Through the Knowledge Lens of Constructivism: The Mindset and Reading Before  Creating the Curriculum of the Nonfiction Text for From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry by Rebecca Maldonado

1982 - The average cost of gas was 91 cents. A US Postage Stamp cost 20 cents. Michael Jackson’s album “Thriller” was released. The first episode of Late Night with David Letterman debuted. Vincent Chin was brutally murdered. 
From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement by Paula Yoo (2021) masters nonfiction narrative retelling of the fatal encounter between Vincent Chin and Ronald Ebens and his step son, Michael Nitz, along with the trials that ensued. Not only does the book show how this violent senseless act ruined the lives of Vincent’s friends and family, it also shows how the incident ruined the lives of Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, bringing the question to light: “Does justice for one’s horrors require one to spend time in prison?” Throughout the book, the author reviews the history of racism against the Asian American community and how and why the incident caused the Asian American community to rise up in solidarity together. 

The Mindset of Teaching Nonfiction Text
    Teachers may steer away from nonfiction text because they do not feel confident in their level of knowledge about the subject it addresses. Many times this  hesitancy stems from the way teachers view knowledge, their role as a teacher, and their students. If a teacher views knowledge as water, the teacher as a pitcher full of water, and the student as an empty glass ready for knowledge to be poured into it, this concept puts all the pressure on the teacher to be an expert in the subject the nonfiction text is about.
    There is another way to view knowledge, the role of the teacher, and the students; however, it requires the teacher to release some of the control and to think the best of their students. Constructivism views knowledge more as a meaning making process than an object to be passed down to another person. Richardson (1997) explains constructivism as “individuals create their own understandings, based upon the interaction of what they already know and believe, and the phenomena or ideas with which they come in contact” (p. 3). This means that teachers who see knowledge as something that is constructed and changes meaning as more knowledge becomes a part of their schema or funds of knowledge. Acknowledging that students are always acquiring knowledge and creating new knowledge, teachers see themselves as facilitators to teach the students how to acquire knowledge, process and assemble that knowledge to build upon their already established understanding of the world. This alleviates the pressure of having to be an expert on the subject of the nonfiction text. 

Preparing for to Teach and Develop Curriculum for Nonfiction Text
I stumbled along From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry because the increased hatred towards Asians and Asian Americans during the pandemic bothers me a lot, and I have felt compelled to start learning how to be a better Asian American ally and promote more books by Asian American authors and with Asian or Asian American protagonists. I wanted a nonfiction text about real events going on in the Asian American community. When I came across From a Whisper to a Rally Cry and saw “...the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement” and automatically thought to myself, “The Asian American Movement?” I knew this was the book I needed to read because before reading this book I didn’t even know there was an Asian American Movement.

Reading the Book 
I borrowed the physical book from the library to check out the validity of the book, and the first thing I did was flip to the back material. There are 67 pages of back material including an Afterword, Acknowledgements, a Timeline, 29 pages of Notes and Sources, and a 10-page index. The author even went as far as to insert real pictures connected with this travesty throughout the book. My wheels started cranking about how I could use the book to start teaching research and literature reviews. I paused my thoughts and started reading the Afterword and was brought back to the reality of, while this was a very well researched book, this is a subject that is important to the Asian American community because of the author sharing her own experience with racial profiling and the historical present day racism the Asian American community faces due to the rhetoric used by elected officials during the pandemic.
If a book I am going to teach has an audiobook, when teaching I play the audiobook during class and have the students follow along. When I read this book the first time, a majority of it was via audiobook; however, when I was at home, I took time to listen to the audiobook and follow along in the book to get a feel for the pacing and to see how the pictures interacted with the texts. While reading it I was so surprised how balanced and unbiased the account was. The narrative plot kept my interest. Because a nonfiction book has to move at a good pace for me to like it, I knew the book would definitely keep the interest of high school students. 

Here is a list of the podcast episodes I listened to and articles I read:
Asian American History 101 - The Murder of Vincent Chin
Rumble with Michael Moore - Ep. 175: My Afternoon with the Killer of Vincent Chin
Escape From Plan A - Ep.174: The Legacy of Vincent Chin (ft. Paula Yoo)
NPR - How Vincent Chin’s Death Gave Other’s a Voice
South China Morning Post - The 1982 killing of Vincent Chin was ‘the first time 
Asian-Americans came together’ to fight for justice
Zinn Education Project - June 19, 1982: Vincent Chin Beaten to Death in Hate Crime
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While I was listening to or reading the additional resources, I was looking for ways each resource helped to contribute to, change, or deepen the understanding of how the brutal murder of Vincent Chin empowered the Asian American community to mobilize and how it is relevant to the racism the Asian American community faces today. From reading the book and the additional resources I felt confident to start building my curriculum to teach the book.

