Balancing Literature in the Classroom 1

Balancing Literature in the Classroom

Gianfranco Fernandez Ruiz
Jessica Ogburn
Alisa Schneider









Prepared for
June 2, 2014
Dr. Karen C. Holt
Brigham Young University-Idaho

Balancing Literature in the Classroom 2
Introduction

From the beginning of formal education, schools have determined what students
learn and how they learn it. Admittedly, it gave students tools to advance in education;
unfortunately, however, students arent always learning to advance in life, to navigate it,
as educators would have them. This carries implicit limitations as students struggle to act
(or think) for themselves, for society and for future generations. While many educators
aim is often attempting to mold a students schema to that end it is challenged by strained
curricula and bickering educators. This holds students back. Instead, there is a battle
between teachers about the use of literature in the classroom. Some teachers say that it is
impossible to learn anything useful or meaningful from young adult literature (literature
after the 1950s), while others state the irrelevance of having students study the same
classic works (prior to the 1950s) only to yield the same resultsall this without
concern for building students to academic success and civic responsibility. The truth is,
students need them both to have a critical understanding of where we, as a nation, came
from and where we, as people, are going. In tandem the literary pairing develop students
syntax, critical analysis, and moral ethics. The way to balance classical literature and
young adult literature is to recognize the relationship between the two, how to help
students understand the relationship, and how to balance the literatures for the benefit of
the students.
More Relatable

With most teachers on the classical end of the literature spectrum and students on
the modern end it would be easy for the students to quickly jump to the conclusion that
young adult literature is more relatable. In support of the relevance and relatability of
classical literature, Sally Law, an English teacher at Marr College says, From our
Balancing Literature in the Classroom 3
reading, we can begin to understand what it must have been like to live in a particular
time, under certain conditions, in different parts of the world. But the best bit is that we
can do all this while honing those oh-so-necessary and desired critical-thinking skills.
Though true, most students do not view classical literature in this way. Both classical and
young adult literature can be relatable, but because the language in modern literature is
closer to the language in use every day, students can focus on what is going on between
characters rather than focusing on what is said between them. In an article by Elena
Aguilar, transformational leadership coach and former teacher, on literature circles, she
says when we experience joy or pleasure, we feel more connected to a place, and to the
people in that place. It is easier for students to emotionally get involved and connect to
texts with which they dont have to first use a dictionary to define words they have never
encountered.
Young Adult Literature (YA) is a relevant group of texts because students can
actively place themselves in either of the characters roles. In fact, Nieragden says one of
the most useful and beneficial activities to be used in the classroom is dramatising or
letting the students act out scenes and elements that they find in the texts they study
(576). This is beneficial because the students can continue to relate and delve into the
text on a deeper level. This delving does not get simpler with classical literature because
students must decode the text before delving into it. No translation or breakdown is
needed for YA, unlike the classics.
Though many adaptations and translations of classic works exist (for example, No
Fear, Shakespeare series), they are still not nearly as accessible as YA. Students can
directly read modern texts and understand them with little to no help from scholarly
Balancing Literature in the Classroom 4
works. From studying young adult literature, students can feel empowered; they can feel
more a part of their own education because they, as Aguilar states, make choices about
their learning. They dont have to rely on their teachers telling them what the text
means, or waiting for the teachers to present scholarly works to help them interpret
whats right in front of them. By allowing this literature into the classroom to be studied,
teachers are empowering students to think for themselves. Is this not what the goal of an
education is for a teacher?

Proven Educational

Aguilar says that there are four important reasons YA should be included in the
classroom, specifically with the use of literature circles. Her claim is that YA must be
read within literature circles as a preparatory introduction to the classics. These reasons
are shown in the chart below.
Balancing Literature in the Classroom 5


Source: Reasons for Including Literature Circles in the Classroom; The Power of
Literature Circles In the Classroom. Aguilar, Elena. Web.

