developing writers
Anna Smith, educational researcher & teacher educator blogging about composition in the digital age, contexts for learning, theories of development, and global youth.
Freedom of Voice and Choice
Author: Teresa Harris
Teresa’s #teachread blog: http://americalostandfound.wordpress.com/
Categories: YA Lit, Social Media, Teens, Designing Instruction, WordPress, America by E.R. Frank
Tags: Individual voice, America, choice, young adult literature, WordPress
Freedom of Voice and Choice
Growing up, once I hit about seventh or eighth grade, I realized I had a voice. And by voice I don’t mean I could speak—I mean I had thoughts and opinions that were uniquely mine, and though everyone around me admitted that I was indeed a “young adult,” there was little to no change in the way actual adults treated me. At home, my parents told me which of my opinions were appropriate; at school it was the same thing. Why, oh why, was I not allowed to speak my mind? I’m sure that all over the world there are adolescents who feel the same way, and are facing the same opposition I once did. The question then is, how can we as ELA educators provide opportunities for students to express their opinions in their own voice?
My answer: WordPress!
This past semester, I read young adult novel America by E.R. Frank, a hard-hitting, punch-you-in-the-gut novel about a boy named America, who has been lost in the system and within himself for so long, he no longer believes he can be found. While I read this novel, I maintained a WordPress blog (http://americalostandfound.wordpress.com/), on which I could write whatever I wanted in response to my experience with the novel. Seriously. Whatever I wanted. I talked about America’s jacket image; how we as educators might approach teaching this book in a middle-class setting without the kids turning their noses up at America’s seemingly “urban” struggle.
I even devoted a post to actor Jesse Williams, who was America in the movie version playing in my head.
Here’s the post: http://americalostandfound.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/jesse-williams-sa-woooon/
And here’s Jesse Williams. (via photo)
Is it really any wonder that his was the most commented post on my blog?
I even devoted an entire post to the trailer for the actual film adaptation of America, and how non-gritty and terrible it looked. Ultimately, the point is, I wrote whatever I wanted to because I could. The decision about my blog’s content was mine and mine alone. This made my experience with Frank’s novel far more personal than if my professor had told me to write an essay, topic predetermined by her. I was able to consider, on my own, whether or not I liked America, would recommend this novel, and whether or not I would teach it and other young adult books in my future classroom.
The answer to all of these questions is yes. As a genre, young adult fiction differs from canonical literature in that YA’s purpose is not so much to draw attention to the language of the story, but to the story’s issues themselves. In America, these issues were many—molestation, homicide, drug addiction, death, love, hope–and America’s experience with each one has the power to elicit an incredibly personal response from each individual reader. A response that may not be best expressed in the form of an essay with a teacher-determined prompt. Sometimes, a reader needs to interact with a novel on her own terms, which brings us back to voice. Young adult novels like America, with its gritty, first-person realism, are written in the voice of an adolescent. Not the voice of all adolescents, to be sure, but the unique voice of one. So, why not allow our students the opportunity to respond to these young adult texts in their own unique young adult voices?
Having each student maintain a WordPress blog is one way to do this. The blog can be about a novel the whole class is reading, or, if we’re brave enough to relinquish control, about novels of our students’ choice. A WordPress blog is relatively easy to set up and maintain, it’s free, and, best of all, it encourages a community around a novel outside of the classroom. Students can comment on each others’ blog posts, thus extending the discussion of young adult literature to the web. Here, students would be free to use their voices as they’d choose and to interact with literature on their own terms. To be able to speak their minds. Perhaps then the result would be increased motivation and engagement and, ultimately, an increase in our students’ love of reading, too. Fingers crossed.
–Teresa Harris
Check out the book!
Check Out the Book!
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