As time was passing.....Reflection on EDU 5276 in general

For the past 3 months, upon attending and reading a ‘bagful’ -one heavy load of MELTA free red bag- of suggested materials useful for Young Adult Literature, I definitely gained a lot of insight into how to go about teaching a literature class. I am now more equipped and really for it.
Previously, it was so irony to teach something you don’t like but to get students to like it. As the teacher teaching the subject, I have got to like it first, I guess now I do.
Come to think of the EDU 5276 class ….it was really funny to get comments for my old fashioned style or idea of teaching. It didn’t cross my mind before this that something like getting the students to do prediction based on the book cover and start class with some vocabularies are old ideas – already stale! No wonder it didn’t work well in my class But that was how we were taught in our TESL class -shy to say- many years ago!
Another funny thing was that, when presenting our group assignment on ‘Dual media teaching apparatus’ where we have to think of two media to use for our literature class. being not so teenage any more , some of us did choose teenagers’ favourite songs but our lecturer didn’t think it was appropriate and we were not allowed to justify for the so-called wrong choice of song. The songs were indeed teenagers’ favourite songs when we were teenagers! Students nowadays have never heard of ‘Jimmy don’t cry’ or Sir Paul McCartney name. Lucky for me, it was a group work where my much younger group members opposed to my choice of song, or else, the class will be laughing at my classic choice from Sir Cliff Richard ‘Son, be a bachelor boy’ to go along with the ‘Beethoven in Paradise’ issue of father’s expectation vs son’s interest!
Lesson that we gained here is that – use materials (be it books or anything) that interest the students – ask them – NOT those which interest us – let us teach what they like, so as to get their full attention for a successful teaching and learning to take place.
The idea of writing on line reflections ,is also great. Something new that I’m going to implement to my class. I hope I’ll manage to find time to respond, at least briefly to their reflections, as I always do to my students’ journal exercise books. Actually, I was hoping, at the beginning, that my lecturer would respond to my cyber writing but I guess he got so many important things to do which is impossible to respond to his hundreds of students-in and out campus. I understand. But in my case, where I don’t have that many students, I’ll try to respond to my students. I guess my students would love to have the teacher visiting their blogs and see how creative they are.
By writing reflections, students will memorize more what they have learnt because they have to put it in writing. This is how I learnt and managed to cover my Brown & Stephen book- write upon completing reading every topic.
I really learn a lot from this course. The important aspects of readers involvement – initiating, sharing, connecting and internalizing. How to cater to the different types of readers. The bibliotherapy thing which I have never heard of before and not recognize by this computer as something that exists – the red underline is always there!.
I’m glad this subject is not an elective subject or else, I wouldn’t have chosen it because all this while I was full with anxiety and hatred to teach literature. Glad those feelings have vanished. Thanks to EDU 5276.

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.

Lesson learnt from ‘walking a mile in the character’s moccasins'

Recently, I read ‘Hero’ a young adult literature written by S.L.Rotten. I really feel it is a great book with few great messages in it. Even though the book is mainly focused on the young adult’s - the protagonist cum the narrator- problems, I do feel that the message in the book ‘gets’ to me as well.
The role of Mrs. Walker as a good, understanding and caring teacher do make me reflect on myself as a teacher. She is portrayed as someone whom Sean, the protagonist seems to respect. She is not just his English teacher in class but she listens and always advises him to be a good student. She also visits him when he is doing his community service at Mr. Hassler ranch and when he is in the hospital. The question I’ve asked myself “Am I anything like Mrs. Walker?” I know that she is just an imaginary character in the book but I am sure there are many teachers like her out there in this world. To be frank, the answer is ‘no’. I am nothing like her. I am an English teacher who teach according to what is given to me in the syllabus. My concern is more on to cover the syllabus content and to make sure my students understood what I have taught them and more importantly, are able to answer the exam questions. Unlike Mrs. Walker, my time and concern about my students are just when they are in class or in school, between 8 am to 4 pm, from Monday to Friday. If I sense my student is facing other than the academic (my subject to be precise) problem, I don’t really try to dig into it in detail, what I usually do is to send him or her to see the counselor or the disciplinary board. Where students are concern, I am not a good listener. I don’t like to drag myself into their life, their problem. I strongly feel that it’s a job of a counselor. Counselors are trained and paid to listen and attend to problems, while teachers are trained to impart knowledge. I am doing to the best of my ability, to do just that. After all, I feel that my students are big enough to know what’s right or wrong.

However, having read ‘Hero’, I gain an insight of myself and also the insight of my students, who really need guidance and second chance. I feel that I need to change, to be a more ‘rounded’ teacher. Even though this is not something new, – to be a caring teacher – I have yet to practice it. I think it’s high time for me to love my students more. True, they are big enough physically but cognitively they are still not mature – they are in the midst of looking for guidance to lead them to the right path. From now on, I’ll not just put myself in my students’ shoes but -as I quote what my literature lecturer said -“try to even walk in the shoes” to better understand the students. I believe this is going to be ‘win-win’ situation. On my part, perhaps, I’ll be appreciated more not just for the knowledge but for being another human being!

Big Brother is watching you!

