Finding Ways to Incorporate Digital Texts as a Component to Literature Instruction

Since I know many of you are currently searching for digital source materials which could be used in aiding students' reading development in MS/HS for your Meeting ELA Standards/Common Core Standards Using YA Literature Project, I thought I would share a few links I have collected which illustrate student created digital narratives as well as professionally made book trailers about the Hunger Games.  


These works are not advertisements for the film version of the movie, but were made as was to promote, summarize, and expand awareness and understanding of the book(s).   I believe these types of digital texts could be used effectively as before reading, during reading, and after reading materials to deepen and refine students' response to the work:


Book Trailers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TnxXoMpF3c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL7D-ZMCI5o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJzilLjqAf4&feature=related
Student Created Responses
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9Zgp57Nui4
Interviews with Suzanne Collins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH15DI8ZW14&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEmJJIl7rp0&feature=related

The Politics of YA Literature

I was so disheartened yesterday to read in the NYTimes that the book, Mexican Whiteboy, by Matt de la Pena (one of our author selections this semester AND one of the featured authors at TBF in May) had been banned from the Tucson Schools in Arizona.

I have been quietly rumbling about the anti-Mexican policies which continue to grow in numbers in Arizona, but this latest incident hits home.   Knowing Matt and knowing his work, I am sure he found it particularly odd that his book was being banned on the grounds that it incited social activism and anti-white thinking.   For those of you who have read this work (as well as others he has written), I am sure you would agree that his books are NOT politically motivated NOR is a primary message of the book that Mexicans are oppressed and Whites are the the problem.   All of De la Pena's books are written in the classic style of American young adult literature which provide contemporary coming of age stories and address universal themes of love, identity, acceptance, and individuality.   While it is true that Mexican Whiteboy does depict the story of a young, Mexican-American male who is feels out of place both in his all-white private high school as well as with his father's family in Mexico, to say that this work contains "critical race theory" and was designed to "promote racial resentment"  is absurb.

Here is the link to the article if you are interested:   Racial Lens Used to Cull Curriculum in Arizona

Reading A Northern Light with a Lens of Feminist Criticism

When reading literature well,  teachers must encourage adolescent readers to begin to use different lenses for constructing an understanding.    The book, A Northern Light, is an excellent piece to use when helping students discover and analyze the way a character can be used to provide a particular portrait of a woman's place in society.   Particularly, I believe this book an be used to help students "read differently" in regards to how they "identify" with characters.   "In Western cultures, many texts make use of four stereotyped representations which place women in one of four categories: 1.  nurturing mothers/carers 2.  dutiful daughters 3. sexual/passionate women 4. mad/bad women. The first two are often read as "legitimate" positions; the third represents a possible position at certain times while the last represents a nonconforming position.  These categories have been argued to define women in terms of what men want from them.   In order to disrupt these traditional reading practices, feminist critics advocate two courses of action.  One is to read "against the grain":  to deliberately challenge the text by pointing out its gender inequalities.  The second course of action is to promote texts (whether written by men or women) which do no reproduce traditional concepts of gender."                        (--excerpted from Brian Moon's, 1999, Literary Terms:  A Practical Glossary.  Urbana, IL:  NCTE) With this in mind, I would like to steer away from our traditional guiding questions (Mizokawa & Hansen-Krening) to use in reflecting on my reading.  Instead, I would like to use a feminist lens to examine some of the female characters in A Northern Light, either perpetuate or break free from the traditional portraits of a woman's place in society. Here are some of my thoughts about the character:   Emmie Hubbard 1. Nurturing mothers/carers: As Emmie's children are often hungry, unbathed, and sickly throughout most the book, I would definitely say that Emmie's character is not portrayed as an acceptable or "good" character. 4. Mad/Bad women: Emmie is certainly seen as the "mad/bad" woman through most of the book. And this is mostly due to the fact that she is not a nuturing/caretaker of a mother. 3. Sexual/Passionate women: What is interesting is that when Mattie (and then we are the readers) find out that Emmie has been having an affair with Royal Loomis' Dad there is certainly a sense of shame and disgust for Emmie and sense of pity for Thomas and his siblings. 2. Dutiful daughter. Although Emmie is not portrayed as a daughter at any time during this book, it is interesting that her character undergoes a transformation when she becomes the care taker for Weaver's mom. As a result of caring for Mrs. Smith that suddenly Emmie is interested in caring for her own children as well as taking care of her own household. Is Emmie a stereotypical character? I think so. In many ways she perpetuates the stereotype that the mistress is not of high caliber. What is interesting though in Donnelly's work is that it is not Mr. Loomis who suddenly "does the right thing" by Emmie and his children.  Instead, it is the women of the novel -- Mattie and Mrs. Smith -- who help Emmie rise to an "acceptable" or "legitimate" position.

The Comic Genius of Jack Ferrialo

Jack Ferraiolo's The Big Splash is one of the best mystery books I have read by a Teen Book Festival author.   Last year, Josh Berk's book, The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin, was a pretty good.  But, for me, The Big Splash still comes out on top.

I think the reason why I love this book is because of the fact that Ferrialo draws heavily on the "tough guy" private investigator characters and crimes of the 70s and 80s.  What makes this book unique though is the fact that he takes these classic macho-style themes and characters (albeit overused and stereotypical) and uses them to bring to life the traditional social issues American pre-teens and young adults face as they move from elementary school to high school. 

