Introduction: We started our semester by talking about this genre living in different spaces. But they are definitely overlapping spaces. To visualize this, I'm going to be cliche about it. Here is a venn diagram where you can imagine, "young", "adult," and "literature" existing in each of the circles. 

Details: For this post, consider the texts we read this semester. Where would you place them on this diagram? Do any of the texts live exclusively in one space or another? Do some exist in two (young & adult, young & literature, literature & adult)? Would you put the texts we read in the very center of our diagram? You may not hold a firm position on all the texts we've read--I know I don't--so you might want to gravitate towards the novels we read you have a strongly felt opinion about. Include your arguments for why you made the choices you made. Consider the criteria you are using and be able to talk about that in class. I'm not asking you to respond to each other online, but do read what your classmates have to say. Notice similarities, differences--big differences, big similarities. Wonder about their criteria.

Use some of the hour I am giving you before 7:00 to respond to this post. We'll use this as a jumping off point for a broader discussion to close out our discussion of the genre. 

A long and rambling introduction
1. Graphic Novels were not a thing when I was a young reader. They were called comic books. As an adult, I've come to appreciate the remarkable history and richness of the genre, but, still, it's not in my wheelhouse. 

2. To that point: as children, my sister and I used to read the funny pages of our local newspaper together. It was the only thing we did together without fighting. Sometimes, I would say "I don't get it" and sometimes she would say "I don't get it" and the other one of us didn't get what there was not to get. That was until we realized that I was only reading the words in the bubbles and my sister wasn't reading them at all and only looking at the pictures. In this genre, you need to do both. 

3. My nephew Liam is a poet and artist at the age of 9 and 3/4. He's already written several multi-volume graphic novels and has plans for many more. He is personally inspired by the Dogman novels. I've become fascinated about what it has taught him about voice, visual rhetoric, narrative, and a host of other key reading skills. 

TODAY'S PROMPT: One is real and the other one is April Break fun. First, what do Graphic Novels do (besides the obvious) to a reader, what does it teach a reader how to do or not do, that text does not? What does the genre make possible for a reader? How might you apply those ideas to tonight's text? 

And, just for fun, if you were going to write a graphic novel, what would yours be about? 

Use this space, one post per group, to provide a brief synopsis of your anchor article (the one you all have to read. Include the title of your article (you don't have to include a full citation here).

1. Include one or two sentences of argument: what is the main argument of your article, what is it trying to convince readers. 
2. Include one or two sentences of methodology: how does/do the author/authors prove that argument? Is it a lit review? A survey? Interviews? An experiment? Archives? 
3. Include one or two sentences about the significance: why does this argument seem to matter--to the author first and foremost. Why do they want us to care about what they are saying? 

If you can produce these 3 to 6 sentences, you will have written a strong annotation for your article. And you will have a good model for how to write the annotations for the individual articles you will read. 

Could it be the kidney stone was a sign from the universe to postpone any discussion of poetry until April? Maybe. But it is, after all, National Poetry Month. There will be much teaching and discussion of Poetry, but not nearly enough writing of it. So harness your best lovesick, broken-hearted, starry eyed teenage self and have at it.

In honor of National Poetry Month, and because the world is in great need of joy and poetry, write a poem. 

Some inspiration, from one of the greats: 
​

Introduction: For this book club, I would like for you to consider this text in relationship to To Kill a Mockingbird. I'm not exactly asking you to write a compare and contrast, but I sort of am. If you were to put these two books in conversation with each other, what possibilities open up for literary analysis/scholarship on both texts? 

Before you write: take a moment to read the re-cap of the TKAM book club journals on the LT Updates page on this website. Consider the ways you all thought about approaching a literary analysis of that novel and think about what  For Lamb might allow you to write and think about--perhaps similarly or differently. Remember that I'm asking you to think, write, and talk about the novel as literature. 

To Remind You: There are other places where we will and must talk about all the "noise" that surrounds the genre--stuff about teaching, book banning, publishing. Noise isn't quite right, but you know what I mean. In book club, I'm asking you to treat our readings as literature. It is not always seen so, as you must know. It is not always given the literary treatment of other genres. We've discussed at length how YAL is, for many adults, escapist, pleasure reading. And we've talked about how, in other genres, there is an understood difference between high and low art. But we've resisted that discussion in this genre. And, yet, without saying one is better than the other, we should be able to have a discussion of literary merit. 

Here are the general directions for all book clubs: But, for the purposes of this book club, I am asking you to spend some time writing about the novel as you might for any novel's class you might encounter. I'm essentially asking you to do a close reading of the novel in any manner that strikes you. You'll have time to post that brief and highly informal reflection and then, in a small group in a break out room, talk about those close readings. We'll close out book club with each small group reporting out. 

Note that book clubs are stable groups. That means that after you are put into your groups, you'll be each other's book club partners for the rest of our time together. 

Overview: You may be getting tired of me saying that this class is trying to figure out the "young," the "adult," and the "literature" of young adult literature. Sometimes we will consider these all together--as we should and out of necessity, but, also, sometimes, we will try to focus in on one aspect. 