The first reason Aguilar gives is about cooperative learning. Class discussions,
which has been an exercise in the classroom for quite some time, are important. Students
need to interact with each other in order to better understand texts. It is also important to
realize how YA can help students make connections not only to the text, but to each other
as well. Nieragden says that there are eight aims in teaching this literature successfully in
the classroom:
. affective: develop interest and understanding regarding behaviour, norms, values
and so forth;
. cognitive: understand authors tenets and texts implications;
. instrumental: train use of relevant tools (lexicon, grammar, terminology, history
and so forth);
. intercultural: recognise and assess otherness in documents and attitudes;
. linguistic: expand language competence in all four skills;
. motivating: inspire ongoing unguided text access;
. social: foster team spirit, co-operation, compromising, argument exchange; and
. technical: create familiarity with genre elements, text type, author, style
(Nieragden 570).
Nieragdens objectives benefit the students so that the same values and concepts
from YA are learned in classical literature. Aguilars reasons from including YA are
related to these aims. All of which can be achieved through allowing the students to
interact with each other about the texts read. One of Aguilars other reasons to
Balancing Literature in the Classroom 6
incorporate young adult literature into the classroom concerns small student discussions
becoming social experiences for them. Students will learn more from each other because
it is a more informal setting than a large class discussion, where many students keep their
opinions to themselves. Class discussions are only advantageous for students to a point,
but small student discussions, where students have to interact with each other broadens
their perspectives giving them a better grasp of the texts.
While Aguilar justly states that literature circles focused on the study of YA are
important to the students learning, she misses the fact that classical literature is equally
important to use throughout the literature circle experience. Classical literature is capable
at meeting Nieragdens aims, though students may have to work harder. Law, countering
Aguilar, argues for the classics:
Structures, trends in punctuation and in the way we speak have evolved through
the ages and being aware of these developments really helps us to understand
better, language in its current context. If we didn't read and study texts from the
past, and only looked to the best seller list, how would we know of this
evolution?
Students need to learn from classic works because they need to be able to see and
grasp the importance of events, language, social, and cultural happenings of past times to
better understand those same happenings of their own time. Classic literature offers
students the opportunity to probe texts because of the excessive amount of background
knowledge available from studying classical works. For example, many scholars have
read and analyzed Jane Austen and her works. From the scholars, students can better
understand and dig into more of the meat of the texts, rather than just tasting the gravy
Balancing Literature in the Classroom 7
with just what the students can pull from the text. Scholarly works are not as readily
available or plentiful for young adult literature, therefore making this experience
exclusively for classical works.
Significant Resources

One can have 101,000 results after searching for critical analysis of Pride and
Prejudice on Google Scholar, while there are only 57,400 results for a critical analysis of
Hunger Games. There are 797,000 results found under Frankenstein critical articles.
Though there are 86,700 results for John Greens best selling novel The Fault in our
Stars, all of these supposed results actually refer to a program called STARS that studies
earthquake fault lines. None of them are actually analyzing the novel. Not a single one of
the Divergent books are on Sparknotes, where readers can usually find basic summaries
and help in understanding themes or characters.
Without these valuable resources at hand for newer works of literature, it becomes
more difficult for students to fully understand a text. Classic literature tends to have more
scholarly reviews and critical analysis available to readers online because of the amount
of time they have been around, and because they have already been proven educational
and worth studying. As mentioned before, these scholarly sources help students to deeper
understand a text. One can only get so much out of a classroom discussion; other outside
resources are useful to aid students in their search for meaning or significance in a work.
There are countless book reviews to be found online, but these are usually no
more than just reader response at best. If a student were to use these in a critical analysis
essay, they would have nothing but other peoples opinions about the work. This is not
analyzing, anyone can easily write about how the work made him or her feel. It takes
effort and brainpower to at least explain how the piece of literature does it. And it takes
Balancing Literature in the Classroom 8
even more time and work to write about a work critically, analyzing the different
characters or themes.
On the flip side however, with so many people commenting online about how a
certain book is fantastic, people may become more interested with that work. Once they
read that work, they could move onto other books, and begin to have a love for literature.
Older books are just that -- old. They are not headline news anymore. Because of their
age and potentially boring or out of date reputation, fewer people write about them on
social media sites. If a person begins reading new young adult fiction because of a
recommendation, at least they are reading something. There is even a chance that as a
reader continues to pursue more literature, they may even stray into the classic canon and
find a work or two that catches their fancy, bringing new life into the aging literature.

