In the article “Dark Themes in Books Get Students Reading”, Kathleen Kennedy Manzo reports that Chanelle Brown, and English student in a Chicago high school, is glad her teacher has started implementing YA texts that contain themes that students relate to more readily.  But the switch has caused controversy with “traditionalists” who are concerned that “it will dumb down the curriculum”, and with parents, who sometimes object to the content of the books. 

While these books contain some dark themes– “Many young-adult novels, for example, feature violent scenes, topics such as death and abuse, or protagonists who purposely hurt themselves.”– these themes exist in traditional literature as well, it’s just that in a more modernized context, the students can actually understand what’s going on. 

I think it’s crazy that in a world where TV and cinema (with as much dark content as they contain) are so popular, parents would be so concerned with their kids finding out about these themes in an educational environment. 

Despite this new explosion of availability of such YA literature, there is still no noticeable trend in shifting away from the traditional approach to literature in secondary education.  “‘I would be very pleased if it was a trend, but I don’t see it,” said Jeffrey D. Wilhelm,…’The classical, canonical literature, which I personally love, in fact was written for very sophisticated adult readers, … but the attitude [among English teachers and traditionalists] is, ‘”Let’s kick their butts with something they can’t possibly understand.”’ ”  Wilhelm goes on to say that he found the general consensus to be that school reading “sucks” and students “hate it.” 

This, along with the effective pairing of traditional and YA fiction, and the fact that Arthur Applebee has found that “the trend toward incorporating more diverse and recent works has generally had a positive impact on the curriculum” seems like ample weight to throw the trend towards more accessible, useful, current YA lit (while keeping some figures of that canon, such as Shakespeare of course) but I think it’s going to take two or three hundred researchers to do studies that agree with these ideas before schools will even begin to change en mass.

 http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/03/30/31literature.h26.html?levelId=1000&rale2=KQE5d7nM%2FXAYPsVRXwnFWYRqIIX2bhy1%2BKNA5buLAWGoKt77XHI2terRpWBSgktL4bXgTCDsilF0%0A09WNYgHTQ3Yui18B7O40N4xeb2G1goTh%2F9BFEakU7ZHII%2Fmu01CUEpLNhfZ%2FY5RTSAFMoROfwTsH%0AAsyDLJnT9czpjKHi7khQUPRB5iYdt1aiRPFRM1hUgJVG54C6T3aPy1K%2F6h3QUQxy2EGrEogmeKkO%0Awf%2BeyzB7%2Fb660Blen9B09P%2FODdrCdD6Kt1cTY7WeXq3tiYa%2F51vLNM6qt9U9hNzd8l5iPhqFIEQt%0A2RkrvFQvq8uuDHdbhx4dvjZ%2BNNEiIDvyvu%2B1s%2FVP3VI622TuQ6qi6U4RKtPGI%2F5n37J39X07n7c7%0AvSLD6Y6BYsPS2jdSx1oO0Ju7%2F2Twsh11eqcWlBBv5gkZZh3kqhiUNhQ1QoSrVNOpQdeB6jlajB%2Bj%0AR9SpXoVp1Aki6OSqGJQ2FDVChKtU06lB14GCeFRRf7HABAW%2Fz6wXYvnEBn%2FILJyqNlEPFqQ0Z3Lk%0Au72SAxxsAEIoYw0RSPzBxmb6ewGJ%2B%2BewBivZOjy%2B5jseiHUESP2Od%2FKW4XrDjh%2FAOeLbMlf3WPNT%0AltKDzXpSze0qRWOinwPvQ8NvRhGKB5RjLxw4YDtlKaxm7ZeQmEHdq4Bu4FdzPjc4Twz09R81WgP%2F%0Aw%2FK2hSEbiSDkn7jQn%2BmIbtcBtqscfWClxmZWyG2xg2v9GLJMgKHS

Dark Themes in Books Get Students Reading

By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo

In Elizabeth McGarr’s article “Plot: 12th grade; reading level: 6th” (http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070225/FEATURES07/702250326/1016/FEATURES07), she talks about the recent implementation of some new series of YA lit for older, but less developed readers.  The main draw for students who struggle with reading to books like The Gun by Paul Langon is that they appeal to students’ interests without “embarrass[ing] them in front of their classmates.” 

The article reports one success story as well as mentioning a number of titles and average reading levels of each of the different series.  The one inclusion that I want to comment on is the quote that “Some educators worry that these books are too sophisticated for the good readers…But most dismiss that reservation and believe the benefits of engaging students outweigh any potential negatives of younger readers being exposed to topics like gangs and alcohol.” 

My mind jumped through three thoughts almost simultaneously after reading: one, engaging students in reading is a primary objective; two, books with subject matter containing gangs and alcohol, for instance, based on our class discussions of challenges, are certainly ripe for challenge from middle school parents for encouraging bad behaviour, even though most of us well know they are exposed to these and other sensitive issues on television and through other formats; and three, these books are apparently a form of introduction into reading, so why don’t we start with books that introduce reading that students can relate to at an earlier age, like, say, elementary school, and then maintain the interest for a number of years until the students are prepared to start reading autonomously?

Another issue with these books is that they take away from reading time that good readers could be further maturing their reading abilities with more “classic”, or conventional literature, but I think an easy answer to that is, if they are already reading, they will be able, or at least more able than the struggling readers, to go outside of school and find their own interests in other books in addition to class requirements.

