#teachread

Throughout Fall 2012, in the Teaching Reading in Secondary English Language Arts course at NYU, we investigated reading and teaching reading in the digital age.

We read one Young Adult novel from the books listed below, and set up a social media venue to explore, discuss, and engage with others about our YA books. The class social media links are also below listed under each of the YA books.

As we read and explored these genres, we conducted a study of what it means to read, comprehend and experience texts designed for adolescents and digital reading. Once we finished reading our novels and interacting through social media services, we composed a genre analysis that included identifying the characteristics of today’s YA Lit and social media, and why and how these genres, our chosen book and chosen social media platform could/should be incorporated into the curriculum. These responses are posted within the menu option of #teachread above.

Posts by class members are their own and do not reflect the opinions of New York University or the schools within which they work.

To continue the conversation, check out the text these posts were written in response to and patterned after: Writing About Literature in the Digital Age (Silvester, Nelson & Rutter, 2011). The conversation also continues on #teachread on Twitter.

Our YA Books & Social Media Venues: Read Along with Us!

Follow Two Readers Reading Sold, by Patricia McCormick:
Twitter: @LetsdiscussSold
Wordpress Blog: Young Lakshmi

Follow Four Readers The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Sherman Alexie:
Tumblr: Part-Time Harlemit e
Twitter: @PartTimeIndian2
Facebook: Arnold Spirit Jr.
Tumblr: Part Time Brooklyn

Follow Two Readers American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang:
Facebook: Jin Wang
Deviant Art: hfinne

Follow Two Readers Reading Friends with Boys, by Faith Erin Hicks:
Facebook: Jin Wang
Deviant Art: hfinne

Follow Four Readers America, by E.R. Frank:
Blogspot: Joyful Reading Experiment
Tumblr: School for Kids Who Can’t Read Good
Blogger: America Lost and Found
Tumblr: Reading America

Follow Nine Readers Reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky:
Tumblr: Notes of a Wall Flower
Fan fiction: nadiaryhan
Twitter: @FlowerPerks
Twitter: @WallFlowTweets
Twitter: @WallsOfFlowers
Twitter: @WallflowerBoy
Twitter: @UnPossibleTask
Blogger: Holly the Wallflower
Tumblr: What Wallflower

5 Comments on “#teachread”

Gideon Burton
October 3, 2011

A prior student alerted me to your project. We are thrilled to know that Writing About Literature in the Digital Age is helping along other like-minded projects. We’ll be monitoring your progress and hope we can be of assistance in some way.

Reply
- Anna
  October 17, 2011
  
  Thanks for the support! We have all just began to read our YA books and composed our first few posts. If you (or any of your students) don’t mind sharing, were there any reflective activities your crew did as you were in the midst of blogging that helped clarify what it meant to write about literature in the digital age?
  
  Reply
Gideon Burton
October 17, 2011

Being reflective about how we write about literature in the digital age was really the subject of our entire eBook. And since I emphasized publishing process, the students’ individual blogs were similarly self aware (see http://thedigitalwriter.blogspot.com/p/current-student-blogs.html). I would say that the activities which provoked the most productive self reflection were when students interacted with other bloggers or people online. When you see and gain a sense of various communities of readers and writers online (for example, via Goodreads, or by commenting on others’ blogs related to your own topic) it really gets you thinking differently about your writing. As soon as students get past thinking of their work dead ending with an audience of one and start realizing that they can be part of an ongoing conversation, right now — it changes everything.

Reply
Gideon Burton
October 17, 2011

…and that’s why your Twitter integration is fantastic! Do you have them research on Twitter, too? They can find people sharing ideas about their books or authors (or the themes, etc.) using http://search.twitter.com

Reply
- Anna
  November 3, 2011
  
  Thanks for the suggestions! I tried my own self-conscious blog post about ‘readability.’
  http://parttimeharlemite.tumblr.com/post/11585243373/my-first-lesson-in-21stcenturyreading-making-my
  
  A few of the accounts have taken off in terms of ‘conversation.’ These conversations are still insular, but they’re there. A good example of this is: https://twitter.com/#!/LetsdiscussSold .
  
  It has also been interesting to see how each of the Social Media platforms have shaped how people converse and interact. On Tumblr, several of us (I also have a Tumblr account as part of the project) were, at first, very frustrated with the limited interaction—as we were used to it, i.e. comments, posts, links. Rather, ‘reblogging’ is the way of interacting on Tumblr, which makes for a very different experience! A good example of someone who has taken up reblogging is: http://schoolforkidswhocantreadgood.tumblr.com/
  
  Reply