Reflections for Growth
Through the lens of constructivism, there is no right or wrong, only the changing of perspectives and understanding. Once we make connections to the texts, real life, and other texts, we also must reflect on how the new knowledge and understanding we just acquired and created influences our behavior. As a teacher, here are some reflection questions for you to think about and answer.

1. How do I view knowledge, my role as a teacher, and my students?
2. How comfortable do I feel teaching and developing curriculum for new nonfiction texts?
3. What is my process for becoming familiar with the subject the text is about?
4. Do I feel comfortable preparing curriculum and teaching From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry? 
5. What would stand in my way of preparing the curriculum for From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry?
6. What new YA nonfiction text would I want to prepare to teach in my class?

References
Richardson, V. (1997). Constructivist teacher education: Building a world of new understandings. Falmer.
Yoo, P. (2021). From a whisper to a rallying cry: The killing of Vincent Chin and the trial that galvanized the Asian American movement. Norton Young Readers.

In September 2021, graphic novelist Gareth Hinds was kind enough to join me for a virtual interview. Also joining this conversation was Omnie, a recent graduate of the Master’s of Arts in Reading Education program at Appalachian State University. We hope this YA Wednesday post inspires you to think about graphic novels, adaptations, and comics-making in your classroom. I have broken up the conversation into two sections – one on reading graphic novel adaptations, including references to classic works, and one on the making/composing process. Please also check out Gareth’s website and YouTube channel for more details, ideas, and resources.
 
Graphic Novel Adaptations: Why Read Them?
 
Jason
Your work often seems to tackle, redefine or redesign classic stories. I'm curious about what draws you to those kinds of projects.
 
Gareth Hinds
First of all, I should say, I was not a literature major in school, but I was a nerdy kid who enjoyed Tolkien. When I encountered books like Beowulf and authors like Shakespeare, the language didn't put me off. I’ve always really enjoyed stories that have mythological elements like heroes, gods, and monsters. I went to art school for illustration and I found myself increasingly drawn to comics as my medium of choice. I would do my own comics and I would always feel like the writing was the weak link. So initially, for my senior thesis, I decided to do an adaptation of a Brother’s Grimm fairy tale. I really enjoyed that adaptation process, so I thought I would try it again with something more ambitious, which was Beowulf. Beowulf not only was enjoyable, but then I discovered there was an educational market for it. I realized that it was a really good tool for students and teachers to introduce the classics in a friendlier medium that shows kids immediately what's cool in the story. The graphic novel adaptation makes the book much more accessible, especially for any readers with a language barrier. That really motivated me to keep going further in that vein. 
 
Jason
I’m also drawn to mythology and have used mythology-centered work in the classroom. I did not anticipate that comics or graphic novels would make their way into my classroom, but they did. 
 
Gareth Hinds
When I was growing up, I remember reading comics, especially when I was in high school in the eighties. Maus had come out, and there was starting to be this sense of the potential of the comic medium, but there weren't that many books that were really realizing that potential. There were only a few adaptations in print at that time. There's the whole Classics Illustrated line that started in the 40s that was rebooted in the eighties. I thought that was really cool idea. The thing is, they were all 48 pages long. Most stories did not work very well compressed to a 48-page format. So, part of my thinking when I set out to do Beowulf was that I wanted to take what I loved about those books but really tell the whole story so that the reader had something more like the actual experience of reading the original. 
 
Jason
I had those in my classroom. You’re right. They were digest-sized, all black and white. So, in comparison to your adaptation of The Iliad, there’s much more beauty in what you do.
[Note, I think we’re talking about different series here – there were some classics like White Fang and Call of the Wild that were done in a small b/w mass market paperback like you’re describing, but the Classics Illustrated line looked like your standard dime-store comic book, i.e. they were comic-sized, floppy, colored with very coarse flat colors. –GH]
 
Gareth Hinds
I also have a particular sort of ax to grind where I don't want my books to look too much like a typical comic book. That's partly just to separate them from all the associations people have with comics. Also, I feel like when you're adapting a work, you really want the art to evoke the emotional tone of that work, and that requires experimenting with materials and doing something a little bit different than a classical flat color treatment. So, that's always one of the things that I make myself do with every book – to really experiment with materials until I get something that feels to me like the tone of the original. 
 
