Traditional versus Contemporary

For the past 3 months, I have successfully read (which I seldom do lately – of course I blame it on the time), 5 young adult novels and also 8 locally written young adult short stories. From my readings, I can see some peculiar characteristics of the recent young adult genre as compared to the traditional ones.

The most obvious characteristics is that its protagonist is an adolescent. This means that the young adults who read such novels are able to internalize what the protagonist’s is going through in life because age wise, they are somewhat similar.

The characters are also realistic characters with no super power to change the world.

The novels basically focus on ‘a life yet to be lived’ where they portray the obstacles and conflicts faced by young adults in their process of growing up. The conflicts occur because of young adults’ confusions, social pressure, norms, parents and society expectation and what not.

Traditional young adult literature was somehow a bit gender bias. The protagonists are always male. Well, we can see the reason why . The society put high expectations on the male rather than the female who would just sooner or later turn up to be a plain housewife, looking after children and husband. They do not find the females’ roles as challenging at all. The females are just seen as silent followers to the more powerful and dominant sex - the male. No wonder the protagonists are always males!

The focused issues is also different . This is obvious because the novel relates to the time when it was written. Tradition novels focused on the life during the feudal age when there were social bias towards the poor. Also on social injustice, exploitation and hard life faced by people, including the young adults at that time.

Time changes and so do literature. The issues are different now- to suit our time. To be more contemporary.

Come to think of it…. What issues will there be in the young adult literature, say, 20 years from now? Would the setting be around the cyber space? Let’s just wait and see. Hopefully we will live long enough to ‘enjoy’ their literature.

The art of discussing and writing

I found that the more I involve myself in discussion, the more I tend to understand my feelings and clarify my thinking on the book that I read. They say that effective discussions can help students develop higher-level thinking skills. I believe this is true. In discussion, we interact with one another, be it students or teacher, we normally put forth multiple points of view and stand ready to change our minds about the matter under discussion. We will gain valuable insight and information from the discussion done if everybody is to participate in a meaningful way.

I feel that I benefited most if the discussion is well organized and structured. The first step - setting the stage – is a crucial stage where getting the group members to get hooked right from the beginning of the discussion. So as none will lack focus and not be prepared to move on to more in-depth responding and thinking. Usually at this stage, a broad, general questions or statement pertaining to the discussion will be posed. For example, The part that I liked best about the book was….the questions and statements should be general and open-ended enough for members to express their reactions rather than try to guess what the ‘right’ answer is. From this point the discussion will go on by itself which will eventually touch on theme, tone, conflict, characters and so on.

Writing is no doubt too, an important aspect to bring about understanding and clarity on what we read. According to Vacca and Linek (1992), ‘to find meaning and purpose in learning, students must be encouraged to think about what they are learning – and therein lies the power of writing’. Formal and informal writing both alike, serve the same purpose of enhancing understanding. Formal writing is the finished product that the one/ student publishes or makes available to others.

As for me, I kind of prefer the informal writing in which we write journals, with no restrictions on spelling and mechanics or keeping a portfolio. We may jot down our initial impressions and expectations or engage in making predictions before we begin reading a selection. We make brief notes of things we want to explore or remember while we are reading. We also write reflections after writing to record our reactions. And during discussion, we take notes and then write a more lengthy reflection to clarify and extend our ideas and feeling.

As a conclusion, where literature is concerned, discussion and writing play a very significant role.

Learning partner and small group interaction

The concept of sharing should always be the focus in formulating activities in a YAL classroom. One of the means is by pairing the students or by putting them in a small group to discuss on the literature that they have read, or in the mid of reading. It involves social interaction that provides a supportive learning environment for students.

For me, working in pairs or in small groups can enhance my understanding and appreciation of literature. For instance, by having a learning partner, we could respond to each other in our dialogue journal, share our writing on the books that we read with one another and we can also act as peer editors. We will always discuss what we are reading and recommend books to each other and even develop creative projects out of what we read together. I am a firm believer in the saying ‘two heads is better than one’.

However, care need to taken when choosing a partner. It should be based on academic and social compatibility as well as similar interests and goals. Once a partnership is established and operating effectively, it is beneficial to keep it together for an extended period of time. The benefit to this longevity is that we can gain trust and an increased level of cooperation. This thus makes our work, as partners, more productive. Another benefit to this is that being partners, we will have or share mutual responsibilities and mutual needs and ultimately our level of commitment and involvement will be high.

And as for working in a small group, say three to five members is a good method of sharing experiences with the group members and to further our understanding of these experiences.

Basically, based on experience and observation, pair work and study group provide us with the opportunity to encourage and support the efforts of each other as we explore the ideas, concepts, and experiences of our reading. Thus achieving our ultimate goal of enhancing understanding and appreciation to literature.

Eyeing for the appropriate Young Adult Literature (YAL).

Choosing YAL books indeed isn’t an easy task. But why do we need to be so choosy? Isn’t any book is better than no book at all? Or what’s good for us will do good for the young adult as well. So just choose what we, the teachers like. Save us time, energy and perhaps money.

Those were the days when the teachers got the students to read and study literature books that the teachers found interesting. Regardless what the students thought of them. Ironically the books are meant for the students to work on!

There are 3 factors that should be taken into consideration when choosing YAL. The first is choosing for quality book, second it cater for the students’ interest and needs and lastly it fulfill the curriculum requirement.