I really enjoy Ferraiolo's use of hyperbole  as a means of presenting the archetype characters and scenery of middle school (hall monitors, bullies, popular girls....cafeteria, crowded hallways, lockers etc).

When reflecting on the questions Mizokawa & Hansen-Krening pose in their typology of questions to use when developing a critical reading response,  the question I am stumped by is the question:  What is the political,social, and historical context for the story?  When I think about the book with this question in mind,  I have to think that Ferraiolo is trying to make two comments about this time in American adolescence.   The first is that middle school can feel like a social war zone  -- while Matt is never faced with the kind of dilemmas that Parvana is faced with in The Breadwinner -- for many teens, middle school is a minefield.     Without having a trustworthy social network -- be they  good friends or at least honest and stalworthy classmates  -- one can feel like he/she is in the "Outs."      The second point I think the author is making with this book is the fact that being 11, 12, and 13 is a very unique time in one's development.   A time when one is trying on all sorts of identities, personas, and even social groups as he/she moves from childhood to middle childhood and adolescence. 


I think to fully appreciate this book, one has to learn a bit more about the author.  These are a few of my favorite online sources of information and insight into the mind (heart and soul) of Jack Ferriaolo:

Five Fun Facts about Jack:  from the TBF website

Jack's blog:  www.jackferraiolo.com 

A post from Jack's blog about his next writing project.   

The Author's Mind's Eye:  You Tube Video

I missed the deadline for DEADLINE

So sorry readers for not posting my respond to Deadline sooner. I've been too busy reading and responding to your blogs to post my own reflections on the reading.   Will try to be better this week!

I have been thinking about everything my fellow LTED 629 readers have been saying about Deadline (positive and negative) and while I appreciate those who feel there was a lot going on in the novel -- maybe too much to seem believable -- in my own experiences I grew up with a kid (and others in the class) who were struggling with many of the same issues.   While I don't know think I knew anyone who was spending time with a person who was homeless, an alcoholic, and a self-admitted pedophile... in my class (which totaled 128 students), I knew of at least three kids who were getting beaten up regularly by their parents, another classmate whose father was dying and his mother was an alcoholic, still another whose father harangued him publicly at wrestling matches if he didn't win and we were sure beat him at home when he didn't, five seniors who died in a single car crash, and even still another girl who [although we didn't find out about it until years after high school] was being sexually abused by her father.  

It may be due to the fact that I went to a smaller high school in a small town where people tended to be the second, third, or even fourth generation of graduates from the same school..... but I do not think it is so impossible that a teen could be struggling with how to deal with all of the issues and how they are affecting those close to him or her.  

What I think is most interesting about this book though is the question of "truthfulness."   In the beginning of the book, Ben doesn't want to tell his family about his illness because he doesn't want to burden them.   He doesn't want to tell his brother or his coach because he wants to play football.   He doesn't want to tell Dallas because he doesn't want her to pity him.   He doesn't want to tell his teacher Mr. Lambeer because then he will be able to dismiss his "class antics" as a sign of acting out rather than because he seriously finds Lambeer to be a racist and anti-democratic. 

There is a passage on page 280 that I really like.  Ben is reflecting on the situation at hand (which has gotten a bit out of hand) and he says....

"...all my trouble so far has come from being the little control freak I am, deciding who should hear what when and trying to control other people's emotions by what I say.   It's become clearer and clearer it's just disrespectful to not let people deal with things in a straightforward manner.  When I'm lying on that bed on my last day, I want a clean slate."

I think that the issue of "control" (or lack there of) is certainly a universal human condition.   We want to know everything and we want everything we know to be true.  True = constant, never changing, forever the same, imminently reliable.  Unfortunately, truth is relative.    

Coming from this perpective about truth, what I find most redeeming about the way the book ends (because of course I hate the fact that Ben has to die) is that there is a great deal more "truth-telling" and living life "outloud" by all the people that Ben was close to.  Both of his parents were much more honest and open about their personal struggles and dreams, certainly Dallas and Cody are living life to the fullest.   Even Mr. Lambeer had to stop and reconsider his own ideas about whether or not someone can be wiser simply because they are older (have more experience, p. 295).

Awestruck by Wonderstruck

This was such an impressive novel.   I was so surprised how often I asked myself.....what is going on here?   I found myself making predictions almost every time I turned the page, wondering if I was ever going to find out the answer to my question.  

In regards to my experience as a reader, I found that I was often revisiting and re-reading BOTH the pages with print and the pages with the drawings.   In both instances, there were often little details that I learned as I continued to read on that would trigger a memory of something I had read or saw earlier in the book which made me go back to re-read.      What I find most interesting about this, is that if I had engaged in this much "disrupted fluent reading" with any other traditionally structure YA novel I simply would have gotten mad at the book and frustrated at what I would have perceived as my inability to read well.   However, in this instance, I found it made me even more attentive, more engaged, and more careful...no that's not right... more CARING with my reading.    I am now hooked!  And I want to go read another one of these books to see how my reading process continues to change/develop.  

Question 1: Using the ABCs Typology

Question 1: I've been thinking about the typology of questions for reader response that Mizokawa and Hansen-Krening describe on page 77 of their article. I notice that when I talk to my friends or my teachers/students about books I'm reading, I find it really easy to talk about "what I feel" (simplest) and "How I am 'triggered' morally, socially, civically by what I read" (most complex). But I don't think I usually spend time thinking about the questions in the middle (i.e., What is it in me than evokes this response? Could the events be changed? Should they be changed)...... is this true for everyone else?