Book Club is a place to hone in on the "literature" part of YAL. There are other places where we will and must talk about all the "noise" that surrounds the genre--stuff about teaching, book banning, publishing. Noise isn't quite right, but you know what I mean. In book club, I'm asking you to treat our readings as literature. It is not always seen so, as you must know. It is not always given the literary treatment of other genres. We've discussed at length how YAL is, for many adults, escapist, pleasure reading. And we've talked about how, in other genres, there is an understood difference between high and low art. But we've resisted that discussion in this genre. And, yet, without saying one is better than the other, we should be able to have a discussion of literary merit. 

To that end, it might be good to start book club with To Kill a Mockingbird. After its release in 1960, and after being a complete commercial success for Lee, the novel one the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. Interestingly, No literary analysis of TKAM has been published in a literary journal in the last 5 years. Rather, since roughly the early 2000s TKAM is discussed most often as a cultural artifact in the classroom. 

Details: But, for the purposes of this book club, I am asking you to spend some time writing about the novel as you might for any novel's class you might encounter. I'm essentially asking you to do a close reading of the novel in any manner that strikes you. You'll have time to post that brief and highly informal reflection and then, in a small group in a break out room, talk about those close readings. We'll close out book club with each small group reporting out. 

Note that book clubs are stable groups. That means that after you are put into your groups, you'll be each other's book club partners for the rest of our time together. 

OVERVIEW: I could have just as easily called this theories of reading or reading theory. This second discussion board is a precursor to the group assignment for the semester on Reading and/or literacy theory. Literacy work skews more towards education and reading theory more towards literary analysis, but both tend to get downplayed when critical theory is discussed in most graduate classes. Thus, we will be taking a deeper dive into theory as we approach the midterm. 

But, for this week, we will start with practice. You all wrote some very lovely flash memoirs (even though many of you complained about being restricted to 750 words). Those memoirs are excerpted on the Class Profile Page along with links to the full versions of each memoir. 

PRIOR TO POSTING: Read at least five and preferably 7 (about half the class) of your classmate's Mentor Text Memoirs, available linked to the Class Profile Page.

WHAT TO POST: Once you've read, post to the discussion board about what you notice about the reading experiences of your classmates. What can you extrapolate about reading as an experience, about how literacy education takes shape in and out of school? What commonalities do you see? What seems to be an outlier? What do you notice about what people have to say about reading as a young person, about reading in school versus reading for pleasure, about being or not being a confident reader. You can write this as a numbered list. Posts should be between 250 and 350 words. 

Overview: When we see each other next week, your official reader's notes for Little Women will be due and be used in class. This gives some of you a little extra time to finish reading this long book and some of you a breather since you've already completed the journal. 

For this week, I want to begin the work of getting at what makes YA uniquely YA as a genre, and it is worthwhile to begin that work with a text like Little Women because, I would argue, very little has actually changed in how YA stories are actually structured and told. 

To demonstrate that point, please consider the characteristics I run through in the PowerPoint video embedded here or on the syllabus, consider, as well, what are the essential elements of the novel (character, plot, theme) and write a synopsis of your updated version of the novel. What has to change? What would not need to change? What could not change because if you did it would not be the story of Little Women. ​Are there essential aspects of the novel that just will not translate to 2025, thus, making it impossible to bring Little Women into the 21st Century? If that's the case, make that argument. 

ONCE YOU'VE POSTED: Please make sure you've read at least half of the posts of your colleagues. In class on the 25th, we'll return to these synopsis to discuss what we learn about the genre and about the idea that LIttle Women just might be the super hero origin story of the genre. 

Introduction: No one, and particularly nobody who teaches, is unaffected these days by book banning. Perhaps you teach or have taught a book that has been banned--either at your school or in your classroom or someone else's that you've heard about. Maybe a book that you have long loved has shown up on a list. Maybe a book has been pulled from your school library, or perhaps you've tried to teach a book in class and gotten resistance. Or maybe you've just read about the parents and teachers and school boards and communities and, most of all, students and readers, caught up in conversations, fights, and legislation around who gets to read what. 

Consider that reading theorists, some of whom we will read this semester, argue that reading is an experience--not unlike travel or living through an event. Not exactly like it, but an experience, still, that changes us and can't be undone.  we can't visit, or a person whose life we will never be able to live--widens how we understand the world. That's what makes reading so powerful. Reading about something that we might not otherwise have access to--like a time and place

Prompt: Take a look at the list of top ten books most recently banned in various places. If you scroll all the way down, you'll find top ten lists from the past few years. You can also look at banned books from a more historical perspective with this list of books from the past century. 

Select one of the books that appears on the list. Make sure it is a text hat you care about either as a teacher of that text or a reader. Take some time to write about what that book has meant to you and what you would have lost if that book was not a part of your life or the lives of your students. Once you've posted your response, take time to read and respond to at least two of your colleagues. There is no particular directive for that response, only that it be thoughtful and authentic. 

HOW TO POST: Click on the link that says "comment" in the upper left by the title. Write in the dialogue box and follow the directions on the screen to post. 

HOW TO REPLY: Click on the link that says "reply" and, again, write in the dialogue box and follow the directions on the screen to post. 

NOTE: You'll have to click all the way back to the original blog page to be able to read posts as they come in.