Week 6-2 Promise and Peril of YA Lit (Preparation)

How should my belief in how literature affects the reader guide my teaching and learning through literature with young adults?

I think this is an important question and I have secretly been wanting to answer it for a while. I believe that it is all about relationships that the reader has with the subject/theme, characters, and setting of the books.

I have a very simple philosophy about teaching. Dewey (learning imitating life) and Britton (reading across the curriculum) made the basic points that learning/school should relate to real life through it’s relevance to kids/students current experiences (start where the kids are) and self-projected future experiences. “Dewey came to the realization that learning was a process starting from uncertainty and growing from the impulse to resolve that uncertainly.” (from back cover of “The School and Society”.)

Readings for before 2-25-11:

•How Are Children Affected by the Books in Their Lives? Marc Aronson (eReserves)

•Beyond the Pale by Marc Aronson, Section Two and Section Four (our textbook)
Chapter 4 - What is Good Art, Now?
Chapter 5 - Of Camels and Needles' Eyes: Art and Young Readers
Chapter 10 - The Pursuit of Happiness: Does American History Matter?
Chapter 11 - Teenagers Don't Want to Read about Teen Angst, So Why Are So Many Angst-Filled Books Published?
Chapter 12 - What Is a YA Book, Anyway?

Prompts for before 2-25-11:

•What is young adult literature?

•On the literary to moralist continuum, where do I fall? How should my belief in how literature affects the reader guide my teaching and learning through literature with young adults?

•What should be the role of Young Adult Literature in the English Language Arts program?