Historical Significance

Author and literary critic Steven Willett says that classical literature is essential to
us today because it shows how our cultures developed throughout time. Our societies and
civilizations were influenced by these texts, so to understand the development of our
culture, we need to examine classic literature. For example, readers can see the true,
horrifying side of slavery in Narrative of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs. But readers can
see the transition from outright slavery to degradation in society in A Raisin in the Sun by
Lorraine Hansberry. As people read these works and others related to slavery or
segregation, they can see the path that lead from slavery to oppression to the civil rights
movement.
Law says that literature allows readers to journey to far distant lands or unfamiliar
customs. We did not live in Regency Era England or during the French Revolution, but
Balancing Literature in the Classroom 9
because of the stories they left behind, we are able to figuratively travel there and
experience the environment for ourselves. It is fascinating to see how other cultures and
times dealt with similar issues and problems that are still prevalent today.
Critics of the classic canon say that, Every generation has a moral obligation to
destroy the old stories so new ones can flourish (Willett 65). These critics say that
holding onto the old stories inhibits our potential to create new, fresh stories. If no one
had access to old stories, then there would be little literature to preserve our culture, and
to use in our own writing. Shakespeare himself drew on old legends and stories for his
plays. Of his near forty plays, only A Midsummer Night's Dream, Love's Labour's Lost
and The Tempest are credited as being original ideas from Shakespeare (Mabillard). All
of his other works relied on old legends or stories one way or another. And now in our
day, we use Shakespeare as inspiration for contemporary literature and film. Examples of
this are Ray Bradburys novel Something Wicked this Way Comes and the Disney film
The Lion King (Mabillard). Old works do not lose their creativity or inspiring qualities
simply because they grow old. They are still of importance in our society today.
Balancing Methods

Professor Lamiaa Youssef of Norfolk State University says that in order for
students to appreciate classic literature, they first need to understand what the text was
saying rst before recognizing how the text was saying it (29). As the students come to
understand what the text is saying, the foreign classics do not seem as daunting or
boring.
She uses a three step method to engage her students in the reading. The first step
is approximation. The students have activities such as debates, reader response essays,
and group discussions to begin unraveling what the piece of literature is talking about.
Balancing Literature in the Classroom 10
Once the students can understand what is going on in a work, the next step is thematic
relevance. In this step, students look for themes, symbols, or other literary techniques in
the work. Youssef notes that students have an easier time with texts with obvious
relatability. When the students feel that they share nothing in common with a work, they
are less likely to engage in studying it. The last step is application, where the students use
what they relate to in a text to create their own analytical essays or projects related to the
text.
Nieragden says that new texts can be helpful to engage current readers, since it is
easier for students to relate to more current texts. However, the strategies he mentions can
be applied to any literature. He suggests using active ways to engage students in the
readings, such as group discussions, short written summaries on a particular chapter, and
reader response assignments, in place of the more traditional teacher propelled
discussions, searching for an exact meaning, and analytical readings.
Young adult literature is a conduit because the students can first understand a text
written with more understandable language and then make the connections to classical
literature. Many schools are starting to enhance their curricula with young adult literature
after letting the students discuss with the teachers about some of the books they would
like to read. According to Aguilar allow[ing] students to make choices about their
learning leads to deeper engagement, increased intrinsic motivation, and an
opportunity for guided-decision making. The interest a student shows in their own
education is important because they will understand more of what is being taught. Allow
students to make the choice in what they will read, and then transition from YA into
classical literature. A suggested pairing would be the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Balancing Literature in the Classroom 11
and War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. The similar situations and themes make this
combination ideal. Jumping right into H.G. Wells book for students would be much
harder if those situations and themes were not already thought of from Collins book. By
pairing works together from these two different groups of literature, the situations,
themes, and other key elements of the plots will be easier to understand and to retain as
well.

The language used in young adult literature is also a conduit into classical
literature. Law says that studying classic literature from the Western canon
(Shakespeare, Dickens, Orwell and so on) affords students of English the opportunity to
understand, analyse and evaluate language quite different from their own. The language
that Law states is important to learn from is more advanced than the language in young
adult literature, but the foundation from the modern literature is yet another great gateway
into understanding not only the importance of the advanced language, but also helping
the students gain a more advanced knowledge than they could receive from studying just
Place in
Society
The War
of the
Worlds
Hunger
Games
Balancing Literature in the Classroom 12
young adult literature. The students will retain more of the knowledge that teachers try to
give their students because the foundations of the language and therefore the foundations
of the book was understandable, making it memorable.
Balanced Reading

