Educator Insights via YA Literature

One of my favorite aspects of reading YA Literature is when I stumble across a passage that makes me stop and think as a teacher, that makes me understand one of my students or a population of students a little bit more. Yesterday as I was reading Carter Finally Gets It, I had one of those fine moments. Though most of the book is very humorous, the chapter that grabbed my attention titled "Kindergarten" was a little more on the serious side.

In the book, Carter is experiencing his freshman year of high school, which often details his frustration with his lack of focus. He has ADD, but his mom is against medication, saying there is nothing wrong with being a dreamer. His best friend has ADHD, but he does take medication. Sure, I have studied and heard about ADD/ADHD in classes, as well as learning about it at IEPs, but I think this is the first time that I could really get it through a student's point of view.

If you are interested in seeing it, I recommend that you read the quick chapter in its entirety to get the full effect (on pages 78-80). In case you are not able to, here are some excerpts:

"I smash my head into the pillow a few times, and now I'm focused on what Coach said to me during our first game. How life is going to pass me by because I'm always dreaming" (78).

"I think I do a pretty good job of hiding the fact that I don't know what's going on most of the time. I really do try hard, but then I forget to try hard for a second, and it all falls apart" (78).

"I've been in high school almost a month, and it's nothing like I thought it would be. Life just goes on. I thought there would be this click in my head and everything would make sense. But so far, nothing! I'm the same stupid, scared kid I've always been. I feel like I did on the first day of kindergarten. [...] Everybody else seems to have it all figured out and I'm totally lost, following the pack and praying no one notices what a tard I am" (78-79).

And the concluding lines that really got to me:
"[...] and I worry that I'll always feel this way. Like I did on the first day of kindergarten" (80).

Not only does reading middle grades/YA books make me a better teacher by being able to recommend titles, but I am also a better teacher because I gain valuable insights into the variety of students in my class. I feel a stronger understanding and with it a new level of empathy. 

Breathing - Teachable Moments in Literature

I recently wrote about not wanting to stop my reading for pleasure to take note of teaching points and the idea of having some of my favorite authors in mind to skim again for certain areas. I just thought of another way as well - I will start doing teachable moments in literature posts for books that really stand out to me with endless possibilities. I will kick off the concept with Cheryl Renée Herbsman's Breathing.

Right away I noticed main character Savannah's southern dialect in narration. When I went on exchange to University of Rhode Island my junior year in college for a semester, one of my professor's there sparked my interest in dialects. He told us about how linguists view all dialects as equal, but people often judge others based on how closely their language aligns with Standard American English. Since then, I have loved the area and most of my remaining major undergraduate projects and my Master's literature review all revolved around the area and the balance between having students see value in their dialect, while also preparing them to be successful. Breathing is an opportunity to both show how the use of dialect brings the book alive, as well as discussing academic vs. social voice in writing. Students will be able to see the advantage of understanding when it is appropriate to use their various registers and seamlessly move from one to the other depending on the purpose of their writing.

The book is also one more great example of using personal experiences to inspire fictional writing. Although I do not know how much of Herbsman's real life crossed over into the book, there is a cute picture of her and her husband as teenagers on the beach when they were dating. It also mentioned that they carried on a long-distance relationship as the two characters in the book.

When talking to students about adjusting their reading to match their purpose, this excerpt will be perfect:

In the summertime I generally like to read trashy books. [...] I never read that stuff during the year, but come summer, I can't help myself. For school I'm always having to get through the likes of David Copperfield or Romeo and Juliet, books where the English is so thick you've got to go over every paragraph six times before you understand what it is they're aiming to say. By the time summer comes around, my brain needs a rest (14-15)

It is also a great dialogue opener into enjoying books from different levels of difficulty and choosing books based on the match up between the level of support needed and the support available.

There is also a fun description of how Savannah and her brother Dog got their names. This will be perfect for Aimee Buckner's idea of History of a Name as part of launching a writer's notebook that she mentions in her Notebook Know-How: Strategies for the Writer's Notebook (15). I will use it along with an excerpt from The House on Mango Street.

One final lucky find was that Herbsman has a blog, and I just saw a post where she gives insights into her conversation about dialogue at her teen writing class.