Teaching Young Adult Literature

The authors who contributed to this text believe that young adult literature (YAL) can meet the Common Core’s push to include literacy across content areas, as well as meet the standards in creative and effective ways. This text is intended to give educators a resource to aid them in creating a literacy curriculum. The included chapters written by experts from different universities across the country offer a variety of methods for using YAL to meet the standards while connecting with students. Following a framework first chapter introducing the importance of YAL and discussing its relevance, other authors tackle various ways to teach it. Each chapter may suggest different strategies and rationales for utilizing YAL, but each shares a common purpose with the others: to promote the efficacy of YAL to engage students while at the same time meeting the rigorous standards set forth by the Common Core.

This thoughtful, articulate collection of research-based essays presents a multitude of tools for classroom teachers to adopt and adapt and belongs in teacher-educator programs and on well-stocked faculty bookshelves. . . .This collection is so valuable that even teachers on the verge of retirement will find it illuminating, energizing, and wholly worthwhile., Teaching Young Adult Literature: Integrating, Implementing, and Re-imagining the Common Core is a blueprint for using high-interest texts to engage readers across the content areas. YA novels, when brought to an academic level of study required by Common Core State Standards, build community and support inclusivity. Authors model numerous ways for teachers to promote text complexity, to interrogate points of view, and to write argumentatively. Students, as readers, should come first!, Kudos to the contributors of this text for proclaiming that young adult literature (YAL) can and should be used to meet the Common Core State Standards  for middle and secondary grades. This text offers pre-service and current teachers practical suggestions for using YAL that may inspire their own creative thinking for how to plan literacy instruction using well-chosen current YA novels.

Judith A. Hayn is the Interim Associate Dean in the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She publishes and presents regionally and nationally on issues of social justice in young adult literature.Jeffrey S. Kaplan is an Associate Professor in the School of Teaching, Learning, and Leadership at the University of Central Florida. As the former president of ALAN, Dr. Kaplan continues his research interests concerning the value of young adult literature.Amanda L. Nolen is the Interim Chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She is an Associate Professor of Educational Foundations in the School of Education.Heather A. Olvey earned her Masters of Secondary English Education degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She currently teaches in the Little Rock schools and continues her focus on teaching literacy through young adult literature.