Category Archives: Reading Response

Using YA literature as “both a mirror and a window”

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I really loved the discussion of Young Adult literature in Teri Lesesne’s chapter “Of Times, Teens, and Books.” Lesene describes an expansion of differences in characters by color, by location, by interest, by religion, by sexual orientation, and suggests that these varied characters allow more teens to “use books both as a mirror or as a window”(Beers, 72). I really appreciated the idea that books can be used both to help students see a reflection of themselves, and also help them to access worlds and issues that fall outside of their own experiences.

As I was reading this chapter, I thought a lot about how Lesesne’s ideas could apply to the discipline I’m interested in teaching-social studies. I think using works of fiction in social studies classes can help students access the historical events and eras they are learning about. The personal, emotional quality of a novel can serve as a hook- engaging students in a story that makes history more tangible. I have experienced this in my own history classes. For example, last semester I took a course about Women’s history in the United States since 1890, and the syllabus included three novels- Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth, Willa Cather’s My Antonia, and Julia Alvarez’s How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. Each novel allowed me to immerse myself in the history and to gain a deeper, richer understanding of the historical context. The stories served as concrete examples of the larger themes and trends we discussed in class.

I also liked the idea of using books with multiple narratives in adolescent classrooms. Lesesne suggests that multiple narrators force students to ask questions about what is true and what is reliable, and I think that asking those questions is a very important element of literacy! Also, I think books with multiple narrators help students see the many perspectives present in every situation- an important skill in social studies and an important part of analyzing historical events.

I think these ideas about YA literature resonate with Elizabeth Birr Moje’s article about how literacy instruction can be a part of learning in different subject areas. Literacy skills and instruction can be a natural addition to subject area curricula, and can even enhance subject area learning.

 

Graphic Novels in the Classroom

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I love the idea of using graphic novels in the classroom.  It seems to me that students, due to increasing technologies and the widespread availability of multimedia, have become incredibly visual learners.  Even looking at myself and my parents it’s easy to see that even I am a much more visual learner than they were.  I agree with Lesesne when she explains that graphic novels provide readers with “complex characters and multilayered plots” (Beers, 63), in addition to important literary elements such as mood and tone.  What’s really important about graphic novels is that they are able to use sometimes complicated elements such as mood in a way that a younger reader can easily understand (i.e. when the shades in the frame are darker perhaps the mood of the scene has changed).  Complex and complicated concepts can be unpacked through graphic novels and visual media in ways that allow students to easily grasp these notions of style.  On top of that, for generations of students raised on video games and television, a graphic novel is simply more engaging.  I think back to reading Maus in 7th grade Hebrew school and being captivated by Art Spiegelman’s portrayal of the Holocaust.

To this day I have read few other novels focusing on the Holocaust that are more memorable or more poignant than Maus.  I don’t suggest that teachers should completely adopt graphic novels or other visual media as their main source of literature for students, but instead that graphic novels provide a spectacular tool for teaching complex literary concepts as well as engaging students who would be bored and uninvolved if reading a traditional text.

Joe