Educator, Mary Ehrenworth, considers this a problem in todays teaching, she
mentions that the subject matter is not what is purported to be the curriculum, it is
something else, such as the students place in social orders that schooling works to
uphold. In other words, the books provided in schools today leave students to their
textbooks (which, according to Ehrenworth have an agenda in and of themselves.) (7-8).
While a group of educators continues to guess at methods for cognitive
development through critical analysis the answer stares them in the face. In the hand of
every young adult is a series of novels that are grouped within the realm of Young Adult
Literature, to which they scratch their heads in confusion calling it artifice. George
Marshall mentions the hesitation of educators who demanded there be cause, empirical
evidence, to purchase such menial works for their classes (81). These adamant educators
sought data that proved what they believed they had already known:
[S]cholarship in the field of young adult literature [is] "suspect" among faculty
members looking for data-driven empirical research from junior faculty. Likewise,
school-based professionals in the group suggested that there [is] an increasing need for
research to justify the purchase of young adult literature for middle and high schools.
(Marshall 81)
Meta-analysis would be done only to find several articles in the ALAN Review,
International Reading Association journals, and NCTR publications that furthered the
Young Adult cause (Marshall 81). As mentioned in earlier sections, Young Adult
Balancing Literature in the Classroom 13
Literature is generally more relatable for adolescent students; it is a window from which
they can identify the universal problems of humanity. Furthermore, students yield a great
deal of interest to works that offer a similar view as a book like Hunger Games, one as
classic as The War of the Worlds. When used properly it becomes a gateway for greater
works of literature. From the background and the thematic elements in both literatures,
students can use the knowledge they gain in their current societies. The primary
introduction of Young Adult Literature in classes offset by a riveting classical work is a
unique tandem that allows students to learn critical skills and attributes for success such
as, analysis; empathy; fairness; respect; ethics; and good will.
The Fruits of Tandem Literature
Without understanding the current stand of many educators who seize to grasp the
potential of Young Adult Literature it would be difficult to realize the fruits that gather in
their wake. The constant argument is that Young Adult Literature is of low value and is
by extension a low art; however, Dr. Christine Pawley, Professor and Director of the
School of Library and Information Studies, found through Analysis of library borrowing
records . . . [that] both adults and youth read low fiction, shared titles, and engaged in a
common culture, embracing males and females alike (276). Its accessibility lends itself
to be, as quoted above, engaged in a common culture, which results in a more
comfortable atmosphere (276). Its usage also lends to the gravitas, the profundity, of any
related classical work. As mentioned earlier, the pairing of Hunger Games with The War
of the Worlds gives students time to understand the inherent themes that follow in the
latter through the questions developed within the former.
Balancing Literature in the Classroom 14
In the tandem relationship between Young Adult Literature and Classical
Literature there are teachings that inform students about how they act. Steven Wolk,
acclaimed writer and educational reformist, has tested the formula, recognizing that all
good books, with particular attention to Young Adult, strengthen the morality of any
individual, he relates, Teaching for social responsibility with good books does far more
than encourage civic participation; it redefines the purpose of school and empowers all of
us students, teachers, administrators, parentsto be better people and live more fulfilling
lives (664). Wolk suggests that at the cusp of ones civic responsibility is a piece of
literature that empowers all of us (664). The reality is, we often become what we are
exposed to; moreover, [good books] offer the opportunity to consider what freedom and
democracy mean to us as individuals and as a society (Bean; Harper 96). The discovery
of Tandem Literature is the awakening of the young mind to the human condition; it
envelopes the mind and purports deep thought.




Balancing Literature in the Classroom 15
Works Cited
Aguilar, Elena. "The Power of Literature Circles in the Classroom." Edutopia.
The George Lucas Educational Foundation, 30 Nov. 2010. Web. 11 May 2014.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice.
Bean, Thomas W., and Helen J. Harper. "Exploring Notions of Freedom in and
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Bradbury, Ray. Something Wicked this Way Comes.
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games.
Ehrenworth, Mary. "Novel Affairs: How Young Adult Literature Teaches
Adolescents the Protocols of Desire in English Curricula." Dissertation Abstracts
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3549. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 10 May 2014.
George, Marshall A. "Furthering the Cause: The Study and Teaching of Young
Adult Literature." National Council of Teachers of English Conference on College
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Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars.
Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun
Jacobs, Harriet. Narrative of a Slave Girl.
Law, Sally. "Classic Works of Literature Still Have a Place in Today's
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The Lion King. Dir. Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff. Walt Disney Studios, 1994. Film.
Balancing Literature in the Classroom 16
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