Literacy Narrative
The first assignment I completed for Young Adult Literature, was a narrative that outlines my first memories of my relationship with books and reading. While I enjoyed writing my narrative, I most enjoyed hearing the variety of different experiences my classmates shared when we presented our narratives in class. I learned that many people struggled with reading early in their lives. Some of my classmates even hated reading when they were younger, or they liked reading at first but found it boring or pointless once they became young adults. The most important thing I took away from this variety is that all of these people are now English majors taking a class that requires them to read a book a week. Everyone in my class loves books and reading, no matter what their early attitudes towards literacy. To me, this indicates that anyone can become a reader and there is the potential for every one of my students to find their own passion for reading. Click here to download the full text of my literacy narrative.
Student Reading Survey
For my next big YAL assignment, I conducted a teen reading survey. Conducting surveys is a great way to do research and collect information about how students feel about reading. I decided to give my survey anonymously, rather than trying to conduct it in an interview format, because I hoped to get more honest answers if the students didn't know who was conducting the survey. I found a friend who has a younger brother in high school and she passed the surveys on to him. He then gave them to his friends and they filled them out at home or at school. They returned the surveys to him, he gave them to his sister and she gave them back to me. This way, the student participants never met me and they couldn't develop opinions about what I wanted them to say. This approach wound up producing mixed results. I do think I got honest answers, but without me there to prompt participants, I also got very brief answers. One thing I learned is that it is very important to craft survey questions carefully so that the survey-taker understands exactly what you're asking. This may seem very simple, but it's actually quite difficult. When I presented my survey findings to my Young Adult Literrature classmates, we found something unexpected: young adults really read! Most of my classmates got many very positive responses from the survey-takers. What we all heard is that many young adults read for school and for enjoyment and that many of them see reading as a positive activity. We were all surprised that so few of our participants said they didn't like reading. Conducting the survey was an awesome experience not only because it gave me my first foray into doing field research, but also because it yielded such encouraging results. Click here to download the full text of my reading survey and analysis.
Book Talk
My next assignment was to deliver a book talk. Dr. Adams allowed me to select any young adult book I wanted and I had to deliver a short presentation about it. The only requirements were to summarize the plot, without giving away the ending, and to include some sort of "hook" that got the attention of the audience. I chose The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and I presented it with my partner Nicole.
The Graveyard Book is a story about a young boy named Bod. When Bod's family is murdered, the toddler crawls to the graveyard with the murderer in close pursuit. The inhabitants of the graveyard, ghosts, witches and a maybe-vampire, adopt him and keep him safe from harm. As Bod grows into a young man, he must find his place in the world beyond the graveyard and he must find the answer to his biggest questions: who killed his family and why?Because of the spooky setting of the book, Nicole and I decided to bring dirt cups for our audience "hook." You know dirt cups? A layer of chocolate pudding, topped with a layer of crushed chocolate cookies, topped with a few gummy worms. You may have had them in kindergarten or elementary school, but even college students love eating dirt cups. They went over quite well. We also "hooked" the audience by reading aloud from the very suspenseful first chapter of the book. Our talk was a success and we were so convincing when we said that The Graveyard Book is a must-read that one of my classmates asked if she could borrow my book so she could read it too!
Colorado Teen Literature Conference
I will be honest and say that I dreaded volunteering at the 2011 Colorado Teen Literature Conference. The conference happens every year at the Auraria campus and so my YAL instructor, Dr. Jill Adams, requires that her students contribute. Since I was required to be there, and since I had never been to any kind of conference, I thought it was going to be boring and tedious. I was wrong. My volunteer duties entailed helping attendees find their way around the very confusing building which housed the conference. Aside from this very easy task, I was permitted to choose to attend any of the lectures or presentations I wanted. I had a great time and I learned some very interesting things about or related to young adult literature.
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| Keynote Speaker, Pete Hautman |
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| Keynote Speaker, Rachel Vail |
In the end I learned a lot of new things and had fun in the process. They even fed me a very tasty free lunch! It was a very good experience and I encourage anyone who has the chance to attend similar conferences.
Discussion Board
As my semester of YAL progressed, I also participated in an online discussion board once a week. Online discussion is only just beginning to be a popular tool for teachers to use in their classes. By the time I'm a teacher, I imagine it will be a part of nearly every classroom so I'm glad to get more experience in how to participate in such a forum. I think that online discussion is a great way to generate thought and discussion about the books we read and I like that it the gives the more timid students a comfortable medium where they can voice their ideas without feeling shy.