Omnie
During my student teaching, I taught Beowulf and I had never read it before or anything. I went on your website a few months ago and I saw some of your Beowulf illustrations and I sent them to my mentor teacher because so that my mentor could use them next semester. They did a wonderful job of capturing the version I read.
 
Gareth Hinds
I think that other people are starting to get that idea, as well. When I first started doing this, I had some competition in adaptations, but not that much. Most of the people who were doing adaptations were still using a very standard comics style. Now I'm seeing a lot of work coming out that's visually much richer and more evocative. 
 
Jason
It’s hard to imagine that you haven’t inspired some of that.
 
Gareth Hinds
I would love to think that. 
 
Jason
How do you go about selecting the stories and pitching the stories that you want to tell?
 
Gareth Hinds
I always have a list in my head of the classics that I think would be interesting visually and that are taught a lot. I know that the educational market is a big part of my market. So, I want something that's going to sell and that's going to be a useful tool to as many people as possible. And, preferably the ones that are more difficult to read or to teach. I'll give you a counterexample: I haven't yet done any Jane Austen. I love Jane Austen, but I feel like it's a less obvious candidate because less is happening in the way of action or other visual cues to the story. It's largely dialogue-driven. Those conversations are lovely, but they're also very accessible. The language is modern for the most part. So, I haven't felt like those need to be graphic novels. They also wouldn’t be as exciting to draw (for me). 
 
With a work like The Odyssey or The Iliad, people might get intimidated just because of the perceived length. I'm thinking about that, as well.
 
My publisher is usually happy to go with whatever adaptation I want to do. They'll ask me questions about whether the texts are being taught and about my approach. For example, they might ask approximately how long the book will be. But generally they've been pretty supportive. When I will go to them with a few options, they'll usually ask which idea I am most excited about, because that's probably going to be one that I will do the best job on. So, they've never really asked me for anything specific – with one exception, which was that when I finished Macbeth they said, “Oh, we really love these super dark, creepy, horror-like elements that you did in Macbeth -- what else would you want to do in that vein?” And I said, Oh, well, the obvious answer there is Poe. So that sort of came from their request. But, in general, it's just me picking what I think is going to be the coolest thing to do next. 
 
Jason
The Poe anthology is absolutely gorgeous.
 
Gareth Hinds
Thank you. I had a lot of fun with that one because it's composed of shorter pieces. I could treat each one a little bit differently and experiment within the book quite a bit.  
 
Jason                                        
I'm also thinking about how Beowulf, and in some of these mythological stories in so many ways, they're kind of like the first superhero stories.  I can totally see the lineage going back to that. 
 
Gareth Hinds
Yeah, that’s a good point and that is actually one reason why I chose Beowulf. I wanted to do something that connected ancient literature with modern superheroes because that was the mainstream of the market. Those mythological characters are the proto-superheroes, and their struggles are very much the same. 
 
The Process of Making/Adapting Graphic Novels
 
Jason
I'm also curious about your creative process and how these pages come to be.
 
Gareth Hinds
First of all, honestly, I'm going to describe a bunch of the process in words, but if you want to see some of this visually, there are a bunch of videos that I've done on YouTube. If you either go to my channel or you search my name, there are presentations and demos that I've done. I mentioned experimenting. So, at the beginning of a project, I start reading the text multiple times to get it really solidly in my head. If it's something like The Odyssey or The Iliad, the original is not in English. I will read multiple translations to compare them and think about the qualities in different translations. And then, at the same time I'm doing that, I am starting to play around with the art and do sample pages or sample panels with different styles and different materials to get something that excites me visually, and that captures the tone of the story. Also, I’m trying to find a technique that is fairly fast, because these are huge projects. So, I don't want a style that's super laborious. At some point, I'll have a couple of samples that I like and I'll have started to develop an idea about how much I can abridge the text. For example, if it's a work by Shakespeare where I'm going to be using the actual original text, I will just dump it straight into Microsoft Word, turn on “track changes,” and start deleting elements that I think I can remove. Often, many of these texts come out of the oral tradition so there is a fair amount of repetition. Also, when I read Shakespeare for example, I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of Shakespearian language, but there are parts of the text that I stumble on or where I think the reader might start to zone out. I'll make a note then to cut whatever parts of the text might be confusing or just too long.
 
