Teaching Young Adult Literature Today

Judith A. Hayn is associate professor of English education at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She is the chair of the NCTE Conference on English Education Commission on the Study and Teaching of Adolescent Literature and of SIGNAL, the Special Interest Group Network on Adolescent Literature for the International Reading Association. Hayn began her career in education as a middle and high school English language arts. Jeffrey S. Kaplan is associate professor of English education at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Kaplan is President-Elect for ALAN, the Assembly for the Study of Literature for Adolescents. He is also the Research Connections Editor for the ALAN Review, a leading peer-reviewed journal on the study and teaching of young adult literature. Kaplan is a former middle and high school English Language Arts teacher.Karina Clemmons, is an assistant professor of secondary education at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She has taught English for Speakers of Other Languages to middle school, high school and adult students in the United States and abroad.

Recent research on the effects of time spent pleasure reading in youth demonstrate that it explains cognitive progress over time, educational attainment and social mobility. This makes pleasure reading a civil rights issue. And what better to hook students on reading then the books that were written specifically for them? In this volume, the top researchers and thinkers about YA literature explore where YAL has been, where it is and where it’s going, with rich models for how to use YAL to engage our students with the power of reading and all the benefits that then accrue to them.In this book, the top researchers and thinkers in the field of YAL show us how to engage readers with this literature, and how to do so in a project of social action that promotes ethical imagination and the productive struggle for greater understanding, raised consciousness and for civil rights. This book is a must-read for librarians, teachers and anyone at all who cares about adolescents, reading, and promoting social understanding and justice.

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsSection I: Where Has YAL Been?Young Adult Literature: Updating the Role of ResearchJudith A. Hayn and Jay CobernYoung Adult Literature Today: The Many Faces, Changes, and Challenges for Teachers and Researchers in the 21st CenturyJeffrey S. Kaplan and Elsie OlanLiteracy Teacher Education Today and the Teaching of Young Adult Literature: Perspectives on Research and Implications for PracticeSusan E. Elliott-JohnsSection II: Where is YAL Now?Young Adult Literature as the Sustaining Force: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Teaching EnvironmentalismKelly Byrne Bull and Jill DupuisAvid Readers in High School: Are They Reading for Pleasure?Nance S. Wilson and Michelle J. KelleyIs Poverty the Result of Poor Decisions? What Young Adult Literature Contributes to the ConversationCrag Hill and Janine DarraghCrossing Boundaries: Exploring the Fluidity of Sexuality and Gender in Young Adult LiteratureLaura J. Renzi, Mark Letcher, and Kristin MiragliaThe Literary Community’s Definition: Balancing Creating and Updating Young Adult Literature Reading Lists While Retaining Quality TitlesLisa A. Hazlett and William J. SweeneyCivil Rights and Social Justice: Then and Now-How Much Progress Have We Made?Barbara A. Ward, Deanna Day, and Terrell A. YoungMusic and the Young Adult Novel: Assessing How Adolescents “Read” the Music of Their LivesSteven T. Bickmore and Isaac BickmoreActivism, Service-Learning, Social Awareness, and Young Adult LiteratureLois T. Stover, Jacqueline Back, and CJ CarverFat Female Protagonists in YAL and in Classrooms: Exploring the Impact of Anti-fat Bias on IdentityLinda T. ParsonsYAL and English Learners: Activating Funds of KnowledgeKarina R. ClemmonsCelebrating All Voices: Assuring Diversity in Young Adult LiteratureJames Blasingame and Wendy WilliamsSection III: Where is YAL Going?Exploding the Page: Digital, Multimodal, and Transmedia Young Adult LiteratureMelanie Hundley and Teri HolbrookPushing the Edge of Possibility: A New Look at Integrating Technologies with Young Adult Literature Across Content AreasColleen Sheehy MulhollandThe Influence of the Internet and Social Media on Teens’ Engagement with Young Adult LiteratureMelanie D. Koss