Young adult literature (YAL) is such a touchy subject between adminstration and parents, even students, but none the less it must be talked about. In Teaching Literature to Adolescents the idea of combining YAL with canon texts is considered as "pairing". First let me explain to you briefly what is defined as a canon text.
A canon text is simply the classical books that simply is an arguement. It "purports to name the most significantliterary works within a national literature and/or hitorical period." Text such as: Shakespeare, The Great Gastby, To Kill A Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, 1984, and so many others are currently required texts to read in the high school curriculum.
I like to think about students reading YAL in connection with Canon text in order to better understand and make connections with what they are reading for the classroom. In Teaching Literature to Adolescents the idea of "pairing" canon and YAL text is actually mentioned by Richard Beach, Deborah Appleman, Susan Hynds, and Jeffrey Wilhelm, for creating that bridge for students to understand a more difficult text. I could not agree with this more and actually like to think of it as a backwards bridge of scaffolding. Generally we do easier lessons and activities for students to build their way to the harder material (scaffolding), but reading a harder text like Shakespeare could be followed by a YAL book that has the same concept that is being taught (i.e. Taming of the shrew by Shakespeare to teach on roles in Society paired with The Giver to teach students what happens if there were no roles in society) can be a great way for the mind to break away from the harder text and understand the purpose. Sometimes it is easier to learn the harder material first and then the easier material makes the understandings come to surface.
Not only does pairing of the text allow for students to make connections but it allows them to read something more in their age range that will hopefully interest their reading minds, but also encourages students to read other texts outside of the classroom that are not just for homework. In another question I discussed briefly the idea of readicide and how avoiding it is essential in the classrooms as much as possible. Promoting YAL pairing in the classroom could also be a key to preventing readicide. Not only are we pairing a more relatable text in modern day language with a "not so relatable and hard to understanding language," we are allowing students to read these easier books in the classroom, as a class, and to discuss the material in a way that helps them to understand the connections they are distinguishing. By pairing text we are also establishing a classroom standard with the common core, that defines students being able to make connections, comparisons and contrast between different versions of a text (movie versus literature, or literature versus adaptation, etc.) because at some point in time students will need these skills outside of the classroom
A second idea for promotion YAL is during the first five minutes of every class or a few times a week, holding an SSR moment. SSR is defined as Substained Silent Reading, in which students are encouraged to read anything they would like (that is not class reading or school work) for a period of time. During this time students are only reading that material. The idea is to encourage students to become interested in books during their five minutes that they will want to continue reading outside of the classroom, for fun/entertainment/pleasure. This will be implemented in my classroom either every day, or every other day in order to also allow students to creatively write several times a week for the same brief time period.
A really important and key idea for me as an aspiring teacher is being open minded to students input and even their responses. I cannot recall how many different times I was down graded and almost failed a class because I responded to the text in a way that was not what the teacher wanted. While I was reading the material and understood it, my process of interpretation was not correct. For this reason I shied away from reading for pleasure outside of the class myself, I became a readicide victim. I do not wish to instil this idea in my own students to the point that they will dislike reading. I want each student to feel comfortable expressing their ideas and thoughts to me and their classmates without fear of being penalized or "wrong". And this will be one of the first things each student hears in my classroom when SSR and class discussions begin.
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