ECI 520 Action Learning Project

Below is the video for my action learning project. It was a really informative and encouraging experience, and I look forward to implementing what I learned from it in my own classroom.

Nonfiction Book Club Colaborative Response

After discussing how best to respond to Art Spiegelman's Maus (part 1) our group decided to write a multi voice poem. It gave us a chance to explore the three competing viewpoints of the book. Art, struggling to comes to terms with who his father is and how he survived in Nazi Poland, those who died during this time, and Art's father Vladek, who survived among the worst possible circumstances. His methods for survival were tough for Art, because he acting almost solely out of the interest of the survival of his family and himself. He often had to ignore the needs of friends and distant family. And many others who survived for a long time had to do the same. But if Vladek had not survived, Art would not be alive. What does it mean to survive? What does it mean to endure? These are the topics we tried to explore in our response.
Until I can get the document in the form of an image so that the multivoice form is preserved, I am going to just publish my part.

Arty

Survival.

Maybe some aren't meant to survive, and yet Anja did.

It takes a special person to continue no matter what.

For some, it's not easy to forget.
My mother couldn't handle the pain of Hitler's Germany.

Or maybe it was her lost child
Or her disappointing son.

Maybe it was the guilt of being spared,
But only part of her survived.

She also took a piece of Vladek and me with her.

How do we survive?
Keep the memories alive?

Vladek, my father, the old miser.

Everything about him that annoys me,
Helped him survive.

And now I must help his story survive.
For a price, of course.
Always, help has its price.

Non Fiction and the Teen Reader

Aronson is 100% right when he says that nonfiction is the neglected stepchild of young adult literature. I distinctly remember historical fiction young adult books, like red badge of courage, or fictionalized books that were somewhat grounded in reality, like Hatchet. But I can't recall a creative nonfiction book that I read before the age of 16 or so. At 16, I took AP Human Geography, and for my final project in the class, I read the book Cod, which was a nonfiction book about the global impact of Cod. My parents still make fun of a line I had in my essay, "thankfully the civil war came along" which was probably a dumb thing to say, but for Cod a large scale war was a great thing. But still, this book was targeted at adults, and I was no longer reading young adult literature. There seems to be a definite void there that could be filled with engaging, intelligent nonfiction books for young readers.

And I can see why this can be especially true for boys. As men, we are expected to be more grounded in reality. I know that my parents felt that comic books and fantasy novels were a stage to be grown out of though I never really did. But if not fantasy or comic books, what material would be best for boys? I agree with Aronson that nonfiction books fill that gap because they appeal to what boys want to do (at least in my experience) which is to learn new cool things. When I look back on most of my current hobbies, they started as cool things to learn. Guitar, writing, singing, cooking, brewing, bike riding, video games, even dog training began as cool things to learn how to do. There are countless other things I began because I thought it would be cool to learn but gave up on (skateboarding was an especially painful experience). But I think there really is a desire within boys to master their little universes, and usually they can do so incredibly well (the amount of 13 year olds who have completely smoked me in a bluegrass jams is staggering). I'm not totally sure that this doesn't translate to girls. In fact, I think it does, but there is a cultural bias for girls to be reading nonfiction and young adult romance etc. But, I bet given the opportunity many girls would be more than happy for the chance to master their universe as well (I have been smoked by an increasing amount of girls in bluegrass jams too, although usually on mandolin or fiddle, not as much on guitar).

I think it would be really easy to integrate nonfiction into the middle and high school curriculum. Replace all those boring out dated and ineffective textbooks with trade books. Some could be historical fiction, some could be biography, some could just be interesting and well written nonfiction. But Social Studies and Science classes are begging to have more interesting reading material. Even in the English and Language Arts curriculum, why not integrate material that overlaps other subjects? (All books do though don't they?) Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates would be a perfect companion piece to a Hawthorne short story like the Minister's Black Veil. Even memoirs like selections from David Sedaris could have a place in the ELA classroom. I think the only impediments are curriculum and administration, but I think that Aronson makes such compelling points, that a few quotes could persuade even the most resistant administrator.

Bookcast on Revolver

Literary Quality and Rot and Ruin

No, Rot and Ruin is not what would immediately be considered a upper echelon idea for a novel. At its most basic, it is a zombie story. But then, who said zombie stories can't be high in literary quality? 1968's Night of the Living Dead was, many believe a commentary on race relations in the United States. Is the use of a horror device, monsters, gore and bloodshed immediately low brow? One could really argue that the idea of using what is thought of as a low-brow medium to create literature is in itself high brow (DaDa movement-like?).

Literary quality is very hard to define for me. I know what is accepted as literature of the finest quality, and I really enjoy it. Hemmingway, Tennessee Williams, Yeats, and my favorite of all Robert Browning are very dear to me. It seems undisputed that these are literary masters, yet I don't know that I can say why. Each had a unique perspective. Each maybe tweaked his genre. But I imagine Hemmingway's terse, authentic language was not considered high quality at first. I imagine Williams' often vulgar themes and innuendo were considered riskee at the very least. Yeats was often criticized for writing poetry on a repetitive theme (unrequited love), and Browning was overshadowed in his own time by his wife's more traditional verse.

I think these lessons of redefining literary quality that occurred in the late 19th and throughout the 20th century can now be applied to young adult literature. Authors are now challenging the definition of young adult literature, and I think that sort of trend goes hand in hand with increasing literary quality. To me, a work of high literary quality is one that challenges our conventions. I think that the Printz award guidelines lean this way as well. Many of the qualities listed would be pretty boring if they weren't unique or intriguing (Setting, Accuracy, Character, Design). But innovation is worth little without meaning, and this is where I would diverge a little with the Printz definition of literary quality. I can understand why they say meaning should not necessarily factor into this judging, because it is so difficult to say that a work has meaning from one person to the next. But I can't help but feel that a story must convey something meaningful.

In other words, there should be emotion in the work. The characters, setting etc. should convey something that the reader can believe in, and I think that Mayberry does a great job of this in Rot and Ruin. You may not like the characters. You may not like the setting, or the concept, but it does feel real. The world sucks you in, and you learn about the characters. And hopefully, by learning about these fictional characters you learn a little about yourself, or your spouse, or your neighbor, but something about the novel should stick with you; should mean something to you. I often find myself remembering parts of some of the best books I've read, or the best songs I've heard as I go through my day, and I think it helps me make sense of all the craziness out there. At a time when students are going through so many changes, it seems very important that the best Young Adult Literature achieve this goal.