Some indicators of quality books are believable characters who are multifaceted people, who are neither stereotypical nor prototypical. As for the plot, it should be coherent but not predictable. The conflicts should be reasonable and are resolved satisfactorily. The themes are significant and the settings are appropriate.

As for the style, the dialogue should be authentic, there’s clarity of language, vivid images and the descriptions are rich but not effusive.

As for the integrity of a work, readers have the right to expect to be treated as intelligent participants in the literary experience. Readers should never be exploited and have the right to expect the language used that is appropriate to the characters and the times, timeless themes that speak to timely issues and responsible presentation of controversial ideas.

The most effective way to determine students’ needs and interests is to go to the source. Students surveys and inventories that teachers develop are valuable in determining issues that concern students about their reading.

Basically these are the things that influence me when choosing YAL books.

A literature Teacher to be… an avid reader, an expert guide and a keen researcher

Frankly speaking, I didn’t remember having a single good teacher teaching literature during my school days. Perhaps during those years teaching were merely chalk and talk and in literature class plus reading. At the end of the day, we were tested on what we had read. Teaching and learning missions thus accomplished.

Having read Brown & Stephens book on Teaching Young Adult Literature, I could visualize the type of teacher whom I long to have as my literature teacher.

My so called favourite teacher is the one who always encourages and foster his students to read. This is done by establishing lifelong reading habits. He will ensure that his students are exposed to a rich reading environment – to have ample amount of story books in class apart from having a user- friendly library, which can be considered as a ready access to a wide range of reading materials. Students are then given the opportunities to select their own reading.

The teacher also in a way guide and support us with our selection of books to read which is based on our own interest because the teacher seems to have read all books and knows what suits our individual interest. Obviously, the teacher practice what he preach. He didn’t just ask students to read, he himself is an avid reader indeed. He always stays current and up-to date with his readings. Students notice this.

The concept of teaching as the act of bestowing or imparting knowledge on students is already obsolete. A teacher nowadays is more an expert guide or a reading coach. Now the concept is tailored to a shared experience in which the teacher guides the students as a community of learners to explore and find meaning in their reading. It is no more ‘spoon feeding’ of knowledge. Students are encouraged to take risks by reading and responding in new ways to their peers, rather than simply to and for the teacher. Teacher, on the other hand, provides descriptive and nonjudgmental feedback to students. And as a reading coach also, a teacher communicates his belief in the value of reading and direct students to find books with which they are able to make a connection.

Lastly a good literature teacher is a researcher who has an in-depth knowledge of the subject matter- to learn about the foundation of young adult literature, to apply the theory to their own classroom through action research. He observes students’ behaviour and preferences, gather data and analyze the findings to improve learning and involvement with literature in his classroom.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way….

Just imagine an English teacher having a class of 30 students with different interest and perception towards reading! Wow wee! I am sure it’s going to be a tough time for the teacher to cater for the diversity of readers in a classroom.Apparently, Young adult literature can assist a teacher to meet the students’ diversified needs. How? The initial stage is for the teacher to identify and classify his students according to their reading preferences– there are basically 3 types of readers, firstly the capable readers, this are those who are not often read nor do they enjoy reading. Second, is the at- risk readers , these are the type of readers who are not good students and who never read unless absolutely have to and usually are the type of students who lack interest in anything. The third and last type of readers are those derived from the increased cultural diversity in the society where they feel isolated and see little connection with the books that are traditionally used in the English language. This group of readers are called the Bilingual readers.
These different category of students should be approached differently in order to achieve the ultimate goal of getting the students’ interest to read books.
The method using Young Adult Literature is firstly by encouraging students to read widely, they should be given the right to choose their own books much of the time. If the teacher guide students and supportive of their reading, often they do start to move along on their own fairly well.
The next step is students are encouraged to write something pertaining to what they had read or are still reading and thus use their writing to connect with others in the class. At this stage, students read and write for authentic purposes .
As far as possible, in a literature class, a teacher should focus on providing a range of learning experiences with literature. Students should be given some say in what they are studying, by doing so, they are much more willing to cooperate and become involved in all types of learning. Ultimately this help the students to interact meaningfully with their reading.

Let’s share, discuss, connect & internalize literature

Sharing literature books that I read with others, be it my colleagues, family members or students is such a fruitful thing to do and it produces such a wonderful feelings inside. Obviously, from sharing, I gained the insight of others, their views, opinion and experience relevant to the issues discussed in the book.

Every time, upon finishing reading a book, I will talk about the book with others during our free time. I always start- I guess – this way “hey, I’ve just finished reading a short story entitled ‘Beethoven in Paradise’, I must say it is a good book. It’s a story of how a father makes decision for the child, even though he has grown up. The story is like this….” Then I summarize the story.

I express my reaction, thoughts and stance on the issues in the book. Even if my friends have not read the book, the issues are nothing new- they are always the global human issues, discussed and happened everywhere. For example, in ‘Ganesse’ the issues discussed is intercultural differences and in ‘Chinese Handcuff’, the issues is on incest. These are reality.
Then the other party’ turn to voice out their opinion regarding the matter. We talk about our stance and relate the issues with real similar things happening close to us. We read it every day in the local newspapers where such things do happen around us.

That’s how literature plays a role in fostering close ties with people surrounding you by indulging into the issues discussed in the literature book.