The novel which has brought quite a remarkable impact on me when I was a student is George Orwell, ‘Nineteen eighty-four’.

I still remember this story very well because it really goes into my heart- my system. Nineteen eighty-four is a political satire. The book was written in 1940s and the author predicted or imagined what would happen in the year 1984. It is a story of a totalitarian state (right after a war) that eliminates all opposition. In the forefront of the Party stands Big Brother, a figure of almost mythical power who always seems to watch whatever anyone is doing. At every corner on the wall, there will be posters of ‘big brother’ with the caption ‘Big Brother is watching you’. Buildings too are equipped with sort of cc camera and ‘telescreen’ which could not be shut completely. Any wrong doings, meaning not abiding by the rules that had been set by ‘Big Brother’ will be tortured or brain-washed. The story focuses on the protagonist, Winston Smith. The story of his rebellion against the Party, of his hatred of Big Brother, and of the thought crime which resulted in his destruction. Apparently he was not killed, but like many others, he was brutally tortured until he confesses that he loves Big Brother.

This story has strong effect on me in the sense that after reading it I was really grateful to live in Malaysia, in a democratic country (not in a totalitarian state or the socialist country) where I am free to do anything I wish. There’s no ‘Big brother’ watching every movement I make.
While reading the book , I felt like myself as part of the people in the book. I had the feeling of being so scared and worried of what was going to happen next. I was also deeply touched with the people who were captured by the so called ‘thought-police’
(under cover) knowing that they would later be tortured severely and brain-washed until they confess of their full obedient for big brother.
Throughout the book too, I was sort of always praying for the protagonist and his girlfriend - so as for them not to be caught by the ‘thought police’. Eventually, it did bring tears to my eyes when he was caught and never was himself again.

my ancient passion

When I was a teenager, my favorite author was Denise Robins. She wrote romance novel. None of her books had ever disappointed me. I remember always ‘burning the midnight candle’ just to finish up her books( which I seldom did for my school textbooks). Once I got hold of Denise Robins books, that was it. I would not feel easy spending time with friends until I had finished reading up the book. I studied at a boarding school in Kuantan, I remember always took her books to my night self- revision class, and covered it with the school text underneath to avoid the inspecting warden from taking it away. I also had my meals with the book next to my plate. That was how fascinated I was with Denise Robins. I did read ‘Mills and Boons’ series too but not all authors really pleased me.

I loved her books so much because the flow of her story was so exciting. It was a sort of book where one would curiously look forward to what’s going to happen next. Most of her stories were about ancient time, stories which most of them taken place in England (some Australia & also USA – for intercultural and intercontinental sake) The protagonists were usually the aristocrats (the ‘lord’, The duke, the duchess etc) . Apart from being rich, they were also depicted as ‘tall, dark and handsome’ and the heroines were beautiful, kind,(but sometimes not so fortunate). I guess I liked her books so much because it managed to bring tears to her eyes. So many sad things happened to the young lovers. Most of her books ended with happy ending (which brought happiness and satisfied me a lot!). There were few books, however, ended with the death of the protagonist which eventually brought prolonged tears and dissatisfaction to me. (come to think of it, I wonder if I still like to read this type of ancient setting love stories – I don’t think so! )

After finished reading her book, I would start to look for another. That was how strong Denise Robins books to me. I collected quite a member of her books but unfortunately some of them were destroyed - eaten by termite at my mother’s wooden house. I used to lock myself in my room reading the books, even refused to help my mother cooking in the kitchen because I was so hooked on the books! My parents (whom I always thought then as being ‘old-fashioned’ thinkers!) did not like us (my sisters and I) to read love stories. They, of course preferred us to read our schools textbooks which we seldom did.
(no wonder my sisters and I ended up as language teachers rather than engineers).

when my mind speaks....

When we got our time table for the second module (Masters in TESL programme UPM) and as I scanned through, my anxiety level suddenly went up. Oh no… EDU 5276 Teaching young adult literature…I think this is going to be a very tough subject for me.Teaching Literature? I don’t know. I have never taught literature before (I did learn literature during my school days and also at tertiary level- but I was never good at it). I don’t really like the ‘playing with words’ style. I am not good with metaphor, personification, and what not. It’s just not me.

I love reading story books (especially the romance novel when I was a teenager)but I don’t go deeper than reading to know what the story is all about. Of course, I don’t really read poem (except the ones which were made compulsory for us during my studies). It’s just not that appealing to me. I guess it’s more because of my failure to understand what it means (or perhaps because I’ve never tried to make an attempt to understand it). I was a science stream student. I always go for fact, for the denotation meaning. I do not bother to interpret connotation meaning which had always been a problem to me when I did literature during my schooldays.

But anyway, this year, I’m all set for it. I’m prepared to appreciate literature more.( I know somewhere there’s a Shakespeare in me). I’ll let it out. I’m ready to learn. Perhaps I found it difficult because I have never given it a chance.

I need to change my mindset and think ‘beautifully’ about literature this time. I guess there’s nothing to lose. After all, life itself is an art- a beautiful thing. (I ready need to think positive in order to lower my anxiety level and get through the subject successfully. amin.)