Tuesday, March 20, 2012
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
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
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