this misbelief has been consistent with Chinese or English literature curriculum

of some schools for quite a time in China. Students have no motivation to read or are not en-

gaged in reading due to the lack of dynamics of lifelong reading, poor resources that meet their

needs, no proper teaching and learning strategies, and the severe censorship in literature selec-

tions within curriculums intended for tests, etc.

To create a successful young adult literature class at BRS, based on the surveys, teachers

and students unanimously appeal for the support from school to involve response-centered young

adult literature in curriculum as early as possible, to enrich the reading resources intended for

young adults, to train teachers with skills and competence in teaching young adult literature, to

improve librarians’ capacity in offering young adults professional advice and aiding them to have

access to a wealth of choices, and to radiate warmth and trust for building a lifelong reading

school community. Only in this way will our young adults be engaged as participants with read-

ing preferences in literature learning, experiencing diverse cultures, exploring identity, interests

and values, finding meanings in life, and grow up as culturally and globally competent citizens to

meet up future challenges.


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Appendix A

The result of the survey intended for students






Appendix B

The results of the survey intended for teachers







Documents

Final-final paperforECI521.docx