Ordway 1

Thomas Ordway

Dr. Woods

ENG 425

11 December 2017

Adolescent Literature Pairings Project

Part 1

In literature, the classics provide readers with a depth that, even today, critics still attempt

to dig up and uncover to understand the time period each was written in and to apply shards of

wisdom to today’s society. But the literary wisdom required to analyze the classics and the

ability to appreciate them go somewhat hand in hand. Yet, the grade school curriculums require

students who typically have no background with literary criticism or analysis to take on classics

in order to grow in reading, writing, and comprehension ability. More often than not, students

become quickly bored with classics due to their inability to relate to the topics taking place

within them, and for good reason too. It can be easily understood why a student living in the 21st

century cannot understand the language and relate to the lifestyle of a writer such as

Shakespeare. This is why it is important for teachers, who are responsible for bridging this gap of

understanding for students, to use contemporary young adult literature to aid students in relating

to the classics. By using young adult literature to bring students to a better understanding of the

classics, students can become better readers and writers, and teachers will begin to see their

students more easily appreciating the literary classics that they choose for their classroom. In

short, using young adult literature to help students better understand classics will ultimately

create a more enriching learning environment for the English teacher and his students.
 Ordway 2

It seems that the accepted expectation for the American literature classroom is that

classics, and only classics, will be read, understandably resulting in bored students. But despite

some teacher’s feeling hesitant towards young adult literature, embracing them within the

literature classroom could dissolve boredom and inspire a better learning environment.

According to Susan Santoli’s article, the three biggest reason teachers dismiss the use of young

adult literature within classrooms are because “they are still not considered worthy of their

students’ attention… English teachers are worried about losing time by trying to add the reading

of young adult novels to their curricula...and teacher guides traditionally do not allow for the use

of young adult novels” (Santoli and Wagner 68). Based on these claims, teacher’s that make

these claims seem fearful of deviating from the norm in order to give their students a better

opportunity to understand what is being taught to them. Also, it seems teachers claiming that

young adult literature is not a worthy visual for their students forget that these books offer

themes present within classics at a much more understandable frequency for young readers to

grasp (Santolo and Wagner 68). For example, Nathan Phillips, in his article “ Monsters' Ink:

How Walter Dean Myers Made Frankenstein Fun,” describes his use of the young adult novel

Monster by Myers to help his class understand and appreciate the themes within Mary Shelley’s

classic Frankenstein. Phillips specifically notes how he was successfully able to use Monster as

the vehicle to help his students understand themes within Frankenstein such as the presence of a

“monster” figure (Phillips 89). Maybe the most noteworthy aspect of his undertakings, though,

was his realization that his students were beginning to make connections between the two novels

on their own and even students who were originally pegged as uninterested in the class itself

became enthusiastic about participating in class in regards to these books (Phillips 68). Such a
 Ordway 3

result illustrates how using young adult literature as a bridge to classics actually creates a desire

to learn within students.

It should always be remembered that the educator’s duty is “to promote reading, attempt

to instill in our students a passion for reading, and introduce them to works of literature that

assist in their maturation and development, as well as enjoyment” (Velazquez 1). When teachers

dismiss their student’s failings in these regards, it is solely up to the teacher to adapt accordingly.

Using young adult literature to accomplish these goals should be praised rather than scoffed if

using them allows teachers and classrooms to accomplish these goals, especially if they can be

used as a stepping stone toward the appreciation of the classics. English teacher Kay Haas in her

article, “Doing What's Right by Our Students,” accounts for her mistake of falling into the norm

of teaching by not using resources such as young adult literature and thus not “doing her students

right” (Haas 14). Haas notes “[educators] need to be aware of students' diverse needs, cultural

experiences, and learning styles…” (Haas 15) in order to effectively provide students with the

best opportunity of being successful learners. This too is an expectation that educators ought to

strive for when teaching. In order to do this within the literature classroom, Donald Gallo in his

article “How Classics Create an Aliterate Society,” pushes the importance of young adult

literature because by solely teaching classics, students aren’t adopting the love of reading, but

rather the hatred of it (Gallo 35). Gallo also reminds educators that the thing young students want

most is entertainment (Gallo 35). By providing students with a wide selection of entertaining and

easier to read literature that still connects to classics, teacher’s will be able to much more

effectively instill a love for reading both young adult literature and classics.