The biggest realization I had when reading this article is that these books are very similar in ideology to the introductory levels of video games, which we discussed as reading tools a few weeks ago.  They catch interest by focusing on topics and themes that interest kids, they invariably start off easily and with much explicit direction, and then follow with countless opportunities to practice skills that will be necessary later in the story, and perhaps most importantly they are seen as attainable, or do-able by those who immerse themselves in the games and books.

While a far cry from boogers and farts, these books still cater to specific topics.  However, in the case of these books, they address themes that can be found throughout canonical literature– violence, sex, drugs, social discomfort– and, in my opinion, could be used as springboards for other more sophisticated pieces, much like Jake Re-Invented and The Great Gatsby.  I am left wondering, though, where are the theme-specific books for special ed kids who don’t want to read about gang violence, but need something to hold their interest in the arduous task of gleaning meaning.  Perhaps my next investigation will be into the special education reading realm.

There has historically been a disconnect between what students want to read and what they are asked to read in school.  School Boards, parents, and community groups have banned books that they considered offensive or indecent, and many English teachers have relegated their classroom libraries to consist of canonical pieces that students can’t relate to, or even understand in many cases.  And yet, these books that have been banned, or considered “junk books” by some, are exactly what kids- especially boys, who lose interest in reading to a greater extent that girls do- want to read.  In her article “To get boys to read, yuk works wonders”, Gina Damron examines what schools can do to encourage interest in reading.

For the kids that struggle with reading, the ones that see “Tess of the D’Urbervilles” and give up after page one, “ ’They’re the ones falling through the cracks,’ [Jo Kwasni] said. ‘There’s no bad literature for these kids.’” 

I believe that schools should do like libraries have begun to across the nation: they should start to bring in all kinds of texts, from graphic novels to books like “The Adventures of Captain Underpants” to ensure that the kids who are behind in literature, the ones who are first to stop wanting to read because it’s too hard, get the opportunity to learn the joys of reading while gaining skills they can use later when they decide to move on to different literature styles.

When it comes to reading, even if we can’t all agree that all reading is great, it is certain that any reading is better than no reading at all.  If boys need their books to be full of gore, violence, and blood, or stupid toilet humor and gross depictions of vile things like poop and snot, then that reading should be the kind of reading they’re allowed to do in the years when they make up their minds about whether or not they can get anything out of reading. 

We can always hope that boys will grow out of being fascinated by the grotesque and the obscene, but by forcing them to read things they don’t like, we are not going to get them to be any less interested in gore or obscenity.  If books filled with poo and masturbation are what they want to read, then let them read.  Keeping kids reading is the best way to make them better readers, and if they don’t read about something unpleasent in a book, they’ll find in on TV or on the internet.  Let’s face it, when it comes to grabbing kids’ attention with a book, there’s no such thing as bad reading.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070125/NEWS05/701250387/1007

I have decided to change my topic and address new methods in teaching reading, rather than focusing on the evaluation aspect.  While the conflict between better reading instruction and standard methods of evaluation remains important, it is the better instruction that I want to focus on.

 Though it is hard to believe that it could be considered a revolutionary teaching technique, one 8th grade teacher in Hawaii, Jim Harstad, is spending an hour every day reading to his students as they read along. 

I wish I could find the data to back up the claim I am about to make, but I’m sure I saw somewhere that there is a significant positive correlation between how much a child is or was read to and how well they read and write themselves.   When there is little to no reading going on in the homes of impoverished, middle-class and evn well off students, I am not surprised that someone has finally made the leap and started reading to their students.

“It’s a three-pronged approach that includes five minutes of journal-writing or free-writing at the start of class to improve the ability to express thoughts; a second five-minute segment devoted to analyzing a new sentence each day; and the remainder of class time is for reading aloud together.

“‘Students tend to think books are dead things… I want to bring them to life’ says Harstad”.

Harstad’s reason for approaching reading this way is what I agree with the most.  He says that preparing for a test is a process that runs counter to reading- he doesn’t want students thinking of books as a chore.

If our goal is to get students to become better readers we have to get them more interested in reading so they read on their own for fun, and so they approach reading as a process they can get something worthwhile out of.  That way, when it comes time for them to read and understand required texts, they have a wealth of experience from which they can draw tools that they’ve used in the past to help them understand and enjoy.

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070128/NEWS07/701280357/1012/NEWS

My plan, I think, is going to be to focus on the evaluation part of teaching reading.  Considering the challenges that come with evaluating “Aesthetic reading”, and considering the insufficiencies of testing reading skill progress in any sort of homogenized, overarching manner designed to equally evaluate all students, I thought this would be an interesting and important issue with arguments for many approaches to solving this dilema.  Since I expect there to be so many varied and perhaps conflicting proposals for how best to evaluate reading, across grades, across districts, and across the nation, I figured it would be a good topic for a person like myself since I am very opinionated and critical- sometimes more-so than I ought to be I think.  Also, considering the idea behind this part of the class is to engage in discussion, a category such as this would instigate plenty of debate.

 I will be using sources like the BBC World News and the NEA homepage, but one source I have high hopes for is the link to Reading Today Daily, so I’ve included the link here: http://www.google.com/reader/view/  I think this should work.

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