Next, I have to basically do the whole book as a rough sketch dummy or a rough layout, where I'm putting in the text and doing rough sketches for the panels, playing with how all those elements are arranged, how the panels are arranged on the page, what happens in each panel, and so on. That's where most of the decision-making happens. Then I basically have a visual draft of the book that I can show to my editor, and to other early readers to get their feedback on how the story flows, whether there are places they're getting confused, that kind of thing. So, I’ll get feedback and I'll make changes at that stage, where it’s still pretty easy to redraw things. And then once it's kind of -- not quite locked down, but once it's pretty firm -- then I'll go through and I'll draw and color the final art. How I do that depends on the style I've come up with for that particular book -- each one is different, but for The Odyssey and The Iliad, I would be drawing everything pencil and then painting over those drawings with watercolor. And then at the end there's always a lot of fiddly little work like redrawing the balloons to be nice and clean, and putting sound effects on a separate layer so that they can be translated or moved around if they need to be -- stuff like that. And then it goes off as a digital file to the publisher, and then they send it off to the printer, and they will get a proof to make sure everything looks okay. And then it gets printed and becomes a real book. But that takes a long time. These are long projects! Pretty much everything is more than a year. And things like The Odyssey and The Iliad are two years or more on my end. And then the publisher usually takes about a year on their end, so it's quite a long timescale. A typical life-cycle involves being well into the next book before the previous book actually comes out. That means you have to change gears and go promote the thing that you've now almost forgotten about. 

--
As a final call from this piece, if you have students make and adapt comics, please share your process with us on social media.
Images retrieved from Gareth's website.

Hi, all!  Gretchen here with some updates and introductions.   As Dr. Bickmore has  stepped back from blog work for now in order to serve the Uganda Kampala Mission, we welcome some new blog curators for YA Wednesday. These curators will be helping with our Monday Motivator posts as well as our Weekend Picks, rollling up their sleeves to send contributor reminders, provide book cover pictures, insert hyperlinks, and copyedit submissions. Widening our curator community widens our overall YA circle, spreading our admiration for YA literature farther and wider--our own mission of sorts. Below are our curators.

We are excited to share Monday Motivator posts, which will describe pedagogical ideas that can be done that very day or week.  Below are our Monday Motivator curators. 

Emily loves reading, students, and teachers! And her favorite thing is connecting texts with students and teachers. She hopes that the Monday Motivation page is helpful to teachers interested in building lifelong readers and writers! ​

Our Weekend Picks feature returns for 2022!  In these posts, guest contributors take book selfies with their perfect weekend read.  Below are our Weekend Picks curators.

Leilya taught English as a foreign language in the Ukraine and ELA/English in public schools in the US. Her research interests include teacher preparation, clinical experiences, secondary school teaching, and teaching and research of Young Adult and multicultural literature. Together with her friend and colleague, Mike Cook, she co-authored a two-volume edition of Teaching Universal Themes Through Young Adult Novels (2021). ​

Kudos to these new curators!  Together we will bring exciting new YA content for 2022.

Well, the day has arrived. This is my (Steve Bickmore's) last scheduled regular YA Wednesday post for a while. I have officially retired beginning Dec. 31, 2021. Clearly, I am still reading and talking with people about Young Adult literature. (You can check my end of the year post that featured Bick’s Picks for 2021.) After 43 years of teaching at various levels I am taking a break from day-to-day work.

I have a couple projects that should be done in the next several weeks. Wish me luck. My wife and I are also going to serve a church mission in the Uganda Kampla Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (which includes South Sudan and Rwanda). We leave on April 11, 2022 and, as you might imagine, we have a lot to prepare for. We have shots to take and grand kids to visit as we explore the information we need to know about our first placement in Kilgali Rwanda.

​I knew this day was coming, but the blog has been an important part of my work and my life for the last 8 years. It began in a mild fashion in the summer of 2014 and began in earnest in the late summer of 2015 as a weekly post. It has grown as I have contributed less and less and more and more guest contributors have take the stage and shared their ideas. A few years ago, the popular Weekend Picks feature was added. The blog has always made a place for special posts based on an interesting topic or something that matches what is in the news or an event. Lesley Roessing posts often matches this category has she discuss books that center on 9/11 and its consequences or books featuring strong girls. Or the even more recent discussion of Latin American and Hispanic Heritage month by Alex Torres. To make room for these posts the blog will feature a post on Monday called the Monday Motivator. These will primarily be prepared as an immediate resource for teacher to use for a mini lesson or as a resource that can be immediately shared with students. 

