It's Lit, Y'All

Author Talk: Jason Reynolds

My learning throughout this course has reignited my passion for reading and for teaching reading. In my first year, and during the first semester of my second year I read voraciously and finished over fifty books each year. Then, in my second semester of my second year, I stopped actively making time to read for myself. Making time to read for pleasure is as important for myself as it is for my students. I know that they will benefit from my learning in this course and I'm excited to bring the books I've read to my classroom library and to integrate Moxie  into my Coming of Age literature circles unit. Specifically, this course has reminded me that YA can accomplish the same tasks in the classroom as classic novels. Kittle explained that if we teach students to love read then maybe one day they will pick up To Kill A Mockingbird themselves. This really struck me. I enjoy TKAM, but after teaching it almost ten times in my first two years teaching (block schedule) I noticed it...

My initial reaction to the list of Historical Fiction confirmed what I already knew; I am not reading enough historical fiction. I read a lot of YA literature. Probably more than any other one genre, but I rarely find myself picking up historical fiction. Ironically enough, of the four books on the list of 140 that I have read, two are in my top ten favorite YA novels of all time, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and The Rock and The River, and if you haven't read them, do yourself and your students a favor and get your hands on both of them now. In the prompt, Dr. Kajder mentioned how historical fiction can be a tough sell for students because the line between history and fiction is often blurred. This stuck out to me because one thing I've learned about teenagers over the past two years in the classroom that baffles me is that even though they live their lives in grey areas, they see everything black and white. They have a very strong sense of right ...

I do my writing at my dining room table. You probably recognize my cat who is also the star of many of my flipgrid posts. His name is Benvolio, but I call him Benny. In my writing space I always have my planner- I know that doesn't seem like the tool to get the creative juices flowing, but my planner is where I write down everything that is important to me. My planner keeps me calm. I also have a writing pad where I jot down stray ideas. I also use this pad to write daily to do lists. There are a lot of lists in my life, and they have to be handwritten, but I do all of my real writing on my chrome book. I have pens and paper clips, and I always have my S'well bottle handy.

I've noticed that YA texts dealing with issues of mental health are particularly popular among students in my classroom. I believe this is the case for a couple of reasons. I think many students gravitate to these books because they cannot relate to the struggles of the characters which makes the story more interesting to them. I think some students pick up these books because they dive into topics that the adults in their lives are hesitant to discuss. In some cases, I've known students to pick up a book about a specific mental illness because they are curious to know more. Kia Richmond discusses the issue of language in YA texts about mental health. She notes that many of the terms used throughout these novels, both by people who struggle with mental health and those around them, are derogatory in nature. Richmond claims that students are using over 200 different words to describe those with mental illness and that this misnaming comes from a lack of knowledge about mental ...

Audiobooks that I love....  When We Rise: My Life in the Movement by Cleve Jones Born a Crime by Trevor Noah Pandora's Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong by Paul Offit The entire Harry Potter Series  (I love it in every available format) Fictional Characters I cannot stand... Dolores Umbridge- Harry Potter Daisy Buchannan- The Great Gatsby Bob Ewell- To Kill A Mockingbird Scythe Goddard- Scythe Curly- Of Mice and Men The Mage- Carry On Books that Changed Me... The Rock and The River  All American Boys How it Went Down The Hate U Give Luna Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl The Sun is Also A Star How to Be a Woman The Beauty Myth The Color Purple Mom and Me and Mom Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide Dime Refugee The God Box Please, Please Make a Film From these Books, or at least a Netflix series... The Unwind Dystology The Arc of Scythe Trilogy One of Us is Lying Jane Unlimited  The Way I Used to...

"This is about them, not you" Our students need our validation. One of the ways we can validate them, their experiences, and their interests is through the texts we introduce them to. I have a lot of colleagues who do not consider YA to be "real reading" and as a student, my librarian admonished me for checking out what she liked to call "pink books." I remember being halfway through Harry Potter and The Philosophers Stone  and finding out that the books had been removed from my school library because "the witchcraft was inappropriate." I was heartbroken, and worst of all, I felt ashamed. I felt as if I had actually done something wrong. Banning books never serves the interests of children, only parents. I strongly believe that most students who claim to hate reading haven't encountered the right book, but teachers play a bigger role in this than they think. We can help students to encounter the right book, and the right book doesn't ...

Book recommendations  for Julia from I'm Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez

For my reading ladder, I decided to use The Hunger Games  as my inspiration. Many of my students have read and enjoyed the series, but never took the next step into books in the dystopian genre. I decided for my book ladder to follow the genre of dystopian from young adult literature, to canonical literature, to contemporary adult fiction. I also followed a feminist theme throughout each of the rungs on the ladder. I decided to start with The Selection Series by Kiera Cass. These books are kind of like if Hunger Games met the Bachelor, and are fun and accessible while also covering important themes like classism and sexism. The story follows first a prince and then that princes daughter in an attempt to find love. The generational element of the story is often very interesting to students. Students would be able to build their reading skills throughout this three book series, and hopefully would be drawn in by the idea of multiple books. (5 books total) The second book on t...