ERDG 506: Practicum: Young Adult Literature
Program Requirements and Prerequisites: Required course for students in the Literacy Specialist 5-12 and B-12 programs. This course is
typically offered only in the fall semester.
Practicum: 5 hours.
Course Description: Students read and respond to multiple genres of literature for young adults, including nonfiction texts. Topics include:
understanding how adolescents build identities and worldviews through engagements with literature; supporting and extending students’ responses to
literature through dialogic teaching; designing literature instruction to support close readings of complex texts informed by literary theory and
disciplinary knowledge; using technology to promote literary understanding; analyzing the symbiotic relationship between words and pictures in
visual, digital, and multigenre texts. The course has a 5 hour practicum requirement. Students in the literacy programs must receive a B or better in
practicum courses before being allowed to take the capstone class.
Attributes
 Literacy as Social Practice*
 Equity
 Generate Productive Learning Communities**
 Engagement**
 Reciprocal Relationships Across Modes of Communication*
 Strategic Teaching to Promote Self-Extending Learning
 Assessment of Literacies and Their Development
 Research Based Professional Learning*
Core Content
 Evolution of Young Adult Literature and Its
Significance
o Multiple Perspectives on the Meaning
and Purpose of Young Adult Literature
within the Curriculum and Students’
Lives
 Reading Choices: Text Availability, Text
Accessibility, and Motivation
Attributes (continued)
 Respectful Representation of Students, Families and Communities*
 Critical Literacies**
 Disciplinary Literacy/Knowledge Building*
 Data Based Decision Making
 Technologies and Digital Media*
 Materials and Resources**
 Prevention and Intervention
 Standards*
Possible Assignments
Annotated Bibliography
This assignment asks students to read widely (a
minimum of 32 young adult books, savoring
some, skimming others), to make summative and
evaluative notes on these books. The completed
bibliography will reflect an awareness of and
attention to diversity in terms of age levels, topics
of interest, orientations to the world, and facility
with reading. In addition, the bibliography will
reflect a range of genre and a range of forms
(e.g., print texts, digital texts, video texts).
Possible Readings
Adler, M. & Rougle, E. (2005). Building
literacy through classroom discussion. NY:
Scholastic.
Appleman, D. (2009). Critical encounters in
high school English: Teaching literary
theory to adolescents. New York: Teachers
College Press.
 Reading and Responding to Texts in a Digital
Age
Atwell, N. (2007). The reading zone: How
to help kids become skilled, passionate,
habitual, critical readers. New York:
Scholastic.
YA Library Visit and Report
Students will investigate how adolescents and
 Building Knowledge of Formats and Genres of young adults are served by libraries in their
schools and communities. Students will report on
Young Adult Literature (including
1) the actual space; 2) the books available and
Blackburn, M. (2003). Boys and literacies:
explorations of picturebook, graphic novels,
their
marketing;
and
3)
programs
and
services
What difference does gender make?
poetry, nonfiction, realistic fiction, historical
offered.
Reading Research Quarterly, 38(2), 276fiction, fantasy, among others)
287.
 Young Adult Literature in the Content Areas
 Structuring Classroom Time to Encourage
Independent Reading
 Designing Inquiries with Young Adult
Literature to Explore Themes, Identities, and
the Complexities of the Human Condition
 Reading and Engaging with “the Classics,” the
Canon, and Complex Texts
 Common Core State Standards
Individual Book Talk
Each student prepares and presents to the class
one brief book talk. Criteria for effective book
talks will be developed jointly, based on
discussions of particular assigned readings.
Campbell, P. (2010). Campbell’s scoop:
Reflections on young adult literature.
Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, Inc.
Group Mini-Inquiry Project
Students work in small groups to read and discuss
a common text and to develop a set of possible
Cart, M. (2010): Young adult literature:
mini-inquiries or explorations inspired by the
From romance to realism. Chicago, IL:
text.
American Library Association.
 Book Challenges and Censorship
 Assessment and Young Adult Literature
Blackburn, M, & Buckley, J.F. (2005).
Teaching queer-inclusive language arts.
Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy,
40(3), 202-212.
Text-Set Project
Students locate a minimum of ten thematically
linked texts that could form the core of a multitext unit. Students articulate essential questions to
guide the unit; provide a list of the texts
accompanied by a short description of how each
fits the focus; present a short list of possible miniinquiry opportunities with resources noted; and
note connections to Common Core State
Standards.
Carter, J. B. (2005). Die a graphic death:
Revisiting the death of genre with graphic
novels, or “Why won’t you just die
already?” The ALAN Review, 36(1), 15-25.
Cole, P. (2009). Young adult literature in
the 21st Century. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Dresang, E. (1999). Radical change: Books
for youth in a digital age. New York: The
H.W. Wilson Company.
Frey, N. & Fisher, D. (Eds.). (2008).
Teaching visual literacy. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Corwin.
Facilitating Online Book Engagements with
Young Adults
Within a supervised online setting monitored by
the instructor, masters students engage high
school students in talk around and about books,
characters, issues, and ideas. This assignment is
intended to help students 1) broaden and deepen
their understandings of young adult readers, and
2) develop confidence and competence in
facilitating open-ended discussions with a diverse
group of young people around literature.
Groenke, S. & Schaff, L (2010). Teaching
young adult literature through differentiated
instruction. Urbana, IL: NCTE.
Harvey, S. & Daniels, H. (2009).
Comprehension and collaboration.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Herz, H. & Gallo, D. (2005). From Hinton
to Hamlet: Building bridges between young
adult literature and the classics, 2nd Ed.
NY: Greenwood.
Ivey, G. & Broaddus, K. (2000). Tailoring
the fit: Reading instruction and middle
school readers. The Reading Teacher, 54
(1), 68-78.
Layne, S. (2009). Igniting a passion for
reading: Strategies for building lifelong
readers. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.
Lesesne, T. (2010). Reading ladders:
Leading students from where they are to
where we’d like them to be. Portsmouth,
NH: Heinemann.
Jacobs, D. (2007). More than words;
Comics as a means of teaching multiple
literacies. English Journal, 69(3), 19-25.
Lesesne, Teri (2004): Making the match:
The right book for the right reader at the
right time. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.
Reeves, A. (2004). Adolescents talk about
reading: Exploring resistance to and
engagement with text. Newark, DE: IRA.
Richison, J., Hernandez, A. & Carter, M.
(2006). Theme-sets for secondary students.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Robb, L. (2004). Teaching nonfiction:
Writing from the inside out. NY:
Scholastic.
Schwartz, G. (2006). Expanding literacies
through graphic novels. English Journal,
95(6), 58-64.
Stallworth, B., Gibbons, L. & Fauber, L.
(2006). It’s not on the list: An exploration
of teachers’ perspectives on using
multicultural literature. Journal of
Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 49(6), 478489.
Sturm, B. & Michel, K. (2009). The
structure of power in young adult problem
novels. Young Adult Library Services,
Winter, 39-47.
Xu, S., Perkins, R., & Zunich, L. (2005).
Trading cards to comic strips: Popular
culture texts and literacy learning in grades
K-8. Newark, DE: IRA.