For at least the next 18 months, Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesday will be in the competent hands of Dr. Gretchen Rumohr. Gretchen and I have been writing partners on several projects and she is a frequent contributor to the blog producing regular posts and as one of the early and regular contributors to the Weekend Picks feature. Gretchen has been actively learning the ins and outs of curating various parts of the blog for the last 8 months. She is ready to go.

In order to keep working with the blog fun and a labor of love instead of a burden, we have recruited others to help with the curation of the Weekend Picks and the Monday Motivator. Gretchen will oversee the whole project and curate the weekly Wednesday posts. Leilya Pitre will head up the weekend picks with the help of Nikki Bylina-Streets and Cammie Jo Lawton. The Weekend Picks will now function as a blog within a blog instead of as a running page with each new pick at the top. This allows the contributors to write them in advance and then the team of curators can prepare them and schedule them to post on the appropriate Friday. The same will be true for the Monday Motivators under the direction of Melanie Hundley as the chief curator with the help of Emily Pendergrass, Abbey Bachman, and Jason Dehart. We hope you follow along.

As I leave, I hope that some of you will check out some of my previous posts. They can easily be found under this link.

Some of my favorite posts are the Bick’s Picks at the end of the year. Here is the link to the most current and it has links to the other years.
​
 I have developed some favorite authors over the last several years. I like a lot of authors, but these few warm my heart with every book    .

Until the next year or so. Until then Gretchen will be running the show.

Here are my picks for 2021. Another hard year no matter how you look at it. Many of my colleague report reading and writing less than previous years. Those of us who work with teachers in PreK - 12 settings know that they have faced too many challenges. It really is time to confront how we value and support public education. I found myself doing more late night reading than in other years. I am not sure that is a good thing. I do know that I found myself stunned by the quality of the writing and the power of many of the texts I read. In one case I finished a book at went directly to the computer to write a letter to the author. In a couple of other cases I sought out the author for an interview. 

Several of the others on the list are debut authors. I love finding these new books. Sadly, some new authors get a lost of press when a large publisher decides it is worth the push. Often, they are exactly right. Other time, a debut author quietly slips into the scene relatively unnoticed. If these is a title or an author in this list or in the list of the honorable mentions that you don't know, I hope you check them out. 

Before you get lost in the new list take a minute to read through my previous lists. I still think the books on my lists have held quite well. Browse around a bit and see if you agree.

 http://www.yawednesday.com/blog/bicks-picks-for-2016
http://www.yawednesday.com/blog/bicks-picks-for-2017
http://www.yawednesday.com/blog/bicks-picks-for-2018
http://www.yawednesday.com/blog/bicks-picks-for-2019
http://www.yawednesday.com/weekly-posts/bicks-picks-for-2020​ 

I really don't have a problem finding 10 books I really love. The problem is finding only ten. Some years I have fudged the number and placed a few more on the list.  Last year, I picked ten and then place a few on an honorable mention list. 

This year I selected ten and then added another ten. I had a couple of distinguishing markers. The books in the first list had to be published in 2021 or will be published early in 2022. Some of the books in the list of honorable mentions I books I was a bit slow to get to, but wow, I was glad I did. 

Born Behind Bars by Padma Venkatraman

I have been reading Padma's books for nearly 15 years. I think they are all fantastic. Nevertheless, most readers believe she really hit a new stride with the publication of The Bridge Home. It was one of the finest middle grade offerings in several years. I received an early ARC of Born Behind Bars and was once again struck by the cover art. The publisher was wise enough to use the same artist that was used for The Bridge Home. Both books are set in her native India and focus on children who are left to their own devices on the streets. 

The cover art is gorgeous, but I would read a book by Padma if it were wrapped in newsprint. After a couple of days, I sat in my chair and just keep reading. I finished at about 2:00 am. The book is stunning in many ways, but my favorite aspect is the strong character development. These characters beg the reader to embrace them and I find it hard to believe that most readers could withstand the draw of Kabir and Rani. Enjoy and spread the word.​

The Other Talk by Brendan Kiely

These year my list include a good share of nonfiction. I find myself reconsidering how I work as an ally. Brendan's book is helping me do that.

Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna Alda P. Dobbs

I met Alda last Spring as she and other debut authors prepared to present at the 2021 UNLV Summit. I found her to be kind and generous. More importantly, her novel is wonderful. 

Race against Time by Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace

While this is a piece of nonfiction, it reads like a fast paced suspense novel. Don't Google the names, just read and go along for the ride.

