Sherry YAlit13

LENS Literary Engagement in Numerous Senses

Purpose
Practice reading YA Literature from a variety of theoretical/pedagogical perspectives Practice designing instruction based on student responses Big Question: What literature should be read by young adults? Why? How?

Process
We will read six books together over the course of the semester; for each, you will compose a response using whatever medium and genre you choose. You must specify your Purpose and Audience, justify your choice of Genre, and explain your Engagement (what you get out of the writing) for each response. Over the semester, you should try on at least three of the perspectives below (Note: the questions that follow each perspective are meant as suggestions, not requirements). Reader-response: Of what experiences in your own life does this text remind you? Does it seem like a story with which young adults can identify? What effects does this text (or a particular passage of it) have on one as a reader and a person? Critical: What issues does this text raise about how resources, power, and agency are apportioned in society? What social roles does it seem to enable or constrain for its characters? What does it suggest about ones responsibilities as a reader and a person? Intertextual: To what other texts (e.g., other examples of the same genre, other historical events, or other music/art/literature) might this text relate? What does comparison with another text reveal about this one that might not otherwise have been apparent? Transmedial: How might one transform or respond to this text in another medium or genre (such as art, video, music, drama, etc.)? What insights would this transmediation allow? What challenges would it present? Reader-as-Writer: What does this text have to teach you about writingstory, style, detail, and craft? In what ways might it serve as a mentor for ones own writing? What would it mean to compose a similar text, or part of a text? Over the course of the semester, I expect that you will have tried on at least three of these perspectives. Please use the table below to keep track:
Text Enter Three Witches (Cooney) Monster (Myers) True Notebooks (Saltzman) Divergent (Roth) American Born Chinese (Yang) Wonder (Palacio) Reader-response Critical Intertextual Transmedial Reader-as-writer

Assessment
Criterion Process Assignment completed fully and on-time in professional manner Purpose uses details/evidence thoroughly and specifically to make point(s) Audience clearly arranges relevant details/evidence for audience Genre adopts perspective, and suits medium and conventions to the task Engagement demonstrates self-awareness and willingness to take risks 4.0 3.0 2.0 1.0

Sherry YAlit13