Sherry.

LAE4464/6636

LENS – Literary Engagement in Numerous Senses

Purpose
• Practice reading YA Literature from a variety of theoretical/pedagogical perspectives

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 (type of writing), 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 one’s 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 writing—story, style, detail,
and craft? In what ways might it serve as a “mentor” for one’s 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 Reader-response Critical Intertextual Transmedial Reader-as-writer
King of Shadows (Cooper)
Monster (Myers)
True Notebooks (Saltzman)
Ready Player One (Cline)
Persepolis (Yang)
Brown Girl Dreaming (Hesse)
 Sherry.LAE4464/6636

Assessment
Criterion 4.0 3.0 2.0 1.0 0.0
Purpose Identifies and justifies a purpose for the response,
Selects an appropriate medium/text type,
and consistently addresses the LENS perspective
Audience Identifies and justifies an intended audience for the response,
selects an appropriate medium/text type,
and arranges relevant details clearly
Genre Identifies and justifies a medium/text type for the response
and adopts conventions appropriate to that medium/genre,
Engagement Identifies and justifies author’s benefits from this response,
and completes task fully and on-time in professional manner