You’d be home now by Kathleen Glasgow

I felt that Kathleen's first two books were wonderful. With this current book she proves she is, without question, a force to be reckoned with as every publication hits the shelves.

At the End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp

One of the best dystopian books I have read in a long time, plus it considers how we might treat each other in a pandemic.

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

Another work of nonfiction that had me considering how much I know about anything. This is clearly a work just worth the read, but full of cross-curricular opportunities.

The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold

I am fairly new to the works of David Arnold, but I will be checking out everything.

The Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

One of the best novel of the year without a doubt and a great "who done it" as well.

Lobizona by Romina Garber

​While I don't read a ton of fantasy novels of any kind, this novel had me from the beginning and I am waiting to get my hands on the sequel. 

The books in the group of Honorable Mentions are spectacular. They range from novels in verse, historical fiction, Non fiction, memoirs, suspense, and even some horror. A couple are just good old fashion stories that draw the reader into their narrative. A couple are a few years old but they continue to be talked about in a variety of ways. Each image is linked to a place to by the book. There you can find a few reviews. 

Regardless of your reading tastes, one of these books will be just perfect. Don't hesitate to pick one up. 

Until next time.

Rob Prickett is closeing out 2021 with the final post of the year! Thanks Rob!

So, the last YA Wednesday blog of 2021. If you are like me – you breathe a sigh of relief while at the same time screaming unbelievably, “How is this possible?” This is where my mind is fighting with itself currently. It’s the timing of this blog post that struck me (literally, as I am banging my head on my desk like that meme from The West Wing) – the last blog post of 2021. After the last year (or two or fifty – I seem to no longer have any sense of time), I was struggling with what to focus on in this post – endings (after all, 2021 is ending)? 2021 reflection (it’s what we do this time of year)?  My anniversary (12.31 – always easy to remember/ always a party going on to celebrate – going on 27 years)? New Year’s Eve, itself? Jude Law’s Birthday (12.29)? But what I realized is that all of these could result in some melancholy, some sadness (except for my anniversary – Love you, Meg!). I don’t know about you but these days I need positivity. I need inspiration. I need possibility. And that’s part of this time of year. 

​So, I’ve decided to be inspired and positive by looking at the other side of the timeline – looking forward to new beginnings. January 1, 2022 is only a few days away! After all, New Year’s Eve is really the celebration of the new year . . . of what’s coming. . . of what’s possible in the unknown of this linear timeline of life. We excitedly countdown to midnight when the new year starts. We kiss someone – anyone (except for me – anniversary, remember – Love you, Meg!) – to start the new year off right (?) – in love (?) – not alone (?) – with potential (?). . . 

I do a mini lesson/modeling on predictions in my Adolescent Literature class by reading a children’s picture book to the class and then having them predict what’s going to happen next in the story. And because it is a children’s book, they can find out if their predictions come true quickly. We then transition to the discussion of/analysis of/prediction of/ modeling of some of Book #1 of the YA series that they have just read (past series included: Arc of a Scythe, Chaos Walking, Children of Blood & Bone, Origami Yoda, etc.).  These discussions focus on predicting where the series will go after and the possibilities inherent after reading the beginning book in the series.

​With a nod toward the possible and to remind us all that everything can start off right (even if you don’t know where it is going) – here’s some of my favorite YA beginnings (see what I am doing here? – reflecting back and yet looking ahead) . . .

1. “There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.” – The Graveyard Book (Gaiman)
2. “We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck.” – Feed (Anderson)
3. “He’d stopped trying to bring her back.” – Eleanor and Park (Rowell)
4. “The best day of my life happened when I was five and almost died at Disney World.” – Going Bovine (Bray)
5. “The day I came squealing and squalling into this world was the first time someone tried to kill me.” – Dread Nation (Ireland)

Some of my favorites have additional aspects to their beginnings beyond just the text – such as these amazing graphic novels . . .
​        6. “I’ve hated sports every since I was a little kid, especially basketball.” – Dragon Hoops (Yang)

       7. “This is how I feel every single day of my life like I’m falling without a parachute.” – New Kid (Craft)

     8. “My name is Jensen, Jensen Graham. I may be just a regular kid at regular Berrybrook Middle School . . . but I am going to save the world.” – Brave (Chmakova)

Many of us just “returned” from the virtual ALAN Conference not too long ago. Many of us have experienced the absolute joy of receiving the ALAN Book Box – Christmas before Thanksgiving. When I opened my box this year, I immediately found another new book or two or five . . . and inevitably, a new favorite this year. I was immediately excited to read this beginning . . .

