PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SERIES MAY 2, 2017

YA LITERATURE
Tapping into the Value of Relevance

Kristen Finucan
Psychoanalytic
Theory and
Identical

Meeting Your Standards

Roxanne Loving
YA Literature in the Classroom
Structuralism and
Many teachers would love to incorporate more YA literature into their The Perks of Being a
teaching, but do not realize how YA literature can be used to meet common Wallflower
core standards. Enjoy six stellar presentations by our panel of experts
demonstrating the application of literary theory to YA texts.

Dr. Shana
Hartman
KATHERINE LONG LORIN JONES MANDY BRIDGERS Reader Response
Gender Studies and New Criticism and Hold Gender Studies and Theory and The
Speak Closer, Necromancer Eleanor and Park Fault in our Starts

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SERIES MAY 2, 2017

WHAT IS YA LITERATURE AND WHY DOES IT

MATTER?
Understanding Equals Success
By its most basic definition, Y.A. literature is
literature created for an audience of young readers
ages 12-18. Most of us define young adult as upper
middle school through high school graduation. I
personally, consider YA literature to be the literature
featuring and created for that ago group published
after the debut of S.E. Hintons groundbreaking,
The Outsiders in 1967. When YA literature first
came on the scene it was considered to be realistic
fiction that was set in the real (as opposed to
imagined), contemporary world and addressed
problems, issues, and life circumstances of interest
to young readers aged approximately 12-18 (Cart).
Since the late 1960s, the population in the age
range of 12-18 has expanded exponentially.
Todays YA literature is as diverse as the lives of
teenagers themselves. While the literature
component in YA literature traditionally considered
to mean fiction, that part of the definition has
expanded as well. Today, the definition of literature
has branched out and can include graphic novels
and non-fiction. Early examples of of the YA fiction
dealt with beautiful high school girls and their boy
troubles. Todays YA writers are not afraid to tackle
deep, challenging subjects or make statements on
todays social justice moments such as Black Live
Matter, LGBT rights, or suicide prevention.
In the English classroom, teachers can utilize YA
literature to bridge the gap between nonreaders
and the required reading for their class.YA books
can allow a teacher to accomplish many of the
same learning objectives and goals of weightier
works. The difference lies in the fact that students
often finds YA books to be much more relevant to
their lives. Too often in the high school classroom
we ask them to analyze works that have little
connection to their own lives.
Vast numbers of English teachers are drawn into
the profession by a love of reading and our desire
to share that love with others. Sadly, many of our
students come to us missing this vital part of the
reading experience and we are completely
unprepared when we put a classic text like The
Scarlet Letter in their hands. These students are
closed off automatically by one of the most human
emotions of all - the fear of failing in front of their
peers. According to critic Chris Crowe, unless we
nourish our students with the milk of reading, they
will choke on the meat of literature (Crowe 638). In
other words, before our students could hope to
conquer Hawthorne, they need to conquer
Hogwarts. YA literature can be the best way we
have to demonstrate to those reluctant readers
what magic reading is. If we can get then to love
reading, we can work towards loving literature.

BOOK TALKS
Many teachers realize that is has been years since they read a book aimed at
a young audience. In our afternoon session, each of our experts will present a
book talk on one important YA text. Our book talks are interactive and will
present suggestions for incorporating the books into your English
classrooms. This years featured selections for book talks are Carve the Mark,
The Fifth Wave, Allegedly, Paper Towns, and The Wave.

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 Works Cited

Cart, Michael. The Value of Young Adult Literature. Young Adult Library Services Association

(YALSA), YALSA, 15 Nov. 2011, www.ala.org/yalsa/guidelines/whitepapers/yalit.

Crowe, Chris. "Using YA Books to Teach Students to Love what we Love." English Journal, vol. 89, no. 6,

2000, pp. 138-141, ProQuest Central, http://ezproxy.gardner-webb.edu/login?url=http://

search.proquest.com.ezproxy.gardner-webb.edu/docview/237287475?accountid=11041.