Part 2
 Ordway 4

John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men provides readers with themes such as loneliness,

companionship, poverty, the idea of a brother’s keeper, and the impossibility of the untarnished

American dream. In order to teach this classic novel within the classroom, I would use these

themes as focal points that would allow students to parallel their understanding from and to other

probably more easy to understand young adult novels with similar themes. For instance, one

possible young adult novel that could be incorporated into this lesson plan for my class would be

Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games. This novel incorporates the theme of the impossibility of

the untarnished American dream as protagonist Katniss Everdeen is forced to kill or be killed

and when she succeeds, is rewarded with her world’s idea of living the dream, only to realize she

absolutely hates it. Likewise, Of Mice and Men incorporates the extremely simple dreams of its

characters only to display their inability to come. The Hunger Games also incorporates the

themes of loneliness and companionship as Katniss’s separation from family and Peeta often

correlate with her making rash choices and having mental breakdowns. In order to pair these two

novels together with an activity, I would get students to discuss the idea of loneliness. When do

you feel the most lonely? Can you be lonely among a group of people? What are the effects of

loneliness on a person? Then I would have my students identify instances of loneliness within

the novels, and I would have them analyze the cause and effects of each instance. Another novel

that could be paired would be Suzanne Collins’s Gregor the Overlander. Gregor experiences

poverty, much like the majority of characters within Of Mice and Men. Gregor also acts as the

keeper of his baby sister in an alien world below New York City. Similarly, George acts as

Lennie’s keeper as Lennie is extremely dumb at times while George operates as the intellect

within their duo. In order to tie these novels together through their themes, I would have students

talk about their own experiences with relationships relating to being a brother’s or sister’s
 Ordway 5

keeper. What does your relationship look like? Are you the keeper or the kept? What defines this

relationship? Then during the reading, I would have students define these two in-text

relationships. After this students could compare and contrast them. This classic could also be

related to the novel Feed as a major theme includes the futility of going after the American

dream. This is shown through Violet’s attempt to be like other kids by purchasing the feed and

venturing to the moon where a single accident causes her to slowly die. In short, she wants to

experience her society’s American dream ultimately causes her death. In order to tie these novels

together with an activity relating to this theme, I might get students to identify the specific

dreams of characters within both novels and note whether or not these dreams were achieved and

why they were or were not. As a pre-reading activity, I might get students to discuss their own

idea of the American dream and get them to talk about the obstacles that they could foresee

getting in their way.

Works Cited
 Ordway 6

Gallo, Donald R. “How Classics Create an Aliterate Society.” The English Journal, vol. 90, no.

3, 2001, pp. 33–39. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/821305.

Haas, Kay Parks. “From the Secondary Section: Doing What's Right by Our Students.” The

English Journal, vol. 97, no. 6, 2008, pp. 14–16. JSTOR, JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/40503403.

Phillips, Nathan. “Young Adult Literature: Monsters' Ink: How Walter Dean Myers Made

Frankenstein Fun.” The English Journal, vol. 92, no. 5, 2003, pp. 87–90. JSTOR, JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/3650441.

Santoli, Susan P., and Mary Elaine Wagner. “Promoting Young Adult Literature: The Other

‘Real’ Literature.” American Secondary Education, vol. 33, no. 1, 2004, pp. 65–75.

JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41064624.

Velazquez, Deanna L. “Using young adult literature to teach the classics: a study on pairing

young adult novels with the classic works in secondary English classrooms.” University

of Central Florida, 2011.