1. “Baba says only wicked things happen after midnight, but I know better.” – Beasts of Prey (Gray)

So, as we get ready to celebrate the possibilities . . . Here’s to so many fantastic beginnings in YAL. Here’s to being inspired. Here’s to being motivated. Here’s to the beginning of 2022 – May it bring us all our own opening lines full of potential. Happy New Year! 

Until next time.

I love it when you get to see former students flourish. Without question Leilya Pitre has continued to grow and have success as a professor of English education. There is no doubt that I learned more from her than she did from me. This week we all get to take look at how she is fostering creativity among her own students. Thanks Leilya!

​Every spring I teach a YAL course in which we learn about adolescent experiences in literature. We read, think, interpret, analyze, write, and have rich conversations throughout the semester. While it does not get boring, it seems painstaking because most of the tasks are associated with grades, i.e. academic performance. To alleviate the anxieties surrounding the end of the semester, I offer my students to complete a creative project that enhances their thinking about the characters, events, and outcomes and brings them joy of crafting without stressing about the grade. They have a choice to do whatever they want, and as a result, the final creative project becomes enjoyable and even helps raise final grades.
​
Announcing the project early in the semester and reminding about it every couple of weeks jumpstarts students’ thinking and focuses their attention on various ideas as we progress through the novels. They may choose one, two, or several YA novels, including the novels of their choice for this task. To begin the creativity flow, we complete Body Biography projects, as described by Smagorinsky in Teaching English by Design (2008, pp. 36-37). This small-group project engages students to think beyond the traditional character charts or reading logs as it allows employing symbolism when considering both surface and inner complexities of the character’s psyche, actions, and reactions to the events. Formerly, the project was completed on a human-size poster paper, and all the drawings, writing, and coloring were finished manually. After finalizing the art part, each group collectively writes an essay explaining all the symbolic representations and choices included in the poster.  With the move to online teaching and access to technological tools, the project can be executed using multimedia resources. Below are some Body Bio examples from the last spring semester.
​

​Following the body biography project, students think about their own ways to represent learning throughout the course.  Since the spring of 2020, I have decided to give students a freedom of choice, and do not regret it. Here are a few of the ideas that might be useful to explore in the secondary English classroom or a college course. Some of them are more laborious than others, but all of them require students’ critical and analytical thinking and efforts to implement the idea.

​The Young Adult Cookbook
Who doesn’t like to eat? Right, we all do! Maddie P. (with the permission of my students, I use their real first names in this post), as a true Louisianan, where food culture is rich and central to any event, decides to showcase food mentioned in some of the YA novels. She notices that almost in every text of the course characters mention food they like either at their favorite food joints, self-prepared, or cooked by parents. Maddie examines three novels: Love, Hate, and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed (2018), I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman (2018), and The Music of What Happened by Bill Konigsberg (2019). She chose Maya’s Mouthwatering Biryani and Tandoori Chicken (Ahmed, 2018, p. 9), Max’s Cloud Eggs (Konigsberg, 2019, p. 107), Jordan and Max’s World Famous Organic Homemade Prickly Pear Frozen Lemonade (Konigsberg, 2019, p. 110), Freya’s  Grilled Cheese Sandwich (Foreman, 2018, p. 120-121), and Harun’s Family Seekh Kebabs (Foreman, 2018,  p.189). Since there are no pictures or recipes provided in the novels, Maddie has researched the dishes, found the images and recipes, and created The Young Adult Cookbook.
During her presentation, she explains the history of each dish and emphasizes their cultural value. The discussion naturally moves onto eating habits of teenagers. When I am writing this part, my husband is grilling chicken and ribs on the back porch. I am tempted to add this to The Cookbook.

​Thematic Explorations Across YA Novels
This idea and implementation belongs to Jacob B. who created three thematic posters inspired by nine out of twelve novels we read in class: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Freaky Green Eyes by Joyce Carol Oats, Mexican Whiteboy by Matt de la Pena, Hate List by Jennifer Brown, My Name is Parvana by Debora Ellis, All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, The Memory of Things by Gae Polisner, I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman, and The Music of What Happened by Bill Konigsberg. 

Additionally, by setting the camera on its side, the rye-covered cliff upon which Holden stands becomes affected by visual gravity. One motif which recurs throughout Salinger’s novel is that of falling. This motif represents the loss of innocence—a trial through which every adolescent must go if they to reach adulthood. Because of this compositional choice, viewers may feel that Holden’s stability upon the cliff is impossible or short-lived. He is at risk of falling, and Jillian intentionally chooses to make such a fall seem inevitable. The gestures of the clouds emphasize this gravity, as they are drawn to appear as though they are being dragged down by its force. As a result of such a projection, the book cover itself prompts critical thinking and requires readers to adjust their perspectives.

My favorite creative writing so far is a poem Tethered written by Sara S. integrating the idea of connectedness from Gae Polisner’s The Memory of Things (2016) and including it to Freya’s dream from Foreman’s I Have Lost My Way (2018).  I would like to conclude this post with Sara’s poem:

             Tethered
 
It rises,
         a cloud of ash and smoke.
Rain falls
         in sheets of glass.
Shapes
          move toward me,
          surround me,
          push me
                                down…
                                                down…
                                                            down…
                                 a path unknown.
                                    (Yet I know it all too well.)
Push me outside of my fortress.
                        No.
                                    My nest.
I am a bird.
            See.
                        Feathers.
Grounded.
           Take flight.
                     Grounded.
                                    Take flight!
I am wounded.
            (I know this pain.
                                    Loss.)
I am lost
            as I search
                    for clarity.
The shapes
            buzz
                        all around me.
            They begin to
                                    clear.
                                    I push trough them,
                                                past them,
                                                where
                                                            water meets sky.
I will take off.
            Fly,
                        now…
                                    No.
Fate has clipped my wings.
Fate is pulling me
            back into shapes,
                        bodies.
“Look at me…”
                     Fate whispers.
                              “Open your eyes…”
Eyes,
            one blue,
            one green.
                       Pulling me
                               through bodies of
                                      ash.
“Freya.”
I hear
                    my name.
                    (But Freya is not here.
                                 I am not Freya.)
I am a bird…
            No.
                        I am
                                    a girl
                                                with wings.
And this
            is only
            the beginning.​

​Hope the readers of Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesday’s have a wonderful holiday season with their families, loved ones, and friends. See you next year!

References
Aziz, J., Wilder, P., & Mora, R. A. (2019). YAL as a tool for healing and critical consciousness. ALAN Review, 46(2), 71-78.
 
Hall, M. (2020). Bibliotherapy and OCD: The case of Turtles all the way down by John Green (2017). New Horizons in English Studies, 5(1), 74-87. http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/nh.2020.5.74-87
 
Jones, E. A., Mitra, A. K., & Bhuiyan, A. R. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 on mental health in adolescents: a systematic review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(5), 2470. http://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052470
 
Jorm, A. F. (2000). Mental health literacy: Public knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 177(5), 396-401.
 
Kaltiala-Heino, R., Rimpelä, M., Rantanen, P., & Rimpelä, A. (2000). Bullying at school—an indicator of adolescents at risk for mental disorders. Journal of adolescence, 23(6), 661-674. https://doi.org/10.1006/jado.2000.0351
 
Merikangas, K. R., He, J. P., Burstein, M., Swanson, S. A., Avenevoli, S., Cui, L., ... & Swendsen, J. (2010). Lifetime prevalence of mental disorders in US adolescents: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication–Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A). Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 49(10), 980-989. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2010.05.017
 
Moore, A., & Begoray, D. (2017). “The Last Block of Ice”: Trauma literature in the high school classroom. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 61(2), 173-181. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.674
 
National Alliance on Mental Illness. (2021). Mental health by the numbers. https://www.nami.org/mhstats
 

O’Driscoll, C., Heary, C., Hennessy, E., & McKeague, L. (2012). Explicit and implicit stigma towards peers with mental health problems in childhood and adolescence. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 53(10), 1054-1062. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2012.02580.x
 
Richmond, K. J. (2014). Using literature to confront the stigma of mental illness, teach empathy, and break stereotypes. Language Arts Journal of Michigan, 30(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.9707/2168-149X.2038
​

Richmond, K. J. (2019). Mental illness in young adult literature: Exploring real struggles through fictional characters. ABC-CLIO: Libraries Unlimited. 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health. (2021). Mental illness. Retrieved from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness.shtml

One can find information on innumerable global issues from refugee numbers, water in homes, economic growth, population data,  monthly incomes throughout the world, and global CO2 emissions, all themes tackled in the above mentioned novels. ​

This process continues to ebb and flow with my students’ curiosity about different topics but the commonality of the pull of our place in the world and how globalization plays a role in it continually resurfaces, especially as we dig deeper into social justice issues and the incredible selection of novels written in the past few years. We live in such incredible times. ​